Who wrote the social rule book?

There’s a lot about autism or the definition of it that I just struggle to agree with. In order to judge something you must compare it to something else, that something else you may hold at a more absolute standard or shall I say society does. So the bigger picture is that the most highly educated people on the planet, the scientists, the doctors, the psychiatrists have all come together to agree on what is considered “normal” social behaviour. They have applied these rules and expectations to the rest of us. I write this because in reports namely mine it says “struggles to maintain and keep relationships” in order to struggle you must first seek them out which I do not so the applied logic here is that there is something missing within myself but the reality is it is just my personal choice, you do what feels right for you at the end of the day. Do neurotypical individuals ideally want to be popular or at the very least have a room full of friends? I think I have a strong aversion to other peoples expectations of me and what I “should” being doing. Isn’t it just that humanity has found a model that for the most part works and is going with it blindly. Perhaps my diagnosis is exactly why I struggle to understand these things, I have to question the workings of things too, if I don’t agree or understand them well they may as well be myths)

(Just a dump of what was on my mind, thanks for reading)

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  • Humans are curious. We have no claws, fangs or poison, we have no fur, hide or scales, we can't run very fast and we are not great at defending ourselves. Most predators can kill or seriously hurt us.

    Our power comes from being social, like other apes. We have evolved to live on groups. We do not do well on our own in the wild. Social interactions are therefore critical to our success and being able to breed and raise the next generation. Modern society masks some of this, but if you had to grow and hunt your food, make your clothes, create shelter, and fire, and collect water, every day, you would struggle.

    Greater than 90% of people are able to be social. They don't make the rules, the rules are intrinsic.

    The question is what happened to people who didn't fit in. If they were pushed out I suppose they got eaten by a lion or something.

    The interesting thing is whether the idea it is a big a disadvantage still applies in the modern western world, which is becoming far more solitary and isolated.

    I saw an interesting thing related to artificial humanoid robots. If it was not too close to being a human, people would accept it as it was not a threat. If it got really close but was not quite there, people got suspicious and rejected it.

    So if you want to be accepted you either need a big deviation from the norm, or to mask to fit in a close as possible. But if you are not so good it can be difficult to get accepted. This is subconscious psychology at work, what in other animals would be called instinct.

  • I think people like us had value in ancient cultures, maybe we were less noticable, maybe they were valued for the ability to concentrate, one of the identifiers for ASC is repetition so maybe our relentless quest for better tools was valuable. We must have been successful enough to breed, or maybe our ancestors were kinder and cared more about all group members?

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  • I think people like us had value in ancient cultures, maybe we were less noticable, maybe they were valued for the ability to concentrate, one of the identifiers for ASC is repetition so maybe our relentless quest for better tools was valuable. We must have been successful enough to breed, or maybe our ancestors were kinder and cared more about all group members?

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