Asperger's Syndrome
My scientific research team, which assists with many of my blog posts, recently compiled new data on Asperger's Syndrome. We couldn't afford Excel like certain more pretentious organizations, but I believe our data speaks for itself:
Messages (24)
"We couldn't afford Excel like certain more pretentious organizations"
LOL! MS Paint has a tool that draws straight lines.
Seriously now, I'm not sure of what you are trying to say here. Care to explain?
We couldn't afford Windows either. I used Appleworks.
I don't think the mainstream view on aspies manages to explain why the number of cases increased recently, instead of being at a constant level for hundreds of years. But my explanation has no problem with that. There was recent discussion on the TCS list on this topic.
Briefly, I consider aspies to be a way of life rather than a disease. The main symptom of aspies is not being obedient to parents/teachers/social-expectations in certain ways. Consequently, I say aspies can be beaten out of people, and otoh increased freedom for children gives them more scope to have a weird, anti-social, or aspies lifestyle.
Most of the "mentally ill" are just people with personalities that are inconvenient to someone in a position of power. It is merely wrapped up in the language of medicine, with such terms as "diagnosis" and "treatment," to try and legitimise the use of force in getting such an inconvenient person to change. Children are an easy target, because they can't vote. Like inconvenient adults in communist dictatorships, they are forced into "re-education" camps that we call schools.
Okay, that's a little bit overstated, but there is, disturbingly, more than a grain of truth to it.
There are also some people who use the labels of "mental illness" to resist change. Some "aspies" are just assholes who rationalise their bad behaviour, and seek exception from its consequences, by identifying themselves as having some intractable illness. Of course, this type of "aspie" has to be careful not to become too inconvenient to someone in power.
Obviously you guys have never had to live with an autistic person. Corporal punishment means nothing to an autistic child.... because they keep doing what you want them to stop doing no matter what the consequence. They just don't get it. Their brains are not hardwired to understand consequences regarding other human beings.
And there are far more people who are not autistic who are assholes. What are we to do with them?
I see that you have made some strong assertions, anonymous, but I don't see where you've provided convincing arguments that they are true.
Also, the more you "impose" on Aspies, the more they retreat into themselves. Get some real life experience on a subject before you write about it.
You are inferring from the fact that I disagree with you that I don't know what I'm talking about.
That is an invalid argument. Please reconsider.
I have seen evidence that aspies will conform better to basic social expectations when afraid. The more consensual mum gets criticised by others in the family, "Well he behaves when I tell him what to do!" You bet he does.
You may be right Elliot
Anonymous may also be right.
"the more you "impose" on Aspies, the more they retreat into themselves"
So this might mean they keep their heads down and give less trouble so don't get diagnoised.
Autism and other mental illnesses are as valid as those quizes such as "what Mr Man are you." People share memes and some memes are bad and make life difficult but that's it.
Fear of educating the child, thinking criticism is the same as coercion, will encourage autism.
are there any links to pictures of asperger's syndrome?
Maybe part of the reason people are unwilling to consider the explosion in Aspieness as memetic is that they seriously underestimate how vicious and cruel mainstream parenting memes used to be.
They also seriously underestimate how vicious and cruel mainstream parenting memes are today :(
And how powerful any memes ever or now were. They think TV ads are a strong meme, lol... Or pokemon or pogs.
The strongest meme they know is Christianity (which is always the example, not Islam, for some reason). And Christianity has weakened *way* more than parenting or romance memes.
I don't think they know how strong Christianity was before it reformed, either. Many people have a hard time believing how much Islam can control people today, and Islam today is weaker than unreformed Christianity (and weaker than past Islam too ofc). Whenever Muslims kill people for no good reason, they think there MUST be some good reason, since Muslims are *people*, and they make up reasons. They can't accept religion (or any other anti-rational meme) destroying the humanity in people. (One reason, perhaps, is they figure humanity in the moral sense is genetic or God-given, not due to ideas and our cultural traditions.)
THIS IS SARCASM
THIS IS SARCASM
OMG! Punish it out of the little deviants infecting decent society. Beat them until they reform their evil doing. Burn them at the stake to get them to repent. Better yet, bring back forced instituitionalization (or gas chambers), mandatory sterilization (so the little buggers can't perpetuate their defective spawn) and lobotomies (I hear that worked really well for the Kennedy clan).
Oh lawd
Mental disorders have always existed, but with different names. Up until fifty years ago, you were either an "idiot savant", "retarded", or "crazy". Thanks to dedicated researchers and doctors, we know more about the brain and how to handle certain disorders.
And then there are people like you who can't even figure out how to score a free copy of Excel.
Looks like you're the one with the brain problem.
I have Asperger's Syndrome, and I'll tell you now that "beating it out" would never have worked. I am 22 years old, and my father did beat me, regularly. And not because I was a bad child, either.
Also, when I have panic attacks, I retreat into myself, and I stim. In case you don't know what stimming is, it means I repeatedly perform an act that is physically pleasing to my senses, as a way to calm down. What do I do? I hit myself in the head. Why? I don't know. I don't even realize I'm doing it until I have calmed down, and then I have a very nasty bruise and a headache.
Corporal punishment is not effective in regards to persons on the autistic spectrum.
On Constructing a Better Argument
"I see that you have made some strong assertions, anonymous, but I don't see where you've provided convincing arguments that they are true."
Seriously? You have no citations to back up the data presented in your truly excellent graph. You link to no studies. You have no real statistics. You have a red line, a green line, and a thesis that boils down to "Kids act crazy because we don't spank them" with absolutely no evidence to back that up. Meanwhile, those arguing that such things as autism and spectrum disorders do exist and that capital punishment has absolutely nothing to do with their presence or absence have the studies, and the citations, and the actual hard research that a convincing argument requires. Yet, somehow, you're the one that we ought to believe?
Okay then.
"You are inferring from the fact that I disagree with you that I don't know what I'm talking about."
No. We're inferring from your complete and total lack of evidence (all graphs aside) that you don't know what you're talking about. The fact that you disagree with people who actually bother to back their claims up with hard evidence helps, too.
"That is an invalid argument. Please reconsider."
Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle. You'll find you have much in common.
lolz
<i>I don't think the mainstream view on aspies manages to explain why the number of cases increased recently, instead of being at a constant level for hundreds of years. But my explanation has no problem with that. There was recent discussion on the TCS list on this topic.
</i>
The "mainstream view" what exactly is that?
Recently, as in when the diagnosis was finalized?
Constant level for 100s of years. Except the diagnostic criteria was only developed in 1944? Some kind of historical detective work going on here?
Aversives are cruel, please like us.
The only thing that makes us mentally ill is the fact that others don't except us.
Aversives are cruel and they therefore don't work.
... good lord.
I am a Nursing Student about to sit for boards. My oldest son is in the gifted class, has never been in trouble at school, and has never EVER had a spanking. Perfectly normal w/ a smart mouth. My youngest has Aspergers, and I can tell you, the reason why more people and children are being diagnosed stems from two reasons. 1. The stigma of a child being diagnosed has decreased, except on BS posts like this. 2. 50 years ago, there was no research on Aspergers, there were no specialty clinics, and certainly no therapies and medications. And, you wanted links... here you go!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome
http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/tc/aspergers-syndrome-topic-overview
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/aspergers-syndrome/DS00551
And if you go to a reputable MD, you also get a CAT scan. If you truely have Aspergers, there is a phenomenon called Mirrored Neurons. The scan lights up almost identical. THERE IS A MEDICAL REASON FOR ASPERGERS. For the record, my child is NOT medicated, in special needs class, or undisciplined. He is just taught a different way and is doing extremely well. Your argument should be against all these parents just wanting their children medicated so they dont loose sleep or spend time with them. You should also be angry at a doctor that would just label a child w/o the proper testing and observations. You should never attack the true victims of this disease... you should attack the ones that cry wolf or money!!
Get your Facts STRAIGHT
Get your facts straight. I have been diagnosed with Asperger's since I was in 2nd grade. It is a condition that causes me to be socially awkward. Punishment would NEVER help my Autism. FYI, Asperger's Syndrome is an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Just get your facts straight. I hate it when people talk about something they don't know about because they haven't read up/don't believe the facts!
Blog owner here. FYI the original post is a joke. The correlation argument is invalid (and graphs of that sort are a common joke way of pointing out how bad those correlation arguments are).
Actually if you look around on my blog you'll find I'm strongly against any punishment of children, ever, period.
You'll also find I have studied up on psychiatry facts quite a bit. If you would like to study up on it too, you could learn that Autism is a mechanism for social control. It's being used to control and manipulate you, not to help you. That they got you to think they are helping you is part of the clever trick.
To learn more, I would suggest the books of Thomas Szasz and also my iOS app educating people about psychiatry:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/psychiatry/id475216019?ls=1&mt=8
street-smart
You should just close this blog instead of trying to be funny and clever which is terribly failing with every single post of yours on this site.
What do you think presumes you to call yourself a philosopher? You are a 21 year old unemployed kid that copies other peoples work. Go back to your chess club and do everyone a favour and stay out of the internet.
living with one
I am considering not saying yes to the man I love due to his 23 year old son who lives with us and is a total ass. He gets everything he wants then gets angry and destroys it. Gets taken to McDonalds every day because he hates all food yet when he goes to his mom's eats anything, and even helps work on her house. At home he throws everything in the floor. I am fed up with him not bathing stinking up the whole house, never helping us do anything never bothering to carry in groceries of which he eats special, his father kissing his ass and letting him get away with murder. I am ready to toss them both out the door and say okay kids find somebody else who can put up with your bull crap i"m done.
Many foods from McDonalds can keep in the fridge for days, even a week, and reheat well in the microwave. There's no need to take daily trips to McDonalds even if it's the only thing he eats.
I don't think you understood the point of the blog post, which is that "aspies" consists of disobedience enabled by *hitting children less*. That is, you can be brutal or you can start to face the fact that you haven't successfully persuaded children to voluntarily live in ways that you approve of at all times. E.g., if not beaten into submission, they might want fast food and not want to do chores.
Since it's your home and you're dissatisfied with the situation, what you need to do is *bring up the problem* – but don't escalate immediately to kicking people out. You need improved communication about who wants what, what problems are unacceptable to who, what will happen next if an acceptable way to live together isn't found, etc, etc. It sounds like you've done a lot of suffering quietly (or maybe made sarcastic remarks, frowned, sounded upset, etc. – typical things people do that are not open discussion which faces the issues, and which makes things worse).