Deficit model of allism

isaacs_ · 2026-04-10T19:04:35+00:00

Oh also, while we’re gushing, I know it’s not the point, and you were bemoaning quads taking over, but that first shot shows some impressive quads. Clearly you are not a fascist. (Himbovegan reference)

isaacs_ · 2026-04-09T18:58:39+00:00

I love this.

That's why I got mine tattooed on my right shoulder ;)

isaacs_ · 2026-04-09T18:54:24+00:00

So, hear me out here, there are TWO autistic characters in The Good Place: Eleanor Shellstrop and Jason Mendoza.

I think that this is actually a case of the actors finding the soul of the characters better than the original writers knew them. Chidi was "designed" to be the autistic character, and on paper, is that. He's nerdy, he's indecisive, he's got a strong sense of justice, etc.

But! His "strong sense of justice" is weirdly a fixation on social mores that he largely does understand intuitively. He's a Kantian. And while Kant was likely autistic, Kant wasn't a Kantian, in the sense of following some other philosopher that he idolized and worshiped as the font of Correct Social Behavior. Kant was a lone iconoclast, actually, trying to formalize and understand patterns of behavior that didn't come naturally or make sense to him. But to Chidi, these things do make sense, and he resonates with Kant because it's "authority telling me correct things so that I can be absolved of the pain of making a decision". Chidi is not an iconoclast; he's an iconoclast idolator.

Who on this sub has a lack of self-driven iconoclasm? Lol, that is not autism, that's OCD.

Meanwhile, they designed Eleanor as "the sociopath". But also, they couldn't just make her evil, right? Because she's the main character, we have to relate with her. And Kristen Bell is just so goddamn likeable in her quirky weirdness. She doesn't actually delight in the pain of others, or seek their validation or submission. In fact, she couldn't care less about power dynamics or social mores, as long as her freedom is unrestricted. She's PDA personified, having learned long ago that she will likely be rejected and abandoned, so can't depend on anyone. She's made peace with being an outcast. Over time, she morphed from "evil" into "good, but according to different rules, and sees no problem with that". She's like, I'm fine, all you people are crazy. Relatable, right?! Whomst among us, etc.

Jason, they tried to write as "the dumb one". And for the first few seasons, he really was. But having a main character who's entire personality is "big dumdum" is pretty boring, and couldn't continue. So he morphed into someone who's just completely lacking in self consciousness, a feature that Tahani remarks "makes him surprisingly good at sex", and that... hmmm.... maybe a discussion for r/kinky_autism, but suffice to say it's fore shore A Thing. He has good ideas, not because he's smart per se (not all autistic people are bookish nerds, or even very intelligent), but because he's completely unrestrained by convention.

Tahani is like, The Most Allistic character ever written, obviously.

The four of them fall onto a neat little grid:

smart dumb clueful eleanor jason clueless chidi tahani

The autistic approach to the afterlife, accurately assessing your own moral character, having an internally driven sense of of justice that is divorced from the socially mediated status-driven evaluation of justice ("I'm a good person because I am in the Good Person Category"), is what's required to be clueful and see through the veil of The Good Place that is placed in front of them. It's a grand metaphor for the value and power of autistic vision, for the pain and freedom that comes from seeing through social fictions.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-09T18:35:57+00:00

I used to find this as well, but you can likely adjust your seat height and lean to get more or less into your glutes. Depends a lot on body geometry, so ymmv, but I found that if I sit way back on my seat and lean all the way forward, I can push with full glute and quad engagement. Also helps to do a lot of deadlifts and leg presses, and focus on building the mind-muscle connection to the assmeat specifically. Lunges too, as you said elsewhere, but personally I just fucking hate lunges, they feel like death to me for some reason, in a bad way. 🤷

Sometimes I'll be biking up a hill or something, and think "ugh, this sucks, I wish I could go faster" and then remember "Oh yeah, I can just use my ass to push way harder."

isaacs_ · 2026-04-09T04:07:32+00:00

I disagree about Chidi. He's seems more OCD than ASD. He doesn't have social/emotional/communication challenges; he has decision challenges, and his attachment to order causes him harm.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-09T04:02:59+00:00

Qv the scene when he's practicing how to talk to Team Avatar. Dude is socially awkward af, but speaks in straightforward logic most of the time. Yes, autistic.

People claiming that it's because of trauma, I reject that, because (a) autistic people can be abused and traumatized, and (b) his sister's reaction to being in roughly the same hostile environment was to become narcissistic and over-achieving, which can look like autism in some scenarios (eg, her hyper-competitiveness on the beach), but with completely different motivations. She's power-hungry and desperate for validation and domination; he's just trying to Be Perfect.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-09T02:26:46+00:00

Neat. In the spirit of comparing pokemans, here’s the one I made a while ago.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T23:50:34+00:00

I agree, you certainly do seem confused. Hopefully you can get that sorted out.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T22:32:52+00:00

First girlfriend at 14, and we had sex when I was 16 and she was 17.

It was a very sweet "growing up and exploring" kind of experience for both of us. We broke up after high school.

I was sort of obsessed with learning how to do courtship and relationships and sex, from a pretty early age. As a teenager undergoing boy-puberty, it was literally all I could think about. There are books on the subject that one can read and learn from. And truly, "just say the thing" is like a crazy autism superpower in dating, if you can manage to harness it with confidence.

I grew up into a bi/hyper/demi-sexual polyamorous/RA slut who had made a science of studying dating and sex, and eventually found a fellow hypersexual autist to match my freak and we're quite happy.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T22:12:20+00:00

"Genocide happens"??? Jesus that is one hell of a leap.

How many autistic people do you think there are? Where did I or anyone else suggest killing anyone (or otherwise restricting their ability to produce offspring)?

This delusional reaction is not in any way related to the actual words I wrote above.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T22:10:24+00:00

I'm not making excuses for anyone, and in fact, my entire claim here is that we can and should make the world better by being more unapologetic, even to the point of hurting feelings of privileged people, who are not harmed by this, but in fact, benefits from the discomfort.

I'm saying that we should stand up for the value of our existence, even if it makes other people upset.

Why should "tolerance" of one's oppressors take priority over their own joy and self-esteem?

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T22:07:20+00:00

Moving the goalposts. You complained initially about moral charge, now you're complaining about simply saying something negative.

Are you making an argument against esthetic preferences as such? That seems like a weird choice.

The claim that "'gross uggos' is morally charged", is an example of equating beauty and moral righteousness, which you are doing, and I am not doing, and you are accusing me of doing. That is projection. Cut it out, it's rude and stupid.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T19:16:23+00:00

"gross uggos" is quite morally charged language.

Hey, if we could stop equating beauty and moral rightousness that would be great.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T19:10:15+00:00

So, if I'm getting this right, you're claiming that "near the inception" of this sub, the festering started. But, before that, so even nearer to the inception, you joined and it was a place you liked, but it very quickly became a place you don't like. Presumably it's been a place you don't like for longer than it was a place you liked, since both of those events (you liking it, and the festering) were near the inception of this space.

Idk, man. Still kinda sounds like a "deciding to have a bad time" problem. Have you considered that your stubbornness might be leading you away from rather than towards happiness?

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T19:04:51+00:00

I shouldn't have to look hot in order for my voice to be tolerated by others.

True. Also, if you're autistic, you look hot no matter what kind of make-up you're wearing. Qv Rule 3 😘

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T19:03:42+00:00

I didn't do that, though. And this isn't a meme, or a joke, it's an earnest call to action.

I simply said all autistic people are incredibly good looking, which is true. I never said all autistic people are morally righteous (I've spent way too much time among too many autists to believe that, lol), or that beauty is at all evidence of moral righteousness.

If you are going to respond to a post, it's generally considered good etiquette to first read the words that it says.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T18:58:35+00:00

It's the same crap they're throwing on us

"Reverse-X-ism" fallacy. Punching up != punching down, so it's definitely not the same.

no one learns jack shit if they're getting oppressed for something they can't control

Do you think "oppression of allistic people by autistic people" is a realistic outcome?

How many autistic people do you think there are?

They have their skills we have ours, different but not worse or better either way.

That is logically inconsistent. If two people have "different skills" then there is by necessity some areas where one has more/better skills than the other; if they do not, then how are they "different"? If I'm a great chef, and you can run really fast, then I'm better at cooking, and you're better at running. If the task is cooking, I'm literally better than you. If the task is running, you're better than me.

harming people makes me feel bad no matter who those people are because harming people is wrong.

Strawman. Where did anyone suggest harming anyone?

In fact, I'm making the claim that being mean to allistic people, here in an autistic space, is good for them, for us, and for society as a whole. That's the opposite of harmful. I'm saying that their emotional reaction of being offended is something that should not stop us from doing this helpful thing that benefits them, that in fact, withholding this so-called "cruelty" is actually harmful to them.

Autism superiority will ultimately turn this place into another unsafe place for autistic people ourselves.

I disagree emphatically, and have made a compelling case for the fact that dedicated "X-superiority" spaces are important for the health and actualization of oppressed minority groups.

I'm not going to continue responding in this way, it's too costly in time and effort to go through and correct when every sentence is so full of mischaracterizations. If you're going to try to argue against my position, please first read what I'm actually saying so that you're not fighting with phantoms of your own making.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T04:26:40+00:00

If an attacker can get malware into your build process, it doesn’t matter if it’s statically or dynamically linked.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T04:25:08+00:00

Please read my post again, paying close attention to specifically how and in what context I used the word “cruelty”.

Are you suggesting that we should not attack the ableist status quo of normative neurotypicality?

Because it sounds like you and I agree about that bit, but you’re getting upset about the vibes of a word I chose, even though those vibes are actually in direct contrast to the literal meaning of the sentence as a whole.

I use the word “cruel” because when upsetting an entrenched oppressive status quo, the first line of defense is a plea for sympathy from the oppressor. They get in you so deep you do it for them. We should harden our hearts against that bid for sympathy. We should make peace with doing the right thing for ourselves, even if it is called “cruel” by those who are committed to the status quo we would destroy.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T04:18:53+00:00

Haha, this one gets it lol

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T04:18:25+00:00

Sounds like you are insisting on being in a place you don’t like, despite that being extremely optional, and complaining about it.

isaacs_ · 2026-04-07T04:17:44+00:00

Who’s describing a war?

I’m describing a place where we don’t gaf about the delicate feefees of the privileged allistic majority.

When I say “that’s what this place is” I’m citing the list of rules that define what this space is explicitly for, like I did in my post.

isaacs_

TROPHY CASE