Published on 12, July, 2020
Since graduating from college I've been strugglign to adapt to society, I've been unable to hold down a job and have been dealing with depression, mood swings and a whole host of mood swings. My wife pointed out to me a while back that I showed a lot of signs of autism, and rethinking about my childhood (I was always paranoid that people weren't telling me that there was something wrong with me. I wasn't like the other kids, I did well in school, but I didn't act like them, I didn't talk like them, and I didn't think like them), I couldn't read until I was in 4th grade, and the only solice outside of learning I ever took was video games. It was the world I understood best. My psychiatrist agrees that I might have autism but is telling me that a diagnosis would do nothing for me, and that kaiser, at least the one I go to, will only diagnos children and that they don't see a point to diagnosing adults because we should already have coping mechanisms. School was the only thing I ever understood. It made sense. I have a schedule, I attend, I learn at my own pace, I can leave and return, I gain knowledge, I grow in power, I move onto the next adventure. It was even easier to be social, I felt safe. It was an environment I knew. Anyways, I forgot what my point was. I guess I just wanted to be heard, realize I'm not crazy, that I do have this problem and that I can finally start finding resources to help me succeed.
I agree they both make interesting subjects for study. Trump does show some classic autistic traits. His mother was from Scotland so I see a potential link to my own experiences in that. My classic "mysogenistic" comment in the psychology lecture would align with his attitudes towards women I think. We have all heard about that recently.
I have confused love and sex for most of my life and acknowledged that recently. Oooops I guess thats an admission I was wrong which I guess will please you?
How would I persuade them to take a different view?
I am currently reading a book "How Capitalism will end" by Wolfgang Streek in which he describes the rise and fall of our current global system. Trump is a classic capitalist of course and the problem with capitalism is the elites who benefit most from that system are threatened by the "inconvenient Truth" put forward by Al Gore some years ago and backed up by most scientific analysis that climate change is the major threat to our survival on earth. As yet no one has come up with a solution although people like Paul Mason and George Monbiot are trying to think this through and find one which might work. I think about it all the time these days and have been fairly dogmatic about it on other forums in the past where I was heavily criticised by many others.
I was accused of wanting to take our civilisation back to the dark ages or even the stone age to a time when self-sufficiency was the norm before the economy took off after industrialisation. Modern society could not survive under those conditions as most people are not capable of surviving such a dramatic change. 7 billion mouths cannot be fed without modern technology. I certainly could not live without a freezer, fridge, heat pump, TV etc. That does not mean Al Gore is wrong to point out the truth but politicians seem to be putting their heads in the sand and hoping for the best.
So at the moment I cannot think of a way of convincing W and T that they are wrong.
I am encouraged by the number of women in politics these days and hope that they can lead us in a different direction with a softer approach to civilisation's problems. It was a pity Ms Clinton lost the election although she seemed fairly capaitalist herself by all accounts (if they are true of course).
On the subject of drugs by the way Wolfgang Streek defines them into two groups. Performance enhancing drugs such as those used by athletes to cheat and performance replacing drugs such as alcohol cannabis, etc used by the rest of us. It is a clever analysis in my view reflecting my own views on that subject and relating it to the capatilist system of winners and losers.
Any ideas yourself on how to change their views?
Laddie.