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I've been going through a bit of a crunch period at work, and seem to have lost the rhythm of LJing anything other than the odd book review. We will be restoring normality as soon as we are certain what is normal anyway.
But I did want to point to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mrissa's excellent post on why people should stop lazily equating social ineptitude or bad behavior with autism/Asperger's syndrome.
I can understand how the idea that many people in the geek or fannish community are somewhere along the autism spectrum gained traction. I think there is an intuitive appeal in the idea that a lot of us are just wired differently from the norm, neurologically speaking. But there are lots of ways to be wired differently from the norm, and not all of them warrant a medical diagnosis, much less one as specific as autism or Asperger's syndrome. I'm all in favor of saying, "Human brains can be wired in lots of different ways, and, as autism shows, those differences can manifest in surprising and subtle ways in things like social interaction." Especially if it makes us more tolerant of each others' foibles. I'm not so much in favor of slapping medical diagnoses on people, especially when it's done in a sloppy way.
Also, asmrissa astutely points out, the real jerks out there aren't those who, whether from neurological disorder or other causes, are socially clueless. The ones you need to worry about are the ones who are socially savvy enough to know exactly how far they can go without getting called on their behavior.
But I did want to point to
mrissa's excellent post on why people should stop lazily equating social ineptitude or bad behavior with autism/Asperger's syndrome. I can understand how the idea that many people in the geek or fannish community are somewhere along the autism spectrum gained traction. I think there is an intuitive appeal in the idea that a lot of us are just wired differently from the norm, neurologically speaking. But there are lots of ways to be wired differently from the norm, and not all of them warrant a medical diagnosis, much less one as specific as autism or Asperger's syndrome. I'm all in favor of saying, "Human brains can be wired in lots of different ways, and, as autism shows, those differences can manifest in surprising and subtle ways in things like social interaction." Especially if it makes us more tolerant of each others' foibles. I'm not so much in favor of slapping medical diagnoses on people, especially when it's done in a sloppy way.
Also, as
mrissa astutely points out, the real jerks out there aren't those who, whether from neurological disorder or other causes, are socially clueless. The ones you need to worry about are the ones who are socially savvy enough to know exactly how far they can go without getting called on their behavior.
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