Poly is so right, it makes assault OK!

[friend_of_tofu]

Is it just me, or is polydad a very scary man? His response to the poster here
just makes me want to run and hide.

A physically violent response is appropriate??? Damn, I hope he's joking.

Comments

[dda]

Considering some of the things I've read in his journal, especially concerning armed rebellion against the government, I can't be entirely sure. I do know others have said there are extenuating circumstances (read: he has some issue due to which we shouldn't question his social skills) so perhaps there really is no cause for concern.

That said, I'm often grateful that he's on the other coast.

[icecreamempress]

He's an activist for people with Asperger's, if that's what you mean.

Now, I don't judge him for that. I do judge him for his narcissism and now for his apparent belief that physical violence is a fine way to deal with relationship conflict.

Also, he just creeps me the fuck out.

[ladydreamtime]

Word. I have several friends and one former business partner with Asperger's, and none of them have said crap like that.

[dda]

I'm not judging him for that, either; I'm saying others have put it forth as an explanation for why he might not see how creepy all those invites over for dinner might seem.

I strongly suspect that he didn't think out the ramifications of his comment or how people might react; I'm guessing he meant it in terms of the "state" trying to stop him from doing something.

On the other hand, once posted, a comment often takes on a life of its own and one has to be prepared for that.

[icecreamempress]

I'm not judging him for that, either; I'm saying others have put it forth as an explanation for why he might not see how creepy all those invites over for dinner might seem.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you were judging him at all. What I meant was that I don't judge him for his Asperger's, or for things like missing social cues, etc., that may be consequent to that.

I DO feel fine about judging him for stuff like this, which is imo not at all related to his neurological issues, but instead an expression of his personality.

[icecreamempress]

Also, I don't think he means "the state" because you can't ostracize the state. Nor are you likely to announce your intentions to the state "at the start of any acquaintanceship."

I think he means hitting other people.

[dda]

You're probably right; I still think he means someone from "mainstream society" coming and telling him what to do. But that doesn't justify hitting them, either.

[tgeller]

Ass Burgers!

huh huh huh.

[friend_of_tofu]

Erm, no dice. I have ADHD. I know an awful lot of people with ADD, ADHD, Apergers, other autism spectrum disorders and other neurological 'conditions' (diversities?) in general. I literally can't imagine *any* of them thinking that that would be an appropriate kind of behaviour to advocate. Even the people I know who've had such severe mental episodes that they *have* had violent outbursts, still wouldn't be saying it's OK to do because That Was Crazy Stuff! He seems to be talking about a controlled response, and that's terrifying.

I'm not saying that my experience of neuro-diversity is the only valid one, and his may be very different, but that doesn't make it OK to advocate violence. Period.

[icecreamempress]

I think you and I are agreeing here--did you mean to reply to dda instead? Because I'm with you that this remark from polydad seems totally orthogonal to whatever his neurological issues are.

[friend_of_tofu]

Ah, sorry, I *was* agreeing with you. By 'no dice', I was referring to the idea that neurodiversity could possibly release a person from their duty to take responsibility for their own behaviour - not suggesting that you were promoting that view!

Please excuse my lack of clarity.

*sigh*

[kindredsgirl]

Your snarks are indeed justified, as Joel severely overstated his point here. . .but I can assure y'all that he's not a scary person.

Laura

Re: *sigh*

[friend_of_tofu]

I'm not quite sure why you're sighing at us here.

His behaviour ON THE INTERNET is indeed that of a scary person. Since most of us aren't ever going to meet him IRL, your assurances about his RL persona don't alter anything. You're sighing as if you're being long-suffering with our denseness and refusal to see how awesome he is, but for us, he *is* his internet persona so, as you said, our snarks are justified.

So why the sighing?

Re: *sigh*

[muppetk]

If it helps any with feeling all alone in the crowd, I met him a couple of times (wayback ago, 7-8 years I think) when he was still on the east coast and he never came across as creepy to me. I always felt like I kept... hmm, missing some cues with him (which is kind of ironic I guess), but never felt creeped out or threatened.

And I think I have a reasonably good sense of creepy. I admit, it wasn't as well tuned back then...

*shrug* comments on the internet turn without tone of voice are drastically misinterpreted all the time. Even when they're carefully thought out by someone who *doesn't* miss social cues.

Re: *sigh*

[icecreamempress]

I don't think anyone's "misinterpreting" this comment at all. Now, he may have said something he didn't exactly mean, but that's different.

Re: *sigh*

[friend_of_tofu]

He seems to be standing by his comments, so I don't think his opinions are really being misinterpreted. the point of this thread was to criticise his openly-stated opinions. As an aside, I mentioned the possible dysjunction and the ick factor of his inviting a lot of people from the internet over to meet him, but that was not the main point. The point was his views are fucking terrifying and damn well ought to be criticised.

I'm sure he's very sweet in person and doesn't come across as creepy at all (though as I already his, this is *not* what he's being hauled over the coals for), but IMHO we don't judge a person's character best by how they behave when they're being nice. How they would behave in a situation of conflict is far more telling and, according to his own statements as expressed thus far, he would probably fail the test.