Another important quote:

[xiphias]

From beccastareyes: "The autism spectrum and the jackass spectrum are disjoint."

I know some jackasses. I know some people on the autism spectrum. The overlap between the two sets is only as much as would be expected by chance. Having Asperger's, or any other autism-spectrum trait, is neither an excuse for being a jackass, nor a reason to be one. Autism doesn't make you a jackass, and my friends who are autism-spectrum aren't jackasses, nor does their autism push them toward jackassery.

If you act like a jackass and then say "it's not my fault; I have Asperger's", you're just plain wrong. Having Asperger's doesn't make you a jackass any more than being left-handed does.

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

My impression was that people with autism don't get any fun out of malice, though it's still possible to be a jackass by having a policy of letting one's desires override other people's too much.

Is my impression at all correct?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I don't really know, come to think of it. People who get fun out of malice don't get to be my friends in the first place, spectrum or no. I know people who do practical jokes, but they're of the surreal or absurd variety, not mean. Think the "Improv Everywhere" or MIT hack model of pranks, rather than the mean variety.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

To put it another way, it's true that my friends who are on the spectrum just plain don't understand why inducing a negative emotion in another person would be attractive ( possibly with an exception of active hate of the subject who you are hurting).

It's just ALSO true that my friends who AREN'T on the spectrum ALSO just plain don't understand why inducing a negative emotion in another person would be attractive.