<story><title>Autism and responding to authority (2019)</title><url>https://neuroclastic.com/autism-and-responding-to-authority/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>digging</author><text>Ok, somebody else explain why neurotypical people are content to obey arbitrary authority when they don&amp;#x27;t have to.&lt;p&gt;I surely shouldn&amp;#x27;t have included that bit of speculation because all the replies to my comment have nothing to do with the actual point of the comment.</text></item><item><author>hotnfresh</author><text>&amp;gt; But many of us experienced &amp;quot;listen to me because I said so&amp;quot; as children, and continue to experience that in school and into adulthood in the workplace. It&amp;#x27;s meaningless, but many neurotypical people neither notice that it&amp;#x27;s wrong or understand why it&amp;#x27;s wrong&lt;p&gt;This would not be perhaps &lt;i&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; most-universal example of arbitrary authority, played with in countless pieces of mainstream media, if neurotypicals were as you suppose they are.&lt;p&gt;I think you need to go back to the drawing board on this one.</text></item><item><author>digging</author><text>I suspect the author meant something more like, &amp;quot;neurotypical people live contented lives holding the belief that arbitrary authority actually exists.&amp;quot; But I can&amp;#x27;t truly speak for them.&lt;p&gt;Even before I fully reasoned it out, growing up I always knew that arbitrary authority doesn&amp;#x27;t exist for me. Sure a SME should be given more weight discussing their subject, and a parent understands dangers of the world that their young child literally can&amp;#x27;t comprehend. But many of us experienced &amp;quot;listen to me because I said so&amp;quot; as children, and continue to experience that in school and into adulthood in the workplace. It&amp;#x27;s meaningless, but many neurotypical people neither notice that it&amp;#x27;s wrong or understand why it&amp;#x27;s wrong, perhaps because their brains aren&amp;#x27;t wired a way to unconsciously detect those red flags.</text></item><item><author>JohnBooty</author><text>This article is a bit maddening. I find the beginning encouraging....&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    I’ve written before about how autistic people often 
    struggle to know how to act around authority figures. 
    Actually, that’s not true– we don’t seem to *care* how 
    we act around authority.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
I like the distinction between unknowing and uncaring. I like the level of personal responsibility that this suggests and I wish the rest of the article continued in this vein.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    It makes us *really weird* to neurotypical people, 
    who seem to accept authority happily.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
This is not correct at all in my experience. I don&amp;#x27;t think anybody loves submitting to authority just for the fun of it.&lt;p&gt;Certainly there is a lot of personal calculus that goes into whether or not we accept a given authority. Cost vs. benefit. Whether we see a reason to respect the authority. Whether we see value in it. Social pressure. Of course this calculus will be different from person to person and from situation to situation, and of course neurotypicals and folks on the spectrum will tend to have a different view.&lt;p&gt;But, &amp;quot;seem to accept authority happily?&amp;quot; Yeesh. It seems to imply an absence of thought rather than different criteria weights.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Jtsummers</author><text>&amp;quot;Content&amp;quot; is an assumption on your part. Higher tolerance for bullshit is also a plausible explanation. Or a difference in emotional intelligence and the corresponding understanding of (and willingness to play) the political game to get through the day. I&amp;#x27;m not &amp;quot;content&amp;quot; with my management, but I know it&amp;#x27;s temporary and that I don&amp;#x27;t want to be unemployed in the interim and my pay is good enough that I&amp;#x27;m not ready to nope out of here (if the pay was worse, or my fu funds weren&amp;#x27;t spent a couple years ago and not yet recovered, it would be a different situation).</text></comment>
<story><title>Autism and responding to authority (2019)</title><url>https://neuroclastic.com/autism-and-responding-to-authority/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>digging</author><text>Ok, somebody else explain why neurotypical people are content to obey arbitrary authority when they don&amp;#x27;t have to.&lt;p&gt;I surely shouldn&amp;#x27;t have included that bit of speculation because all the replies to my comment have nothing to do with the actual point of the comment.</text></item><item><author>hotnfresh</author><text>&amp;gt; But many of us experienced &amp;quot;listen to me because I said so&amp;quot; as children, and continue to experience that in school and into adulthood in the workplace. It&amp;#x27;s meaningless, but many neurotypical people neither notice that it&amp;#x27;s wrong or understand why it&amp;#x27;s wrong&lt;p&gt;This would not be perhaps &lt;i&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; most-universal example of arbitrary authority, played with in countless pieces of mainstream media, if neurotypicals were as you suppose they are.&lt;p&gt;I think you need to go back to the drawing board on this one.</text></item><item><author>digging</author><text>I suspect the author meant something more like, &amp;quot;neurotypical people live contented lives holding the belief that arbitrary authority actually exists.&amp;quot; But I can&amp;#x27;t truly speak for them.&lt;p&gt;Even before I fully reasoned it out, growing up I always knew that arbitrary authority doesn&amp;#x27;t exist for me. Sure a SME should be given more weight discussing their subject, and a parent understands dangers of the world that their young child literally can&amp;#x27;t comprehend. But many of us experienced &amp;quot;listen to me because I said so&amp;quot; as children, and continue to experience that in school and into adulthood in the workplace. It&amp;#x27;s meaningless, but many neurotypical people neither notice that it&amp;#x27;s wrong or understand why it&amp;#x27;s wrong, perhaps because their brains aren&amp;#x27;t wired a way to unconsciously detect those red flags.</text></item><item><author>JohnBooty</author><text>This article is a bit maddening. I find the beginning encouraging....&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    I’ve written before about how autistic people often 
    struggle to know how to act around authority figures. 
    Actually, that’s not true– we don’t seem to *care* how 
    we act around authority.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
I like the distinction between unknowing and uncaring. I like the level of personal responsibility that this suggests and I wish the rest of the article continued in this vein.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    It makes us *really weird* to neurotypical people, 
    who seem to accept authority happily.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
This is not correct at all in my experience. I don&amp;#x27;t think anybody loves submitting to authority just for the fun of it.&lt;p&gt;Certainly there is a lot of personal calculus that goes into whether or not we accept a given authority. Cost vs. benefit. Whether we see a reason to respect the authority. Whether we see value in it. Social pressure. Of course this calculus will be different from person to person and from situation to situation, and of course neurotypicals and folks on the spectrum will tend to have a different view.&lt;p&gt;But, &amp;quot;seem to accept authority happily?&amp;quot; Yeesh. It seems to imply an absence of thought rather than different criteria weights.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>RoyalHenOil</author><text>Consider the possibility that, as someone who is not neurotypical, you may not be accurately reading the contentment level of people who are neurotypical.</text></comment>