What if we're just ret*d?

Post Reply New Topic

In a way I can accept that nearly all Aspies are ret*d, but only in the sense of ret*d = held back. That is, held back by all the idiots who can't be bothered to understand us........caregivers, teachers, employers, benefits officials, health professionals, colleagues, peers. Those people who shout "ret*d!" at Aspies are so thick that they don't even realise it's themselves they're insulting, because it's they who are retarders. There's no bigger loser than the one who cries "Loser!" at other people.

I don't think anybody said we are pillars of society. But we're no worse than NTs in those ways, and perhaps in our case we have more of an excuse to drop out and turn on / get drunk / annoy people..........all those behaviours are normal reactions to a society that's too keen to ret*d us.

Some people are losers though.

You mean those who could not survive without the help of others? That's practically everybody.

I see no value in pejorative terms such as "loser," apart from in war, or when a person is so wound up that they have to discharge their negativity by putting down their fellow human beings (hopefully not to their faces). A person can have a history of losing, but you cannot view their future, and if you label them as a loser, you aren't helping, in fact if anything you're making it a self-fulfilling prophesy, demoralising those who hope to turn their fortunes around, encouraging their peers to let them rot.

So next time you want to see somebody as a loser, take a look also at the loser-makers around them, without whom that loss would not have been possible.

I'm not ret*d, I'm different (and proud of it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_retardation

/end thread

The way I think of it is like this: half of my brain is ret*d, and the other half isn't. Half of me never developed past being a child, and the other half did. It's not like classic retardation, where 100% of the brain is affected. Mine is half and half. Hence, I have childish traits in some areas, and grown-up traits in others, as do all Aspies.

Depending on how you look at it, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Personally, I am very glad I get to be a child and never grow up in some ways. It's much nicer still being a child than having to be an adult (but it makes life very lonely).

I sometimes feel like an idiot, but then again, I'm also a great artist, musician, and writer. My IQ is as high above normal as normal is above ret*d, so I'm know I'm not an idiot, I am just so focused I can't think about more than one thing at a time. Does it slow me down at times? Sure, but then I never cared much about time. Time is for people who have so much to do that they can't do it all without doing everything as fast as they can. That's why the Titanic sank, the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles were destroyed and modern bridges unexpectedly collapse. Speed = sloppy.

I look at it this way: No, I can't juggle 5 mental balls at once like most people, but how many could handle a discussion on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle or invent and build a working model airplane from scratch using no blueprints?

ASD limits us in some ways, but unfetters our minds in others to do things ordinary people can't. If there were no ASD at all, there would be no savants by which we can compare human capability, and I'm willing to bet most of the great inventions we have today would never have existed.

I'm a recycled Mod.

For me, the advantages FAR outweigh the "disadvantages". I can't actually think of any disadvantages, at the moment...

If I'm "ret*d", all I can think to say is: THANK GOD!! !

Prove it.

Well that was a response to the idea that those are neurotypical things, maybe I misunderstood though.

Intellectually disabled people have a lot of the same problems we have--they're at the edge of independence or not capable of living independently; they have a harder time getting a job, or just can't get one; they're belittled and underestimated by other people; their existence is thought of as tragic. Sure, autism isn't the same thing--there are many differences--but there's enough common ground that it would make sense to team up with people who have developmental disabilities other than autism. They may not need to establish accommodations in universities, but they have very similar issues in elementary and high schools (including bullying, being underestimated, and being given material to learn that's too hard, too easy, or just useless). They struggle to find employment just like we do. While we might have to learn to understand each other--especially on our side, since we are so bad at communicating--it seems like there's just so much more we could do working together.

There is no such thing as emotional intelligence. Scientists who come up with that nonsense should be relegated to flipping hamburgers.

And some of the people flipping hamburgers should be scientists....just saying there are intelligent people that have sh*t jobs.

And some people are so good at flipping hamburgers that they ought to be recognized for it. There are more skills than just the intellectual ones. The ability to grill a good burger and keep it up for an eight-hour shift twenty days a month for years is a highly undervalued skill, but it's a skill that'll get you a job and let you keep it. It's certainly not a skill I have. If I did, I'd be flipping burgers. Anything to avoid having to live on a disability check, am I right?

I was thinking the same thing.

Last edited by dalurker on 22 Aug 2012, 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.