As someone who’s not exactly a social butterfly, I’m not happy with the negative comments I’m hearing about Aspergers. I always blame the individual for his actions, since there are rumors that the Santa Barbara mass shooter, Elliot Rodger’s may be suffering from Aspergers, I feel obligated to dispels some myths.
Let’s start by defining Aspergers:
Asperger Syndrome
What Is Asperger Syndrome?
Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) considered to be on the “high functioning” end of the spectrum. Affected children and adults have difficulty with social interactions and exhibit a restricted range of interests and/or repetitive behaviors. Motor development may be delayed, leading to clumsiness or uncoordinated motor movements. Compared with those affected by other forms of ASD, however, those with Asperger syndrome do not have significant delays or difficulties in language or cognitive development. Some even demonstrate precocious vocabulary – often in a highly specialized field of interest.
The following behaviors are often associated with Asperger syndrome. However, they are seldom all present in any one individual and vary widely in degree:
• limited or inappropriate social interactions
• “robotic” or repetitive speech
• challenges with nonverbal communication (gestures, facial expression, etc.) coupled with average to above average verbal skills
• tendency to discuss self rather than others
• inability to understand social/emotional issues or nonliteral phrases
• lack of eye contact or reciprocal conversation
• obsession with specific, often unusual, topics
• one-sided conversations
• awkward movements and/or mannerisms
Source: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/asperger-syndrome
1. Not all people with Aspergers are on psychotropic medication
2. People with Aspergers do really well in careers that don’t require a lot of interactions with people, such as scientific research, engineering, information technology, etc. Others learn the necessary social skills to function in other professions, but jobs like sales are usually not good for them
3. Don’t confuse Aspergers with Narcissists, someone with Aspergers can be perfectly happy by himself, someone with narcissism needs to be approved and celebrated by others
4. People with aspergers have formed healthy relationships with friends, spouses, have created families, etc. There are even dating websites and groups for people with Aspergers/autism.
5. Being self-centered is not necessarily a bad thing, and it’s certainly a better alternative to being a status-seeking “keeping up with the Joneses” person who lives for the approval of others. Furthermore, there’s a rational way to be selfish and self-centered, a person may support the NRA because it benefits his love of the 2nd Amendment. Rational selfishness is not destructive.
6. Anyone can be a criminal, how many times have we heard neighbors of a mass shooter talk about how friendly he was, or how he was the perfect neighbor?
7. Most people who are anti-social or lack empathy for others will not become mass shooters. By the same token, there are people who are extremely-friendly and become serial killers, such as John Wayne Gacy who dressed like a clown and got along with his neighbors. So you can never tell.
8. Gun-Free Zones create Mass-Shooter Zones, the debate should not be about video games, mental illness, but the soft-target zones gun control laws and policies by private and public enterprises have created. We don’t prevent arson by getting rid of fire sprinklers, the same applies to guns.
My own personal view of the shooter is that he didn’t really have Aspergers, his desperate need for a relationship, his need to impress others, his jealousy of others who were getting what he felt belonged to him, writing a 140-page confession of his plans, are clear indications of narcissism, but let’s be fair, most narcissists don’t shoot people either, so I’m not going to demonize that either.
Furthermore, my best friend has similar issues with women yet he turned to online dating, escorts, and once in a while he gets a real girlfriend, other times a gold digger. Others may turn to religion, others find a hobby, etc. What turns a normal person into a psychopath is hard to predict, which is why I focus on preparation instead of prevention. I’d rather be ready to shoot back than wait for the State to do their job. If the experiences with Fort Hood, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and the VA scandal have showed us anything, is that the authorities are always behind the people, and by the time they act, people have already died.
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Aspergers are a scourge and need to be put down like rabid dawgs!! Adam Lanza was an aspie dork as well. Wake up you!!
You sound like Hitler, Aspergers are not a scourge, not every mass shooter has aspergers, not every black person is a member of a gang, not every Jewish banker is a crook, not every crooked banker is Jewish, STOP STEREOTYPING PEOPLE. The people that hate our guns also stereotype gun owners. We have a right to keep and bear arms, period. That applies to EVERYONE. Do we have background checks for knives? No, then why guns? I support people defending themselves, I will not support an Aspergers holocaust.
Hitler?? So much for name calling a branding. I know aspergers and they are ticking time bombs, they have been coddled their whole lives because no one can criticize their hyper sensitive sensibilities. They make me sick
I didn’t say you are Hitler, I said you sounded like him. Der fuhrer saw Jews as parasites, the Nazis also had a forced euthanasia program for the mentally ill, retarded, and other people they considered untermench (subhuman, under men) which only stopped after German civilians protested.
I recommend this article:
Asperger’s, Autism Not Linked to Violence: Experts
http://consumer.healthday.com/cognitive-and-neurological-health-information-26/autism-news-51/asperger-s-autism-not-linked-to-violence-experts-671699.html
It really irritates me when “experts” say aspergers aren’t violent. Blanket generalization much. It’s the shrinks trying to cover their asses with their bs therapy not working on these self absorbed social retards. Not violent? Well, last 2 mass shooters were aspergers; Lanza and now Rodger, guess it’s just a coincidence.
Mike, you’re the one making a blanket generalization by assuming Aspergers are violent. Even if every mass shooter had Aspergers (and that’s not the case at all), there are millions of Aspergers that haven’t committed any crimes. What you’re doing is the equivalent of assuming black people are violent because Trayvon Martin was a thug. Yeah, Trayvon was a thug, but not all blacks are thugs. You gotta be fair and balanced, like FNC.
I agree both of these murderers are scum although it wasn’t the asperger’s that caused it. If you dig deep enough you will realize that all these shooters were on SSRI. Remember James Holmes who went on a shooting rampage in the theater, he too was on SSRI but didn’t have asperger’s and Aaron Alexis too was on SSRI but didn’t have asperger’s.
Yeah, well the experts know more about Aspergers than the average Joe, and I’m afraid you’re the one making blanket generalizations based on two incidents. By your logic, we should ban married men from having guns since sometimes they shoot their guns, and we should ban kitchen knives since some women stab their husbands and why not ban swimming pools since more children are killed by drownings than gun accidents?
And for the record, people with Aspergers are not “self-absorbed social retards”, they’re just different. Not everyone is a social butterfly and the life of the party, not everyone can sell insurance, cars, etc.
You’re no different than the liberals, looking for a scapegoat, if it’s not guns then it’s aspergers, if it’s not that then it’s violent video games or the culture or morality or some other BS. This was the act of an individual and you’re engaging in collective thinking.
Your conflating the issue now. Should psychopaths be banned from having guns? That’s a blanket gen, but that should be the case.
My mind won’t change about aspergers though. I think they are unstable, self indulgents who refuse to admit that they are social retards and don’t have the ability to take responsibility for their actions.
Have you ever met anyone with Aspergers? I have, they’re some of the nicest people I know. In fact, you may be talking to someone with Asperers and not even know it.
As for blanket gens, sorry, i don’t respect them, in a free society everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Aspergers isn’t like schizophrenia, bipolar, or any mental disorders in which the person is out of touch with reality.
As for not taking responsibility for their actions, that has nothing to do with aspergers, that’s just passing the buck, lots of people do it. Obama does it all the time and he certainly doesn’t have aspergers. Bill Clinton had no social problems whatsoever, and look at what a sociopath he is.
I think you’re being extremely unfair.
This kid was never told that in order to advance and improve in life, one must admit who and what they are. This kid was an aspie creep and coddled. He should have been told that and then given social classes to improve his despicable personality. But, everyone kissed his ass like they do all aspies because they have such tender feelings. This just turns them in to narcissistic psychopaths, which most of them turn out to be. They are basically sissies at can’t handle the truth, then as a result, they go on shooting sprees. Don’t give these people guns, they can’t handle them.
Not all aspies get their asses kissed, many suffer horrible bullying and ridicule, and 99.99% of them won’t become mass murderers. The Columbine Killers for example were not aspies, and now we know they were bullies themselves. Back then people were blaming goths, but most goth kids are perfectly happy dressing in black and sticking with their own kind. Frankly, there’s no correlations we can make with murderers, some people come from bad homes and become good, others come from good homes and become evil. Having social issues or suffering from shyness doesn’t make you a bad person. I am not comfortable networking, but I can give a speech in public perfectly fine. Others who are socially outgoing are terrified of giving a speech. We all have different abilities, so you can’t really point a finger at anyone.
His coddling by his patents is by far the only blame here, Lanza as well. Their aspergers may have influenced their parents to act that way but it wasn’t the kid’s fault. They couldn’t help it. Are you aware that aspergers is not used as a specific autistic diagnosis anymore? It is just considered high functioning autism now. My daughter is high functioning autism (PDD-NOS), should I go dig a hole for her to save the world? You have a lot to learn before you comment again, A$$HOLE!
Oh Teddie boy, I knew I struck a nerve with you. Your daughter is autistic because of your life choices and you can’t handle it, whether you did drugs, wife drank too much diet cokes (aspartame) or you carelessly immunized her, it falls on you. Now, as a result of your careless life decisions, you have to make good decisions for your daughter. Get her social classes and make good decisions for her and not poor ones anymore. I speak the truth, when your friends won’t.
That’s really below the belt, Mike, you don’t know his daughter. As for Diet Coke, my entire family loves Diet Coke and none of us suffers from autism. I also don’t see what’s wrong with immunization, don’t tel me you’re one of those anti-GMO let’s eat organic and get back to nature people.
I try to avoid chemicals and eat as healthy as possible. Messing with the food chain related to GMO’s has been proven to affect people’s health adversely.
I recommend this GMO article from Stossel. If you want to eat organic, that’s your choice, but I’m afraid science is not on your side.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/28/who-afraid-gmos-let-serve-up-science-without-scare-stories-and-eat-without-fear/
Social retard may be a politically incorrect term to you, but that is what they are. They can’t read social situations or people and find it hard to relate to normal people. As kids, they can be sweet and loving, but once they start to mature, they get bitter for not fitting in and instead of looking in the mirror, they blame everyone else; never themselves. Deep down they know they are social retards, but they refuse to admit it. I’m sick of them and they buffoonish ways. They are basically a combination of Michael Scott and Dwight Schute; technical dorks with a touch of buffoonery/douchebaggery.
You don’t need to have aspergers to be bitter about not fitting in, and you shouldn’t assume someone with asperers is bitter. I watch The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper does not look bitter, neither do the IT guys that fix my computers. Furthermore, someone with aspergers does not need many people to be happy, nor is he going to be chasing after women that are way out of his league. Rodgers was a narcissist, an emotional disease. People with aspergers are famous for logical, black and white thinking, which is why they may struggle with nuance and reading between the lines or detecting sarcasm. Narcissist live in a world of fantasy and when that world is destroyed, they react badly although most narcissist are not going to take out a gun and start shooting people. All mass shootings are flukes, we can’t predict them, can’t generalize, we can only prepare to shoot back.
I know aspergers, I can spot them from a mile away.
I know ignorant assholes, I can spot them and smell them a mile away. I think that you’re just jealous of someone with a diagnosis for their problems in life. Your still trying to find an excuse that explains why you’re a twenty or thirty something living with your divorced mother.
Hahahahahaha. You must have been diagnosed, you bitter little twat!
Ted, just ignore Dutch, if you have been diagnosed, it’s not the end of the world. From the way you write, it sounds like you do in fact have Aspergers. Am I right?
My daughter is high functioning and I don’t appreciate jerkoffs putting the blame on something that people can’t help. My kid has her issues but we don’t make excuses for her. 90% of the time, bad parenting is to blame. It sounds to me like Mike AND Dutch have some issues and like to pick on those they feel are less than them.