Only neurotypicals seem to say things like 'I can be a bit on the spectrum' as an excuse for bad conduct. Besides, autists not being empathetic has been somewhat debunked. Studies show some autists simply don't know how to *express* the empathy they feel. Also: many autists suffer from hyper-empathy - ThreadSky

richardlittler.bsky.social • 85 days ago

Only neurotypicals seem to say things like 'I can be a bit on the spectrum' as an excuse for bad conduct.
Besides, autists not being empathetic has been somewhat debunked. Studies show some autists simply don't know how to *express* the empathy they feel. Also: many autists suffer from hyper-empathy

Reposted from Phil Harrison

People SERIOUSLY need to stop using neurodivergence as an excuse for being a cunt. It's grotesque.

Comments

joannaparker.bsky.social•85 days ago

What annoys me is people sometimes think I’m rude because of ASD but what really fucking annoys me is he “can be” like it’s a choice waking up thinking today I’ll be a bit on the spectrum, throwing it out as an excuse for something he is just shit at. Arrogant and just really fucking privileged!

orthohand.bsky.social•85 days ago

Aka entitlement and privilege.

tenpencearcade.bsky.social•85 days ago

Phil got it right. He’s just a cunt.

palm3reldritch.bsky.social•85 days ago

Torytypical bullshit from the Lard King.

merlinfulcher.bsky.social•84 days ago

people with autism are all different and should be given a chance to speak openly about their condition whether they are individually liked by society or not. a lot of autistic people feel persistently misunderstood. It's not an excuse, but could be a helpful explanation

daddyissuesbarbie.bsky.social•85 days ago

My son is absolutely a hyper-empath. And a beautiful human inside and out. Thank you for saying this. Sometimes I’m too exhausted to fight. x

james-rice.bsky.social•85 days ago

#SilentWar

alistairsmith.bsky.social•85 days ago

In a shocking departure, Johnson tries to avoid responsibility for his behaviour - oh no, that’s what he always done.

victoriadecapua.bsky.social•85 days ago

He's not on the spectrum, he's just poorly socialized like most rich people.

tweettoowoo.bsky.social•85 days ago

Oh completely! My autistic child is the most empathetic person I know but they get horribly overwhelmed because they don’t know what to do with those feelings.

thethompsonian.bsky.social•85 days ago

It’s BJs lack of attention to detail about anything which triggers the ‘spectrum’ bullshit klaxon for me

ionward.bsky.social•85 days ago

what they're all describing is just being a sociopath but they're too scared to admit that

johnjolley.bsky.social•85 days ago

Came here to say this

fox.pet•85 days ago

As I've got older I've gone from not quite "getting" others to, being "hyper-empathetic", as you put it.

It's bloody exhausting, especially when I've got all my own mental health stuff going on too...

nicki2910.bsky.social•85 days ago

Only twats seem to say things like ‘I can be a bit on the spectrum’ as an excuse for bad conduct.

robishungry.bsky.social•85 days ago

Amen

jodybundrick.bsky.social•85 days ago

I suspect this will die down. It's similar to people saying "Oh, I'm so OCD!" a few years ago.

soapachu.bsky.social•85 days ago

yeah that hasn't gone away, and this won't 'die down' as long as high-profile people like Wallace and Johnson are misappropriating a diagnosis in this way.

jodybundrick.bsky.social•85 days ago

yeah what I meant is people will become more understanding and not so stupid about it - the ocd references have absolutely "died down" since the mid-nineties when it was particularly bad as you remember

cog1.bsky.social•85 days ago

Nobody wants OCD. NOBODY. It puts you at war with your own mind. I suffered badly from it when I was in my teens and every now and then it pops up to remind me that it’s still there. It’s truly frightening.

jodybundrick.bsky.social•85 days ago

It's nightmarish. I know.

matnav.co.uk•85 days ago

If everyone had heard my kid describing the process of having to consciously examine every single transaction every single day in order to simply react appropriately, no one would ever make this preposterous careless claim.

fernmonkey.bsky.social•85 days ago

Oh God yes.

thatdbemethatd.bsky.social•85 days ago

It’s utterly offensive. But that’s par for the course with Johnson - never to blame for anything, always an excuse.

rockgod1970.bsky.social•85 days ago

Plus, he's a bellend.

lillput.bsky.social•85 days ago

I can easily correct the subhead by substituting the word 'appreciate' with 'care'

margaretmorgan.bsky.social•85 days ago

Exactly. The reason for Boris Johnson's behaviour is quite simple. He's an entitled arsehole and always has been.

ruckman1.bsky.social•85 days ago

Hasn’t Gregg Wallace tried this exact same manoeuvre

soapachu.bsky.social•85 days ago

Yes. I'm hoping that someone as terminally unliked as Johnson trying the same approach will backfire on both of them.

ross-5.bsky.social•85 days ago

Maybe he means the cunt spectrum

iamcyanblue.bsky.social•85 days ago

Also, the Double Empathy issue. I find it perfectly easy to understand other autists and ND people, but with NT people I have to do a load of exhausting translation to understand what they are really saying or feeling - maybe NTs should work on their own empathy first!

hutchingsmusic.bsky.social•85 days ago

Also, in Johnson's case, given that he doesn't give a shit whether other people live or die ("let the bodies pile high"), it would be better diagnosed as *psychopathy* than anything "on the spectrum".

geospacedman.bsky.social•85 days ago

The only bit of the spectrum he should be on is high-energy gamma rays.

porterjames.bsky.social•85 days ago

I seem to recall that Badenough reckoned that autism was used as an excuse for bad behaviour and entitlement. Now look!

nigel-hewlett.bsky.social•85 days ago

As if my daughter @milly1066.bsky.social didn't hate BJ enough...

cog1.bsky.social•85 days ago

THIS. I spend an inordinate amount of time overthinking what other people might be feeling (specifically about me talking to them/ not talking to them/ acting in response to, near or around them) that I come across as nervous and weird. I’m absolutely not going out of my way to insult them.

kafkadesk.bsky.social•77 days ago

As someone with a glutton intolerance, I totally agree.

volid.bsky.social•85 days ago

Can we not do a basic 'am i a sociopath' test for people running for office? Not too much to ask I reckon.

georgebas5.bsky.social•85 days ago

A bloke with no MH training saying his antics mark him as being on the spectrum is like someone saying they’re street because they once watched Flashdance.

wyrdzine.co.uk•85 days ago

I think we find people with cluster b personality disorders often mask their behaviour as autistic. Unfortunately we also have a local mental health unit that fails to see PD and constantly tries to minimise as ASD, when the testing says otherwise. PDs are more challenging and expensive to treat.

glennpittaway.bsky.social•85 days ago

Johnson is always painting himself as the victim. Him and Wallace.
It's pretty simple - to quote John Cooper Clarke:
"They can't find a good word for you,
but I can...
TWAT."

strandeddroid.bsky.social•85 days ago

I think we know the correct term to describe Boris Johnson's failures. It's surprising how short the word is for the complexity of what it conveys.

msmitham.bsky.social•85 days ago

He doesn't say which spectrum. It could be the one which swings between narcissistic sociopaths and criminally irresponsible alcoholics.

alasdairswanson.bsky.social•85 days ago

This is what I was told at my evaluation -- it's not *having* the emotion, it's understanding and expressing it, having the inner vocabulary for it. Alexithymia if I recall correctly. Johnson's just looking for an excuse to make him harder to criticise.

He's a cunt.

See, didn't work, did it?

tomsydi.bsky.social•85 days ago

I have alexithymia and I don't automatically feel empathy - I have to reason out how people feel in a given situation. Your point is a good one though.

themogul.bsky.social•85 days ago

What Johnson et al fail to grasp (or pretend not to when it suits them) is that Not Understanding How Other's Feel =/= Not caring.

tomsydi.bsky.social•85 days ago

Oh absolutely! Whenever I cock up emotionally I feel what I now understand to be shame for weeks.

larreau.bsky.social•85 days ago

Journalists: normalise asking “Which spectrum.”

I wish everyone understood the different types of empathy.

Narcissists like this guy have no problem with cognitive empathy. It’s affective empathy he’s short on.

Not a problem for Autistics, (unless the Autistic person is also a narcissist—rare).

jwheadball.bsky.social•85 days ago

I don’t think he was talking about the autism spectrum. The man is clearly on this one. https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/antisocial-personality-disorder/

richardlittler.bsky.social•85 days ago

Constantly framing autism as the cause of poor behaviour is dangerous for neurodivergent people. Yes, *some* autistic people are prone to inappropriate social actions/speech, but so are other types of people. It's telling that you never hear undiagnosed people like Johnson and Wallace saying 'I'm...

nialltubes.bsky.social•85 days ago

What do you expect - it's Bozo. Anything but admit he's a bit of a useless privileged twat who managed to get himself into a position he was totally unsuited for.

cog1.bsky.social•85 days ago

There’s a difference between having a meltdown in a stressful situation (spontaneous/uncontrolled), and simply being an offensive twat to everyone around you.

maxp94.bsky.social•85 days ago

Remember, being neurodivergent is about doing good things that other people like

If you do bad things, it’s actually just because you’re a bad person! ❤️

algingersmith.bsky.social•85 days ago

Exactly. He's not on the spectrum. He's just a colossal narcissist. Looking for excuses.

I wonder if his humiliating retreat from his failed Australian tour has finally clued him in one iota to the fact that he just might be a terrible human being.

Nahhh....
#r4today

richardlittler.bsky.social•85 days ago

...unusually creative/mathematic/musical/logical because I'm a bit on the spectrum'. No, they only ever invoke autism as a get-out-of-jail-free card for wrongdoing. They're no different from the men who pretended to be women to ensure places on the Titanic lifeboats.

neverfadingwood.bsky.social•85 days ago

You're absolutely right. Thank you.

intweed.bsky.social•85 days ago

💯 Plus, since getting my audhd diagnosis I’m acutely aware of the things I struggle with and try to compensate. It’s not the get out of jail free card these dicks seem to think it is.

garyinscotland.bsky.social•85 days ago

What a great analogy. It's a revelation to read this and you're right NzD behaviour is being used socially as a catch all for poor behaviour. I'd not appreciated this before.

elsieyork.bsky.social•85 days ago

I knew a girl who had autism and she had hyper-empathy. I hadn’t realised there was a term for it until today but that really describes how she was very well.

helenbarrett.bsky.social•85 days ago

Son hates drawing any attention to his diagnosis.

mrsironside.bsky.social•85 days ago

The piggybacking of ND self-diagnosis to wave away poor behaviour really twists my melon.
Considering we spend most of our lives actively masking our neurodivergent traits makes it even more absurd. I cringe when people say stuff like this, Johnson can fuck royally off with this grim appropriation.

markoraos.bsky.social•83 days ago

That's not "autistic", it's sociopathic. Boris is just trying to be down with the kids, being a sociopath chameleon he is.

tudorcook.bsky.social•85 days ago

The only 'ism' here is 'caughtism'

katkyns.bsky.social•85 days ago

Yes we need to be better at lazy use of "on the spectrum." Many NT people exhibit ND behaviour or other aspects but that doesn't mean that they are on the ASD spectrum. There is a genuine lack of understanding of where the spectrum begins because we don't get taught this stuff.

1wayoranother.bsky.social•85 days ago

It’s the framing of autism from people who don’t have it or understand it. I’m not a psychiatrist so feel comfortable in saying that Johnson exhibits some narcissistic personality traits, though honestly he’s just a bit of a prick.

vinylist2.bsky.social•75 days ago

I guess he's more of an arse hole.

alistairbarrie.bsky.social•85 days ago

See also ‘Well, we’re all on the spectrum, aren’t we?’

No. The spectrum does not cover everyone. The spectrum exists to define a range of neurodiversities, and does not include venal blond sociopath congenitally lying sexually incontinent blowhards. If it did I’d have my children removed from it.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply