Thank you! Maybe also come by every once in a while to see if we have any cool new communities pop up that you would like to subscribe to as we grow :)

I had to think about your comment for 2 days before responding.

it’s also about hiding my strengths because they are not always well received. Deep critical thinking, eternal curiosity and precision are skills often respected in theory - but in practice: not so much.

Yesss!! I totally make myself stupid or seem distracted in/with the vast majority of places/people for two main reasons. One is the apparent one, which is making others feels less than. For some odd reason, me being able to learn quickly or know information already is insulting others. This then results in me either coming off as bragging or becoming the target for the insecure people to attack. I saw this happen a lot in the dance community, especially from other men. It was difficult for me to make male friends in that scene. In fact, I’ve only made two male friends in 2 years. One was autistic and the other is just a chill Christian dude.

The other reason I have to mask by seeming dumb or distracted is that if I am highly capable in one area, then whenever I make any social mistakes, I am not given as much compassion or understanding. Rather, they get upset and treat me as if I purposely wanted to violate whatever rule. I think the reasoning is that if I am “smart”, then surely I must understand social minutiae. That is absolutely not the case. From my perspective, I don’t jump to conclusions, so I miss a lot of implications that most other people get naturally. This is for real. It is so extreme, that I often end up making major faux pas. For example, when I was in college, I was at a bar and ran into a girl I had been friendly with in class throughout the semester. We hit it off that night. Towards the end, she told me she wanted me to come to her place to sleep with her. What did I do? I went to her place and literally went to sleep in her bed with her as soon as I got in. It’s been 20 years, and I still remember the face she made when I asked her if it was okay that I took my pants off to sleep in boxers because jeans were too uncomfortable for bed. She straight up answered, “Duh!!” and made a face as if I was joking, which I took as her being the same about jeans in bed. The next day, she was all weird when she gave me a ride home, so I was confused. It wasn’t until I told others about this weird experience where someone was really friendly then stand-offish that they pointed out that she wanted to have sex. This girl, who I imagine was upset at me for agreeing to “sleep with her” then not having sex with her, probably thought that since I earn good grades in class, I must have absolutely understood that she meant have sex. Nope. I had no idea.

a large part of it is (heartbreakingly) empathetic!

I really like this neurodiversity movement. It’s like a lot of us have been living and suffering in secret, not knowing that many of us existed and we had similar experiences and struggles. With many of us coming out about it, we see that we are not alone and give each other validation, support, and encouragement. I’m so happy with it. It’s one of my favorite things about this particular community.

I have this hypothesis that masking their authenticity in order to fit in with ther respective social group is the normal way also in NT people. The difference being, that to them it comes naturally and effortlessly to wear a mask (read: self-protecting persona), while for NDs it is exhausting and may lead to a sense of self-denial. Consider also the difficulty with the perceived need of constant dishonesty/lying which is a part of camouflaging.

I have never thought of this, but it makes sense. From what I can tell, there are two major fundamental differences between autistic and NT people. One, we are sensory hypersensitive by comparison and cannot filter out sensory input like they do. This means that we have a lot more information to process, taking up processing resources in our brains. Two, we are monotropic in that we can only really focus on one thing at a time, and we are hyperfocused by comparison. Combining these both, we come off as slow in social situations because while an NT can focus on the many social aspects of an interaction, I have to process the noise of cars driving by, the weather, previous interactions with a person to find out how this current interaction fits into their patterns, consider if I look weird somehow, making sure my tone and volume are appropriate, try to look like I’m making proper eye contact without overwhelming myself, etc. This is all too much for me to do smoothly, while it may be something absolutely natural for an NT. Since it’s natural for them, they do it all the time without any concern. For us, it’s exhausting and makes us feel as if we are not being authentic, which violates a core value among autistic people, further making us feel inauthentic and taking up more mental resources.

Can you guess which whole these shapes go through?

https://youtu.be/rZ3ETK7-ZM8?si=DnO-aRAHvHUpSEOk

🥳🥳🥳

Thank you! We’re really excited. I’ve added the main instance community to the sidebar here. However, since we’re so new, there aren’t really any communities. Waiting on users to sign up and start making it a place of their own. However, I do plan on making some communities when I get a chance.

because you found it funny

Ah, that makes sense. I think part of the author’s intention is possibly to help educate people that aren’t familiar with autism on signs that someone might be autistic but doing a good job at masking it. So that when someone that has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder comes out to them, the other person doesn’t invalidate the diagnosis, identity, or efforts the autistic person makes to function in normal society. I’m almost certain that the author of the video is not trying to help laypersons diagnose others (check out his channel if you’re interested in looking into it further). While I think that the info in the video may help some individuals develop some possible insight into uncommon behaviors, I believe a legitimate ASD diagnosis can only be provided by a trained specialist.

That sounds exhausting and invalidating. I am interested in hearing what you think about the video once you watch it.

I think I’m having trouble understanding your statement. Can you explain how this video results in everything and everyone in culture and media being about autism?

You’re welcome! I was nervous about it, so I’m happy it worked out 🙂

Fun facts!

Origin

The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, the Greek messenger. The legend states that, while he was taking part in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September 490 BC,[3] he witnessed a Persian vessel changing its course towards Athens as the battle was near a victorious end for the Greek army. He interpreted this as an attempt by the defeated Persians to rush into the city to claim a false victory or simply raid,[4] hence claiming their authority over Greek land. It was said that he ran the entire distance to Athens without stopping, discarding his weapons and even clothes to lose as much weight as possible, and burst into the assembly, exclaiming “we have won!”, before collapsing and dying.[5]

Modern Olympic marathon

When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the glory of ancient Greece. The idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was heavily supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, as well as by the Greeks.[15]

Hi @[email protected] , @[email protected] , @[email protected] , and @[email protected] ,

This comment chain got a bit heated, which tells us this topic is important to those involved. We have created this community for us to have a place to be freely autistic without ridicule or social punishment and to advocate for autism acceptance and accommodation. As such, we moderate differently than most other communities in that we take autistic traits into account. Sometimes, those traits lead to social misunderstandings even amongst ourselves. In addition to that, we also feel things strongly, tend to have a strong sense of justice, and have likely had a long history of being misunderstood ourselves or even purposefully bullied. Combining all of that can and often results in strong emotional responses. The mods themselves have these experiences too, so we get it. Each of us will probably have one soon.

With this in mind, we hope to use this comment chain as an opportunity to learn and unite. To us, it seems that this started with a misunderstanding of the spirit of the messages, so maybe we can clear things up using a message-spirit translator and hopefully the users feel comfortable to correct us if we are wrong.

RoS: I don’t like that we are treated as if we had super powers.

Haui: Some of us do have extraordinary mental capacities though.

SW: I have been deemed to have extraordinary mental capacities, but I don’t like to think that it is valid. Maybe I’m just good at succeeding in the way psychologists measure mental capacities.

Haui: I feel that my perspective has been deemed invalid. I find the measurement method has some validity and am proud of my extraordinary mental capacities.

SW: One, I’m confused. Two, here is some advice from my perspective that I think would avoid our confusion and related displeasure. Three, I’m autistic and belong here. Four, I don’t want to participate in this discussion further.

Haui: One, I belong here too, and so do my perspectives. Two, here is some advice from my perspective that I think would have helped with this discussion. Three, I think that your opinion on the way mental capacities are measured by the field of psychology can ultimately be hurtful to others.

Zea: I am not emotionally involved in this discussion, so I would like to help by pointing out where I think it went sour by clarifying a few misunderstandings, mostly focused on Haui.

In summary, we have all been treated as different and ostracized throughout our lives. That is painful and has contributed to how we have accommodated ourselves and worldviews to survive as weirdos, quirky, or whatever other terms that mean we don’t get to fit in. Furthermore, no one in this chain is tolerating it anymore (boundaries!). RoS doesn’t agree that we are equally different. Haui is proud to be different. SW acknowledges that they are different, but doesn’t want to be treated differently based on that. Zea doesn’t like us fighting. BomBS (me) argues that everyone is fundamentally valid and in this specific instance and that having a compassionate understanding for each other’s statements would be helpful to all involved and the community we are growing.

tl;dr: We have had difficult and painful experiences that are common to autistic people. Mix that with difficulties with social interactions and hypersensitivity, and we can respond quite strongly which can debilitate our conversations. At the same time, we are different people with different personalities and situations. That has led us to adjust in different ways. Those ways are valid and work for the associated individual considering they are doing their best. Let’s work together so that we and society can accept each other’s differences to being autistic.

so why don’t they write 1/1000 in then?

🫡🇺🇲

why do they use decimal for imperial units?

The entirety of the American scientific research community, which happens to be the most productive research community in the world, slides in with a wink 😉

pls explain 🙂

Seems like a good way to become proficient in both so that you’re more adaptable.

I tried installing Arch once about 10 years ago. I couldn’t get it to work even though I admittedly didn’t try my hardest. I was in a PhD program at the time, so my mental resources and time were quite limited. Still, I had real experience as a sysadmin, so I wasn’t entirely computer illiterate. Every time I see a potential user switching to Linux asking for distro recommendations and others suggests Arch, I internally roll my eyes. Unless that user is a computer programmer or similar looking to prove their skills to themselves, that is a great way to get someone to never switch to Linux because they will more than likely become overwhelmed with the installation.

If you are switching to Linux for the first time and don’t want to spend a frustrating week reading a wiki and troubleshooting lots of minute but consequential issues, don’t start with Arch! Linux Mint is by far the easiest for new users. Give it a run for a while until you feel like switching to more demanding distros.

that video is limited in accuracy as it is predicated on the idea that the split brain was originally a single organ but became divided at some point leading to more defined differences between the two sides whereas those of us born this way have had our whole lives to cope, adjust, and compensate at the conscious as well as subconcious level

Thanks for sharing! What would you change in the video?

I have a somewhat elevated sensitivity to interpersonal interactions that result in involuntary embarassment displays that i try to ignore but seldom succeed at…and aside from the occasional redfaced reaction to a normally undetectable stimulus i think ive done pretty well

That sounds interesting! Could you share some stories with us please?