Do people patronize Asperger syndrome?

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I'll second the invitation to that club.


The only time someone pulled that "that's your autism talking" on me was a creation "scientist" trying to dismiss my atheism as a symptom of autism (and therefore wrong). Then I ate him.

And I'm of two minds about this one issue: in later years there have been a multitude of autism-ish personalities in popular media: Dr. Brennan, Dr. Reid, Dr. Cooper (who is based on one of the creators 10-year old aspie son, which is why he is so juvenile), Dr. House (debateable, but I think there's a case for it) and a female one is the main characters in a swedish/danish criminal drama called "Broen" ("the bridge"), which was all kinds of insulting.
While I think it's good that we're at least somewhere in the public's mind, it's seldom accurate enough to constitute an increase in understanding of the condition. While I personally have no problem with the "quirky but very intelligent" stereotype, when they try to tackle sensory issues or meltdowns or "dislike of change", they tend to go overboard and then some. House can't change the carpet in his office, a carpet that is covered in blood, mind, because he's "not good with change", really? . Not to mention that according to Dr. Cuddy, having Aspergers is license to date a 17-year old when you're 50+, because that's how that works...

Yes I would say that allistic people do patronise Asperger syndrome and people that have it but that is my opinion and depends on a specific situation. It is something that allistic people may or may not experience or understand or identify with. Sometimes even the most well meaning allistic may sound very dismissive of your feelings based on a stereotype that people that have Asperger syndrome have no emotions. This has been an old stereotype that has links to the wider autistic spectrum because in the 1970s people thought that autistic people had no emotions and did not like affection and therefore expected to confirm to that stereotype or experience some sort of discipline for not being allistic in the first place. But we must be in the middle ages in terms of understanding of developmental disability or slightly ahead because any information on non allistic people including those with autistic spectrum conditions has been put about by and large by allistic people largely from psychology, neurology, psychiatry and learning disability nursing are also part of the medical model of disability and in this model really only points out difficulties rather than underlying or subtle or unseen aspiphobia which is largely driven by stereotypes and offensive caricatures of people on the autistic spectrum. One example is my mum asking me if I can card count at a blackjack table in a casino like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man done with his brother played by Tom Cruise. Another is being accused of being manipulative which is quite ironic because if Asperger syndrome people were manipulative then we would be the richest people rather than being at risk of being manipulated by allistic people and other NTs. If an person who has Asperger syndrome acts like a knob end then there is no need to blame the Asperger syndrome because AS is a neurological condition on the autism spectrum. I don't mind the scientist type stereotype. All the time when I am with family it is like some sort of social balancing act to avoid gas lighting, trying to make you feel that you can do no right and they think I am a complete wanker anyway. But that's family for you anyway. But their perception is much better than brain damage and mental retardation which even originally singles you out as not allistic and is a highly damaging politically conscious act as well which is what doctors used to define autistic children in the 1960s I think that the above has been mentioned in the work of Temple Grandin.

If being autistic/Asperger syndrome in the 1960s is bad, it is worse for those that are around my mum's age. That is how autistic children ended up in the learning disability educational system and be recommended for institutionalisation which was policy for non allistic people for most of the 20th century based on applied racism. The perception of success in people on the autistic spectrum being a disqualification for a diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition or another developmental disability. Has not psychologists encountered here is whether a person experiences a form of discrimination or other kind of human bigotry that cannot be called racism, antisemitism, antizigonism homophobia,chauvinism or any other ism and more trivialised than allistic disabled people as well as non allistic people on the neurotypical spectrum despite the differing care support needs and since people with HFA/Asperger syndrome respectively have allistic levels of cognitive development this makes it a form of aspiphobia and I do not talk for all aspies this is just an idea and not really an opinion but something to think about. I do see this as more signs of subtle aspiphobia in all this and it is not nice having to go through this balancing act just to avoid some allistic supremacist's stereotype of what the right wing media portrays Asperger syndrome people and it is absolutely disgusting and I'm trying not to go into Godwin's law again.

Wow. Just... wow. Autism causing atheism?

I don't mean this disrespectfully, but I can't stand being pigeonholed with everyone on the spectrum. I don't think I am anything special, but it's a spectrum, we're all affected differently and we all live our lives differently. When I get things like "It's your Asperger's, it's what you people do", or "It doesn't matter, you have Asperger's. What I (want/think/feel) doesn't matter", I feel like now I am seen as Asperger's. A moment ago I was a man, a person, a sentient creature, but now I am my condition. Even my dogs have names distinguishing one from the other, but I've been dehumanized, no longer a person on a spectrum but a misconceived definition of Asperger's.

Whenever issues come up with this person, it's automatically because I have Asperger's, so the problem is with me. The other day in a casual conversation I said "I stand corrected". The response was "Wow, someone with Asperger's admitting they're wrong?" I would rather be corrected than wrong about anything (though I demand proof). I love being wrong, it means I learned something.

Seems legit, don't it? I like to think of it as him complaining about my insensitivity to emotional appeals.




Objecting to "you have X, and all people with X are Y" is hardly a disrespectful stance. My experience is that while people on the spectrum tend to share traits, they tend to be traits that make us more unlike each other, not more alike.




Have you heard of Peter Mangs? He's a maniac spree shooter from sweden. He also, incidentally, has Asperger's Syndrome. That stirred up a lovely little shitstorm if misinformation back when. People who had never heard of Asperger's until that point went to Wikipedia, found some barely coherent description of "problems with empathy", and suddenly we're all dangerous to civilized society.




I hate this kind of thing so much. No matter what you respond to that, you're wrong because Asperger's. It's like you have to bring a non-aspie along to vouch for you at all times, because nothing you say can stand on its own merit.

I dislike being wrong, because it suggests I didn't do sufficient research. Being shown the evidence will mitigate this dislike into some satisfaction of having learned something new. I absolutely loathe being told I'm wrong with neither reasons nor evidence presented. And this is apparently a flaw on my part.

From my lifelong experience, I would say that autistic people are much less likely to be violent than non-autistic people. I would also say that pit-bulls are much less likely to be violent than other types of dogs. But the media loves to sensationalize.

I get sick of both non-autistic and even autistic people inferring that people with Asperger's are somehow better than people with "lower" spectrum autism. I use these descriptive labels, but I don't assign worth to them. I mean, disregard that the classifications have changed. And even disregard the fact that IQ tests are unreliable, especially for autistic people. Intelligence levels and life functioning vary all across the spectrum, and intelligence and life functioning aren't measurements of worth. In fact, my personal belief is that people who accept help from others are better for it, and smarter people are usually unhappier.

That they are not autistic...plenty of Aspies need to deal with their own myths and stereotypes about LF autistic people before worrying what NTs think of them...

good post, sensible advice...

I do remember reading about the incident. It was well before my diagnosis, or even before I even considered that I was on the spectrum, but I am always wary of the American media and take it more as entertainment and fear-mongering than actual reliable information about the world around me.

Wasn't there an incident a few years ago in the United States involving someone supposedly with Asperger's, around that stretch of time involving the Colorado theater shooting and Sandy Hook? I remember hearing about how violent and unpredictable people on the spectrum are as the American media gave the alarmists a platform upon which to confuse sensory overload with a propensity for violence toward others.

My previous boss have a strong tendency to patronize me. He sees me as someone with below average IQ (that is what he told me some years ago), talks to me as if I were a child, and he thinks that I cannot handle changes.

He also thinks I cannot do a normal job, because of much stress that it may cause to me. I could very well be sensitive to stress, but not because of much work. He thinks I cannot live independently, although my counselor, my parents and I myself have a different opinion to this. He may not understand either how I can arrange a stay for 6 days in London where I organize everything myself, including the stops I have to get into the Underground, where I have to change and where I have to get out. I am already pretty experienced in arranging a stay for a week in a foreign metropole.

On forum discussions, when I have a different point of view than the majority, they blame my autism condition, invalidating my points. Later on, I see other people joining the topic discussion. Those people have the same view as me, but have no autism.

I've seen whom some people seem to think that persons with Aspergers are either highly intelligent sociopaths or psychopaths take your pick on that one.As well, I've encountered people whom for whatever reasons tend to take this notion that, I'm somehow like the character from "Rain Man".. Lastly, there have been individuals who willfully believe that AS is nothing than psychosomatic in nature i.e it's all an illusion created in your mind.

Many people believe the media's exaggeration of ASDs as a sign of us being nothing more than antisocial people who use ASDs as an excuse of being obsessed with weapons.