Open discussion of the Christian Why We're Here thread

[Edwardo Piet]

Imagine how I feel when I see people dropping the R word like it's acceptable. Isn't very nice, when people bring up a disability that you personally are dealing with. Same thing goes for the word retard in any form. You'll have to do what I've had to do - grow a tough skin and understand that people use hurtful words in this manner all the time. Sometimes they mean to be hurtful and sometimes they don't.

I think what I said is being misconstrued.  I was suggesting that their might be ordinary, constitutional variation in the way Neo is wired which is making it difficult for him to apply empathy.  That hardly implies that everyone on the spectrum is an asshole.

I agree with you that his brain is not neurotypical and that is why he is unable to empathize. But I really don't think it's possible for it to be due to him being on an autistic spectrum. Autism is merely one way of being neurologically atypical and my guess is he's on some other sort of spectrum even if there isn't a name for it. (Of course, he can be very mildly on the psychopathic spectrum, regardless of if it is called a spectrum, without him being even remotely close to being diagnosed as a psychopath. Just as some people are slightly more autistic than others even amongst people who aren't severe enough to be diagnosed.)

For example, I'd say his lack of empathy in a kind of nasty way (treating people as actual objects) would be more likely due to him being, say, 0.3% psychopathic than it being due to him being, say, 0.3% autistic.

I mean for starters what I am getting at is that autism causes a lack of cognitive empathy, not a lack of compassion (except in the most extreme cases but that's more of an absence than a lack: Or basically, it's due to being incapable of caring about others rather than being disinterested in it... like I suspect it is with Neo (he is capable of compassion but he's not capable of caring about being compassionate)).... what you are describing in Neo appears to be much closer to psychopathy than autism. There's more than one way to not be neurotypical. Another example is ADHD: That's also not neurologically typical (although I certainly don't think Neo's cuntishness has anything to do with ADHD lolllllllllll)).