I've begun to have similar feelings about the word. Like you said, there are more accurate/specific adjectives for the people who disturb me. I suppose I've just been using it out of laziness. =/
Quite true and I'm not deleting it entirely, but I am most certainly making a production of my choice to not use it in this forum anymore to bring the rising occurrence of it's negative use to light. If it's appropriate I can just as easily say neurologically average, wired normally, or even neurotically typical instead of using neurotypical and it's impersonal but easy variant NT like a rubber stamp for the concept of "different from me and those similar to me".
It's about maintaining balance and bringing the ugliness of the hatemongers among us to light without singling anyone out... making people stop and think ;)
My choice of phrasing is context dependent. The word brain, amongst others, in a complete sentence situation would keep one form thinking about other definitions of wiring.
Also, it is understandable for an Aspie to be prone to miss connotations. I haven't been taking notes and do not care to take the time to go digging for unpleasantness so I cannot site any particular entries or the comments that ensued that have led me to my conclusion.
I agree totally with your point of NT as an insult. I've always been careful to avoid the mistake of treating neurotypicals the same way many auties accuse them of treating us; if I'm anything less than inclusive that's wrong. And usually on this comm, NT IS used in a deragatory manner (for example, claims that NTs are "strange" or unfair to aspies/auties, even if none of that is intentional.)
I've been trying to cut down on my use of NT- it also reinforces the idea that there is something "wrong" (atypical) of us, and I dislike that.
Thank you for being a thoughtful, reasonable person in respect to this issue and taking the time to support the point I'm trying to make. You found many of the words that eluded my fragile memory and points I couldn't easily make without going off on tangents. If you like hugs consider yourself thusly embraced.
I was considering leaving the community because of my growing disgust but realized that it is only a small percentage of the 1726 of us that are making the unfortunate psychological leap I'm trying to illuminate. Also, it is heartwarming to know I'm not alone in feeling that celebration of not being neurotypical can backfire in that it labels us atypical instead of promoting the harmlessness of neurodiversity.
"Neurotypical" is useful in the way that "heterosexual" and "cisgendered" are useful: it allows us to talk about our interactions with society without othering ourselves.
Unfortunately, some among us are not using it neutrally... which is why I'm making the choice to take a visible step out of the middle ground in the opposite direction. I also have great respect of the masses in the middle-ground which is why I make no effort to ask anyone to follow.
Yeah, mostly I think most of us couldn't handle running a country. Too much stress and shit. The place would just be a mess. Having said that I do rather believe that we do seem to be superior to NT's in terms of empathy and tolerance. Which is ironic as they keep saying we don't have any empathy.
But that may be an off shoot of being outsiders and not wanting to treat other people in the negative way people treat us. So if we stopped being outsiders and treated like we were abnormal, or worthless maybe we wouldn't be any different.
I don't know, and I suppose there are some apies that do act like that but I think the majority of us don't because we know how bad shit like that feels.
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It's about maintaining balance and bringing the ugliness of the hatemongers among us to light without singling anyone out... making people stop and think ;)
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(The comment has been removed)
Also, it is understandable for an Aspie to be prone to miss connotations. I haven't been taking notes and do not care to take the time to go digging for unpleasantness so I cannot site any particular entries or the comments that ensued that have led me to my conclusion.
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I've been trying to cut down on my use of NT- it also reinforces the idea that there is something "wrong" (atypical) of us, and I dislike that.
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I was considering leaving the community because of my growing disgust but realized that it is only a small percentage of the 1726 of us that are making the unfortunate psychological leap I'm trying to illuminate. Also, it is heartwarming to know I'm not alone in feeling that celebration of not being neurotypical can backfire in that it labels us atypical instead of promoting the harmlessness of neurodiversity.
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(The comment has been removed)
"Neurotypical" is useful in the way that "heterosexual" and "cisgendered" are useful: it allows us to talk about our interactions with society without othering ourselves.
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(The comment has been removed)
But that may be an off shoot of being outsiders and not wanting to treat other people in the negative way people treat us. So if we stopped being outsiders and treated like we were abnormal, or worthless maybe we wouldn't be any different.
I don't know, and I suppose there are some apies that do act like that but I think the majority of us don't because we know how bad shit like that feels.
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