Prevalence of Asperger's Syndrome Among Gun Nuts

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Orthonym

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The other day I was looking at Bill StClair's blog and noticed a reference to a school for weird kids of the AS type, with some links to a New York Times article on the subject.

This caught my attention, as I seem to have some of the characteristic qualities myself: weird thoroughgoing interests, trouble with the doo-dahs and with getting laid, a VERY strong desire to be left alone, being a mark for devious people, telling the truth when the best course is lying, being easily detected when I DO attempt a lie etc etc.

Then I recalled member Fishorman's problems with cops while obeying the letter of the law, and his rather "tin ear" for the normal monkey dominance games the cops played with him. I've had almost, but not quite, (shudder) similar experiences.

I thought about the absolutely enthusiastic perseverance shown by lots of gun nuts, and the ability of some of us to get really exercised about minuscule details and differences among the many bits of gun info we have memorized.

I got curious and started searching and googling with strings like "asperger's aspie gun" and came up with very little; just one brave member here, (HI JIM) and a mention by Mr. Gwinn on TFL that his wife works with such folks.

I wonder if rather a lot of us might have some aspie tendencies, but are afraid to disclose them to the world for fear of being thought to be more than one kind of nut?

There's an "Asperger's Quotient" quiz at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html --

I got a 40. I guess that explains my sig file here.
 
Orthonym ~

My observation is that there are an awful lot of "undiagnosed" Asperger types in the world.

Since it isn't an illness or disease, I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's simply a personality type, a slightly different set of wiring for an essentially normal brain, and that it's not worth getting all worked up over.

pax
 
Not sure about what this "syndrome" is all about,

but I am willing to,

"walk on the wild side",

and posit that it is all about being a normal male,

with a normal male's desire to be proficient,

in slaughtering,

in great big gobs and heaps,

the enemies of OUR genetic sub-group,

who do not deserve,

and cannot be allowed,

to impregnate OUR females.

OK.

So how FAR from the truth am I?
 
I worked with one asperger kid and I had another kid I used to work with whose father had asperger's syndrome and it was very obvious immediately that these were very different people. Many would say strange. Based just on those two I would conclude that it's a very noticeable thing and it seemed to border on autism. My point is I wouldn't go around telling people you have asperger's unless you were diagnosed by an expert. I don't know that a test on the internet could really do it accurately.

brad cook
 
Fairly close, Texian,but

out a little bit on a not-quite-orthogonal axis. In other words,

Sort Of.

Asperger himself thought that what he saw was just an exaggeration of some typically male qualities, but not others.
 
I have done quite a bit of research on Asperger's for my special eduation class. There is a lot of debate on what exactly Asperger's is, but a general consensus is that it is a high functioning type of autism. Basically someone with Asperger's has a specific interests that they spend a lot of time obsessing on. They have very poor social skills. They attempt to interact with their peers, but they are just not capable. They often get frustrated and upset over their inability to properly interact with others. They can range all over the inteligence spectrum.

I agree that I wouldn't speculate I had Asperger's until I sought some professional advice. Joking that you have Asperger's is sort of similiar to joking you have autism or down syndrome. I don't know how funny that is.
 
Well, DigMe & Riley,

There is a large probability that I may suffer from nothing more than "medical student's disease", you know, when reading about horrible disorders one imagines having the diseases himself?

As a matter of fact, I have mostly refrained until now from mentioning these thoughts online, and entirely refrained from attempting to post on or join any Aspie lists or groups for just that reason. If I have it to any degree, I seem to have it to a very slight degree.

So, sirs; y'all be the judges:

Am I normal, or nuts?

Don't matter, does it, if one be legally sane. (IMHO)
 
Asperger's Syndrome may not be a disease or illness per se, but it is a neurological disorder. The disorder can cause a number of learning and social/interaction problems.

This link is very informative...

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html

Self diagnosis of AS probably isn't going to produce accurate results by a layperson. The traits exhibited in the orignal post are traits that can be found in other psychological or neurological disorders, not to mention socialization development issues. If you don't learn socialization behaviors appropriate for your society, then you fall outside the norm of society, but it can be due to how you were raised, not necessarily a disorder.

As far a fixation on trivial gun facts, boards like this are for folks of similar interests. With any specialty boards, you will find discussions and debates about the topic. If you visit some of the flashlight forums, you can find some incredibly intense discussion on the physics of light and how such concepts can be applied to the comparing and contrasting of various brands and models of flashlights. If there is an issue describing such overly-focussed debates, it would more likely be obsessive-compulsive, not AS.

Speaking with Alex Hamilton, a pistolsmith in San Antonio, about gun owners and political power, Alex noted that gun types tend to be more individualistic than much of the population, independent, often with authority figure issues, distrust of the government, distrust of outsiders, etc. As a result, they don't band together well for concerted efforts, such as political efforts. They tend to be outspoken about many disagreeable events, like Ruby Ridge and Waco, but unlikely to come to the aid of their fellow gun owners during such events even when such events occur over a long period of time. While many of these traits could be reduced to particular behavior categorizations that could fall within AS traits, it does not mean that gun folks have AS.

Telling the truth when the best course might be lying is hardly diagnostic of a mental disorder. Such behaviors often come as a result of upbringing and socialization influences such as by religious practices.

This site lists several types of traits AS people can exhibit, but many (in bold) definitely are not what I would associate with gun folks or don't seem to occur in any more frequency with gun folks versus non-gun folks.

http://www.autism.org/asperger.html

Language:

* lucid speech before age 4 years; grammar and vocabulary are usually very good
* speech is sometimes stilted and repetitive
* voice tends to be flat and emotionless
* conversations revolve around self


Cognition

* obsessed with complex topics, such as patterns, weather, music, history, etc.
* often described as eccentric
* I.Q.'s fall along the full spectrum, but many are in the above normal range in verbal ability and in the below average range in performance abilities.
* many have dyslexia, writing problems, and difficulty with mathematics
* lack common sense
* concrete thinking (versus abstract)


Behavior

* movements tend to be clumsy and awkward
* odd forms of self-stimulatory behavior
* sensory problems appear not to be as dramatic as those with other forms of autism
* socially aware but displays inappropriate reciprocal interaction
 
I am of the opinion that the recent profileration of "self-diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome" is a complete and utter crock. It bothers me that people feel the need to invent some kind of syndrome or complex as a venue for their frustrations and obsessions. It smacks of a whiny, overly introspective, self-aggrandizing form of paranoia.

There are truly autistic people out there who never speak a single word, cannot communicate with the outside world, and have to constantly supervised to be kept from hurting themselves. It bugs me when people are too lazy to do this or that or just don't like something about themselves and find it difficult to change so instead they claim their failings are actually a disease, be it a legitimate disease which it's clearly not (like autism) or some crackpot disease (think adult attention deficit disorder, Asperger's, 99% of chronic fatigue syndrome, etc.).

If you think hard enough about the implications of this kind of behavior -- finding a disease on which to blame everything about yourself with which you're unhappy -- I think you'll find it very distasteful.
 
The traits exhibited in the orignal post are traits that can be found in other psychological or neurological disorders, not to mention socialization development issues.
Click to expand...
Several of the traits of Asberger's that were listed would also be indicative of Attention Deficit Disorder as well.
 
Smells like treating a less-than-common personality style as a disorder. This must be convenient for those who believe that everyone should strive to be just like all of the other children...
 
I have done quite a bit of research on Asperger's for my special eduation class. There is a lot of debate on what exactly Asperger's is, but a general consensus is that it is a high functioning type of autism. Basically someone with Asperger's has a specific interests that they spend a lot of time obsessing on. They have very poor social skills. They attempt to interact with their peers, but they are just not capable. They often get frustrated and upset over their inability to properly interact with others. They can range all over the inteligence spectrum.
Click to expand...

That pretty much backs up my experience with the only guy I knew who had it...I think obsessiveness is just a trait of the serious enthusiast everywhere, honestly.

J.
 
Agree: 2,4,5,6,7,9,12,13,16,19,20,22,23,26,33,35,39,41,43,45,46: 1 point
Disagree: 1,10,11,15,24,25,27,28,29,30,32,34,36,37,38,44,47,48,49: 1 point
Score: 40


Interesting.
 
Open Road, how can I say this without gettin' crossways withya?

Owhell, yer Neurotypical, AKA Normal. We need guys like you here to keep us strange folks from flying off on weird tangents. Jest as long as y'all don't get into the Dangerous Monkey Majority- Torches-and-Pitchforks lunacy we've all heard about, I can live with you.

(snork):-^)
 
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