The Link Is Broken

Welcome back to the Audacious Aspie! Per usual we will continue on with the topic of whether everyone is just slightly neurotic, with a big helping of obsession, overwhelming talent, and whoooole lot of social awkwardness. Also known as autism/aspergers. Than again, that might be my LD or high anxiety talking. Anyways, let’s get back to the topic at hand.

 

Not only would lighting be affected by everyone having a bit of autism, but also things like sound and smell. Dragging your chair around on the floor might have become, in  the author's words, “a major social taboo” (Paragraph 6). Perfume and cologne would be labeled as “hazardous substances” (Paragraph 6), not to mention not miding being squished in a line waiting for a service. It may seem like hyperbole, but I guess the author has a lot of bad experiences of people dragging chairs across floors, spraying perfume everywhere while the author waits in a scrunched up line for something. In any case, what the author is saying is that society as we know it would be unrecognizable if we were all a little bit autistic.

 

Like this image, except that no one would be standing next to each other, or holding hands, or touching each other in any physical way. But otherwise like this picture.

 

But look at it this way, a way that is not so...well, can we say maybe a tad bit inflated? Just because someone feels nervous from time time, does not mean that they know what it’s like to be autistic. Same way as if I dealt with a criminal once or twice, I don’t know what it’s like to be a police officer. Nor after playing military games, watching military movies or reading military books means I know what it’s like to be a soldier. Nor after publicly making racist, sexist, homophobic comments with the added fact of almost being white and male as white and male can be, I know what it’s like being a sitting member of the current Republican government or Conservative party member (but I can hazard a guess). Like the author says “Experiencing a taste of what we live with does not make someone autistic, not even a little bit.” (Paragraph 7).

 

The author warns that by doing so, by co-opting the problems facing those of us on the spectrum into everyday problems that face everyone, is to completely discredit the issues that are very much real to those who are autistic or aspergers, regardless of how far along they are on the spectrum. For while doing so you might have the intention of showing solidarity with us, expressing the desire to join us in the struggle for acceptance and assistance. What we are hearing is that our problems are so small and inconsequential that they could be applied to everyone. Our problems do not matter, or even exist. That, is itself a problem.

 

Will, this ends it for the look at the article “Is Everyone ‘a little autistic’?”, and boy what an eye opener it was! Even if it was a bit extreme at some points. Next week, I will write about something that I mentioned last year but never got around to doing it. Yet, I do believe that it might be as explosive as the article referenced above (maybe). Until next time, this continues to be, the Audacious Aspie.          

 

Sources used:

http://unstrangemind.com/is-everyone-a-little-autistic/