very mean comment about Aspies

Post Reply New Topic

Asperger's Syndrome doesn't make people smart. It makes them maniacally obsessed with one area of knowledge. Actually, all the Asperger's people I met academically are really really full of themselves, and packed full of the driest, most pedantic thought. They know a lot of facts from obsessively reading an endless series of books, but aren't really able to synthesize things in exactly the way a really good intellect can do.

Someone posted that comment in another forum.

On one hand, no, I don't think that AS makes people smart...either you are or you're not, AS doesn't manufcture intelligence...

But on the other hand, that's crap! pure and utter...crap.

both mean and inaccurate

I can smell something in the air, that bull just cr**ped?

Last edited by Jamie06 on 24 Mar 2008, 8:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AS isn't what makes us smart, we just are. Were they trying to say we're stupid!?

What happened is that some other poster was confusing aspies with autistic savants, and this guy dropped in to clarify his understanding of AS.

That's ridiculous. That person sounds like they met an Aspie who knew a lot more than them about something and got resentful of him/her. Or, it was just the usual, an NT misunderstanding an Aspie because we're bad at social stuff...

Anyway, that's the exact opposite of the way we think. I think it's pretty commonly known that we have the ability to synthesize info in a very unique way, thus our uncommon outlooks/opinions...we're usually referred to as "thinking outside the box".

Could be true in some situations. I can get like this sometimes, it happened more often when I was younger. I know a kid a lot like this and he's most likely NT. what this person is describing seems to be more of a certain type of personality rather than a result of a syndrome.

That statement was a VERY biased misunderstanding of the symptoms of AS. Frankly, my knowledge is VERY eclectic. As for "being full of ourselves", that is only appearance. I TRY to be modest. Still, when you talk to people that are really far from modest, and they have every reason to act humble, you can't help but seem arrogant. As for obsessively reading, WHAT is wrong with that? Still, I haven't been so obsessive with reading lately, outside of languages, which I guess are an interest. Even the languages seem to cause me to absorb information about cultures, people, etc... Also, I learn other things as well.

Still, I would rather be very smart in one subject and ok in others, than stupid in all, like so many "normal" people seem to be. It is interesting that they feel such a need to put down a group by emphasizing such a misunderstanding.

I can only speak about myself, but a lot of others even seem BETTER and may seem even MORE arrogant. Some such people I have spoken to had a reason to be somewhat arrogant. If they properly assess YOUR ability, and don't overstate their's, who cares how they appear?

The one thing I'll give whoever wrote that is that there are some aspies are like that. However, whoever this is doesn't even recognize the distinction between intelligence and smartness so the person who wrote that has shown that he/she isn't even qualified to talk about the subject but that's another matter. To put it dryly and pedantically, f**k the douchebag that said that.

Sound like he's just a troll full of BS. I thought AS was fairly uncommon, like 1 in 100 or less? How did he meet so many people with AS, and how does he know who had it? Do you suppose it's common for people to hold this opinion about others who are very deep into a field that isn't their own, and then assume they must be aspies?

Posted by someone who has never met any good aspies, only ones who are like that obviously.

Maybe he only met a few?
Assumes someone has it whenever he sees them having a special interest or he keeps seeing them talking about something?

That's my guess. I wouldn't go on assuming someone is a troll just because you don't agree what they say or they are ignorant about something.

AS seems common to me now because I see them all over on the forums.

There are no "bad" aspies. Just people.

Btdt

Well, it is entirely possible that the inclinations of people with AS could give them the superficial appearance of being smarter than they are - even someone of moderate intelligence would be highly specialized and versed in a field even if there brain isn't exactly up to par with the NTs in that field of a similar knowledge. Thus, we would have this sort of odd shifting of people who aren't as bright into intellectual realms predominantly occupied by people who are smarter than that. Thus, people with AS would tend to appear pedantic and not deeply intelligent in a higher ratio than NTs (who, when they aren't smart, wear it on their sleeve, so to speak)

One characteristic associate with AS is "more rote than understanding" - this may have a degree of validity. The rote ability for facts may outweigh a person with AS' ability to actually creatively use this knowledge. But this may not indicate anything about the actual average ability to think creatively as it relates to the population at large.

I personally wonder weather the "parrot stuff" effect might have less to do with a lack of understanding and more to do with a superior capacity to acquire information paired with an otherwise normal intellect. Though I'm just thinking out loud here...

heh heh
that person was just being ignorant during that posting. maybe by now that person has realized that stereotypes are never 100% true or in the case of all the aspies i've met even 1% true.

also i was under the impression that aspies were like 1 in 10,000. but i'm not entirely sure