As the press pundits, experts & sages pontificated away on CNN, a common theme emerged. They didn't flat out spew it out like barf so it was right there, but they implied it over & over again. What is this 'IT' I'm obliquely referring to?
Simple: we quiet loners who keep to ourselves are a bunch of dangerous whack-jobs who ought to be dragged out & forced to socialize, have NTs come include us in their shenanigans & if these strategies fail, we ought to be LOCKED AWAY (in very humane well-tended asylums) for society's safety. Since this latest killer was an Aspie, a computer nerd & a quiet loner who kept to himself, these are all 'indicators' of 'trouble'.
Here's the thing: I'm sitting here in the pitch dark right now. With my grey sleep hoodie on, red tartan sleep pants, bright red socks & my eyes glued to my laptop. Add a lack of any facial expression & I look weirder than a 3 headed cat right now. I haven't left the house in 3 days nor have I called anyone for social purposes in I can't recall how long. I'm not angry, but I'm not happy or sad or anything else in particular emotion-wise. While I'm not a gamer, I have a lot of knowledge & info about serial killers, mass murderers & suchlike. I do feel something: I'm vaguely chilly & tired. Am I lonely? Hell, no! Do I want to be included in a bunch of social hoopla that interests me about as much as belly-button lint? Uh...no. So many so-called signs & portents are present in me that it's almost funny.
If one of these CNN experts were to spot me now, they'd tape me up & cart me off to the booby hatch immediately! "Put her into a facility!" They'd decry, " Before she *snaps* & does something awful. It's really for her own protection, you know. We can medicate her & help her emerge from her shell. She'll make friends & eventually she may be rehabilitated!"
Sounds wrong-headed but benign. They really do want to help. don't be fooled! This is NT socially correct double-talk for, "We're scared of anyone who doesn't live how we do & want what we want. We can't understand these people so let's lock them away for OUR protection. We can experiment on them, force them into situations they don't enjoy & document what happens. Then, after a sufficient amount of forced social trauma & forced medicating, she'll be nothing but a harmless zombie-like passive lump."
While there are some bad apple Aspies, they are rare birds indeed & it isn't due to Asperger's but other things going on in their heads & in their lives. The same is true of NTs. BUT when one of them does something horrendous, they suddenly lose their status as NTs & get shoved into some convenient ND category, thus sparing NTs from having to ask themselves some uncomfortable questions about the validity of their presumptive normality. I've always believed that the constant social games, deceptiveness, insincerity, vagaries & shifty facial grimacing of NTs were indicative of some kind of syndrome- one that is many times more likely to give rise to the sorts of misunderstandings & perceived insults that lead to violence.
For most Aspies, if they could afford the privilege of true financial security, most of their personal anxieties would be relieved. Most jobs require social interaction & a keen understanding of social cues. For many of us, this is untenable. Those of us fortunate enough to have found a profitable niche (there are many very successful Aspies out there) are doing a lot better mentally than our less prosperous kin. Same is true about broke cash-strapped NTs: financial insecurity IS depressing!
The social exclusion, many of us can deal with & find friendship elsewhere on comfortable terms (like HERE). It's the lack of a means for providing for ourselves economically that is crippling because almost everything in life is predicated on having money. Without it, so much is controlled by others & we are severely limited & life can feel hopeless.
Simple: we quiet loners who keep to ourselves are a bunch of dangerous whack-jobs who ought to be dragged out & forced to socialize, have NTs come include us in their shenanigans & if these strategies fail, we ought to be LOCKED AWAY (in very humane well-tended asylums) for society's safety. Since this latest killer was an Aspie, a computer nerd & a quiet loner who kept to himself, these are all 'indicators' of 'trouble'.
Here's the thing: I'm sitting here in the pitch dark right now. With my grey sleep hoodie on, red tartan sleep pants, bright red socks & my eyes glued to my laptop. Add a lack of any facial expression & I look weirder than a 3 headed cat right now. I haven't left the house in 3 days nor have I called anyone for social purposes in I can't recall how long. I'm not angry, but I'm not happy or sad or anything else in particular emotion-wise. While I'm not a gamer, I have a lot of knowledge & info about serial killers, mass murderers & suchlike. I do feel something: I'm vaguely chilly & tired. Am I lonely? Hell, no! Do I want to be included in a bunch of social hoopla that interests me about as much as belly-button lint? Uh...no. So many so-called signs & portents are present in me that it's almost funny.
If one of these CNN experts were to spot me now, they'd tape me up & cart me off to the booby hatch immediately! "Put her into a facility!" They'd decry, " Before she *snaps* & does something awful. It's really for her own protection, you know. We can medicate her & help her emerge from her shell. She'll make friends & eventually she may be rehabilitated!"
Sounds wrong-headed but benign. They really do want to help. don't be fooled! This is NT socially correct double-talk for, "We're scared of anyone who doesn't live how we do & want what we want. We can't understand these people so let's lock them away for OUR protection. We can experiment on them, force them into situations they don't enjoy & document what happens. Then, after a sufficient amount of forced social trauma & forced medicating, she'll be nothing but a harmless zombie-like passive lump."
While there are some bad apple Aspies, they are rare birds indeed & it isn't due to Asperger's but other things going on in their heads & in their lives. The same is true of NTs. BUT when one of them does something horrendous, they suddenly lose their status as NTs & get shoved into some convenient ND category, thus sparing NTs from having to ask themselves some uncomfortable questions about the validity of their presumptive normality. I've always believed that the constant social games, deceptiveness, insincerity, vagaries & shifty facial grimacing of NTs were indicative of some kind of syndrome- one that is many times more likely to give rise to the sorts of misunderstandings & perceived insults that lead to violence.
For most Aspies, if they could afford the privilege of true financial security, most of their personal anxieties would be relieved. Most jobs require social interaction & a keen understanding of social cues. For many of us, this is untenable. Those of us fortunate enough to have found a profitable niche (there are many very successful Aspies out there) are doing a lot better mentally than our less prosperous kin. Same is true about broke cash-strapped NTs: financial insecurity IS depressing!
The social exclusion, many of us can deal with & find friendship elsewhere on comfortable terms (like HERE). It's the lack of a means for providing for ourselves economically that is crippling because almost everything in life is predicated on having money. Without it, so much is controlled by others & we are severely limited & life can feel hopeless.