Autistic people seeing through nonsense

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CapedOwl
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21 Jun 2025, 7:25 am

kadanuumuu wrote:
My 2cents here:

ASD peers often exhibit a form of "monotropic" attention—deep, focused interest in specific topics.
Which, when combined with reduced social conformity pressures, can lead to novel, high-fidelity problem-solving approaches.
This means they are not only thinking outside the box but are often unaware or unconcerned that a "box" exists
in the first place. This detachment from conventional frameworks allows them to explore solution spaces that neurotypical (NT) peers might overlook due to implicit social or cognitive constraints.

Darker implication of this:
There’s a risk of instrumentalizing neurodivergent individuals—valuing them only for their utility in innovation. It's important to balance appreciation for their unique contributions with respect for their full humanity, including support for their well-being and autonomy.

Great post.


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King Kat 1
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21 Jun 2025, 10:48 pm

My take-

It's been said people on the spectrum tend to more like be atheist or agnostic when it comes to organized religion or belief in a superpower. I know for me this is true, as it makes no logical sense to me to believe in something that doesn't seem to be rooted in logic.

I like to question authority; I've come to find most people who get promoted to management or law enforcement usually are not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree. The whole " because I said so" or " thats how it is" doesn't wash with me, if I know that it's being made up to boost ones little ego.

In a way, I do believe in Ben Shapiro's theory of " The facts don't care about your feelings". I find at least in The USA, people seem to worry about hurt feelings more than calling things what they are.

At work I've gotten into issues where I've flat I told managers that something would not work or calling BS when I heard them contradict themselves.

At times things go over my head but my BS detector usually is correct.


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MrsPeel
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21 Jun 2025, 11:09 pm

I can be incredibly gullible if I trust the person and do not undertsamd why they would take advantage, and completely sceptical and nonsense-proof if I do not trust the person or I realise they have something to gain by fooling me.

So I tend not to fall for scams by strangers, but I have been taken for a ride by people I thought I knew and trusted.



hmk66
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28 Jun 2025, 2:33 am

I can relate to that.

I am told that people on the autism spectrum have a problem with Theory of Mind (I think, that is related to this topic). I thougt, well... let's work on that.

The first thing I thought of, is the Sally and Ann test. It's about absolute truth and personal truth or perception. With this test, I learned that people can be tricked into believing something.

I also learned that people behave in a certain way or say things, that are in their own interest. They may find their own interests more important than others' interest.

It can also work in a possitive way. Let's imagine: I am in a supermarket. A fellow customer has a problem with something. I am often the first one that notices that, and offers to help. I see other people minding their own business. They don't deliberately ignore the very customer, I just think, they do not notice it.

I really see and hear everything, nothing can escape my attention. Some people notice that I am extremely alert. And I often see relations between things that seem to be completely independent at first sight. That is especially related to geopolitics, the corona pandemic (which is not a pandemic, but a military project) and the war in Ukraine (which is a war from the West against Russia, instead of a war from Russia against Ukraine and - as they say, later on - the war from Russia to whole Western Europe).



funeralxempire
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28 Jun 2025, 2:34 pm

There's some irony in this thread; even some of the examples posters have given of seeing through nonsense amount to embracing nonsense and/or disinformation. :lol:


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28 Jun 2025, 7:18 pm

I can always rely on you to bring the sun out.



Jakki
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28 Jun 2025, 7:47 pm

MrsPeel wrote:
I can be incredibly gullible if I trust the person and do not undertsamd why they would take advantage, and completely sceptical and nonsense-proof if I do not trust the person or I realise they have something to gain by fooling me.

So I tend not to fall for scams by strangers, but I have been taken for a ride by people I thought I knew and trusted.


Can relate to these feelings ( sentiments) exactly .

So then am still wondering why , the last part of your post .Causes me to remember multiple incidences of that !
But still I wonder what went on in their heads ?


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Kenworthy
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29 Jun 2025, 3:22 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
I don't know, I've seen plenty of autistic people who don't see through nonsense any better than NTs.


That depends on the individual.

Some autists see the illogic in accepted NT things, some have internalised it.

I used to think that having a paid job is the only way to be a valud human (NT / capitalist view) then I realised that childrearing, healing, disabled, retired and learning people don't generally do this, so see it as a general encouragement, not a necessity.



funeralxempire
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29 Jun 2025, 4:02 pm

Kenworthy wrote:
funeralxempire wrote:
I don't know, I've seen plenty of autistic people who don't see through nonsense any better than NTs.


That depends on the individual.

Some autists see the illogic in accepted NT things, some have internalised it.

I used to think that having a paid job is the only way to be a valud human (NT / capitalist view) then I realised that childrearing, healing, disabled, retired and learning people don't generally do this, so see it as a general encouragement, not a necessity.


The thing is, both NTs and NDs sometimes see through BS and sometimes internalize it.

So, with that in mind, the ability to see through BS isn't directly the result of being ND or NT, and instead seems to be much more strongly connected to one's ability to engage in critical thinking and question social norms. Neither of those are inherently ND traits, even if not fitting in might cause NDs to be more likely to question social norms, especially social norms that don't benefit them.


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29 Jun 2025, 4:15 pm

Like I might have already mentioned in this thread, anxiety can skew my perception of reality. So if I saw a post somewhere online right now saying that the Americans (Trump's troops) are coming to get me, even it's just a throwaway comment with no evidence at all, I'd probably still panic and hide myself in the cupboard or something. (Note, please let's not derail this thread on to Trump, I was just using him as an example).

On an Emetophobia Facebook group I belong to, someone was actually worrying because they had spoken to someone with a vomiting virus on the phone and that they might catch the virus down the phone. My Emetophobia has never made me think of things that absurd, I mean come on, like if that's physically possible :lol: , but then I thought that for someone with anxiety disorders or OCD or phobias these can seem so real until we've gotten reassurance. So I couldn't judge really.

I think with me it's more about trust. I trust physics more than I trust the government, so that might be why I would worry more about what the government is planning than the physics of how telephones work.

It's like I'm intelligent enough to overthink these things (a good survival skill) yet dumb enough to be unable to rationalise because of not understanding all the details of things.


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29 Jun 2025, 5:39 pm

Kenworthy wrote:
Some autists see the illogic in accepted NT things, some have internalised it.

I used to think that having a paid job is the only way to be a valud human (NT / capitalist view) then I realised that childrearing, healing, disabled, retired and learning people don't generally do this, so see it as a general encouragement, not a necessity.

Yes, it's not an exclusively ASD thing, nor does it apply to all of us, but I think a lot of Aspies fail to swallow the mainstream blue pill and can somehow see things as they are instead of just automatically following convention. We're somewhat notorious for doing what's "just not done" and being indifferent to "the done thing," I think. We tend to want to know why there's a rule saying we must / mustn't do this or that, at least I do.



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29 Jun 2025, 10:40 pm

From above Tamaya:"It's like I'm intelligent enough to overthink these things (a good survival skill) yet dumb enough to be unable to rationalise because of not understanding all the details of things."

So, sometimes , I guess I just understand things different : The Above. , sounds like a potential symptom of
Developing Intuition ??.


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Bunno
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12 Aug 2025, 4:07 am

Tamaya wrote:
It seems some discussions suggest that autistic people are too naive so will believe everything while NTs are able to understand the logical truth in everything, but then another discussion suggests that autistic people are too clever and logical to be taken in by things while the NTs are the ones who are naive and believe everything that's said to them at face value.

So really I think it just depends on the individual, not an NT or autistic trait. Some autistics think that only autistic children believe in Santa while NTs know the truth by 2 years old and are socially adult enough to just play along, while other times many autistics think that autistic children are more capable of figuring out that Santa isn't real while NT children naively believe in him for the first 10 years of their lives.

So...which is it? :scratch:
I mean I know I believed in Santa up until I was 9 and never even thought about questioning the logic, and I'm sure it just went the same way with NT kids too; their parents told them the fantasy and they just believed it without questioning logic or even really talking about it much to their classmates, and then they just find out the truth as they get older.

All are probably as susceptible, buts NTs allow their belief to be dictated by the groupthink and although shallow, as deviation can have high social cost they voraciously defend it. Right up until the groupthink moves on, at which point it fades like it never mattered, hence the underlying shallowness. It's a trait I found remarkable and frustrating until I understood better, as people angrily defend outlooks they have nothing really to say about. But of course that's precisely why.

The ND of course are more likely to just follow what their own logic informs them and all else be damned.

Both present to each other as easily led...



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12 Aug 2025, 10:14 am

Some aspects to consider:

Autistics feel no particular desire to conform, and so see no reason not to question a thing (nor to go along with the crowd).

I for one also have a desire to understand anything of interest, which I suspect is common among us.

Put the two together and it’s inevitable that we’re the most likely to see through establishment lies. This makes us very unpopular among the movers and shakers who end up in charge of everything.

Look no further to see why we are denied recognition as a minority and the protections that should arise from that. In all the civilised countries, aversion therapy has been decreed cruel and unusual (as well as ineffective) and is now illegal, with just one exception: autistic kids and ABA.


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13 Aug 2025, 9:10 pm

Everything NTs do is socially modulated. So if two people in a group say they feel cold, everyone in the group starts to feel cold. They're not pretending to feel cold to fit in and conform with the group; they actually feel cold.
There's no sensory input or independent thought that's not filtered by the social frame, unless NTs put a lot of effort into counteracting that. So the same person who is thoughtful and kind with his multiracial co-workers goes to a family event in their less diverse hometown and starts laughing at the racist jokes.

Autistics are consistent across social frames, and their sensory experience of the physical world is unaffected by other people. Of course, autistics mask to fit in, but it's fake, even if they try to convince themselves it is not.

But the down side is sometimes I am the last one to pick up on unspoken social cues that indicate danger or a scam or a change in feelings. I think we autistics assume NTs are consistent too, but they're not. And it doesn't even occur to most NT people that they are very inconsistent all the time. I can't even count how many times I've told someone that earlier they said "xyz" and they're just like, "no I didn't say that." Not "oh I changed my mind and now think abc..." but just that xyz was never ever a thing.



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14 Aug 2025, 5:22 am

^ Right, well, the NTs I know aren't like that. They have their own minds. That's why there's often conflict in the workplace among NTs. Small talk they can often agree on and "feel the same" but deeper feelings become more individual.

And I don't like being referred to as fake. Anyway didn't I read somewhere on an autism site that NTs were the fake ones? :scratch:


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