Why can't NTs ever answer a straightforward question with a straightforward answer?

Chris. You hit the nail right on the head there! I have that conversation soooo often with people. Especially a particular email friend. When she goes into that, I just stop replying to her.

And also, if you fall into the trap of saying what you think they meant, they say, 'oh right' and don't clarify. Or take offence at what you thought they meant.

Just answer the damm question FFS!

OMG yes!!!! Especially women. They are notorious for doing that. I've offended women without even speaking, because I had the wrong expression on my face. Or something. Who knows.

I don't find that with men though.

I wish people would just say to me 'you offended me when you said/did X. Why did you say/do that?' It would 9/10 turn out to be a misunderstanding.

yes, gorillas are good at sign language and more straightforward than humans as far as I know. It's chimps that are complicated. And guess what, humans are more closely related to chimps!

It is indeed.

I generally ignore what they answer and say 'so, what about...' and ask my question again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...

And does it work for you?

Sometimes, I'm caught between a rock and a hard place in conversations; so I tell white lies, occasionally.

Memories of my time at Uni, watching Dilbert on TV.

It's cause there still technically Neanderthal and they feel threatened by interlect. NTs have a complexed brain than us making them the less supior being. But cause there's more of them and less of us they think that's why there normal ones. It's like how witches use to be burnt at the steak back in medevil times because they were educated women rather than witches. But people with tiny minds can't compete with us so they box us into catorgys and try and make us look stupid when actually they are.

The most infuriating thing is when you ask a question, and someone thinks "why are they asking that?", then give you the answer to the question they think you should have asked, rather than the one you did.  They think they are mentally ahead of you; they're almost always twenty paces behind you.  Maddening.   

The NT world appears to be ALL power games, from where I sit, just like that "monkey life" on the TV...

Because some people like to play power games and then, when you get it wrong, reinforce their oneupmanship by referring to some kind of universal law about "common sense" or "general knowledge".  A clear explanation could have prevented any of this.  

This drives me up the wall. I ask a very simple question, and they answer with a question, or by guessing what I want to know and answering a different question, or by ignoring it or making fun of me.

There is one person I know who is the worst for this. I feel like he's trolling me every time I talk to him because of his refusal to answer questions. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes for me to get an answer and he blames me, even though I'm asking the simplest things in plain English. He is always trying to guess my motives or look for hidden meanings in what I say (there never are any!).

Even more annoying is when he tells me what is going on in my own head, and I have to tell him "no I don't think that" but he doesn't believe me. He projects his own convoluted emotional messy thoughts onto me. I'm very logical and if I'm asking a question then I literally just want to know the answer to that question, I do not have a Machiavellian side like him.

Love Dilbert!

Lol

I once decided to teach one of the guys at MOD, who used to be a bricklayer before becoming a project manager... How to write his job application using the MOD's S.T.A.R format... Situation, Task, Action Result... I used the example of eating a banana! Well this was a great story... How we laughed.. :-)

Tbf he gave me the most legendary story I've ever had! I was doing a return to work interview with him in a greasy spoon near MOD Lyneham, Mrs Piggy's (if your ever that way...).

The police were gathering at the airfield before a raid, and all came past Mrs Piggy's together... We are talking 30 Police, Dog and immigration vans. Mrs Piggy (I don't know her true name...) asked us what was going on, especially with the immigration vans...

Without hesitation, my boss said... "oh, we've re-opened the airfield to fly in Eastern European builders as they are cheaper...

By the time we made it back on to base, and up to our office, the Head of Establishment was sitting in our office waiting for my boss, he knew full well what had been said and who had said it... As he had received calls complaining about the risks of this labour force from: the primary school, the church, the residents association etc etc.

This might amuse some of you... 

https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-01-03

I find this too! Bloody confusing...

Me: What do you mean? 

Them: What do you think I mean?

Me: I can't really answer without this clarification...

Them: Clarification?

Me: Feck off your annoying me now...

They also hold petty grudges too when you say something small that offends them or you don't do what they ask you too like if it's a favour or something and you don't deliver on it they hold a grudge against you for ever and give you the silent treatment another petty NT trait I dislike. Or maybe we as autistics are just to forgiving compared to them. 

Yeah that also annoys me too feel like I'm teaching sighn language to a gorilla or something but hey ironically the gorilla would be able work it out faster than an NT would 

Oh do they, I'll watch out for that. My husband certainly woffles on for ages before getting to the interesting bit.