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Is it an Aspie trait to see the world in black and white?

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protest_the_hero
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19 May 2009, 10:45 pm

It depends what mood I'm in. If I'm calm, normally, I think in greys, like in my opinions on people, politics, etc. When my mood is intense, I might reflect that.



marshall
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19 May 2009, 11:27 pm

Politically and philosophically I don't think in black and white. I get irritated by overly simplistic explanations. From all my personal experience NT's are worse than aspies in this regard. People believe simplistic ideologies because they're easier to propagandize and they can easily wear them on their sleeve as part of their personal identity.

When I get overly emotional I sometimes think in black and white. I have a quick temper and will place people who upset me in the "evil" category.

So paradoxically I can be both extremes, very nuanced/rational or extreme/volatile depending on my mood. The message board format tends to filter out the more volatile stuff though. I usually don't hit the 'submit' button if I look at something I just wrote and it contains things like "I think these kinds of people deserves to be brutally murdered".



timeisdead
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20 May 2009, 12:03 am

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But the weird thing is that if the protagonist is very saintly, that annoys me, too. And when the villain is described as pure evil, I just roll my eyes. It's a bit confusing! Laughing For instance that case in the news with that Austrian father who raped his daughter and locked her up. (Fritzl?) Reporters called him a monster, which I found very unprofessional. Yes, what he did was very bad, but demonising him is just ludicrous. Fritzl is a human male who committed a terrible crime. Demonising him and others like him just derails the debate and I also think it is dangerous, as it leads to thinking in terms of us/them. We couldn't do something like that, but they could.
At one point they were part of "us" and "we" didn't have a clue about their other life. Delusions about who "they" are will only lead to other victims not getting the help they need.


Technically behind every evil person is a human being who happened to commit terrible acts. Fritzl didn't make one mistake or error in judgement; he perpetuated a lifestyle of evil for decades. He robbed his daughters of their very lives. If that doesn't deserve demonization, I don't know what should qualify!



timeisdead
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20 May 2009, 12:06 am

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hat would be my reply if i didn't think about it, i constantly have to remind myself that i don't percieve something that others are able to. I just have to have "faith" that others are right when they tell me someone can be good and bad at the same time. Still, it causes no end of problems since i have no idea when i should apply this "faith".


Perceptions don't always define reality. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Food for thought.



timeisdead
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20 May 2009, 12:17 am

EnglishLulu wrote:
timeisdead wrote:
For example, I can't see why someone would describe another as a good person if that individual constantly does something he or she deems evil or abhorrent.
It surely depends on how you define "constantly does something he or she deems evil or abhorrent."

For a random example, off the top of my head, a Christian fundamentalist pro-life type person might think that a liberal pro-choice type person is doing something that they consider to be evil or abhorrent, i.e. supporting abortion.

But can't that pro-choice person be an otherwise good person, if they're kind and considerate to their family members and friends and colleagues, if they devote time and donate money to 'good causes' and so on?

Does being pro-choice make them a bad person, because of one particular aspect of their beliefs, or can they be a good person overall, taking into account all their good deeds and good intentions?


Good response, although I was speaking more of actions rather than thoughts. Indeed there are multiple aspects to a person's character and not everything is as simple as it seems. However, that does not mean we shouldn't draw a line somewhere.

I'm just baffled about the contradictory words of many people. For example, a woman telling her friend she disagrees with her relationship because she hates her boyfriend for a personal reason yet conversely states she should marry him, a man she personally despises, because she believes her friend deserves love and happiness.