Love the article, but hard disagree on the idea that allistic "communication" to establish social hierarchy has any value at all to non-allistics.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
13 points (93.3% liked)
Autism
10187 readers
663 users here now
This is a community for people with Autism to be themselves. All neurotypes are welcome.
Community:
Values
- Acceptance
- Openness
- Understanding
- Equality
- Reciprocity
- Mutuality
- Love
Rules
- No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments e.g: racism, sexism, religious hatred, homophobia, gatekeeping, trolling.
- Posts do not need be related to autism, off-topic discussions are allowed. This is a safe space where people with autism can feel comfortable discussing whatever they feel like discussing, as long as it does not violate the standing rules.
- Your posts must include a text body. It doesn't have to be long, it just needs to be descriptive.
- Do not request donations.
- Be respectful in discussions.
- Do not post misinformation.
- Mark NSFW content accordingly.
- Do not promote Autism Speaks.
- General Lemmy World rules.
- No bots. Humans only.
Encouraged
- Open acceptance of all autism levels as a respectable neurotype.
- Funny memes.
- Respectful venting.
- Describe posts of pictures/memes using text in the body for our visually impaired users.
- Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
- Questions regarding autism.
- Questions on confusing situations.
- Seeking and sharing support.
- Engagement in our community's values.
- Expressing a difference of opinion without directly insulting another user.
- Please report questionable posts and let the mods deal with it.
.
Helpful Resources
- Are you seeking education, support groups, and more? Take a look at our list of helpful resources.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
This excerpt explains a lot: The autistic pattern of expounding at length on a topic of personal interest, aka infodumping, also arises from these occult grammar rules. If an autistic person knows a lot about a subject, then they have a social obligation to share that information.
In many autistic spaces online and in meatspace, these communication norms can emerge organically and result in very productive and pleasant interactions between autistic people (and allists who have learned to participate in the autistic mode of communication).
However, when viewed through the lens of allistic communication norms, these conversations can appear to be a relentless assault of posturing, dominance, combative interruption, nitpicking of minutiae, and a stubborn refusal to provide even the most basic human care for one another.
Holy crap this is such a good and well written set of articles. I can't speak to the accuracy of everything, though it seems to have been researched and written with accurate intent, but the parts that I live are spot on. Lots of little cool details in there. Shoutout to the thing autistics often do where we redefine terms on the fly in a conversation so we're sure our message is communicated correctly, like "X can mean a few different things, so I'll say Y when I mean thing 1 and Z when I mean thing 2", which reminded me of some Flying Circus sketch where they awkwardly created a overt double hand spin gesture to indicate that they were done talking and it's the other person's turn to talk and not just the end of their sentence.
Saving this for later since it's a long read, but unironic "occult utterances" is already intriguing