All I'm saying is that autistic people, while having a good mind for facts and that sorts of things, have a poor mind for social interaction, which is kind of important. So I would argue that is it a kind of impairment.
But it most certainly is not mental retardation. One little data point for you: I have Asperger Syndrome, and an IQ of 148. Also, just because non-verbal communication is not intuitive to people with ASD it does not necessarily follow that we are incapable of learning it. Please remember that you are talking about real people here with real feelings, and a lot of us read slashdot. Spreading your misconceptions to people who don't know any better can create real problems for us.
It's a spectrum! Not everybody who has ASD has exactly the same symptoms. I really wish people would stop making assumptions about everyone on the spectrum based on meeting one person. If you've met one aspie, you've met one aspie. That's all.
For me, abstract thought is almost all I do. I'm an extreme systemizer and a professional musician. Do you think I would be able to identify the key of a song without abstract thought? Transpose to a different key? Sure, sometimes I mistakenly take a joke literally -- but that sure as hell does not mean that I am incapable of abstract thought.
He then apparently went crazy. Actual mental illness, which he didn't have any sign of when they were letting him out.
The point he should been locked up is when he ended up in police custody again a while back. It would have been nice if someone had noticed he was batshit insane at that time, held a competency hearing, and locked him up on that while he was helped.
But we stopped caring about the mentally ill in this society a while back.
Actually, they did. And didn't find that he was insane (though by now we've all seen the video where he seems to prove his instability, then there's his friend implying that Clemmons thought he was Christ). We've spent so much time and money locking up non-violent drug users that we've left the mentally ill to rot. A lot of the mentally ill self-medicate as well, so they have been hit even harder by Prohibition 2.0.
14 year olds are too young to be having sex, whether they think it is fair or not. They don't have the maturity level to understand the repercussions of the activity.
Which is why we should teach them to use a condom if they do decide to have sex. Sure, the human brain isn't fully developed until about age 20 -- but that doesn't mean that all minors cannot understand anything. I think it's ridiculous to try and legislate away biological imperatives. Teaching abstinence-only (not saying that that is cyn1c77's position) to avoid STDs is like teaching people to stop breathing to avoid catching TB.
Way to simplify the situation to your own experience and then extrapolate it to everyone else by calling them stupid!
For me, I found I was a lot more comfortable when I self-medicated with cannabis. Unfortunately, this negates what intellectual progress I have made in understanding non-verbal cues. When I'm sober I do okay. I'm still me, still an aspie, but I feel much more confident in my assesments of situations. It's kind of annoying that the one drug that seems to calm a lot of my symptoms also makes social interaction harder.
A thought occurred to me a while back which was brought to mind by your post. In the Dune series, the Bene Gesserit use a technique (which apparently is called Petit Perception, though I don't recall that phrase from the books) to train their members to read body language. If someone were to actually invent this technique and teach it to people on the ASD then our only drawback would be moot.
The thing about Autism/Asperger's is that it's a spectrum of symptoms. Just like any other disorder (though I hesitate to call it a disorder, it's been mostly a blessing for me -- so "difference" would be more appropriate) not everyone who has it exhibits exactly the same symptoms.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the lack of non-verbal communication goes both ways: not only do people on the spectrum tend to miss non-verbal cues, but they also tend to have a bit of a flat affect. It's not intentional, but unfortunately people often take it for coldness. After repeated misunderstandings a lot of aspies just put up a wall.
I invite the reader put yourself in our shoes for a moment. How would you feel if there were a channel of information that most everyone you meet knows is there, but you just can't catch. Wouldn't that make you anxious? And depressed if you couldn't gather up the courage to make new friends or tried and failed because of misunderstandings?
People on the spectrum don't necessarily need extra help to get along. Maybe a little more direct verbal or written communication, and a little empathy. But that's something that all humans could use, if you ask me.
Heh, I just finally picked up a copy of Bioshock -- so the scene where Andrew Ryan rants about the difference between being a man and a slave (before the protagonist shoves a golf club through his head) just came to mind.
I wonder if part of TFauthor's self-realization didn't come when he started playing the new Action RPG genre and found that he wasn't enjoying it as much. I mean, WTF right, he loved Fallout 2 but couldn't get past the Mirelurks in Fallout 3!
As for this pap about being either performance or mastery based... I don't like putting people into boxes like that. Hell, I have spent fifteen years mastering the guitar so that I can perform for a living. So fuck that shit.
As long as we're going to reinvent the wheel again, we might as well try making it round this time. - Mike Dennison