@dalias @PhoenixSerenity @giflian My boss actually told me last week, point blank, with an utterly straight face, that there was no room for interpretation of her words. That's one of those statements that qualifies as Not Even Wrong, IMO.

Every single word, phrase, clause, and sentence in every single language has multiple interpretations. Not just more than one. An *infinity* of them. That's why there can be people who think in pictures but not words, and people who think in words but not pictures, and we only just now, in my lifetime, picked up on the fact, despite eons of living right next to each other and even talking openly about our experiences. Most people with aphantasia grow up thinking that "picturing" something in your mind is a metaphor of some sort. And we just go right on talking to each other, with no one the wiser.

No room for interpretation... LOLWTF

@PhoenixSerenity @melanie @dalias @giflian If they are going to test our intelligence with a question, it seems like they ought to take a moment to think things through regarding the different ways the question can be interpreted. I always ended up wondering about the intelligence of the test writers, as a kid. Now I see it for what it is: A bias that's so implicit and pervasive that they are completely oblivious to it.

@dalias @PhoenixSerenity @giflian That has always bothered me, too. There are infinite possible well-behaved, rule-based sequences that start with any given prefix. And asking the test taker to use simplicity as a guide overlooks that there are different "alphabets" of basic operations that can be used to express them, so even that is contextual.

It always stuck out more for the verbal questions for me, though. Those were the ones where I was likely to not only get the question wrong, but be so irritated and frustrated with the ill-defined nature of the question that I ended up leaving a note in the margins criticizing the test's quality. There's a reason autistic people are better at puns. We see way more possibilities, and make way fewer assumptions about what's the "correct" way to interpret something.

@PhoenixSerenity @giflian

Reading this conversation and having trauma flashbacks to my discussions with my boss last week, when she refused to acknowledge that she has any emotion at all and pretended that all her motives for treating me badly and criticizing me incessantly were just logically derived from her desire for the team to succeed.

Sure, w/e, boss. I totally buy that. /s

The thing is, I noticed her microexpressions. I saw the irritation flashing on her face before she could stuff it down. But even if I hadn't observed that, this isn't my first rodeo with a boss that has decided they don't like me and started looking for an excuse to be rid of me, but found it in their best interest not to admit it. Bosses who aren't looking for a reason to fire you don't have the incentive to bullshit like that, so I know what's up.

@PhoenixSerenity @giflian Sometimes I think the biggest hindrance to autistic people "mind reading" is that we see too much, not too little, making us way more likely to get mixed signals when people put up fronts.

It also causes problems when we try to interpret motives, because while an NT thinks the reason is "obvious" (even when their conclusion is incorrect) we can see a hundred different possibilities. We piss them off because we don't play by the rules they expect everyone to play by, where there's a standardized "correct" interpretation for every social interaction, because we don't automatically make assumptions.

@feliks Clearly, the singularity has begun

If anybody else is interested in digging into the genetics of autism, you might find this of interest:

https://gene.sfari.org/

#autism
#genetics
#ActuallyAutistic

@lauren I made a post not long ago about the horrible disinformation the Google LLM was spreading about autistic people. It's not just doing harm to the people who are doing the searches; it's actively spreading harmful myths and bigoted viewpoints about vulnerable, third-party minorities.

@BeAware Very

@sasutina13 @roknrol @actuallyautistic I have known a couple of people who would not go out to eat because the kitchen could not be relied upon to take allergies seriously. A whole section of their life, just carved right out of existence because of other people's nonchalant treatment of their needs. And this even knowing it could be a matter of life and death for them.

So yeah, those same people can be relied upon to take sensory overload even *less* seriously because the extent of the risk is invisible to them. Or it just doesn't matter because it's not their problem.

I have risked physical injury to avoid sensory overload. It's not that I'm unaware of the danger. It's a calculated risk I take, which I consider fully worthwhile.

It's an established fact that autistic facial expressions are often below the threshold of conscious awareness to non-autistic observers. I linked to research on this topic not long ago.

Next time you hear about an autistic kid having no sense of danger or no fear, consider the possibility that maybe the kid was suffering from sensory overload and those around them just couldn't see it on their face. Maybe that kid ran out into traffic or into the woods alone to get away from something that was making them miserable, and you just missed all the signs.

#autism
#SensoryOverload
#ActuallyAutistic
@actuallyautistic

@zakalwe @hellomiakoda @actuallyautistic @pathfinder For me it's entirely about repetitive or abrasive noises. Things that steal my attention. Babies babbling doesn't do that to me, but dogs barking, basses thumping, people sniffing, music I'm not actively listening to, engines revving, water dripping, clocks ticking, and babies screaming all shut down my brain to the point that I can't form a thought. It's a startle reaction that doesn't taper off over time. I had a really hard time when my kiddos were little and would cry. Sometimes, I would end up crying with them, "I Am Sam" style.

@pathfinder @zakalwe @hellomiakoda @actuallyautistic It is definitely extra difficult, but I would still say totally worthwhile. Diapers were difficult because I had to not puke. Crying was difficult because I couldn't think. But I got the hang of it and found coping mechanisms, and as my kids got older, they learned what hurts me and what doesn't, and (unlike the rest of the universe) they actually care enough to be respectful of those needs. So really it was only the first few years that were hard.

@pathfinder @actuallyautistic I won't say it hasn't crossed my mind, ever. When you're being actively tortured by someone who just scoffs and doubles down when you tell them how much you are suffering, it's hard not to have occasional thoughts of violence.

I'm sure some non-autistic person will read this and be scandalized because they assume it's minor suffering. It is not. I've said it elsewhere, and I'll say it again: I would rather be punched in the face than forced to listen to a barking dog for an extended time. If I would choose something that undeniably qualifies as physical violence against my person over sensory overload, that makes it very clear the extent to which it makes me suffer.

Highly recommended you do not actually answer, if your account isn't anonymous.

Has everyone here in the US made plans for Anne Frank to have an extended sleepover yet? Also, do you have somewhere planned out where you yourself can stay for a while if need be?

#fascism
#StandTogether
#BePrepared

Remember to stock up on dry/canned foods.

If you think I'm joking or exaggerating, I'm not.

Immigrants are being openly targeted in flagrant disregard for the law. They are being sent to gulags in other countries.

Judges, governors, and senators are being arrested or threatened with arrest.

Stephen Miller is talking about suspending habeas corpus -- the right to be seen in court when you are arrested.

RFK Jr has openly discussed his plans to put mentally ill people (which, according to him, includes neurodiverse people), addicts, and young Black men in "farms"* where we will be forced to work and aren't allowed contact with the outside world. (*More commonly called "concentration camps".)

Musk & DOGE took all the data on all the people from all the government. They already started working on an autism registry. Sure, they walked it back, but what are the odds they'll keep their word?

Trump has already said he plans to be a dictator.

@aagot @carapace It's true. I went from having an awesome job and being paid by my university to attend there, straight to living out of my car. It is easy to fall down. It is hard to get back up. Even putting aside the fact that it's just the right thing to do, we should all be in support of a social safety net for the self-serving reason that there's actually a good chance we'll need it.

"Studies have shown that children begin to identify and punish autistic traits from a young age. Human beings reinforce social norms by hurting people who break them."

If you want to understand why autism is a disability and not just a quirk or a difference, reread this quote until the words find a permanent home in your brain.

"Human beings reinforce social norms by hurting people who break them."

"Human beings reinforce social norms by hurting people who break them."

"Human beings reinforce social norms by hurting people who break them."

This happens every. Single. Day.

https://observer.co.uk/news/first-person/article/laurie-penny-autism

#ActuallyAutistic
#Disability
#DisabilityRights
@actuallyautistic