NTs have NO empathy

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I agree that in general, most NTs have little empathy for specifically autistic experiences. Your original post said NTs have no empathy for autistics, though, and we all have many experiences in common that do allow for empathy between autistic people and NTs.

Just to be clear, I meant "exclusive" autistic experiences. Temple Grandin's specific experience is interesting though. Will need to investigate it further.

Last edited by rugulach on 13 Apr 2015, 10:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Specifically autistic experiences is what I implied in my OP. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it was taken literally, given this is WP.

Your post also brings up an interesting question. Can humans truly empathize with animals?

Most NTs are astonishingly unempathic about typical autism specific experiences.

And they say we lack imagination.....

In fairness, there may be NT specific experiences that are difficult for autistics to relate to or empathize with.

You weren't looking for a literal response, what were you looking for?

What's wrong with asking what they want? I mean 90% of my communication with other people comes down to the fact that they want something from me, so why beat around the bush? I don't understand the need to "butter" me up or "ease in" to a conversation, I'd rather just get to the point because everything before getting to the point is really just wasted time. Imagine you were a sprinter lined up on the blocks ready to go, and the official talks for five minutes about various non sprint related things before firing the gun-- it'd be annoying as hell, and that's how I feel about small talk. Doesn't mean I don't care or I'm being cold, it's a different communication style that's all. I tolerate other people's communication styles, I expect the same from them-- that's not thinking I'm "better" that's merely asking for equality.

I was looking for a debate on what I implied in the OP.

EDIT: I should also add that my OP was about making a succinct statement.

Last edited by rugulach on 13 Apr 2015, 10:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.

There seem to be a lot of threads about empathy lately.

Having being best friends with an autistic person for quite some time, I think that NTs can affectively empathize with the struggles of an autistic and vice versa.

I can confirm that it goes both ways.

Yes, I firmly believe that humans can empathize with non-human animals.

And vice versa.

I agree 100 %

My best friend when I was 15 years old was a Persian cat named Zum Zum.

There are a lot of variations in people's ability (and desire) to understand those different from themselves. Some people are very concerned about learning from and helping others, while some people dismiss everyone else's problems by saying "they should just be more like me".

This is not true. I have met a number of other autistics, all along the spectrum, and with the majority of them, I've noticed clear cues to how they're feeling in their body language. It's just that they use different nonverbal cues, not that they don't use nonverbal cues at all. For example, one kid I knew I could tell exactly how he felt by the position of his shoulders. Also, a lot of autistics who avoid eye contact seem to use peripheral vision a lot, and once you know what to look for you can see that pretty clearly. (Ever watched a raven staring at something?)

I spot these things intuitively, because I do many of them myself, and those I don't do just seem to make intuitive sense to me anyway. A lot more sense than NT body language does. Maybe it's having a Dad on the spectrum that gave me this ability, I don't know. But I do know that for me, autistics are way easier to read than NTs are. NTs I have to work at. Autistics, I just know.

Looking at the difference in how I relate to NTs versus autistics, I suspect if autistics were the majority, I'd have pretty much no ability to read NTs. I've spent most of my childhood training my relatively weak 'NT-reading', while knowing only one other autistic (my Dad) until the past 10 years, and yet I find autistics easier to read. I doubt I'd be doing so well at reading NTs if autistics were the majority, so I have sympathy for NTs not being able to read my cues as well as I can read theirs.

Most NTs find it hard to put themselves into an Aspie's shoes. That also goes for depression, anxiety, and other emotional disorders. A lot of people seem to think that anxiety and depression is something you can just switch off and follow their stupid cliches. Fortunately there are people out there who can empathise with me and understand how the things that make me anxious get to me, even if they haven't experienced those anxieties themselves. But most people out there don't want to hear it, and just because a certain something doesn't make them anxious, they think it shouldn't make you anxious or you can click your fingers and stop being anxious about it. I've found a lot of people are like that. But thankfully not everyone.

Yep. My best friend growing up was my neighbor's dog, Sparky.

I played too rough and wild for the other kids when I was very young. Dogs could handle it, and primal communication was (and still is) easier for me.

Often people feel they need something concrete to relate too.
then they can understand
then they can feel the other person and empathise.
Autism is so different from NT's they struggle to find something concrete they can relate too. As they don't they struggle to understand, then they struggle to empathose. Even those that try, they struggle. =(.

How to help NT's learn better empathy for Autism?