Airsoft

In other words, they find you vulnerable and useful. It's what I said from the beginning.

Yeah, it was horrible. And, as I said, I think the people who do that sort of thing know exactly what the dynamic is going to be. They're going to emotionally perturb someone who naturally comes off as a weirdo, so the only thing the entire world sees is a perturbed weirdo. They abuse psychology in order to try to engineer profitable accidents for political gain.

That sounds awful. The irony is that you need to surround yourself with people who understand you and whom you can trust but how are you supposed to do that when you have such trouble understanding who is trustworthy and your mannerisms and communication issues cause people who don't know you to distrust you and not understand you?! A terrible paradox.

I had some terrible things happen. I had to deal with people denouncing me to psych purely because of the politics surrounding me, and then when I went to try to share it with people, they wouldn't listen to me. I was chased out of churches, I had police called against me, I had people tell me they found me threatening, when I was the one being victimized in a heinous way. You absolutely are vulnerable because people will ignore your suffering, and they will reinterpret everything you say because they don't connect with any emotional content. They're not looking at your words to see if they are true, they're looking at body language and expressions you don't possess, and when they don't see them, they think something is wrong, and they discriminate against you spectacularly.

I think you give people too much credit and perhaps yourself not enough. You're clearly not a fool and anyone that takes you for one probably isn't all that bright themselves! Social interaction is an exhausting and anxiety-inducing ordeal for some of us but those people that it does come naturally to tend to just do it instinctively. 

Well, I didn't consider myself vulnerable either. I considered myself very clever, because I was skilled with machines and computers. What you find, though, is that social interaction is an entirely different variety of "clever", or "devious", if you will. They use and exploit each other with spectacular skill, and then when you go to share your story, people don't hear your words. In my case, they see my goofy face and how I'm always up in my own head calculating how to express what I want, and they think I'm a fool instead of listening to what I'm saying.

I take your point that vulnerable people should be more cautious than most about being exploited. I don't consider myself vulnerable so I can't comment from personal experience. But you can't live your life frightened of how an unscrupulous person might try to manipulate you. It sounds like you have had a bad experience in the past but I hope you have better people supporting you now and can come to trust the right people again.

Well, if this specific conversation is not an issue in itself, it's adjacent to things that could be. You want to take a portrait of yourself in your airsoft regalia, and tell the world you have a supposed mental disability? There are people with the moral acumen of wolves, and they see someone vulnerable or useful. So, take from that what you like.

Sorry Sunspot but respectfully I can't agree. Airsoft is a rewarding and wholesome pastime enjoyed around the world by all walks of life including many children as young as 12. If someone were to attempt to somehow use a person's interest in Airsoft to paint them out to be a bad person, it just wouldn't make any sense. You might as well try to make someone out to be a bad person for playing Fortnite or being a Star Wars fan. 

You can confront it if you like, and if it happens to you, at least you'll have been warned. I was essentially attacked by the psych system in the US over my parents' national origin, just like Orwell warned. You're warned repeatedly.

And should we pander to insanity or confront it? I have very firm views on this.

It doesn't matter what they're legally classed as. The entire point is that people achieve illegal objectives by lying, and when they do it, they choose vulnerable people to do it to, so when you go telling people you're into MILSIM, they can spin that in ugly ways, and suggest that you go traipsing around a simulated battlefield because you're a bad person. I know it's ridiculous, but it's also what people do, because they're insane.

Hi Sunspot, I think you might have misunderstood what Airsoft is. Airsoft is a harmless sport similar to paintball. Airsofters (especially in the UK) don't tend to have any sort of fixation on weapons. In fact, airsoft replicas are legally classed as toys and are specifically designed to be safe and legal to shoot at one another provided of course you are wearing appropriate eye protection. 

Hi. New guy here, and right off the bat I'll respond urgently to this thread. Please don't go discussing your preoccupations with weapons on the Internet. and on a related note,do not discuss your diagnoses or relationship with your care providers. Very sadly, there are people in the world who will take advantage of your communication issues and if, for example, they call your care provider and claim that they are perturbed by your discussions online you can be subjected to grave mistreatment, and you are the one with a "condition" and communication problems, to boot. Do yourself a favor, for your safety and peace of mind, and don't make your particulars available for someone else to identify you personally, or to retell or reframe your narrative to someone who has authority over your care.

Sorry to reply 3 years after the original post but, in my defence, I have only just joined :) 

I love airsoft, play about once a month at a few different sites. Never done a full-on Milsim but have done a few Battlesims days. I probably spend more time tinkering with my gear than I do actually playing (hence the nickname). I have a few load-outs and half a dozen RIFs but my current go-to is multicam black with a stubby HPA M4.

I have a couple of airsofts - my old school has been converted into an Airsoft battlefield - a 3-storey block.   I played a lot of Milsim - but it depends on the team you end up with.      I did one where I was on a team of young Israeli lads - I could not keep up - I guess I was the ballast.  

I actually much prefer paintball-  it's more visible so there's less cheating.

We did a lot of Laserquest years ago with my daughter and her friends..

What's your thing?