Talk:Autistic culture

message: this is not a notable subject matter come on now —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.10.105.239 (talk • contribs) 20:09, 31 May 2007
I believe something should be written about the history of autistic culture, although I am not knowledgable about its history, so it will need to be written by someone with more knowledge than I have. Q0 07:26, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Not notable

message: A quote from the article:  "Unlike the Deaf culture, which recognizes and accepts many people who are hearing, the Autistic culture generally shuns neurotypical people (NTs), and the sentiment among the Autism rights movement generally considers people who have self-diagnosed to be part of a fad which considers Autism/Asperger's as a mere personality type."
That contains two separate assertions that are at odds with what I've seen of autistic culture, and one that is somewhat at odds with what I've seen of Deaf culture.  There are no citations backing these things up, either.
Basically, there are segments of the Deaf community that do shun "hearies".  And large segments that consider some hearies (especially hearing children of Deaf parents, and interpreters) part of Deaf culture.  (I don't have a cite for that but I'm sure this could be found somewhere.)  So there's a fair amount of diversity of opinion about hearing people among Deaf people, and while the statement as general is probably true, it shouldn't be used in contrast to autistic culture.
Because the segments of autistic culture that reject NTs are, like in the Deaf community, only small segments, with most of us not bearing any malice, hatred, rejection, etc towards NTs.  Many people in the autistic community have had to go to great lengths to show that we do not in fact hate NTs.  The following article:  http://web.syr.edu/~jisincla/History_of_ANI.html is a history of one autistic community that was fairly formative for modern autistic culture, and they're explicit about not hating or shunning NTs.  I'm sure if you look around you can find other citations that are equally explicit.
The second part of the statement that causes trouble, is that the sentiment among the autism rights movement generally considers people who have self-diagnosed to be part of a fad... etc.  You'd again need to cite sources for that, and if you looked for sources, you'd find that there's a great diversity of opinion about self-diagnosis.  One autistic man who does not as far as I know consider himself part of the autism rights movement urged conference organizers to verify an official diagnosis for all autistic people speaking at their conferences, and many people within the autistic community responded to this by refusing to show our official diagnosis as a display of solidarity with people who could not obtain one but were equally autistic.  Many people in the autism rights movement signed that letter (in fact, more than are on there right now because I've been too busy to update the signatures):  http://www.autistics.org/library/whoisautistic.html
So you'd have to find cites to back those statements up, and I suspect if you looked around, you'd find more cites (like the two I provided) refuting those statements.
Silentmiaow 15:14, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Unverified information in "Relation to Geeks and Nerds"

message: At the moment we've got a bare statement that some people dispute the existence of the autistic culture, but no explanation of these views.  That section is in dire need of expansion.  Are there any statements of that viewpoint that could be referred to?  195.224.75.71 16:39, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  views opposed to the existence of autistic culture 

message: I noticed that someone merged autistic community and autistic culture without a discussion on the talk page. It is not appropriate to merge without discussion. First, there needs to be a proposal on the talk page, and people need a chance to state objections. Q0 18:44, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge 

message: Can Autie and Aspie be used as insults like "You nigger loving Aspie/autie."?
:Like "That page was written by one of those dumb auties" or "all those aspies ought to be locked up" -- that sort of thing? I have never yet heard it. Most people I knew who wanted to insult autistics called us retards or spastics because they didn't see the difference. --Bluejay Young 01:16, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Insults 

message: I think not living in a metropolitan area is one part of the culture.
:What? Are you the person who wrote this:
:Popular misconception is that autistic people live away from other people due to the lack of socialization, and their tendency to like solitude. For example, such as living in an rural area rather than a urban area, however there has been some autistics that can maintain living in suburb or large city like Los Angeles. However if an autistic lives in urban and/or suburban area he/she might be more prone to poverty and bullying, which is what most autistics suffer from. It is unknown why, but it has been proven that the closer an autistic is  to a metropolitan area the more likely he/she will have more difficulty in life.
:It has been "proven"? If so, you have to state by whom. Removed until further notice. --Bluejay Young 05:10, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Living away from metro areas  

message: Not everyone agrees on what a culture is, or what should be its defining characteristics. However, most cultural anthropologists as of 2006 define a culture as follows: (1) Culture is based on symbols, abstract ways of referring to and understanding ideas, objects, feelings, or behaviors -— and the ability to communicate with symbols using language. (2) Culture is shared. People in the same society share common behaviors and ways of thinking through culture. (3) Culture is learned. While people biologically inherit many physical traits and behavioral instincts, culture is socially inherited. A person must learn culture from other people in a society. (4) Culture is adaptive. People use culture to flexibly and quickly adjust to changes in the world around them. (Source: Encarta article on culture)
Some argue that autistics are perhaps in the beginning stages of forming a real culture. Many features of what are commonly called cultures are visible in the autistic culture.  There are shared beliefs, organisations, language, and art that are specific to the group, and there is a tendency to marry within the group.  Autistic culture can be learned via the growing number of books and websites, and through gatherings such as Autreat. An ability to rely on other autistics for emotional reinforcement or pragmatic support may allow autistics to adjust more easily to the world-at-large. Jim Sinclair's history of Autism Network International includes an explanation of autistic culture.
Nevertheless, there are some who dispute the existence of an autistic culture.
More discussion of this issue is required.
Robrecht 16:04, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: so pretty much what you're saying is it's some nerd shit that's come about thanks to internet groupthink / internet community mass reinforcement, i don't think that's exactly notable (not that this article is in any danger of being deleted with the "aspies" guarding it of course) 64.251.141.215 10:01, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  It should be noted that all I did was move this from the actual article to the talk page. I did not write this. Robrecht 12:29, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

text: As a matter of fact that is not what I meant at all. When I wrote those paragraphs, the article contained some mention of controversy over whether or not 'autistic culture' was a real culture, so I inserted a definition of what constitutes a culture according to current standards in anthropology. People could then judge for themselves. If there is need for the paragraphs to be removed that's fine, but there is no need to get hostile about it. Culture is not 'groupthink' and is not merely a question of 'mass reinforcement', that's the whole point of the definition. If you think the article as a whole should be deleted, then by all means propose a deletion and invite comment as per standard Wikipedia procedures.  --Bluejay Young 20:22, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Is autistic culture a real culture?