Or forced to pretend to like social interaction? They're rewarded with credit for being good at their job? Awful. This must be stopped!
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A few years ago, there was a drive to stop marginalising introverts or demanding that they not be pressured to change & I liked it at first
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When it was just a few articles abt them not being rude, anti-social or standoffish but just preferring one-to-one interaction & time alone.
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But then it got very pretentious & identity-politicky. 'Look at me! I'm special & have a rich inner world you don't & no-one understands me'
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It got so bad at one point that I stopped calling myself an introvert & started just saying 'I'm unsociable' unapologetically.
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But now, I think there is a new need for a general drive to be more accepting of a wider range of ways that people engage with social stuff.
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And it doesn't need to be complicated & require lots of labels & terminology & things you shouldn't say & things you must say.
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Very easy to just be an accepting person. If someone is usually alone, check that they want to be by inviting them to join social stuff.
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If they don't, don't take offence at this. If they are polite & co-operative, just be pleasant when you interact & leave them alone.
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Don't make it awkward to be socially awkward. Just carry on as usual. I'm finding this shit very worrying.
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Quite a few people have looked at this social skills policing attitude in terms of how it could marginalise people with atypical neurology.
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And I think they will be the most vulnerable to it but I also think it's the wrong way to look at the problem ethically.
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Reminds me of 'It's OK to be gay coz they can't help it' arguments. No, it's OK to be gay coz that's who people are & it doesn't affect you
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It's also OK to be introverted, shy, reserved, private, socially awkward, lack filters or whatever without any kind of diagnosis,
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If we go down the ableism route to justify ppl's right not to meet requirements of a socially & politically engaged, articulate extrovert
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we necessarily define this is the correctly-functioning human at the same time as making it a moral obligation.
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So many of these supposedly complex ethical social problems can be solved by 'Just accept people as they are if they're not hurting you.'
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The genius part might be a myth, but the loner nerd is sure as hell to anyone who has worked with enough tech people.
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Seems like you guys are idealizing engineering. There was some point to the ex-googler post, even though he exagerated it.
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No, I don't think so. You might have missed the context. Have spent days saying he had a point & even if he didn't, deal with it.
End of conversation
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