site banner
PaperclipPerfector  15hr ago (text post)   525 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 24, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Are people here as autistic as everyone jokes that everyone is or is that just humor? In the survey posted a month ago (tongue-in-cheekily) I was forty something percent German and about as much autistic, but that was entertainment. Are people going on diagnosed autism or just vibes?

Don't answer of course if this is personal.

I'm not autistic, I just happen to be nerdy enough to blend in.

I've never been diagnosed, but if I am at all autistic, I am only very mildly autistic at most, I think. I was probably more autist-like when younger (when it comes to social awkwardness and issues with eye contact), but I grew out of it over time as I had more social experience.

I also suspect, while having no solid proof, that doing MDMA a few times in my 20s might have helped permanently make me a little bit less autistic. WARNING THOUGH: You cannot expect to do MDMA and become less autistic. It is a potentially dangerous drug and it can have very different effects on different people.

In any case, most of my social improvement had more to do with social experience than with drugs, I'm sure.

I've never had an unusual degree of sensory sensitivity compared to the average population. I don't have any significant issues with social interaction or reading people's facial expressions or subtext. I still have some minor issues with eye contact if I am feeling stressed out or overwhelmed, but I think that's probably pretty common with neurotypicals. Overall, I might actually be more socially adept and socially comfortable than the average person.

I do tend to get heavily into "nerdy" interests from time to time, but not in a compulsive way and not to the detriment of my general functioning, I think.

I tend to be uncomfortable with change, but for what it's worth I also don't particularly like rules and structure.

I do have some psychological issues, but they resemble things like anxiety and ADHD more than autism, or at least autism as I understand it.

“Your result: Neither (24% German, 36% autistic”

I’m definitely not normal, and certainly possess some autistic traits as well, although I don’t feel like I entirely fit in with the autists either.

The style of discussion prevalent on TheMotte certainly selects for autists.

I've never been diagnosed, but yes, I'm plausibly "autistic" under current use of the concept.

When I was young, only the most severe cases of "autism" were ever diagnosed, and IIRC it was considered by most to be a form of "childhood schizophrenia." I was in my 40s, give or take, when the "spectrum" really sank into the zeitgeist and people first started commenting about me being "on" it. Some of my children (who are all now adults) do have psychiatrically diagnosed autism, based on criteria that would clearly apply to me, so it seems fair to say that I'm genuinely autistic, insofar as any such diagnosis admits of authentication. Specifically, my social interaction norms are deep into "spectrum" territory, while my repetitive behavior and sensory processing tendencies are less severe but still noticeably autistic.

But I am "high functioning," especially verbally, and as an adult it seems pointless to get a personal "diagnosis" for a variety of reasons. Would I get an embossed certificate for my wall? I think that clocking me as autistic sometimes helps other people but I've lived an above-average life by most metrics; if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I do look back at many interactions of my youth and, viewed through the lens of disability, a lot of my suffering was arguably the result of other people genuinely abusing me. But they couldn't have known that any more than I did, and blaming myself (despite never really knowing what I had done wrong) probably developed my sense of agency.

As a fellow young at heart if nothing else, I sometimes wonder if, years before it was common, I shouldn't have been diagnosed with something, or if the something I should have been diagnosed with that veered me (and continues to veer me) from typical normal hasn't been identified yet. But as you imply, the usefulness of a diagnosis is debatable, particularly if framed as a disability rather than superpower or talent.

Every quiz I've taken has me not too far from the upper bound of as autistic as you can get while overall still functional. It tracks with my habits and preferences, but no formal diagnosis.

No formal diagnosis here either, but if Beavis and Butt-Head could ever fit the diagnosis that surely would’ve been me as a child. I somewhat felt like I was being targeted in goose’s rant several years ago, taking shots at my personality, :/.

Mostly on the level of "quirky" rather than "disordered". I could have probably gotten a diagnosis if my parent had known how to game the system as people do these days, but realistically all that would have done is let me avoid learning how to hide it.

I've taken some other autism tests and been found to be... definitely not. I have a few autistic friends who can't comprehend how I'm not, though.

Self-reported psychometrics tests always seem dubious to me, including personality tests. (This does not mean I'm suggesting you're autistic.)

I'm in the fun spot of some old friends claiming I'm the most engineery person they have ever met (and they know quite a few engineers) while also scoring quite low on tests (12% in the one that was posted), and having been tested (for my ADHD diagnosis) without showing any signs of autism beyond typical "yeah, the guy's an engineer"-level things.

Like yes, some Stuff Matters, but only in the right context. Yes, if you fuck up basic engineering principles in a job or when building something important you're a fucking idiot but also I couldn't give a damn about which order the cutlery is in or changes in daily routine.

I generally get on well with other engineers but much less so with people who are clearly on the autism spectrum.

My mother claims that I received a (now-technically-outdated) diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome at age 16 (as part of my defense against a frivolous criminal investigation). However, she doesn't actually have the records to back that claim up, and I personally do not recall being informed of any diagnosis at the time.

You wer investigated for a fraudulent marriage?

Q: We have the court file showing that your ill-fated high-school crush was on a girl, not on a boy.

A: If you have my court file, then you should know that that old crush was Indian as well, just like my husband.

A paper that I gave to an unrelated acquaintance (in which I fantasized about kidnapping the crush, trapping her in a cage of sonic stun guns, and making her play Scrabble with me) somehow fell into the hands of the school administration, was misinterpreted as a "terroristic threat" against the crush ("zero tolerance" for """guns""" even if they're nonlethal), and was reported to the police.

Going to have to update my Motte dossier.

I'm joking. I'm just on the male-spectrum, not the autism spectrum; I've checked.

I was pretty autistic on that test - in the same range as @ToaKraka, who seems to be our gold standard here on TheMotte.

I was also diagnosed as an adult when seeking treatment for PTSD. Up until that point, I had no idea. Growing up, there were a lot of comments about how "that boy ain't right" and how I needed to "act normal". The idea that it might be something diagnosable or treatable didn't exist in those communities. Instead of an IEP, I got my ass beat until I could fake it well enough to get by.

Now that I know, it doesn't really change much. Mostly it just informed the PTSD treatment. Well, it informs treatment and gives my partner a new way to playfully make jokes about my behavior at times.

TK: Please don't take the gold standard comparison as an insult. You're one of my favorite people on this forum. The weird shit you dig up and post brightens my day whenever I see it.

Decoupling is autistic in nature, and the rules of The Motte select for extreme decouplers. Everyone else crashes out sooner or later when their sacred cow is violated in front of them.

Also, I am 42 German and 47 autistic, which is disturbingly close to both ToaKraka and Southkraut.

There is probably a correlation between high-functioning autism and ability to decouple, but you certainly don't need to be autistic to decouple.

Decoupling is just basic logical thinking. You don't have to be autistic to be able to be logical.

I was diagnosed before I could speak (that was one of the criteria).

Was that at age what, like a year old? Or did you begin speaking later?

I think so. I speak now.

Maybe it's interesting: I feel like my social (neurotypical) skills have developed, but slower. I was a very weird kid, even looking back from my perspective today. Nowadays, I understand e.g. the Social Shapes Test, I act socially acceptable (at least nobody tells me otherwise), maybe I can pretend to be normal. Although I'm sure anyone around me for more than a few minutes notices that I'm "off", because I barely talk (unprompted), fail to make eye contact, and my interests/philosophy/personality is different than anyone I've met in-person (even other autists and nerds unfortunately).

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats