🧵 Ok so I’m just starting a thread of autism research/thoughts so that it can be muted if you want/need that:
“Many autistic people report not being able to enjoy humour if it’s at somebody else’s expense.”
This is the kind of thing that makes me worried about people as a whole, I always figured this was true for everyone and the only reason people laughed at “punching down” jokes was because they didn’t properly understand what the joke was about. I don’t know how to feel about a world where people really do understand and just, find it funny anyway…
As an example, when I was little my dad got me some books of anti-Irish jokes and at the time I loved them. I could read them out and everyone laughed, but then I grew up and realised wow, Irish people are actually people! That kind of thing just isn’t funny to me at all anymore. So I always assume laughing at someone’s expense is a result of immaturity or being ill informed? Can people learn and then still be assholes? This can’t be right, right?
@Sophie [Dreamer] I'm pretty sure allistic people can learn and choose not to be assholes. But maybe it's harder for them to make the connections and easier to ignore them?
But, all things being equal, I strongly believe we all have the power to modify our attitudes over time. There's at least some choice in there.
