Jesus f*cking Christ, is no sub-forum safe from relentless, poorly evidenced, excessive attributions of Asperger's syndrome??!!!
If there was anything I'd diagnose the man who places his dog on the roof of the car as possessing, it'd be psychopathy. _________________ http://www.voterocky.org/
I feel a little bad for the guy, because even though I don't agree with his political views, I get extremely annoyed that people attack him for all the wrong reasons - his "dullness" for example.
Joined: Oct 10, 2010 Age: 29 Posts: 496 Location: Central New Jersey
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:31 am Post subject:
If their was anyone in this campaign that even remotely seems to have Aspie qualities it would be Newt Ginrich. Very aloof, in your face. Its all about Newt and no one else...very egotistical. His passion and background in History is often adopted along the campaign trail. He has a matter of fact quality to his views.
Joined: Sep 22, 2008 Age: 76 Posts: 29705 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:41 pm Post subject:
JeremyNJ1984 wrote:
If their was anyone in this campaign that even remotely seems to have Aspie qualities it would be Newt Ginrich. Very aloof, in your face. Its all about Newt and no one else...very egotistical. His passion and background in History is often adopted along the campaign trail. He has a matter of fact quality to his views.
The are NTs who are egotists and only see their reflection in the mirror.
Joined: Feb 07, 2005 Posts: 14856 Location: A beautiful vector among many
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:42 pm Post subject: Re: Does Mitt Romney have Asperger's Syndrome?
Declension wrote:
I am vaguely following American politics, and it seems very plausible to me that Republican candidate Mitt Romney has some kind of high-functioning autism. He is often described as being like an alien, or a robot, finds odd things to be amusing, and genuinely seems to have an extremely simple, naive personality. He was an "energetic child", and he has achieved success in a field that most people would find boring (venture capitalism).
Making lots of money and sailing huge corporations that came from your own mind (enter Staples) can be fascinating pursuits if you're good at it.
Declension wrote:
He is often accused of "having no convictions", or "having no personality", which reminds me a lot of many people with Asperger's syndrome. He simply is not an ideologue, and just wants to try to do his best.
The thing I wonder is how he ever got stuck in Massachusetts. To become a Republican governor there you'd really have to be a bit of an empty suite or at a minimum pretend the part. The question: was it an act for the sake of a strongly blue state or is that really him. For him to be an expert venture capitalist it sounds more like a resignation of control rather than him doing things as he'd want.
Declension wrote:
Everything about this clip screams "Asperger's" to me. He is actually being quite genuine, but the way he describes his feelings is very odd. His description of "the right height for trees" reminds me hugely of the sort of thing that aspies say. Also, he clearly had a special interest in cars, and is probably not exaggerating when he says that he had a photographic memory for them.
Don't forget, ASD is a spectrum that leads all the way into NT. I could see him being an NT with traits at least, over the line and into the autistic range I'm not so sure.
Speaking of past figures though, from a lot of what I've heard Nixon seemed to have a lot of very interesting life situations and traits which would lend credence to the guess that he was an aspie (although no; I'm sure he knew exactly what he was doing with Watergate.
Declension wrote:
I think that he is a very misunderstood figure. He isn't a heartless monster, he's an aspie who maybe has a very naive idea of how the world works.
I don't understand how he'd be a misunderstood figure; ie. in politics a person's humanity has never mattered. If you hate Romney you either hate is Mormonism or, if you hate Republicans all together you'd find Romney a racist, sexist, and evil man for not only supporting the structures of slavery and oppression but being quite gifted at it. There's no innocence to be pulled out of that (if he's part of 'the enemy') and if you were going to define good intent as innocence to that charge then you'd have to add most of the big hated names in conservatism to the same list of good intent and sincere belief that they're doing the right thing. You're either at war with people like him or you're not. OTOH if you're a conservative and pro-capitalist and believe in applications of capitalism resolving most of our society's most grim dilemmas - then he, and other pro-capitalists and conservatives are A-listers in your book and Romney's success makes him even more of an A-lister. In essence you'll either love or hate a conservative for most of the same reasons. People liked to cite GWB's apparent innocence or simplicity - didn't warm many hearts for those who disagreed with his politics.
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:11 pm Post subject: Re: More NT than Aspie
cynthias wrote:
- his audience understands what Mitt means by the right height for trees. Mitt lives in Mass. now. The landscape is different. Mitt is relating very normally to his MI audience that it simply feels like home when he visits back in MI.
Trees are shorter in Michigan. About 100 years ago, the state was deforested. The forests have come back, but there aren't any old-growth forests.
