Aspergers support groups say that Aspergers is an organic condition, one that no one chooses to have, and is therefore worthy of sympathy.
They're right, of course. And when we see people with other organic conditions -- such as cerebral palsy, or multiple sclerosis -- we feel sympathy.
The problem with Aspergers, though, is that it is not visible at first, and it only becomes apparent when one realizes how hypocritical, rigid, egocentric, and prone to meltdowns someone is.
In other words, it is an organic disorder which largely mimics a character disorder (narcissism).
Imagine, for one moment, that there was a congenital defect which people had no control over, and which caused them to punch you in the face every time they saw you.
After seeing them, and getting socked in the nose, would your natural reaction be, "Oh, you poor thing?"
Of course not. And that's not how most of us react to Aspies, either. We want to punch back (verbally).
It'd be a lot easier to sympathize with people with Aspergers if there were some visible, physical manifestation of their condition, say, an indentation on their foreheads to let us know their brains were lacking. But there's not, and the process of finding out what their personalities are like -- and finally figuring out the root cause -- is usually so infuriating that the window for sympathy has passed by the time the realization dawns.
Sometimes I think it would be better for Aspies to just say, upon initially meeting people, that they have Aspergers Syndrome, and maybe even semi-apologize in advance for it. This way people would be far more likely to make allowances for them. But, of course, this would also cause others to just immediately write them off, so Aspies don't do that.
And others have to find out the slow way, as described above.
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Another welcome return to favourite of yours John. Has there been another Asperger's encounter?
Gambino --
Hey, sorry for the late reply, I was on the road today. No, no new encounters, just new thoughts.
That's why people have more sympathy for even more fullblown autism (like you said before) or other organic conditions where it is super obvious something is wrong. An aspergian meltdown is not so extreme or bizarre that you know something is going wrong like a bipolar manic episode, a classic autistic meltdown, or the ramblings of someone with dementia. People will write it off as a tantrum when their central nervous system is malfunctioning.
I also think part of the asperger behaviour is psychological, fullblown autists do have even worse meltdowns and are more clueless to social cues, but they are usually more sweet and congenial, less judgmental, they grew up with more intervention, they have group homes, they are placed in environments when young that teach how to respond to stress. They may be too impaired to form any ideas or become cynical.
Hans Asperger used the term "psychopathirien" (not related to modern psychopathy) to describe them, which in Austria after ww1 was a broad term for a host of deviances (like homosexuality, pyrophilia, OCD) and chose "psychopathierien" (mind-ill) because he had schizophrenic patients who were completely out of touch with reality and were very unstable. He stated his autistic patients showed a type of stability, and occupied a middle ground between being psychotic and sound. Neither 100% blind or clear, but narrowed. Indeed the term "mindblind" used on aspergians is misleading. It's foggy.
People write them off because they haven't been admitting it since the beginning, and that it is new. If they started admitting it more, as time went on, more room in society would build. It was a slow process for older disorders which may have had a century headstart in being recognized. And the neurodiversity movement has had a strong hand in preventing aspies from seeing and hating the disorder in themselves.
Better late than never, put your pride on the shelf, admit it, maybe they will help by pointing out your behaviours.
Anonymous --
All true. Spies would almost be better off, at least vis-a-vis other people, if their symptoms were worse, that way others would realize something was truly wrong with them, and they weren't just selfish/egocentric/rigid/lame/clueless/temperamental etc.
Anon --
Amen. And if Aspergers didn't mimic a character disorder so well, it would be easier to sympathize with. When you think about it, there are some people who are sociopathic for organic reasons, say, because of brain damage. They can't help the fact that they're that way, yet they get absolutely no sympathy either. Should people be sympathetic to them? I don't know.
The ones with brain damage sociopathy I think are a bit different. I suspect they are stupider, more irrational, more like a wild beast, a reptile rather than cunning or charming, they act from the Id, the classic sociopath acts from the ego. Yeah, hard to have sympathy for the former, but I don't despise them like I would a Ted Bundy. Just keep them away in a facility so they won't harm anyone, under close watch with a leash, give them a manual job, three hots and a cot. But true sociopaths, I have no clue what to do with them!
Even though asperger's mimics a character disorder, there still can be improvement in society, even the aspies could be doing better if they were forced to think they are sick (and I know it is possible, I'll get to one possible way it's been done), I know its so frustrating in the USA. Over here in Hong Kong, there is a movie playing about bipolar disorder. People here have no sympathy for ANY disorder often even physical, but that's because they don't care. In the USA its both better and worse, more people trying to help (raise awareness and offer support), more trying to make things worse (neurodiversity AKA second wave anti-psychiatry/alternate health/new-agers).
The movie is trying to raise awareness. Bipolar can also mimic a personality disorder (borderline). But the professionals in the USA do a better job with it than aspergers, they don't encourage or enable, and they are unbiased, neither positive or negative, at least most of the time. In HK if you can afford it, they do a better job with aspergers than the USA does, no positive or negative opinions, same with bipolar. Asian collectivism also teaches autists to not feel proud of having it and to hate it, so no aspie liberation in sight, that or society pretends it doesn't exist, even physical problems will get ignored until it's too late (another side of asian collectivism). It's less bad and less good.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28q-bSBvsXE
Do you watch any asian films ever btw?
I have more hope for Hong Kong but also more cynicism, the indifference means we don't need to fix anything, just add to what isn't there, but it's fragile. There is no public opinion now, so we can shape one, that too is fragile. Right now it seems bipolar is the new thing people are learning about from this movie. I hope they can extend this realistic outlook to other stuff.
Also if there were a disorder where you punch people in the face, nothing says if you had it you could stand a few feet away from people you meet and tie a rope around your arm in case. People with disorders still need to make efforts, yes we grant them help, but they need to respond by cooperating with the help.
That's what I want in hong kong, I don't want it to turn into shit like the USA.
Anon --
(Is this Samuel Nock?)
That's a good description of the difference between organic- vs. environmentally-caused sociopathy, or psychopathy, but some of the difference you're describing could be just as accurately be described as the difference between a low-IQ and a high-IQ sociopath. The latter is far more likely to be able to ply his evil wiles successfully, whereas the former is more likely to do crimes like carjacking an 80-year-old woman and then raping her.
I know you were only using Ted Bundy as an example, but I recently found out that he's probably the result of incest, which means it's likely that his disorder may have been partly a result of an organic defect as well:
http://justnotsaid.blogspot.com/2016/12/ted-bundy-product-of-incest.html
You describe the difference between Asian and American attitudes toward mental illness well. The Asians simply don't care, and ignore it as best they can, while the Americans almost romanticize it at times.
No, I generally don't watch Asian movies.
I am not samuel Nock, is he from Hong Kong too?
I'll use my last name Ga (賈) at the end of my posts.
-賈
I like using this character, if you can't remember how it's pronounced. Give me a name, any based on what it looks like to you or just come up with something funny.
Ga --
(Is it not rude in Hong Kong to just call people by their last names? It's generally considered rude here.)
Yes, Samuel lives in Hong Kong, though I don't think he grew up there (I'm not sure).
I used to know 50 Kanji (the Japanese equivalent of that symbol), but have forgotten them all (along with my Japanese).
That character looks like a wood-burning stove to me, so you better stick with Ga.
It's not rude if used with the word for mister (先生 singsang literally "firstborn"). But I don't want to reveal my whole name. We usually have chinese names and an English nickname, some can be very strange:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/hong-kong-loves-weird-english-names/263103/
Once at a theatre, a girl in a wheelchair sold me my ticket , her nametag said "wall-e". I felt quite uncomfortable after that.
I am mixed, so I have a real full western name. My Chinese last name will be my pseudonym. Ga. I checked the japanese pronounciation to see if it rings a bell. It's Ko. Or akinai/akinau/uru. Familiar?
-Ga
Mr. Ga --
So you're Eurasian like me? Are you half-English?
No, "Ko" does not ring a bell, though that syllable is common in Japanese words. ("Kore" means "this," and "kodomo" means "children," for instance.)
Half American, yes I am eurasian.
Ga is fine, no need for Mr.
-Ga
The Japanese and Chinese words for disorders like autism and bipolar tend to be very literal. Not so latinized (though Japanese borrows from Chinese words for science and tech, like we do from Latin).
zi bai zing (autism)=Self shut away disease
tsou wat zing (bipolar)= hot temper melancholy illness
zing san fan lit zing (schizophrenia)= vigor divide illness
I think psychopathy was something like heart perverse illness
The japanese translations are also quite similar.
A language reform for English where we stop using so much fancy Latin would be nice.
Proposals:
Autism=selfshutting sickness
Bipolar=Highlow sickness
Schizophrenia=Splitmind sickness
Psychopathy=Souldeathhood
-Ga
Ga --
Those Chinese names are far more descriptive names for those syndromes than the English ones. And your proposals are even better. It's too bad they'll never take hold, but they'd be far more evocative.
Off topic John, but would be interested in your thoughts, given it plays into a lot of themes of your blog. I stumbled upon this at Heartiste (https://heartiste.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/racist-babies/), "Infants show racial bias toward members of own race and against those of other races." (https://phys.org/news/2017-04-infants-racial-bias-members.html).
I admit, I can be a linguistic purist. I always wished the english language would use more plain native words than borrowing a new words that is unrecognizable.
There is a wiki called "the anglish moot" designed to try to form 100% pure english.
North Korea did that with Korean, removed any borrowed Chinese words (like up to 50% of their vocab). I also read men in Japan use more native words, while females use words borrowed from China (like meshi vs gohan) the latter is more polite and formal sounding.
Interesting. But it would be great if they did this with disease like you said. More descriptivie.
-Ga
Gambino --
I saw that article as well. As best I could tell, this was true of all babies, not just white babies. There's nothing really surprising about it, it's basically an evolutionary survival mechanism, people's instincts are to favor those with whom they share more genes, starting with their own families, and then gradually extending outward.
Of course, the sociologists being what they are, it will be used as proof of white racism, and not any other kind.
Ga --
Plain old English isn't pretentious enough for some people, they have to incorporate Latin to make themselves feel smart. This is most obvious when it comes to college mottoes, which are almost inevitably in Latin. I mentioned that here:
http://justnotsaid.blogspot.com/2012/01/higher-education.html
John, let me reveal some stuff for future reference when I comment.
Sometimes I may switch details to remain anonymous, I may mention an uncle but it's really an aunt, I may switch a gender of a story (sometimes not) so I don't get caught. I don't want somebody coming on here and finding out my personal opinions if they know me in real life and heavily disagree. That's why I use my last chinese name Ga instead of my real English name.
I also need to confess I have ASD (and ADHD, probably an anxiety disorder, maybe some asocial traits as I age), I never got a diagnosis when young but I suspected it as a teenager as did my relatives on one side of my family, so when I saw a new doctor I just told them I had it, and it stuck so it was true since they believed me. I don't know if it is aspergers or regular autism, but in the end it doesn't matter. I didn't reveal it at first because I was afraid you may respond to me differently. But looking at your previous replies, it seems you are not judgemental about it. You have a very common sense attitude towards it. Please forgive any errors I may make.
I want to ask one question, posting here with your real name and not hiding anything, does that mean you are comfortable with letting people know what you believe? Any people you know can come on here and read it. (Being retired, I think you don't have to worry about a liberal or conservative employer learning anything). Do you still have concerns?
Thanks
-Ga
Ga --
I wouldn't have known you had ASD from the comments you've made. (And if you look at the comments from my first Aspergers Syndrome post back in 2011, it's often quite obvious from their comments that people have it.)
I'm sort of past the age of caring. I started the blog as a way to vent, and then just sort of stuck with it. And I know from time to time people I know will be offended; but my attitude is basically, if they're offended y the truth, that's their problem. And most of the people who try to argue with me here do so using the usual liberal techniques of calling me names (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.) and those are easily countered.
About your comment on low IQ vs high IQ sociopath. Do you think about it being relatable to ASD? Is aspergers just a fancy name for someone with autism who has a normal IQ and can speak?
-Ga
Ga --
Good question, and I don't know the answer. I do think that Aspies with higher IQ's are going to be better at hiding their autism. But whether how far along the spectrum one is considered to be is determined partly by IQ is something I just don't know. I suspect not, though. When you think of the "idiot savants" who know one subject unbelievable well but are otherwise socially helpless, their problem doesn't seem to be one of IQ.
After coming across your posts about Aspergers (and the replies) I am finally coming to terms with a difficulty I have had with my husband of 8 years. All the arguments and one sidedness that advocacy groups explain away with lacking theory of mind I realise is just obscurantism. If advocacy groups for psychopaths started up and touted their lack of affective empathy as just a benign 'organic' condition and therefore nothing they could do about it... does it mean their partners should stay?
For the longest time, I couldn't reconcile the line the advocacy groups were touting and the experience of people who were married to those with Aspergers. My big mistake was not getting out sooner.
Isabelle --
That's a great description: obscurantism is exactly what it is. And that's a great parallel, too, with sociopaths. I actually wrote about what a sociopath liberation group would say here:
http://justnotsaid.blogspot.com/2013/09/sociopath-liberation.html
Anyway, my sympathies; and I don't blame you for getting out.
I myself am not HIGHLY PRIORITIZED for Aspie's information research in my daily media graze, but, I know that MISTER CRAIG has a good subheading of Aspie's material on the blog...so...when I ran across this I thought, "perhaps this will be of assistance in case Mister Craig has not seen it yet"...the guy's picture looks normal enough...:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/21/recent-suicide-professor-sparks-renewed-discussions-about-access-mental-health
====FAKE BABA
FAKE BABA --
Yes, he looks like a normal healthy male, though that has little to do with Aspergers. His explanation of how he offended and angered people without meaning to certainly points to Aspergers, but strangely, that possibility was never raised in the article. you may be right though, that could have been the underlying cause.
It seems the message didn't go through last night so I will repeat it, my phone may be malfunctioning with this page. (Delete this if it did go through and it was delayed).
To John:
The professor's attempt at passing did have something to do with it. From my experience, passing doesn't work, it only makes us look like asses. I just try to be a decent person, think before I say anything, and never ever speak unless it is relevant. People will know something is different about me if I stay quiet so much, but I won't be hated. A coworker in an old job said that yes, they do know I am a bit different, but they don't hate me or think I am annoying them.
Much simpler.
The professor also was depressed. It can cause a person to fixate on details, some times fixable like his social mess. If he apologized, kept his mouth shut from then on, and started again, he wouldn't be in so much trouble. His fixation spiraled out of control until it made him want to die. (But by no means am I calling him weak or a coward for committing suicide) That's not the impression I want to give at all. Suicide among autistic people is a serious problem that needs to be prevented. It's a growing concern now as the world becomes more and more interconnected, millennia ago things were different, now it's all changed demanding more. We can't afford to see another generation of families lose their children to suicide or drugs.
To Isabelle:
I am on your side. There is no reason you should be forced against your will to stay with someone in the middle of this mental disorder. I know how unreasonable we can be, I don't know how I may affect someone if I stay close for so long, and what they say about the problems being merely caused by a lack of theory of mind like you said is obscuring. There are many disorders with this same symptom, but these ASD advocacy groups have been riding on this one particular symptom to excuse and downplay what autism truly is, it's more than just one social problem, its much bigger and it all can affect partners. These groups should be on your side too, helping out how to divorce or leave which is probably what the bipolar advocacy groups do (in Hong Kong at least). I hope you can find someone who will truly provide a fulfilling relationship.
-Ga
Ga --
I'd never thought of that, that the attempt at passing would lead him to suicide. But I suppose trying to "pass" is extremely stressful just as it has traditionally been with homosexuals. And, when you think about it, homosexuals have had a higher rate of suicide. (I didn't realize that Aspies did.)
An article I read found people with Autism usually lived 18 years less, I think for aspies it was 12 years from another article. This was for all autistics, not just aspies.
Factors I guess include heavy smoking, usage of anti-psychotic drugs or risky medicines (don't know if newers drugs will be better), brain damage from meltdowns (the central nervous system is malfunctioning, it's similar to the brain damage from bipolar manic and depressive episodes), and of course the suicide. The suicide was 9x higher than normal in that article. But this is for all autists, don't exactly know what it is for the HFA end.
Higher suicide rates and lower life expectancy are common for people with mental problems. Schizophrenia is worse than autism, like 20 years less, bipolar is around the same as HFA.
It's not just trying to pass. Looking at the bigger picture, it's a mental health thing.
It is preventable, Temple Grandin, a person who I both have some admiration for yet completely disagree with on a lot, is nearly 70 and she is still doing well.
-Ga
Figure I'd post this in a relevant thread:
Some interesting insights in a suicide note left by an aspie Boomer professor @ https://willopines.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/punched-out/ Lots of insight into the aspie struggles/difficulties/tone deafness. It a catch-22 for functional Aspies => they have to shoulder social responsibilities/norms with little result/benefit and usually just pain/frustration for all parties involved.
Jean-Luc --
Interesting. One thing that occurs to me after reading that note, Aspies seem to come across a lot better in writing than they do in person. I would never have known from reading his note, other than the direct references, that he was an Aspie. Likewise there's a recent commenter on this blog, Ga, who's said he's on the spectrum, and I would never have known it if he hadn't told me. He's well spoken and very insightful, and comes across -- in his comments, at least -- as intelligent, calm, thoughtful, rational, and commonsensical, all things I don't normally associate with Aspies.
It's easier when there is time to double check and think before doing something, like posting. I tend to keep my mouth shut irl, too easy to be impulsive.
-Ga
About Phineas Gage by the way, I looked into him. What is very remarkable is how much he lost of his brain yet still was alive. Another very remarkable thing is that near the end of his life, he started acting more normal again. The old Gage showed signs of returning, doctors were stunned at his remarkable improvements in function and social ability after a decade passed, but then he died from seizures probably related to his injury.
http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/amazing-croc-story.php
Reminds me of this story of de-psychopathization in a crocodile. He was show in the left eye hitting his brain. Pocho then became a docile pet who bonded with a man and visited and played with Chito for 20 years before dying. There was a video game I played similar, Far Cry 4, an African preacher who later you meet breaks down into tears revealing he used to be a murderous warlord but was shot in the head and survived changing him, he thought it was a gift from God to stop him from being evil.
It's like the studies of children with autism who are born blind or suffer a very severe fever heating up their brains past safe levels, they later show remarkable improvements compared to others, some losing a few of their many symptom altogether. I wonder if they can find a way to turn that repair mode on safely. I can only hope.
-Ga
Ga --
Interesting, thank you. In a way, those stories are the opposite: with Gage, having part of his brain destroyed made him evil, whereas with the croc, it seems to have done the opposite, in a way, by taking away its predatory instinct. You need your full brain to be a functioning human being, and also to be a functional croc. If that crocodile had not had Chito to take care of him and feed him, it sounds as if he would have died in the wild in short order.
Phineas Gage started recovering after while and became more normal before he died, and this happened when he was a fully grown adult, not a child. Quite puzzling.
https://blog.frontiersin.org/2017/02/10/brain-damage-is-not-always-damaging/
Why some people with almost all of their brain damaged all over recover or stay normal yet others have only a tiny nick in some unimportant area go mad is puzzling.
I even read studies on the autistic brain. It's shocking how relatively unabnormal they are in gross shape in many patients. Older studies found stuff in very severely autistic patients but they later discovered they were the effects of seizures and retardation, or even the cause of death damaging the data (like drowning). Any other small differences they have found were possibly the result of living as an autistic shaping some areas, or are common to other disorders like ADHD. No one so far has identified a unique, common, permanent, and essential difference of autism itself with an mri scan. But deeper studies, postmortem brain tissue analysis do show different genetic behavior despite the normal shape. It's the software.
It's not always hardware, there are people with absolutely messed up brains who aren't retarded or autistic, it could be the software, and everyone's is unique.
Which, getting back to the brain damage, is in my theory that it may not always be the damage itself all the time, but the damage turning on switches which don't exist in everyone, only some people, for the changes to happen. And sometimes they may just be temporary like possibly with Phineas Gage had he lived long enough.
But there still are too many factors to count.
-Ga
This hasn't been my experience. Instead of people hating me or avoiding me like the plague, they try to celebrate my autism! It really pisses me off.
The opposite seems to be the bigger problem for me. Every time I reveal my condition it's "Mozart was also an autist! What's your secret special talent?" "Why are you so pessimistic? Autists are all super special rocket scientists!".
That is the biggest reason why I have never gotten sympathy. Not hate or being ostracized, no, the opposite, people celebrating autism!
I even checked out spectrumnews, a science website on autism research. It's funded by a billionaire I forget who with a daughter with severe autism. It's tone has changed over the years. IT used to be vigilant, very determined on finding research on better medical intervention, seeking causes, and more. Now it has started working with neurodiversity advocates and shifted priorities to better social intervention and researching drugs for so called "co morbidities". They even slandered Leo Kanner in one of their recent articles based on what was written in "neurotribes". Saying he claimed autism was caused by bad parenting. (NO that was bettleheim, Kanner never said such a thing, he has been villainized and forgetten by history while that nazi bastard Asperger is now a saint!)
The empahsis on finding out the neuropathology of autism has decreased as well. Since "Autism" according to the pridesters is who the person is. (Even though there is evidence of abnormal brain activity, it's not how just the brain grows, there are malfunctions that affect the brain, not what the brain is, some even lead to seizures in severe autism causing death! Imagine losing a child to a seizure! They don't care anymore!)
I swear to god, it better be a case of realpolitik than a true ideological shift. It's alrteady happened to AutismSpeaks which has changed their mission statement from trying to find a way to prevent, cure symptoms, and develop new medical technology to "helping autistic people find their place with help and new research into autism".
IT official, the USA's work on autism is being compromised. I only hope China and Europe can continue but they lack the same strength that allowed people like Salk to discover the polio vaccine or the development of penicilin.
IT's the opposite. Not dislike that is the problem for getting sympathy for me at least, it's too much celebration. I swear, if I hear "differently abled" I have a mental problem. I need help, stop enabling me, Its a disease! I wouldn't be surprised if many of the recent autistic mass shooters could only get away with it because of this stupid lax attitude. Nobody treating it seriously. You get a diagnosis as an adult, they send you home with a pamphlet, if you have schizophrenia or bipolar, you get immediate treatment ASAP.
-Ga
1...2...3... now I realized I just had a big ass ASD/ADHD moment and feel ashamed. Maybe I would be happier if I wasn't self aware. Ignorance is bliss.
I used to be an annoying unaware autist type before 18. I thank God for the internet where I could learn everything wrong with me. To this day I still identify a new abnormal symptom or behaviour. IF not for the internet, I would be a gigantic asshole like those other autists who ranted in your comment section, or 1000x worse, part of neurodiversity.
Articles like yours help me stop myself and become even lucid of my individual actions I sometimes can't control. Even a glimpse at a hate site by trolls painful and depressing helps. It can me feel suicidal and self disgust for days, but once I shake it off, I can absorb the critcism hidden under the trolling and hatred.
IS there a better way that is not so painful? I was browsing reddit and some other guy posted a bunch of comments on autistic violence, painful to read because I wonder "could I be a monster". The guy who posted it was also on the spectrum. I messaged him asking how he could be so calm and callous when posting that stuff, doesn't he ever question his humanity? Feel guilt by association like I do when there is a shooting? Yearn for empathy? No reply. I haven't found another autist who shares the same feelings in person, only 2-3 on the internet. I'm like Pinocchio I just always wanted to be a real little boy (or young adult). They either are a bunch of little neurodiversity weenies or are emotionless guiltless robots. Is there any like me? Trying to hold onto the person underneath it all?
ASD/ADHD moment off in 3...2...1..
-Ga
Ga --
You're far, far more honest than most Aspies. The ones I've dealt with have for the most part been older generations ones who were never officially diagnosed, and don't even realize they have it. They are the most annoying ones because they don't even think they have a problem, they think all the people around them have problems. And they're very stubborn and will never admit they're wrong and aren't even aware that they are the type who can never admit they're wrong. it's infuriating.
I suppose the neurodiversity movement is encouraging that type of behavior.
If, in your second comment, you're saying that your first comment was an ASD moment, I didn't see it that way. I thought you made good points. Yes, you were venting, but that's understandable. And you did it in very logical fashion. So relax, you weren't having an ASD moment as far as I'm concerned.
The hardest part is feeling nobody is on my side...
I browse the internet, it's impossible to avoid neurodiversity, anti-vaxxers, or trolls who think killing all autists will make them disappear (not true, the severe forms at least would have breen bred out if it were 100% DNA).
I see more people diagnosing evil people as ASD. The unabomber, Breivik, Hitler, Dahmer, Loughner, Holmes, are all being diagnosed by real professionals as autistic, the papers are being submitted. People with no diagnosis are being given "highly likely" diagnoses. The muslim convict Nidal Hassan is now being considered as autistic.
I feel even more shame reading about that. It's selfish but I think "Dear god why, why do you have to keep being so damn violent you other autistic people! I am not!"
The worst part is there is a moral component now in every single one of these diagnoses rather than being seen as a disorder, it's implied autism must define a person. That is what both neurodiversity and the trolls have in common. They both believe autism is not a disorder affecting a person, or a disorder. But "who" the person is. Those two enemies are two sides of the same coin when you get down to it. Hitler and Stalin really.
The part about these diagnoses was posted on reddit by an autist who seemed to feel no shame by association which I do. He doesn't seem conflicted. He said he was a PHD and runs a support group. How can he not feel disgust with his own condition if he insists dozens upon dozens of evil people like Dahmer, Hitler, both columbine killers, and Breivik are autistic? And the professionals who did do diagnosing imply moral components like "obsessive unreasonable overlymoral judgemental mindsets". Would you call the manic phase of bipolar "disruptive overbearing positivity and irritability"? These diagnosers ironically have been some of the biggest supporters of neurodiversity, so I imagine where they got their idea of a identity or personhood being the cause rather than symptoms.
Then I see an article about neurodiversity or another news story on a major media website celebrating autism. A ted talk by some hipster genderqueer proud autistic person about the supposed "gifts". Therapy has gone from trying to work on or manage symptoms to accomodating them or encouraging them.
And then anti vaxxers all flood in doing their thing. Nowhere on the internet is safe from all this tripe. I can't avoid sites, there will be comment sections or articles even on the most innocent of places from a troll, anti vaxxer, neurodiversity advocate, or one of these diagnoser types. The last few groups such as AutismSpeaks or Sfari have gone neurodverse, ARI and DAN are jokes. This is the western world.
Here in Asia they just don't care or deny it.
Where are the people on my side? With my point of view? I only know one neurologist who have spoken out, and one blog by a guy named Johnathan Mitchell (fullblown autism) who shares similar views.
There is almost no one left now who knows their shit right and is being reasonable. I feel so alone. I cannot join a support group because they all pretty much are crap. I cannot find another single ASD person like me to sympathize with eachother. It's just me now. If there is anyone else left like me, then we've been abandoned or betrayed, including by other ASD people, and why are the normal people so compliant to this? Don't they see the absurdity in all of it? Yet they keep supporting this ongoing farce. As autism rates rise, they see no need for alarm until it's too late. According to neurodiversity, its always been that way, anti-vaxxer blame vaccines, the trolls say it's because they've been allowed to breed somehow and keep inbreeding in secret to produce more deliberately to overwhelm the world. Asia just doesn't care. It doesn't matter if it's getting higher for real or not, something still has to be done quickly, but hardly anything is...
-Ga
Ga --
I can see why you feel lonely. The current insanity -- which extends not just to those with Aspergers but to fat people, transgenders, the low-IQed, etc. -- demands that we pretend that handicaps are not handicaps. The only thing we're allowed to be "judgmental" about these days are people who are judgmental. It's a willful blindness which has infected all levels of society, and, ultimately, it's incredibly silly.
While I do think that Aspies are way, way overrepresented among the ranks of mass shooters (though not serial killers,who are exclusively sociopaths), that some of those diagnoses are wrong. I've always been under the vague impression that the Unabomber was schizoid; Breivik I don't know about; Hitler couldn't have had Aspergers, he was way too successfully manipulative; Dahmer was a sociopath; Loughner was obviously schizophrenic; and Holmes I'm not sure about, though I had the vague impression that he, too, was schizoid, possibly schizophrenic.
Coincidentally, I just read about the Port Arthur massacre last night, when Tasmanian Martin Bryant shot and killed 35 people and wounded 23 more; he was said to have Aspergers, too, though it sounded to me more as if he was just plain retarded (tested IQ of 66), and it was also speculated that he might have been schizophrenic.
When will the world resume its progress from this insanity?
The answer is eventually, impermanence is the natural state. In East Asian religion, we are reminded of impermanence. There is no thing in existence that never will not somehow be modified, changed, or become distinguished from it's previous state eventually.
But they never said how long. Like the predictions by Nostradamus.
Even if let's say the Nazis won ww2 and the whole world was conquered by them. Even then someday, even if it takes a 100,000 years, their regime would collapse eventually.
The mindset on permanence is one I don't understand. Nothing lasts forever, even the bloodiest dictator will someday die.
So barring extinction, the world WILL get better, people will become wiser, society will make progress. Human nature will change. IT WILL....but who knows how long, 500,000 years maybe?
They did find a skeleton of a caucasian man in north american that was over 12,000 years old. I wonder if we did have a previous society and we all screwed up. The did date the emergence of man possibly as far back now as 350,000 years from 150,000.
If we've been doing stuff for a long time and blowing ourselves back to square 1, the stone age, then starting all over for several millenia, I hope we get it right this time around.
-Ga
Ga --
That Caucasian skeleton they found, and the way it was handled, by the Clinton administration as well as others, was a perfect example of what's wrong with our society today. It should have been the province of scientists, who should have been allowed to go where the science led them. But instead it because a purely political hot potato, and the outcome of the "investigation" was guided purely by politics instead of science.
If you think about it, Autism is like you take a tenth (no, maybe 1/2) of half of every disorder that exists in the DSM.
You have motor problems (hypotonia), cognitive deficits (stroke), poor social cognition (schizophrenia), mood problems (bipolar), weak central coherance and poor memory (dementia), obsessions and special interests (like a sick version of OCD), poor self awareness and weak central coherance (brain damage), paranoia (personality disorders), thought disorder (cyclothymia), 1000 other symptoms, and 100 comorbitidies.
And now with rates as high as 1 in 29 being suspected (this includes severe autism too!) it all seems like a joke God would play on humanity. It can't just have always been this way.
I wonder if "autism" is even real. It looks to me like a disorder where you have parts of almost every disorder.
I sometimes wish there was an easy answer like vaccines causing it all. But I can't find a single one. The world will go to hell is rates keep rising. We are doomed, all doomed!
It's easy to be complacent, but there could be a growing disaster, something is happening. What if we find out 1 in 10 children born now have autism?
I mean, you do notice transgenderism is going up quite a bit too? It's not a stretch to assume something is going on. And more autistic people+complacency+neurodiversity+celebration+less recognition as a serious disorder=more mass shooters, more SSI from your taxes, more special ed from your tax dollars, less people able to work or take care of themselves, more seizures and epilepsy (for the severe end).
It may not be global warming that gets up or nuclear war. It may be this.
-Ga
Ga --
You've thought more about autism and Aspergers than anyone else I know, and more than anyone else who's commented in this blog. You should write a book about autism. You have a unique and original point of view, and yours would be a much needed voice that would counterbalance the current shift toward neurodiversity.
I have no idea whether you'd be able to get it published, in fact I wouldn't be encouraging in that regard, especially since the publishing establishment tends to be very pc. (I couldn't get my manuscript on sociopath published back in 1996, although that was partly because I pointed out famous people who were and the publisher was leery of getting sued.)
But if you could get it published, I'm sure it would be a good book.
I'm too scared. The blogger Johnathan Mitchel already has death threats to his family.
Also I'm lazy and lack motivation, I fear criticism, and also praise/fame too, both, don't know why, plus what difference could I make? If any difference can be made, the best is the rest of the world calling out the USA and the parts of the west out on this madness. Which may not happen. To make matters worse, Hilary Clinton has friends in neurodiversity, so I don't want to cross anyone.
I have talked so much about autism. Thanks for pointing that out, I obsess over one thing a lot and the comment section here seemed safe to vent. I wish I could be naturally inclined to spread out with topics. I envy that ability to have no need to be self aware or cautious, being able to just exist and do with all the right stuff programmed in your head.
-Ga
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