7 ms·

Unsure why this is a reply to the OP, the only thing common is RMS and nothing else. But, RMS is known to be socially awkward, the same goes for many autistic

Unsure why this is a reply to the OP, the only thing common is RMS and nothing else. But, RMS is known to be socially awkward, the same goes for many autistic individuals. It's just that he doesn't mask and comes out as “rude”. If send an e-mail, he will usually take his time to write down a succinct response.

tedggh 9mo ago
I know a few autistic people including one of my nephews. They are different in some ways particularly when they are very young and are still struggling with expressing their emotions. But none of them are arrogant and disrespectful. I think you can be autistic and also a jerk, one doesn’t justify the other.
- dijit 9mo ago
  I'm going to be rude now, but I don't mean it to be taken that way. "I know a guy with a leg missing, and he can still run, so clearly someone who has lost their legs is able". I have had the discussion a bunch of times, I'm beginning to think that nobody other than me has spent a significant amount of time with severely autistic people. Yes, some autistic people can mask quite well, and, some are mild cases. But the crucial issue that most autistic people have is: they don't even become aware that they're being rude unless they spend active effort in first identifying, then understanding, then trying to fix it. I'll tell you something else too: most people are uncomfortable with criticism, it makes them defensive and clam up. If you make someone defensive, enough times, then the situation becomes infected and very emotionally charged. Now, imagine you have an illness that prevents you from processing your emotions properly, and the whole world is unkind to you, and you can't really understand why, but people call you rude. It takes a lot of bravery and integrity to really reflect on that soberly. Please, I implore you all to stop pretending you understand autism because you know someone- or a bunch of self diagnosed people, I keep seeing it[0], autistic people have great difficulty controlling how they're perceived, that's the whole issue. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37200502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37200502
  - edoceo 9mo ago
    This isn't even rude.
    - tremon 9mo ago
      Calling a spade a spade is already considered rude in some cultures/contexts, so I think the most you could say is "this isn't even rude from my perspective".
      - edoceo 9mo ago
        Feels like most of the time most folk are mostly speaking from their perspective. Do we need that reminder every time?
  - FireBeyond 9mo ago
    > I'm beginning to think that nobody other than me has spent a significant amount of time with severely autistic people. I'm going to say that your definition of "severely autistic" is actually mild to moderate at worst. The definition of "severely autistic" I know of and have seen in personal experience (family) and in my career has nothing to do with "masking" and such. It's being a late teenager who is effectively non-verbal, who wore diapers until age 12, who has an "anchoring dog", a 150lb Newfoundland that was trained from birth with audio recordings of him screaming or tantrums, that acts both as an emotional support, but as a literal anchor - tethered to him so that when, as many severely autistic people do, he starts to wander based on internal stimuli - the dog can just sit down and tense up and say "Not unless you plan on dragging a very large dog with you that is trained to stay still when it notices you walking away from your family". Things along those lines. > they don't even become aware that they're being rude unless they spend active effort in first identifying, then understanding, then trying to fix it. This is demonstrably not RMS. He is quite aware of this, and quite openly states he has no intention of apologizing for it, let alone "fixing it".
    - dijit 9mo ago
      The “severe” autism that I used to experience, at least the most severe that I experienced was non-verbal, sometimes with violent outbursts. But of course there’s a whole range. What concerns me though is that when I’m on the internet, people talk about autism like it’s a quirky character flaw that can be overridden with moderate effort. Which feels criminally ignorant.
- manoDev 9mo ago
  Please consider that your nephews are growing up on a world with a lot more awareness and empathy towards autism.
- smsm42 9mo ago
  I know somebody who smoked a lived to be 90 years old, therefore all that they speak about harms of smoking are lies. You realize people are different, and your knowledge of tiny number of data points tells you very little about people who aren't those people you know?

tedggh 9mo ago

I know a few autistic people including one of my nephews. They are different in some ways particularly when they are very young and are still struggling with expressing their emotions. But none of them are arrogant and disrespectful. I think you can be autistic and also a jerk, one doesn’t justify the other.

dijit 9mo ago
I'm going to be rude now, but I don't mean it to be taken that way. "I know a guy with a leg missing, and he can still run, so clearly someone who has lost their legs is able". I have had the discussion a bunch of times, I'm beginning to think that nobody other than me has spent a significant amount of time with severely autistic people. Yes, some autistic people can mask quite well, and, some are mild cases. But the crucial issue that most autistic people have is: they don't even become aware that they're being rude unless they spend active effort in first identifying, then understanding, then trying to fix it. I'll tell you something else too: most people are uncomfortable with criticism, it makes them defensive and clam up. If you make someone defensive, enough times, then the situation becomes infected and very emotionally charged. Now, imagine you have an illness that prevents you from processing your emotions properly, and the whole world is unkind to you, and you can't really understand why, but people call you rude. It takes a lot of bravery and integrity to really reflect on that soberly. Please, I implore you all to stop pretending you understand autism because you know someone- or a bunch of self diagnosed people, I keep seeing it[0], autistic people have great difficulty controlling how they're perceived, that's the whole issue. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37200502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37200502
- edoceo 9mo ago
  This isn't even rude.
  - tremon 9mo ago
    Calling a spade a spade is already considered rude in some cultures/contexts, so I think the most you could say is "this isn't even rude from my perspective".
    - edoceo 9mo ago
      Feels like most of the time most folk are mostly speaking from their perspective. Do we need that reminder every time?
- FireBeyond 9mo ago
  > I'm beginning to think that nobody other than me has spent a significant amount of time with severely autistic people. I'm going to say that your definition of "severely autistic" is actually mild to moderate at worst. The definition of "severely autistic" I know of and have seen in personal experience (family) and in my career has nothing to do with "masking" and such. It's being a late teenager who is effectively non-verbal, who wore diapers until age 12, who has an "anchoring dog", a 150lb Newfoundland that was trained from birth with audio recordings of him screaming or tantrums, that acts both as an emotional support, but as a literal anchor - tethered to him so that when, as many severely autistic people do, he starts to wander based on internal stimuli - the dog can just sit down and tense up and say "Not unless you plan on dragging a very large dog with you that is trained to stay still when it notices you walking away from your family". Things along those lines. > they don't even become aware that they're being rude unless they spend active effort in first identifying, then understanding, then trying to fix it. This is demonstrably not RMS. He is quite aware of this, and quite openly states he has no intention of apologizing for it, let alone "fixing it".
  - dijit 9mo ago
    The “severe” autism that I used to experience, at least the most severe that I experienced was non-verbal, sometimes with violent outbursts. But of course there’s a whole range. What concerns me though is that when I’m on the internet, people talk about autism like it’s a quirky character flaw that can be overridden with moderate effort. Which feels criminally ignorant.
manoDev 9mo ago
Please consider that your nephews are growing up on a world with a lot more awareness and empathy towards autism.
smsm42 9mo ago
I know somebody who smoked a lived to be 90 years old, therefore all that they speak about harms of smoking are lies. You realize people are different, and your knowledge of tiny number of data points tells you very little about people who aren't those people you know?