StreetlightFancies wrote:
Actually, sometimes I kind of wish I was more blatantly autistic, because that way people would give me the benefit of the doubt when I did something socially daft or whatever. Being good at memorizing social protocol, despite having little to no intuition in that area, is kind of a curse, because when you reach a situation you haven't memorized the "rules" for and do something inappropriate, people just assume you're deliberately being obnoxious. Despite being very emotional, when I'm engaging in the social dance, I feel almost like a robot imitating a human. All that eye contact, "don't eat before everyone is served," "don't take the last thing without asking" stuff just doesn't come intuitively to me at all. (And it's not just me being thoughtless, either, because I don't mind a bit when people disobey those rules around me.)
That's a great way to summarize my feelings. I have done a great job emulating others and learning the 'rules' but I have no intuition in situations that I have never encountered before that likely makes others think I am selfish and thoughtless. A good example was going 'out' with my older brother at the age of 20. First I was told I was 'a cheap bastard' for not tipping the bartender which made no sense to me since I don't tip the McDonalds cashier for doing essentially the same thing just not as ridiculously priced. As well, we went to a party and his apartment and the music was so loud it was painful to my ears. I naturally turned it down a bit (especially since it was an apartment building and it was past the 9:30pm cutoff for loud music) to the scowls of everyone and my brother told me off (and stopped inviting me) after everyone left. I saw and to a degree still don't see what I did as being wrong: I was in pain and I stopped that pain like any rational person would do.
I still don't get the 'wait until everyone is served before eating' silliness. If I'm hungry and the food is getting cold, why the heck should I wait for people who are taking their sweet #%% time?