Aspergers and Tolerance

Aspie's have something of a bad reputation when it comes to tolerance for others. Sadly and I can say this from personal experience (both of myself and other Aspies that I have met) that this is somewhat deserved. Truthfully (and I'm not proud to admit this) I have very little time for people who don't interest me, luckily though people generally do. I don't suffer fools lightly and this sometimes makes me come across as arrogant. It is one of the reasons I do not get along very well with my younger sister. Her concerns often seem trivia. She quite often comes out with ridiculously stupid logic, especially when she is angry (her dog ran away chasing a rabbit so "someone else should shoot all of the rabbits to stop it happening again" was one of her finer moments). As I said, we Aspies can be very intolerant.
However, in many ways we are far more tolerant of some things than NT's. Take for example racism and xenophobia. I don't judge people on their race or where they come from because such factors mean nothing to me when meeting people. If anything it just makes them interesting. Many of my fellow Brits seem to distrust the Argentinians because of the Falklands conflict. This I don't understand. Surely it is a dispute between our two governments not between all Brits and all Argentinians. The same goes for the IRA. I don't dislike all Irish people because of the actions of a small minority as some seem to. If I have a problem with another country's foreign policy I blame the government not the people. To paint everyone in the same colour seems like madness. The same goes for the different religions, classes, education etc. When I meet people I judge them as individuals, something that seems to be common amongst Aspies.

John Galliano, Racism and Offence

Last week fashion designer John Galliano was taped making some very anti-Semitic remarks, which stirred up a debate about anti-Semitism and racism in general. I don't agree with racism of any kind, but I don't understand why people get so worked up about it. Let me clarify my point; racist words and comments, not racist violence or acts. The latter are in-excusable and should be reacted to harshly. I have been racially abused on several occasions, and since there was little threat of violence, I laughed at it. What do I care what these pratts think. I don't know them, and if they are stupid enough to believe what they are saying, then I definitely do not want to know them. What I did not do want react negatively. That seems to be what they always want, so why reward them. They just move on when they realise the futility of it. To me you can only be offended if you let yourself become offended. You are letting a negative emotion get to you and thus you are losing something, not them. It is like the old saying "I am rubber, you are glue" which people seem to forget as they get older. By reacting, you are suffering unnecessarily.
Being an aspie, I generally don't care what other people think of me (I follow rules and morals and try to be a good person, I am not a total arsehole). I think this is one of the reasons why I was immune to social pressure, and it's one of the blessings of my condition. You don't have to be on the autistic spectrum to be immune to offence. David Brazier in "Zen Therapy: A Buddhist approach to psychotherapy" puts this view into words better than I can. He stated that "if someone insults me..., the ire which may arise in me is not caused by the insult. The insult is simply the trigger which has brought my pre-existing susceptibility to the surface" (page 161 for anyone interested). Bender from Futurama's quote "when will people learn that all humans are equally inferior to robots" to me seems to be one of the cleverest on any animated show. Me? Well I may be close to being a misanthrope, but I believe in the superiority of one race: the Human race. Who cares about anyone else.