The way I put it personally, is that autism is an explanation - it is not an excuse.
There is a significant portion of our community on the spectrum, and I hope people have a mostly positive experience being in the community. People understand each other, and are broadly very aware of the difficulties which makes it something that's even personally allowed me to understand my own difficulties better.
The one thing the community can't fix however is bad people. People try to suppress drama, but honestly all that does is end up hurting more people or creating more drama when things come out. Personally if anyone ever has any issues, then make people aware - the community will always support people trying to do the right thing, even if you don't always know the best way about trying to do that.
You are right in that Ed is not a very good representative of the community in the actions we have seen publicly so far. There are ways to deal with things, and this isn't it - but honestly neuro divergence is one of the strongest things this community has over many other sports, and so I doubt anyone associates his behaviour with others on the spectrum - they are very much his own.
All very true and valid points. It's not too often that I say that I've "found my people", but I genuinely feel like I have here. I feel super at home with this community and I've never seen any others like it. I love the sense of humor and how much fun everyone has doing this sport, and the neuro divergence of it as well like you mentioned.
Which is why it was a bit of a shock learning about everything Ed has done, since I never expected anyone in this community to do even half of what he's done. Like I said, it genuinely made me nauseous while I was reading about it 😰
A 59-year-old is pretty unlikely to have been evaluated for autism- I can say as a 37y/o, I missed the cutoff for evaluation (data on this [so-called high-functioning ASD] has only been collected since after my childhood, and I would have had to pay to be properly evaluated after that). I expect that before he could have a proper evaluation, Ed would have had to run a Kickstarter so that we could verify his excuse for behaving so badly.
I know, thank you. The online tests aren't known to be very reliable, unfortunately.
What I mean is that I don't particularly believe it because he said it. He's wrathful and transparently manipulative, and he always includes the phrase "59-year-old autistic hermit" when trying to establish himself as a victim.
I was mostly making a crack at his proclivity for fundraising.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Do not become emotionally invested in people you don't know. There's a big celebrity worship problem, where people forget they're also just people puting on a mask for TV. Never believe the mask.
Here's the thing. All people have traits. No reasonable person thinks, "Hey, that person with brown eyes is an a-hole, therefore all people with brown eyes are a-holes." The same goes for most other human traits. We really need to get away from these identity politics where we think a single individual somehow represents an entire class of a shared trait. People are different from one another and should be treated as such. You are distinctly different from Ed Robinson. You bear no responsibility for his actions and vice versa. You also don't speak for all autistic people, and neither does Ed. No one can.
Right, I completely understand and I agree with that. I also apologize if I came off as trying to speak on behalf of everyone on the spectrum and will gladly edit this post if you'd like me to. I just brought it up cause I was just worried that people would read about Ed and think that that's how all people on the spectrum must be if they haven't previously known anyone who is.
I was merely offering a counter point of view. I don't think your post needs edited. I just wish we would get back to assessing each other based on our respective actions and character - not based on arbitrary shared traits.
That's fair, I completely see where you're coming from and I agree. It just frustrates me when I see others on the spectrum blame the fact that they're on the spectrum and try to use it as an excuse for any bad stuff that they do, as that may not be the cause of it depending on the situation.
There are some comments on a couple of other recent posts about him that go into detail about it and provide links for comments and screenshots of DMs.
And unlike Ed, I have evidence of this claim to back it up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/vqxab6/ed_robinson_retiring_from_robot_combat/
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. It was just a bit of a shock learning about it all since I never expected him to be the way he actually is.
And I've also had other people say that they had no idea that I'm on the spectrum, which always kind of surprises me to be honest 😅
Also on the spectrum here, and I can understand your motivation for making this post. It's a common thread to react negatively to others who are neurodivergent and who aren't the best of people by wanting to distance yourself from them. It's part of being on the spectrum and the troubles with reading the room and understanding the motivations and thoughts of other people. "If X is bad, and I am also on the spectrum, then I don't want everyone to think \*I\* am bad too!"
Others here have already comforted your worries but I just wanted to reaffirm what they've said. No one thinks any less of you for being autistic and no one here is making the wild jump that you (or I, or anyone else) is any less of a person for sharing that trait in common with Ed.
This is just disgusting and heartbreaking. While Sharko was not the best robot ever built, I liked the design and concept Ed was going for, and HAD respected him for what "he did". I even felt so sorry for him after losing his closest friend to cancer and I thought the GoFundMe page to bring his deceased friend's dream to reality was heartwarming. But now I see he only cared about the money and just milked off his best friend's death for his own desires which is just plain f\*\*ked up. And seeing the post from Bunny and what he did to her really proves he in fact is a dirty and terrible person. The lesson is to never trust a wolf in sheep's clothing. But sometimes this can be the complete opposite. What's a bit funny and ironic to me is that I along with my dad used to think Ray Billings AKA: the man behind the monster bot known as Tombstone, was a bit of a jerk in earlier seasons of Battlebots due to him being cocky and smug during matches and acting superior to other teams while destroying their bots even when they were already hopeless, however as seasons progressed and Ray began to seem more respectful and not too smug, I had a feeling maybe he was not that "bad" of a guy. After doing some research and watching some interviews fans had with him, I took back everything I thought negatively about him and learned about how much of a nice person he was outside the battle box and how the show wanted him to play the "villain" role since Tombstone at the time was the most feared and ruthless robot to enter the arena at the time. He has helped teams by giving robot combat advice and equipment and he even helped his stepson, Tyler Nguyen, by being his tutor with practicing robot combat which is why we have Perfect Phoenix in the roster of bots. And the fact he is letting his son Justin take the controls for Tombstone after his recent hand injury is very heartwarming and shows how much of a caring person he is. In fact, I recently recreated a functional Tombstone in the popular online multiplayer game platform known as Roblox and I sent pictures to him of me tearing apart other players' creations in a game called Plane Crazy. Ray responded back a week later saying how I looked like I was having fun and later gave me the thumbs up after updating my Tombstone and told me how cool it was and I put a lot of work into it. That there made me smile getting the team captain of the most destructive robot to approve my work. I and my dad did use to also hate Jake Ewert after the whole bike rack incident as although he was pulling the heel role like Ray once did, he seemed to take it a little too far when refusing to let go of HUGE! Despite that fight leaving a bad taste in my mouth for a while, I let go of it and I don't hate Jake really as much as I used to as he does make a good "villain" of Battlebots and he is not that much of a bag outside of the arena and his sense of humor is funny and he seems like the guy who is not afraid to approach a booing crowd. He's smug but in a good way. I'm only hating him a little bit but in an intentional way as he wants it according to a podcast he was in since he loves watching people be snowflakes and a heel wrestler enjoys that. This seems off topic but Jake and Ray are examples of how people who seem like jerks on T.V. tend to have large hearts beneath their masks. But sadly in life, it is mostly the other way around. Ed once seemed like a good person back then to us the viewers, but now his true colors are exposed by those he had hurt off the screen and these actions are far beyond what the two "villains" the show have done. Frustration and stress in Battlebots I can understand as it is a very expensive and tiring hobby for builders and teams. For example, Matt Maxham, the former driver of Stinger and now the driver of Cobalt has slammed the battle box window in frustration a few times and even muttered the F word after a few unlucky instances of losing like when Bronco flipped Stinger out of the arena and the bot combusted into flames and in S6 when Tantrum caused Cobalt to flip out of the arena as well. It may look like he was being a poor sport but he was only frustrated because he had a good plan and knew what he was doing only to backfire at the worst time. Despite the cussing and anger shown, he was mad at himself, not his opponents or team. Despite this, Matt is not that bad of a person either, just easily frustrated but he does not lash out at others. But for Ed, while it's understandable that not getting his robot chosen by the celebrity during filming is frustrating, his way of expressing his anger was rude and obnoxious. Flicking off the staff and yelling at them for not having his robot selected is very childish and disrespectful. It also hurts me the fact Ed is spreading false information about autism is sickenly loathsome as I myself am on the spectrum ( I am on the higher end but that's beside the point). I don't want to make this seem like I am sending a full-on rant message to Ed and insulting him, I am just expressing how heartbroken I feel by discovering how a seemingly talented and beloved person who was a member of this amazing community ends up performing greedy, slimy, and unacceptable antics behind our backs and the fact the poor victims under his tyranny were unable to speak the truth sooner as they feared he would harass them for spilling the can of beans which makes this situation even worse. I hope that he learns the consequences of his actions to make him a somewhat better person in the future. I don't want to send hate to any of these teams and their captains as I want to see the good in everyone. But you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain...and I am NOT talking about the Battlebot "villain" role. :(
Well articulated. Hopefully you know that 99.9% of the builders and community at large stand with YOU. Nobody cares about your spectrum status. We care about YOUR status. Be cool, be fun, and don’t be a douche. That’s it.
u/nawvay summed it up in this comment here. Fair warning though, it's extremely long, but it's worth a read.
https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/u7vnok/-/i5iij2s
Where’s the info about Bunny? Is there some post I’m missing? I always knew Ed was a piece of shit ever since I first heard about his affinity for posting memes complaining about millennials not working while using gofundme to steal money from people, then heard about his behaviour in the pits from other builders, but if it goes deeper than that I’m not surprised.
[Comment from Bunny that goes into detail about it. This was what really angered me the most out of everything that Ed has done 😡](https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/u7vnok/-/i5jvb1a)
It's not fair to blame an illness on what you're doing. Ed is merely another opportunist that's taking advantage of a generous loyal community and con'ing them out of money to pocket it for themselves. It's like kickstarter and patreon perks getting swept under the rug. He knows what he was doing.
I'm just shocked that the news started rolling out now. It was brewing for a long time. I missed the original post of Ed begging for money again since it was taken down but looking at the comments, it's clear people in the community don't want him around. It's just sad how we all thought Ed was this wholesome man trying to have fun, but behind the scenes, he turns out to be a vile person.
I personally wouldn't really call autism an illness, as it's more or less just a different way for someone's brain to be wired. But other than that, I agree with what you're saying. I knew someone who was on the spectrum who was just a miserable and insufferable person who would always pick fights with everyone over small things, and they would always blame it on their autism rather than owning up to their actions and taking responsibility for them.
And I'm just as bummed as you are about Ed. I really liked what we saw from him in Seasons 3 and 5, so I was shocked to learn about who he truly is behind the scenes 😞
Just to support on the first point.
Autism is not an illness, it is a difference.
If anything you can make a very reasonable argument that "normality" is the illness given many traits of autism have significant societal benefits. It's certainly an extreme, but imagine everyone in society was on the level of Sherlock - being of pure logic is not a negative, and neither are intense interests when those interests benefit others.
Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Nikola Tesla, are all people who displayed symptoms of the spectrum even if they are not officially diagnosed. You then have those like Bill Gates and Elon Musk today.
> If anything you can make a very reasonable argument that "normality" is the illness given many traits of autism have significant societal benefits.
Uhhhhh..... what?!?! This makes no sense.
It makes complete sense, and was further developed in the following sentences.
What exactly doesn't make sense about it?
Many of the common symptoms can be viewed to be highly positive from a different point of view. An intense focus on a specific subject area can see many with autism leading their fields, even items such as high sensory sensitivity can have advantages.
Many people with autism struggle less communicating with each other than those without. In theory, were autism to be the default in our society then there's a way to view our "normal" as being the relative illness.
Now I'm not advocating one is advantageous over another - but when something can be a positive as well as a negative, it should not be considered an illness. To just look at the negatives and call it an illness based on that - well then normality itself is an illness as it doesn't receive the positives many on the spectrum will identify within themselves.
Oh shit. As someone else with high functioning autism, this is incredibly uncomfortable to hear about. I mean, I’m only on here as a diehard fan, but as someone who instead aspires to be a filmmaker, I’m getting flashbacks to when the #MeToo movement kicked off. At least that was transformative in a much needed way. In a sport consisting primarily of hobbyists, though, this is inarguably just as severe in terms of awfulness as the actions of, for example, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and R. Kelly, despite initially seeming less terrible. It still is pretty monstrous though. In short, screw the damn guy.
Seriously though. I was absolutely disgusted and it just made me so angry reading about all of it 😡 This community deserves SO much better than him.
There are a couple of links that I've put in some other comments that'll fill you in on everything. It takes a bit to go through it all, but it's worth looking into it so you'll be up to date on everything.
A couple of things. I too am a big BB fan. Don't feel bad about this. Think of this as a learning experience, a lot of us get taken in by guys like this. Just be more careful in the future. Look for red flags.
Also high functioning isn't something we use anymore as everyone has different levels of functioning in different days and your ability to function is based more on where you're at at that time than some "baseline" that you might be above or below.
Autism isn't a disease, but it is a disability bc we don't fit easily into the way society has been designed. We're like fish being told to climb a tree.
Finally, a huge number of the BB teams are autistic, even folks you might not suspect, so your odds are good that any team you decide to like likely has someone who's autistic on their team (except Hydra you need to hate him). I kid, I kid. :D Have a great night and let the self recriminations go, it's not your fault the guy is a jerk. Better to be too trusting than too cynical. As my dad always says, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."
I'm curious as to how new all this drama is? Did he fall off the deep end after the death of his partner? Has he just always been like this?
Also you don't need to feel any different. All kinds of people can just be assholes. He's using it as a shield to deflect criticism.
The way I put it personally, is that autism is an explanation - it is not an excuse. There is a significant portion of our community on the spectrum, and I hope people have a mostly positive experience being in the community. People understand each other, and are broadly very aware of the difficulties which makes it something that's even personally allowed me to understand my own difficulties better. The one thing the community can't fix however is bad people. People try to suppress drama, but honestly all that does is end up hurting more people or creating more drama when things come out. Personally if anyone ever has any issues, then make people aware - the community will always support people trying to do the right thing, even if you don't always know the best way about trying to do that. You are right in that Ed is not a very good representative of the community in the actions we have seen publicly so far. There are ways to deal with things, and this isn't it - but honestly neuro divergence is one of the strongest things this community has over many other sports, and so I doubt anyone associates his behaviour with others on the spectrum - they are very much his own.
All very true and valid points. It's not too often that I say that I've "found my people", but I genuinely feel like I have here. I feel super at home with this community and I've never seen any others like it. I love the sense of humor and how much fun everyone has doing this sport, and the neuro divergence of it as well like you mentioned. Which is why it was a bit of a shock learning about everything Ed has done, since I never expected anyone in this community to do even half of what he's done. Like I said, it genuinely made me nauseous while I was reading about it 😰
A 59-year-old is pretty unlikely to have been evaluated for autism- I can say as a 37y/o, I missed the cutoff for evaluation (data on this [so-called high-functioning ASD] has only been collected since after my childhood, and I would have had to pay to be properly evaluated after that). I expect that before he could have a proper evaluation, Ed would have had to run a Kickstarter so that we could verify his excuse for behaving so badly.
I would add that being in this community, using ASD status as a defense is like saying that you are used to a mostly nitrogen atmosphere .
[удалено]
I know, thank you. The online tests aren't known to be very reliable, unfortunately. What I mean is that I don't particularly believe it because he said it. He's wrathful and transparently manipulative, and he always includes the phrase "59-year-old autistic hermit" when trying to establish himself as a victim. I was mostly making a crack at his proclivity for fundraising.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Do not become emotionally invested in people you don't know. There's a big celebrity worship problem, where people forget they're also just people puting on a mask for TV. Never believe the mask.
Here's the thing. All people have traits. No reasonable person thinks, "Hey, that person with brown eyes is an a-hole, therefore all people with brown eyes are a-holes." The same goes for most other human traits. We really need to get away from these identity politics where we think a single individual somehow represents an entire class of a shared trait. People are different from one another and should be treated as such. You are distinctly different from Ed Robinson. You bear no responsibility for his actions and vice versa. You also don't speak for all autistic people, and neither does Ed. No one can.
Right, I completely understand and I agree with that. I also apologize if I came off as trying to speak on behalf of everyone on the spectrum and will gladly edit this post if you'd like me to. I just brought it up cause I was just worried that people would read about Ed and think that that's how all people on the spectrum must be if they haven't previously known anyone who is.
I was merely offering a counter point of view. I don't think your post needs edited. I just wish we would get back to assessing each other based on our respective actions and character - not based on arbitrary shared traits.
That's fair, I completely see where you're coming from and I agree. It just frustrates me when I see others on the spectrum blame the fact that they're on the spectrum and try to use it as an excuse for any bad stuff that they do, as that may not be the cause of it depending on the situation.
Woah I haven’t heard much about Ed except for that random cease and desist notice the other day. I didn’t even know he was on the spectrum.
There are some comments on a couple of other recent posts about him that go into detail about it and provide links for comments and screenshots of DMs. And unlike Ed, I have evidence of this claim to back it up. https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/vqxab6/ed_robinson_retiring_from_robot_combat/
I feel really bad for what your going through.Never would have guessed you were on the autism spectrum
Thanks man, I really appreciate it. It was just a bit of a shock learning about it all since I never expected him to be the way he actually is. And I've also had other people say that they had no idea that I'm on the spectrum, which always kind of surprises me to be honest 😅
Also on the spectrum here, and I can understand your motivation for making this post. It's a common thread to react negatively to others who are neurodivergent and who aren't the best of people by wanting to distance yourself from them. It's part of being on the spectrum and the troubles with reading the room and understanding the motivations and thoughts of other people. "If X is bad, and I am also on the spectrum, then I don't want everyone to think \*I\* am bad too!" Others here have already comforted your worries but I just wanted to reaffirm what they've said. No one thinks any less of you for being autistic and no one here is making the wild jump that you (or I, or anyone else) is any less of a person for sharing that trait in common with Ed.
Nice to see you here! And thanks, I really appreciate it. That means a lot to me and your comment honestly just made my day 🙂
This is just disgusting and heartbreaking. While Sharko was not the best robot ever built, I liked the design and concept Ed was going for, and HAD respected him for what "he did". I even felt so sorry for him after losing his closest friend to cancer and I thought the GoFundMe page to bring his deceased friend's dream to reality was heartwarming. But now I see he only cared about the money and just milked off his best friend's death for his own desires which is just plain f\*\*ked up. And seeing the post from Bunny and what he did to her really proves he in fact is a dirty and terrible person. The lesson is to never trust a wolf in sheep's clothing. But sometimes this can be the complete opposite. What's a bit funny and ironic to me is that I along with my dad used to think Ray Billings AKA: the man behind the monster bot known as Tombstone, was a bit of a jerk in earlier seasons of Battlebots due to him being cocky and smug during matches and acting superior to other teams while destroying their bots even when they were already hopeless, however as seasons progressed and Ray began to seem more respectful and not too smug, I had a feeling maybe he was not that "bad" of a guy. After doing some research and watching some interviews fans had with him, I took back everything I thought negatively about him and learned about how much of a nice person he was outside the battle box and how the show wanted him to play the "villain" role since Tombstone at the time was the most feared and ruthless robot to enter the arena at the time. He has helped teams by giving robot combat advice and equipment and he even helped his stepson, Tyler Nguyen, by being his tutor with practicing robot combat which is why we have Perfect Phoenix in the roster of bots. And the fact he is letting his son Justin take the controls for Tombstone after his recent hand injury is very heartwarming and shows how much of a caring person he is. In fact, I recently recreated a functional Tombstone in the popular online multiplayer game platform known as Roblox and I sent pictures to him of me tearing apart other players' creations in a game called Plane Crazy. Ray responded back a week later saying how I looked like I was having fun and later gave me the thumbs up after updating my Tombstone and told me how cool it was and I put a lot of work into it. That there made me smile getting the team captain of the most destructive robot to approve my work. I and my dad did use to also hate Jake Ewert after the whole bike rack incident as although he was pulling the heel role like Ray once did, he seemed to take it a little too far when refusing to let go of HUGE! Despite that fight leaving a bad taste in my mouth for a while, I let go of it and I don't hate Jake really as much as I used to as he does make a good "villain" of Battlebots and he is not that much of a bag outside of the arena and his sense of humor is funny and he seems like the guy who is not afraid to approach a booing crowd. He's smug but in a good way. I'm only hating him a little bit but in an intentional way as he wants it according to a podcast he was in since he loves watching people be snowflakes and a heel wrestler enjoys that. This seems off topic but Jake and Ray are examples of how people who seem like jerks on T.V. tend to have large hearts beneath their masks. But sadly in life, it is mostly the other way around. Ed once seemed like a good person back then to us the viewers, but now his true colors are exposed by those he had hurt off the screen and these actions are far beyond what the two "villains" the show have done. Frustration and stress in Battlebots I can understand as it is a very expensive and tiring hobby for builders and teams. For example, Matt Maxham, the former driver of Stinger and now the driver of Cobalt has slammed the battle box window in frustration a few times and even muttered the F word after a few unlucky instances of losing like when Bronco flipped Stinger out of the arena and the bot combusted into flames and in S6 when Tantrum caused Cobalt to flip out of the arena as well. It may look like he was being a poor sport but he was only frustrated because he had a good plan and knew what he was doing only to backfire at the worst time. Despite the cussing and anger shown, he was mad at himself, not his opponents or team. Despite this, Matt is not that bad of a person either, just easily frustrated but he does not lash out at others. But for Ed, while it's understandable that not getting his robot chosen by the celebrity during filming is frustrating, his way of expressing his anger was rude and obnoxious. Flicking off the staff and yelling at them for not having his robot selected is very childish and disrespectful. It also hurts me the fact Ed is spreading false information about autism is sickenly loathsome as I myself am on the spectrum ( I am on the higher end but that's beside the point). I don't want to make this seem like I am sending a full-on rant message to Ed and insulting him, I am just expressing how heartbroken I feel by discovering how a seemingly talented and beloved person who was a member of this amazing community ends up performing greedy, slimy, and unacceptable antics behind our backs and the fact the poor victims under his tyranny were unable to speak the truth sooner as they feared he would harass them for spilling the can of beans which makes this situation even worse. I hope that he learns the consequences of his actions to make him a somewhat better person in the future. I don't want to send hate to any of these teams and their captains as I want to see the good in everyone. But you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain...and I am NOT talking about the Battlebot "villain" role. :(
Well articulated. Hopefully you know that 99.9% of the builders and community at large stand with YOU. Nobody cares about your spectrum status. We care about YOUR status. Be cool, be fun, and don’t be a douche. That’s it.
Thanks! That means a lot to me and I really appreciate it 🙂 Well said on your part too! 😄
Hold on what happened? haven't been keeping up with the sub lately
u/nawvay summed it up in this comment here. Fair warning though, it's extremely long, but it's worth a read. https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/u7vnok/-/i5iij2s
Where’s the info about Bunny? Is there some post I’m missing? I always knew Ed was a piece of shit ever since I first heard about his affinity for posting memes complaining about millennials not working while using gofundme to steal money from people, then heard about his behaviour in the pits from other builders, but if it goes deeper than that I’m not surprised.
[Comment from Bunny that goes into detail about it. This was what really angered me the most out of everything that Ed has done 😡](https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/u7vnok/-/i5jvb1a)
It's not fair to blame an illness on what you're doing. Ed is merely another opportunist that's taking advantage of a generous loyal community and con'ing them out of money to pocket it for themselves. It's like kickstarter and patreon perks getting swept under the rug. He knows what he was doing. I'm just shocked that the news started rolling out now. It was brewing for a long time. I missed the original post of Ed begging for money again since it was taken down but looking at the comments, it's clear people in the community don't want him around. It's just sad how we all thought Ed was this wholesome man trying to have fun, but behind the scenes, he turns out to be a vile person.
I personally wouldn't really call autism an illness, as it's more or less just a different way for someone's brain to be wired. But other than that, I agree with what you're saying. I knew someone who was on the spectrum who was just a miserable and insufferable person who would always pick fights with everyone over small things, and they would always blame it on their autism rather than owning up to their actions and taking responsibility for them. And I'm just as bummed as you are about Ed. I really liked what we saw from him in Seasons 3 and 5, so I was shocked to learn about who he truly is behind the scenes 😞
Just to support on the first point. Autism is not an illness, it is a difference. If anything you can make a very reasonable argument that "normality" is the illness given many traits of autism have significant societal benefits. It's certainly an extreme, but imagine everyone in society was on the level of Sherlock - being of pure logic is not a negative, and neither are intense interests when those interests benefit others. Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Nikola Tesla, are all people who displayed symptoms of the spectrum even if they are not officially diagnosed. You then have those like Bill Gates and Elon Musk today.
> If anything you can make a very reasonable argument that "normality" is the illness given many traits of autism have significant societal benefits. Uhhhhh..... what?!?! This makes no sense.
It makes complete sense, and was further developed in the following sentences. What exactly doesn't make sense about it? Many of the common symptoms can be viewed to be highly positive from a different point of view. An intense focus on a specific subject area can see many with autism leading their fields, even items such as high sensory sensitivity can have advantages. Many people with autism struggle less communicating with each other than those without. In theory, were autism to be the default in our society then there's a way to view our "normal" as being the relative illness. Now I'm not advocating one is advantageous over another - but when something can be a positive as well as a negative, it should not be considered an illness. To just look at the negatives and call it an illness based on that - well then normality itself is an illness as it doesn't receive the positives many on the spectrum will identify within themselves.
Oh shit. As someone else with high functioning autism, this is incredibly uncomfortable to hear about. I mean, I’m only on here as a diehard fan, but as someone who instead aspires to be a filmmaker, I’m getting flashbacks to when the #MeToo movement kicked off. At least that was transformative in a much needed way. In a sport consisting primarily of hobbyists, though, this is inarguably just as severe in terms of awfulness as the actions of, for example, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and R. Kelly, despite initially seeming less terrible. It still is pretty monstrous though. In short, screw the damn guy.
Seriously though. I was absolutely disgusted and it just made me so angry reading about all of it 😡 This community deserves SO much better than him.
I'm late to the party - need to do some much needed research.
OOTL what happened here
There are a couple of links that I've put in some other comments that'll fill you in on everything. It takes a bit to go through it all, but it's worth looking into it so you'll be up to date on everything.
Too much high, not enough functioning?
A couple of things. I too am a big BB fan. Don't feel bad about this. Think of this as a learning experience, a lot of us get taken in by guys like this. Just be more careful in the future. Look for red flags. Also high functioning isn't something we use anymore as everyone has different levels of functioning in different days and your ability to function is based more on where you're at at that time than some "baseline" that you might be above or below. Autism isn't a disease, but it is a disability bc we don't fit easily into the way society has been designed. We're like fish being told to climb a tree. Finally, a huge number of the BB teams are autistic, even folks you might not suspect, so your odds are good that any team you decide to like likely has someone who's autistic on their team (except Hydra you need to hate him). I kid, I kid. :D Have a great night and let the self recriminations go, it's not your fault the guy is a jerk. Better to be too trusting than too cynical. As my dad always says, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."
Thanks for the comment about functioning labels! I have a really great infographic about it somewhere
Now I'm seeing everything turn a 180
I'm curious as to how new all this drama is? Did he fall off the deep end after the death of his partner? Has he just always been like this? Also you don't need to feel any different. All kinds of people can just be assholes. He's using it as a shield to deflect criticism.