give them a break
I am autistic and was once dogpiled on HexBear, but in my particular case I don’t complain, because what I wrote was indeed bad and I later apologized.
I not only adjusted my ideas, but I learned that one must avoid even the appearance of being a chud. Hypothetical example: suppose someone experiences a particular case of black-on-white injustice (it might happen, even if very rare). If then they get emotional and write a screed about “reverse racism”, they might technically not be completely wrong, but every leftist will take them for a white supremacist, even if they were just naive and tone deaf.
Oh? You’re not a fed? Name every train and hedgehog
I’m not a fed I’m just extremely square
My special interests are building explosives and mapping out assassination plans, don’t be ableist by calling me a fed!
But genuinely, I agree that there is a terrible bias against autistic and otherwise ND people and it’s so frustrating to deal with.
What other things have people thought of you guys because there’s something “off” about you that people cant place?
Ive had people surprised I speak the local language because they assumed the “off thing” was that I was a foreigner, I’ve also been misgendered despite having a beard.
That I’m evil, duplicitous or hiding something. People like to believe that they’re very intuitive.
people assume I am unable to hear or speak a lot. like a lot of times store clerks try to speak to me with sign language or by writing text on their phones
Lots of people seem to assume I’m under the influence. I think the body language of chronic pain, whether physical, mental, or both, are often assumed to be drugs, when actually the appearance of being ‘out of it’ can be because much of our mental bandwidth is taken up trying to compensate for pain
This is so real. I’m exhausted all the time and have no stamina because of ME and it’s wild how often people assume that me needing to sit down every 5 minutes means I’m on opiates and nodding off.
It’s not even visually remotely close.
I have the Autism Gait. I’ve been told that I walk like a cop.
my way of walking and knocking on doors gets people to think I’m a soldier a lot, especially since I wear combat boots 24/7
That’s really bizarre. Cops tend to keep their head on a swivel and walk a straight line with very efficient body movements. I kinda walk like a cop because I used to be a long distance hiker before I exploded my knees.
The autism gait is essentially the exact opposite, clumsy and uncoordinated body movements, typically unable to follow a straight line, and usually looking down at the ground at their destination. The pelvis is tilted incorrectly and there’s a slight lean.
I think the only behavioral thing that might be in common would be having bent arms. Autistic people sometimes do T-Rex arms, where cops may keep their arms bent while jogging or power walking because they’re accustomed to reaching for crap on their belt.
FWIW as an autist I don’t think there’s a typical autism gait, I suspect the one thing many autists have in common is that we walk a lil funny, rather than any particular funny aspects.
BTW and just as an aside for general interest, it seems a lot of people diagnosed with ADHD have different/increased sway on a balance platform as compared to normies, so much so that it might actually be diagnostically useful. I find this stuff fascinating, and of course it isn’t surprising that conditions which impact our entire conscious way of being would also impact our way of moving.
That’s not quite right from a medical standpoint. While presentation can vary a bit, there are really consistent musculoskeletal features common to Autism and ADHD which are caused by reduced muscle tone. These are so common that some of them are actually diagnostically helpful.
Virtually all autistic people will have some degree of hyperlordisis of the lumbar spine related to an anterior pelvic tilt. You can also often see rib flaring as a result of this too. Both of these are also pretty common in ADHD and account for the balance board differences from NT people. The severity of ADHD/Autism symptoms are also proportional to the severity of hyperlordisis. That is to say the more severe one’s ADHD or Autism is, the weaker the muscle tone will be and the more the pelvis will be tilted.
Also common but not diagnostically helpful for Autism are scapular protraction, a forward head posture, and a shortening of calf ligaments caused by tiptoe walking.
Because all bodies are different and the degree of pelvic tilt and severity of muscle tone weakness varies there are naturally going to be variations that most people wouldn’t pick up on, but a physical therapist would be able to identify the commonalities.
TL;DR autistic people have a fat ass
I had to be sent to a physiotherapist to correct the issues caused by toe-walking as a child. My calf muscles had shortened and stiffened to the point where I was not able to participate in physical education without severe pain.
As an adult, I suffered from severe back pain until a physiotherapist explained the anterior pelvic tilt and helped me correct the years worth of compounded issues that stemmed from it.
It’s a very real thing.
I also have such a tilt but haven’t experienced any issues derived from it yet. Do you have advice on how I can correct it?
Squats, bridges, hip flexor stretches, and lots of walking can be effective.
Autistic people don’t have a harder time building or maintaining muscle, they typically do less physical activity than their neurotypical peers. It seems to be somewhere between an executive function thing and a vicious cycle where poor coordination and low muscle mass lead to poor performance and frustration that leads to not exercising which worsens coordination and muscle mass.
It seems to be a general theme that people don’t trust them, but it’s especially heartbreaking that otherwise inclusive places will discriminate against them the worst. Left wing scenes are socially coded against “dorks,” so the people who become popular in these scenes tend to be on the bully side of things in my experience. Reactionaries use this very dynamic to recruit outcasts of all sorts.
Left wing scenes are socially coded against “dorks,”
Ironically enough, I notice this in online spaces more than real life ones. You’ve got TrueAnon’s “be normal,” its subreddit embracing ableist slurs, that whole Cum Town segment making fun of someone for saying virgin shaming is bad, people on this very site saying “bring back bullying,” etc.
Meanwhile, the IRL leftist organizing spaces I’ve been in have been full of unabashed nerds and very good about not tolerating ableism.
“Bring back bullying” is always the lamest shit. Anyone who still says that needs to do some genuine introspection.
Honestly I’m starting to think that Brace Belden is a left-ish version of Robert Evans (derogatory).
I see where this is coming from, but what happens online is a real force. Aside from material relationships between employers, employees, landlords, renters, the majority of people nowadays get politicised online. As for discourse itself, easily more than 80% of it happens online.
the people who become popular in these scenes tend to be on the bully side of things
It is very worth keeping top of mind that people with the combination of average to above-average social capability and psychopathic, narcissistic, or Machiavellian traits are adept at climbing social hierarchies regardless of the purpose for which those hierarchies exist or to which they are oriented.
It’s up to everyone else to consider what to do about this and whether or not it’s ableist (or similar) to do anything about it at all, but certain personality traits tend to concentrate in certain roles cross-culturally, and it would be a lot more surprising if they didn’t.
edit: added quote
I think the emphasis on dissent in left wing spaces can make it easier for such antisocial individuals to gain at least some influence. Some ultra-leftist places, I know they won’t describe themselves as left wing but who cares, will behave in the most corrosive ways imaginable. Often much worse than shit you’ll see on certain right leaning imageboards. It really seems to increase the more people hold on to ideas of correctness, or appearing correct, and purity.
And don’t get me started on the people who describe themselves as autistic (who might be in fact of course be autistic) but will throw anyone more autistic than them under the bus. Same dynamic with the stupid debate about the lumpen proletariat that was one of Engels’ – the great man who gave us Dialectics of Nature – (many) bad ideas beloved by him.
To be fair to Engels, he was an outstanding journalist.
And don’t get me started on the people who describe themselves as autistic (who might be in fact of course be autistic) but will throw anyone more autistic than them under the bus.
I feel as though some of that boils down to the “I’m autistic, but I’m not like that!” mentality that exists for some. For example, I am autistic but am very capable of making it in social situations aside from the uncommon moment where I completely misread a cue or two and everything gets awkward. However, then you look at my sweet wife, who is entirely incapable of being social for a number of reasons. We are both autistic, but our capabilities differ significantly. Folks, including other autistic individuals, need to remember that those on the spectrum come in many different varieties. Have empathy and understanding for them to the best of your abilities.
Anyone who throws fellow autistic people to the killing machine that is capitalist society and pressures are some of the worst class traitors.
Left wing scenes are socially coded against “dorks”
Mine isn’t
Oh shit did I just doxx myself
You’re lucky to be in a scene that doesn’t about superficial things like aesthetics too much.
Sounds like something a fed would say
🤨
Autistic people can be genuine and be asking questions in good faith, but it can come across as a fed or a liberal.
We can get caught up in the technical def of a word to the point of talking in circles, even if the basic premise is agreed upon. It can cause a lot of miscommunication. It can make it look like we are intentionally starting shit.
people won’t use tone tags online, and it can be very hard to tell if someone is being serious or not which can cause more miscommunications.
Difficulty dealing with morally grey areas.
Probably could go on. Now of course, this doesn’t mean every autistic person is some poor, misunderstood soul. Autistic people can be some of the most reactionary assholes around just as much as anyone else. The problem is figuring out who is who.
I am sure there are unfair and ableist situations in meetings. At the same time, organizing meetings must be run somewhat efficiently and safely for everyone involved and it is not inherently ableist to keep things going or cut someone off if they are monopolizing time or trying to start a new topic. The latter is very common and not unique to people with autism by a long shot and one of he more important things to learn about running meetings. Another skill is resisting the urge to hash something out in the whole group and instead putting energy into organizing outside of main meetings. For example, being in leadership of an education committee is far more powerful - and provides opportunitied to really hash things out - than personally raising issues in main meetings on the context. If this organizing-within-an-organization approach is working, and it tends to more often than introducing questions in a big meeting, then the other folks in the committee or who listen to the Ed sessions will actually do the advocacy for you and make it something that needs little discussion since folks are already aligned. I am mentioning all of this not to be lecturing or saying you are doing anything wrong, but instead because I think it is generally useful advice and because I certainly have to personally resist the urge to correct or clarify during meetings lol.
But just to be clear I am talking about organizing spaces with an agenda, not just casual conversation. When you mentioned, “get caught up in the technical def of a word to the point of talking in circles, even if the basic premise is agreed upon” it made me think of meetings getting derailed but you may be thinking of something totally different.
oh no i was just talking in general. In meetings, we normally have to keep someone as point person cause autism, adhd, and sleep deprivation have a lot of overlap in the random topic department for the reasons that you mentioned.
some of us tend to talk kinda weird, gives off undercover cop vibes occasionally
