I would imagine most societies would look sort of like Germany or Japan, but the real question is which widespread social norms are directly or indirectly caused by endemic and widespread Neurotypical Disorder, as well as what those social norms would be replaced by
For example, I would expect the attached poster to not exist for various obvious reasons. But how do you think an autistic society would handle the indication of listening/attentiveness?
I feel like all these utopian ideas fail to take into account that uh, autism takes a lot of different forms and some of them ask for completely opposite things.
Some autistic people have a…laissez-faire approach to hygiene, some are neurotic about being clean. Some stim, others would rather commit murder than hear that goddamn toy go “clicky clack” one more fucking time. Some are hyperempathetic with no sense of personal space, others have low empathy and just want to be left the fuck alone. And that’s before you start considering comobidities - I think most people with ADHD would rather die than eat deliberately understimilating “autism cusine”
I feel like most people here are answering “what would it look like if everyone was your specific brand of autism?” not “what would it look like if most people were autistic?”
I’d say either we end up with everyone forming tight cliches (not good for a greater society) or one group overpowers the rest and enforces their “lack of social skills” as the new social norm. Now it’s “don’t look directly at people” and “be as blunt as possible” and “chili is banned forever”
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Yeah, my first thought was, “Two words: mutual meltdowns.”
That is certainly true in my experience. I remember making a friend in middle school, but when I told him I thought baseball was boring he got very mad at me and never forgave me.
Baseball was his SI
But chili should be banned forever
There can be only one answer to that!
Probably a lot more generosity and kindness.
There was a study that suggests that autistics have more consistent moral behaviors than the “healthy population”, which would back up that claim.
Yes, and apparently that is a disability, according to the researchers.
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One of my closest friends is autistic af. You described him to a tee. Doesn’t give two shits about money outside the practical need for it, and a highly skilled illustrator who pretty much spends his life drawing. Values his skillset more than anything else.
Also dude remembers history books and TV series plots like nobody’s business. Never a dull moment with him around. Occasionally annoying cause he really doesn’t know when to shut up (not his fault, I know), but most of the time I enjoy pretty much just letting him private podcast while I provide commentary.
Honestly this also describes my life. I don’t own a lot of things, my MTG decks suck ass, and my family really has to push me to upgrade any of my devices. My life is slow-paced and I am happy
because people with autism are rarely attracted to the banality of money. Business and economics are the most boring thing for autistic people
…you do realise economics is like, maths but with more organisation and planning right? Two things that are sterotypically pretty damn appealing to a lot of autistic people. I think you’re severely low balling the number of people who’s “special interest” is compound interest and poisson distributions
Could you please elaborate what you think about Germany in this context? Have you ever been to Germany?
I only really know what my dad experienced doing safety stuff for BASF. According to him, the German facilities don’t have to idiot-proof their man-killing contraptions, because if there is a sign saying “Do not touch this high-voltage wire” the German workers will follow directions and not touch the high-voltage wire, even if doing so would make their job go faster.
Also, the fact that germans pay for gas after pumping it was a huge shock to me. I can’t imagine having that much trust in society at large.
I think school/work days would be shorter and more intense. Small talk and chit chat would not be an integrated part of a work/school day, but instead something that happened before or after school/work if you wanted to. A meeting wouldn’t start with 10 minutes of “how have you been?” or random jokes, but instead jump right into business. Working from home would also be more common.
Having a niche hobby or working with something niche would be way more common, and hobbies would be viewed as more important than they are today. People without any hobbies or interests would be viewed as really weird.
Practical and comfortable clothes would also be more common, and fashion would be more erratic/varied. Pop culture would be less of a thing.
According to some tourists: Finland
Autistic people have it really hard in Japan, because there are so many hidden social rules and adults who don’t know or can’t follow them are seen as antisocial. Germany is not so bad. Here in northern Germany at least, people (NTs too) mostly accept direct communication and tend to be rather direct themselves. And I rarely had bad experiences when I needed to ask for clarification.
I think one of the largest changes would be an overall decrease in economic productivity. Society would shift away from capitalism as many concepts would either be unintuitive to us or aren’t possible to uphold with our overall capacity. In practice this would likely mean a reduction or outright elimination of full-time work, which is replaced with alternative options like WFH or the four-day work week. This may impact the open hours of stores but there is a possibility that improved work conditions may mitigate that.
Assuming that this is a society of mostly autistic people from the start rather than a gradual replacement of neurotypical people, it might actually have better outcomes for autistic people as the stigma created by neurotypical people wouldn’t exist. Or it would be significantly decreased.
Are you forgetting about the entire section of society that does physical work…?
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The art style makes me want to puke. Also, aren’t feet already quiet?
