this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Autism

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yeah. People have a tendency of labelling anyone that is depicted in TV shows as socially awkward as autistic. That's why so many people on twitter who simp for Dahmer on twitter refer to his supposed autism despite the fact that he was subjected to multiple psychological evaluations and never was accessed as autism.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago

Neurodivergent is not a synonym for autistic

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wednesday was socially awkward, sure... But the Munsters? From what I remember, they were depicted the same as any other sitcom family of the time; except they were physically monsters. To be fair, though, I barely remember the show from when it was on Nick at Nite when I was a kid; I might be conflagrating memories.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You are showing your age here. Granted, kinda the person who made this fault because they just said Eddie and expected everyone to know which Eddie. They mean Eddie from stranger things.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Eddie from stranger things is neurodivergent?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

A poster above stated neurodivergent wasn't a synonym for autism, I'm pretty sure for a lot of people it is a synonym for "different".

Eddie does represent a counter-culture that was prevalent at the time, for many that codes as "neurodivergent".

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How does counter culture have any relation to actual neurological conditions. I think that’s the questions people are asking. This whole post is insulting and stupid to actual neurodivergent people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I was never defending the definition, just giving my perspective. But, to take the argument further (because this is the internet, and it's made for doing just that), expressions of neurodivergence are often just ways of thinking atypical to the norm. A lot of counter-culture is based around that idea, people thinking in ways that go against the grain.

The difference, of course, comes from choice. Do people choose to think differently? Then most likely they don't fall under neurodivergence. Whereas if they just think differently naturally, that is more likely to be true neurodivergence.

The problem is this is mostly pop-psychology. It's not necessarily strictly defined in those terms. As with most things, especially when it comes to digital representation on the internet, people will grasp on to labels and seek to find role models to slap those labels on to boost their self image.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

That is just people without a condition trying to coop it for their own ends. It’s no different than when people say “I’m so OCD” when they like clean up a crumb. It’s not the most evil thing in the world but let’s not continue to perpetrate any kind of relation to counter culture or “other ways of thinking” and the actual condition people don’t choose and often struggle to deal with. Especially in a community dedicated to discussions around the latter.

Those people I see who falsely claim they are neurodivergent because it’s a popular thing now are so much more insulting and annoying than people who for instance say having ADHD must be like having super powers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I understand language evolves and all that, but I think it’s a problem to change the meaning of a word like that without another word with the original meaning to take its place. If “neurodivergent” just means “different”, what word do we use in its place?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I dunno enough about stranger things to comment about thar but in general characters who are like socially awkward get labelled as autistic.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

If you haven’t even seen the show, why are you defending the characterization? If you had seen the show, you would know Eddie Munson is not socially awkward, especially compared to most of the other main characters who actually are portrayed that way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I do think that having been a teenager in the 80s or 90s should be considered a form of neurodivergence, but i fail to see how eddie is different from the other main characters (the kids). They are not mainstream but i wouldn't call them neurodivergent.