Talk:Blue and Orange Morality

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Real life - autism

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Useless Knowledge (talkcontribs)

I would say it's a bit complicated. Most autistic people appear to have a strong sense of morality of some sort, unlike e.g. psychopaths. But they may have different sensory experiences and usually process other people's feelings in a different way. The lack of empathy associated with autism is mainly a lack of cognitive empathy meaning the ability to recognize and "read" other people's feelings and intentions. Everything that manages to take this hurdle is usually met by them with a normal deal of affective empathy meaning they are basically capable of "feeling with" others. Those at the higher end of the spectrum often seem to have increased levels of this even.

So it's right, the pecularities of empathy in autistic people tend to give them shades of Blue and Orange Morality. There are studies saying autistic children tend to morally judge actions by their outcome rather than their intention due to their lack of mind-reading. And that makes sense. It becomes more difficult in adults however, as autistic people - like everyone else - learn to work around their weaknesses to some extent.

Another point is their differences in sensory perception, which can cause normal human behaviors to become sensory insults to them. Some may jump-scare every time somebody touches them, for example, or every time a door shuts hard. On the other hand, they may be under-sensitive to their own noise and consequently be quite noisy themselves without noticing. Or they may walk around touching unconsenting people because they think it's the right way to make contact. All of which can make them appear selfish, although most of them are clearly not jerkasses.

Lastly, the special interests of autistic people can often become obsessive and all-consuming, as their brains can get completely lost in them. As a consequence they might neglect other things that everyone else would consider more important, such as social conventions, doing your job at work, your household etc. Which is probably one of the explanations why their academic careers differ so vastly. It's kind of a lottery game - they succeed if one or more of their special interests coincide with their obligations.

So far, Blue and Orange morality? Yes. But I don't see the point why autistic people should be considered amoral.

RabidTanker (talkcontribs)

Speaking from personal experience, I think what makes them amoral is their inability to learn from their mistakes. Like how throwing an tantrum when something important to them is taken away from them as punishment isn't a convincing argument for the average person to immediately give it back.

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