(08-15-2016, 03:42 PM)Odin Wrote:(08-15-2016, 12:44 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: I long for the day (if ever) when reasonable accommodations and treatment for ASD become the norm rather than the exception.
85% of people with Asperger's Syndrome are unemployed, and when I mentioned several years ago that I was receiving public assistance at the time one of the resident right-wing asshole posters on the old board (James Glick) constantly harassed me about it.
A true sign of bad character -- mocking people with non-self-inflicted disabilities or handicaps for the disabilities or handicaps. (Jokes about drunks and drug addicts will be around indefinitely. Maybe about people who eat themselves into grotesque obesity, too). I had a cousin who died of lupus, and I had nothing but respect for him for fighting it and living as normal a life as he could. His brother? Ate his way to about 500 pounds and a fatal heart attack at age 47, the sort of fellow who never cracked a book after he left high school and with whom I could never have a conversation about anything -- not even sporting events, shopping, road trips, or cars. He did not end up a crook, and he apparently stayed clear of drugs and alcohol... but that is damning by faint praise.
At the least we with Asperger's could get suitable aid so that we might take a chance to do something valuable. My painting is pretty good for someone's fifth painting... but at my age if I were a painter for an extended time I would likely have something more like 2000 paintings and they would be marketable. I'm more likely to make money off writing or photography than off painting. (The trick to photography is being able to explain why someone wants to see the photograph). If I can entertain myself and I have high standards maybe I can do something interesting. I am a tough critic.
Maybe we with Asperger's syndrome need some genetic counseling in the event that there is a genetic link. Maybe it is a good thing that I never got romantically involved. Probably because I am a good-enough actor I can create an illusion of empathy that must be a habit instead of innate nature and because I would treat child-raising with great seriousness I might have been a good parent -- of a step-child or adopted children.
I may be as artificial as anyone -- but I am trying to be normal on things that really count, like avoiding trouble.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.