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u/arock121 1d ago
The racism one is funny since it’s the same energy sorting types of dinosaurs as people
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u/Unfair_Passion1345 1d ago
all of these identities are based on relentless obsessive categorization, it makes sense they'd attract autists
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u/squarehead93 1d ago
I can’t believe I never made that connection. I snorted but it’s extremely accurate. Sums up the autistic need to categorize everything succinctly
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u/stanpan Sexual Zionist 1d ago
Yeah I worked w a nonverbal autistic kid and he would just use his alternate communication device to add words to it, rarely ever using it to communicate, except for when being prompted. Whole experience made me realize how autistic taxonomy and categorization is.
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u/-amotoma- 1d ago
oh my god this is literally me with my list of 200 something words I'm going to one day incorporate into my vocab 😅
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u/stop_shdwbning_me 1d ago edited 1d ago
Middle path people who have war and weapon special interests but don't realize/care what the political reasons were annoy me for some reason.
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u/squarehead93 1d ago
It really depends on the level of self-awareness apolitical firearms autists have.
Some people like Ian from the Forgotten Weapons YouTube channel truly do seem to just have a pure autistic knowledge and appreciation of all things firearms history and gunsmithing. They seem to understand that on the one hand any deep discussion of 20th century firearms, for example, is going to touch on weapons from places like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, or apartheid South Africa because those places had prominent arms industries. On the other hand they seem to understand the politics of those countries and take pains to not implicitly or explicitly glorify them.
The ones who make it weird are the people who have an excessive interest in stuff like Nazi (or alternatively Imperial) German weapons, Rhodesian FALs, etc. When pressed most of these guys will tell you they’re not Nazi or apartheid supporters and that they’re “just into history,” and I actually take most of them at their word. Lack of social and self awareness is an autistic trait. A lot of them don’t realize that they barely know shit about firearms history outside of WWII and Germany and particular. they also don’t realize that they’re susceptible to being radicalized by the kinds of people who do know what they’re saying then they make comments about “slotting floppies” on a YouTube video about Rhodesian FALs or sharing WWII German combat footage compilation videos set to Nazi patriotic music on a thread about Lugers.
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u/SeaaYouth 1d ago
What a dumb thing to say. You don't need politics to know about war or weapons. Military is rarely involved in political life.
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u/LouReedTheChaser 1d ago
Military is rarely involved in political life.
Invading another country for totally apolitical reasons
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u/ikissedblackphillip 1d ago
Damn you guys got these options??? They just gave me an opioid addiction
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u/ikissedblackphillip 1d ago
Oh fuck drugs are made of science I think I’m in the trains and planes box
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u/SecretPerfectMaster 1d ago
what with my poisoned genes, any of my heirs wont be getting an internet connection until they need it, let alone ever having an ePhone w/ tiktak installed
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u/WAGWAN_BATTYMAN 1d ago
For me it was middle (science, cars, mythology, video games, optical illusions, outer space, etc.) until my mid-teens when it unfortunately pivoted hard into the 4chan edgelord shit on the right. I moderated myself in university into a faux-normie who partied and slept with women.
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u/ikissedblackphillip 1d ago
This guy slept with women!!! Hey everyone!!!
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u/WAGWAN_BATTYMAN 1d ago
and none of them were fat!
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u/ikissedblackphillip 1d ago
Hey I still think about the one CuRvY girl I didn’t sleep with one night because I was too high on mdma to see. I should’ve manned up and done it. Drugs ruin everything
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u/squarehead93 1d ago
What did your “moderation” process look like? Was there a moment where it just clicked and you decided to change? Or did new experiences and being around new people in college just help you slowly grow out of it?
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u/WAGWAN_BATTYMAN 1d ago
Both; there are moments where I felt like a failure, like after poor academic performance in school finals, leading to self-reflection and motivation to sort myself out. The summer before I went to university I uninstalled steam, deleted my 4chan folder, unsubscribed from youtube channels, became disinterested in conspiracy shit, tried to improve my negative outlook, threw out old baggage, etc.
Later on there would be moments that triggered introspection and character arcs, such as being harshly rejected by a girl I was dating, or having bad weed trips and shit like that, but those things happen to almost everybody.
Going to university finally gave me independence and freedom and I took every opportunity to put myself out there and gain experiences, but it also really lit the fire under my ass because I realised how stunted I was. I was also so fucking *HORNY* and surrounded by hot young socialites which gave me a sense of urgency. So I took responsibility and gradually made strides, the momentum kept building, and by the time I was 20 I had transformed myself into a bona fide chad, at least on a surface level.
It worked out swimmingly. I made up the deficit, dated and banged a lot of women, did lots of partying and raving, had some amazing travels. It still took me until my mid 20's to start reflecting on my deeper entrenched self though.
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u/squarehead93 1d ago
I’m glad it all worked out! You seem to have possessed an high level of self-awareness and introspection even at an early age. Of the people I’ve known who were too into things like 4chan or YouTube conspiracy videos or even gaming, it took them years into their adult lives to snap out of it, if they did at all. Realizing that stuff was poisoning your mind and quitting cold turkey a year before university is some serious maturity for that age.
I have known one or two other guys who went from autistic weirdo to chad or at least passively normal bro in a fairly short amount of time. I have a theory that autistic hyperfocus and intensity can be channeled into becoming a very social chad type person if you decide to make it your “special interest” at the expense of pretty much abandoning your dorky autistic interests entirely, at least for years until you’re secure enough in your new self to let a little of your nerdy side come through, which can actually be an asset if you play your cards right. The key is that you can’t just be autistic about weightlifting or fashion or personal grooming or even using pre-scripted “techniques” to talk to women. You have to be autistic about being social in and of itself and channel that autism into reading social cues and constantly adjusting accordingly. That’s what separates the successful ones from the dudes who do all the other stuff and are still awkward spergs at the end of the day, just fitter and better dressed ones. You have to get over yourself and go to a lot of parties and probably be uncomfortable and awkward at first. It’s the only way to learn. You’re fortunate that you were turning a new leaf in university, where it’s very acceptable to loosen your inhibitions up with copious alcohol and drugs. Your early-mid 20s are even a more socially acceptable time to be a little autistic about drugs, at least certain kinds, before you start to look like a loser again if you don’t change. It’s so simple, but finding your balls and just fucking putting yourself out there over and over is ultimately the best advice instead of waiting until you have the perfect physique or financial situation. University/college is an ideal time for reinventing yourself and doing this. After that the social environment for that can be much harder and less forgiving.
A lot of guys in your former position simply lack the self awareness or perhaps someone that cares enough to tell them to snap out of it , so they stay stuck. Or they end up trying but failing due to their lack of understanding of nuance and end up as gymcels and the like. I don’t think I had to dig myself out of as deep of a hole as you did, but I was absolutely an introverted and probably a bit autistic teenager. Like you I had moments of clarity and life events that helped me change course. I’m very satisfied with my life right now, and grateful I’ve had opportunities to grow and the wisdom to take advantage of them. I can relate on still having occasional feelings of regret over wasted time early in my life, and even sometimes struggling to “forgive” myself for what I didn’t know, even if I know it’s absurd to hold such a thing against myself.
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u/WAGWAN_BATTYMAN 1d ago
Thanks for your comments. I still feel like the first wave of self-awareness came late; at 18 I was mentally still 15 and far behind my peers, who seemingly figured things out early on, but I've accepted now that my path and trajectory was different.
You're right though, I often read stories online from guys who are well into adulthood, broke, kissless, haven't done anything with their lives, and all I can think is that they're autists who never lit that fire under their ass and never tried to leave their comfort zone of slowly rotting.
Yeah you nailed it. I made it my autistic special interest and feverishly pursued it whilst trying to stamp out my dorky traits. I directed all my energy towards personal development and planned my life around it. It was fun and exciting in the beginning because you make leaps in development quickly when your starting point is being a Level 1 autistic loser, and the small wins and validation reinforces belief and progress and felt so invigorating. At 18-19 I was still a clumsy cringelord with no clue how to act normal and I was often belittled or rejected, but I just focused on improving and making breakthroughs.
I'm happy for your success and that you've found satisfaction. I don't feel much regret - I was trapped in circumstances, with no guidance whatsoever, and that might've been true for you as well. Being terminally online since a young child inevitably led me to the grim corners of the internet like /pol/ and liveleak. I believe it's necessary to be exposed to that sort of darkness in order to be more well rounded, but it does come with brain damage, especially if you submerge yourself in it as an impressionable child and make it your personality.
I understand what you mean with forgiveness. I look back at my past self with disbelief that I couldn't see my glaring deficiencies. I think it was just a very stubborn narcissism that held me back, and it took some cracks for it to break apart.
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u/squarehead93 1d ago
The comfort zone autistic guys find themselves in really is a killer. It’s a paradox of the 21st century that now is probably both the best and the worst time to be autistic. That there is even a name for the condition, let alone the clinical understanding we have now, is a very, very recent phenomenon. However, up until maybe the last 50-75 years at the latest, it was much harder to be an autistic shut in. That didn’t mean they didn’t exist, but you were forced to a much higher degree to at least have to interact with people to a much higher degree in your daily life. You could still be a loner who spent all of your free time reading books or collecting taxidermy samples or whatever, but you had to at least walk to the store for sustenance and goods, and before that work the land or hunt; “leave it at the doorstep “ food delivery didn’t exist. There were fewer jobs that allowed you to work entirely from home without any face to face human interaction. And perhaps most importantly there was no internet, TV, or video games to keep you entertained and distracted by yourself for hours at home. And if we go back to prehistoric society, isolation from the tribe basically meant death.
Today’s autistic basement dwellers usually at least possess the basic awareness that their lives are far from ideal, and might even admit to being positively miserable, but they can achieve a level of comfort in their rotting and misery that was simply impossible even several decades ago, let alone hundreds or thousands of years ago. It’s not just that they’d be leaving everything they know to change, it’s that they might be abandoning some of the few things that still bring them comfort and joy to probably go be an awkward sperg out in the world for a while before they notice any tangible change. Any the deeper the hole they’ve dug themselves into and the longer they’ve stayed there, the longer and harder it is going to be to crawl out.
To make matters even worse, to the extent these guys do have a “social life,” it could very well be just other autistic shut-ins who will continue to encourage each other’s most anti-social impulses and keep each other stuck, whether it’s intentional or not. And when one of these guys does get the inkling to better himself and crawl out of the cave, he’s naturally almost certainly going to turn to other strangers on the internet, some of whom may be grifters, bullshitters, or people who themselves are recently reformed or reforming autistic losers whose advice might be lacking in context and nuance even when it is correct. And being a sheltered antisocial loser himself, our hero will have little ability on his own to parse out good information from bad information at first. That’s why I really do believe you just have to have that fire in you and then go with your gut. There’s lots of good knowledge on the internet now, but you at least have to have already taken the first step or two yourself for it to be of any use.
As for the struggling to forgive yourself or cringing at a past version of yourself, I look at it this way: kids and teenagers are always very idealistic and have very strong ideas about how they think the world works. You and I might’ve originally operated on some bad assumptions about how to be socially and romantically functional human beings, or simply lacked the information to be such, but everyone has to go through a process of maturation and challenging their youthful ideals and developing a more nuanced view of the world. For some of us that process will be more dramatic than others, but we all have to do it or suffer the consequences. Video games and the internet might be a particular pitfall for people with certain predispositions like you or I, but every generation has its hazards it must navigate or missing information it would’ve benefitted from.
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u/WAGWAN_BATTYMAN 1d ago
Yes I've had the same thoughts before. It's easier now in that things are more convenient and people are more tolerant, in fact I think it's never been easier to be autistic and thrive than in the modern West. But I imagine that navigating social norms was simpler in the past when people were more formal and proper and everything was more orderly; you could be a square and fit in with everyone else. Nowadays people are highly socialised and a lot of interaction is based around pop culture.
Thanks for your insight. You're right, everyone has a silly world view when they're younger and ideally they grow and challenge their past beliefs. I'm past the constant cringing phase now.
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u/dhdhfffff 1d ago edited 1d ago
so glad i got spreadsheet autism to use on cool things like ultralight hiking peak efficiency, rollercoaster facts and gym improvements
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u/murderousmeatballs 1d ago
or better yet, all at once