Artical = none , personal experience
I met a man once, well , I emailed him. For a time.
He had Aspergers Syndrome , or so he said, and I looked it up.
But the medical description was nothing like what I saw.
Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome, Asperger disorder (AD) or simply Asperger's, is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and atypical (peculiar or odd) use of language are frequently reported.[1][2] The diagnosis of Asperger's was eliminated in the 2013 fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and replaced by a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder on a severity scale.[3]
His messages had no context, he had to keep reminding you what he was talking about , resulting in several paragraphs of text where a simple sentence would suffice.
And he had no ... sense of humour ? No understanding of double meanings. If you told him the joke about a man with a duck walking into a bar and asking the bartender to put it on the ducks bill ... he will not realize that "the ducks bill" could refer to the ducks physical bill on the ducks face, or the bill (or tab) that the duck was running up by purchasing products. He'll see one or the other, he won't see both. Then he'll think you're crazy, and possibly dangerous. Why are you babbling nonsense ? Are you going to get violent next ? Are you insane in the literal clinical sense ? And it goes down hill from there.
He honestly believed he was the only sane person on the planet , and that everyone else was crazy. That the lunatics were running the insane asylem and there was nothing he could do about it.
The Royal Ottawa Hospital (the local mental institute) wasn't much help. As far as they were concerned, if they could get him to pretend to be sort of normal , long enough to hit the grocery store and come back, they didn't care how much he howled at the moon when he was home, or what craziness he engaged in. There's a shortage of beds in the mental institute, and this guy can at least care for himself and isn't a danger to the public, let him loose.
I spoke with him over many emails , he refused to meet in person , and I quickly figured out that would be a bad idea, and I got the distinct impression of the old Opera singers. The ones that could hit ridiculously high notes because they'd been castrated before puberty , and who never really complained about the inability to have sex, because they'd never had that ability in the first place. How can you miss something you've never had ?
There were pieces of his brain , empathy , and holistic thought (seeing the big picture) and understanding double meanings ... these were not functioning in him. And apparently , they'd never been functioning. He was vaguely aware of the words, probably others had informed him of this as well , but they meant nothing to him. How could he miss something he'd never had ? A blind man may hear of the wonders of sight , but if he's been blind from birth and never seen , he's just going to ignore you when you speak on that topic.
He doesn't like the modern definition of autism. He's able to quote it to me , but he doesn't believe in it. He speaks of a much older definition , apparently from the time of world war II. Hitler's people first diagnosed Asperger's syndrome , it seemed, and their definition was "every smart person on the planet". And they had plans to elminate all of the Asperger Sufferers. But the problem was, they needed smart people for science and engineering and winning the war ...
I mentioned the inability to see the larger picture ? He was never able to resolve that inherent conflict between "kill all the smart people" and "we need smart people to win the war" . He alternates between thinking about one , and thinking about the other. He doesn't even see they are opposites and you can only walk down one of those paths.
And he's got a touch of parania. He believes to this day there is a world wide conspiracy to kill the smart people. And he lacks the ability to notice he's 70 , and in good health , and receiving free health care in canada , despite the government already knowing his relatively high IQ . That's not the actions of some organization out to kill you. But he can't see that , and he hangs onto his belief that they're coming to get him. Some day. Don't bother joking about they'd better hurry or he'll die of old age first, he won't see the funny.
In fergusan Missouri a white cop shot a black man.
The initial forensic report showed it was a black hood who tried to get the cops gun , got a few bullets for his trouble , and eventually wound up dead by lead poisoning. Pow pow. Open and shut case end of story. Hey there was even a witness, a black guy , testifying to the whole thing.
Months later , it turns out the witness lied, and the cop had in fact shot the guy at point blank range while standing over him , and the bullets entered through the black mans skull and went down into his torso. Guy had been on his knee's and the cop executed him.
Relevance to my story ?
To this day , every white guy in america quotes the first , erronious forensic report as if it were gospel , and think you're crazy , or prejudiced , if you disagee with them. Every black guy quotes the second autopsy showing a very different version of events, one in which that unarmed black man was executed.
And both sides stick to their guns.
There was even a report from the Department of Justice showing wide spread corruption and persecution of the black man . One white man read just a piece of the report noted that even dogs were being blamed for being racists and dismissed the report . (Hint...the dogs bite who their police masters tell them to bite, they don't choose on their own...back to a human made decision !)
It's like everyone in the world has Aspergers. They believe what they like , and they ignore any evidence they don't like. And if you disagree with them, you're part of the racist movement twisting events all out of shape (which shape ? depends on which side you're talking to). And they honestly believe what they're saying. They're bullet proof. Firing facts at them doesn't work , they ignore those facts.
Sometimes I wonder if they have Aspergers, or if it's a "filter" problem. They live in a world where everyone lies to them and they filter it out, to the point where they're now filtering out the truth as well.
My friend in the email was born in the age of world war II. Hitler was in his youth. It was the first thing he learned as he grew up , I suppose it's natural for him to hang onto it all the days of his life. Perhaps he's not paranoid after all. Perhaps he simply learned his lessons very well as a boy , and it's way too late for this old dog to learn new tricks.
The disturbing thing is , American Newspapers are very quick to print blame articals when something happens , bold and on the first page, and when they find out the truth , it's months later and a little tiny article near the back page. Leaving a lot of Americans with false information. Information they will defend for the rest of their lives.
What good is a news service that openly lies to you ?
My friend in the email was my father. And he taught me one more lesson as well. When my mother decided to dump him and never speak to him again , she did me a real big favor. Guy is as fruity as a nut cake, and is likely due for another stay in the Royal Ottawa. His ability to pass for minimally sane is slipping.
I "lost" (read that erased) the email address and never speak to him again.
Lesson to everyone out there. When looking up your long lost Father or mother or brother or such ... leave an escape route. There may be very good reasons that he 's long lost.
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