Login
You're viewing the aleph.land public feed.
  • Kevin Davypathfinder@beige.party
    Oct 30, 2026, 4:26 PM

    @Tamtam @autistics
    As autistics we naturally think outside the box, mostly because we don't even see it. We are also pattern chasers. It means that we connect and see things in terms of a much bigger picture. Especially when you add in our sensitivity and tendency to retain our ability to feel and connect with things outside of the human world on many levels.
    Unfortunately NTs tend to be far more human centric and to compartmentalise even that into small boxes of carefully separated and guarded understandings. Even their very language, that we all use, is geared towards this purpose.
    It makes seeing the interconnectedness of all things much harder to see and really come to terms with and the problem of single issues and solutions being one more of design than inherent.

    💬 1🔄 4⭐ 2

Replies

  • TamtamTamtam@mastodon.de
    Oct 30, 2026, 4:53 PM

    @pathfinder @autistics apparently we used to live in a different culture. There is historical research about how neurodivergence became what it is now, when before it was part of the amplitude of normal. That path has a lot to do with capitalism, and with how our experience of the world changed, when we started to be able to create artificial ones, at the start of industrialization.
    But there is another layer here. Trauma and the need to conform to powerstructures make it an imperative that you do not feel or perceive in this integrated way. Neurodivergents may just be less adapted to that, even though we feel the pressure to and most of us would gladly not feel as much if only we had the choice.
    I believe humans in general would easily be able to adapt to a different way of feeling and seeing the world. A more interconnected one. If it weren't for fear. For disadvantages to reckon with. For ease of survival and for the perks of conformity.
    We may just be stubborn survivors , relics of a previous culture.
    I believe the neurodivergent, who says "yes, I want to be this way, this is how I am made and that is how I best serve the whole and thank you, I'm fine" needs courage and creativity and luck to find some space to exist in the margins.
    I feel I am happier when I embrace this. It's not a great position to be in but If I manage to survive and thrive I can help reintegrate this viewpoint where it belongs. Into human consciousness. That may or may not work but at least it makes sense beyond just surviving.

    💬 4🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Jo - pièce de résistanceJoBlakely@mastodon.social
    Oct 30, 2026, 5:57 PM

    @Tamtam @pathfinder @autistics

    If nothing else, imo, living authentically takes a lot of courage, is its own reward, and THE model of rebellion against conformity & the destruction of integrity & disconnection to the whole. It’s shows people it can be done. It is internal validation instead of external (which wants you to wear a role & mask before you even know yourself and outsource self-love). People become shapeshifters & never really know themselves or what they are capable of…

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 1
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Kevin Davypathfinder@beige.party
    Oct 30, 2026, 6:09 PM

    @Tamtam @autistics
    Very much so. And this also demonstrates our ability to see the evolution and interconnectivity of the patterns. From nomadic, to agricultural and settled lives that increased the pressure on conformity and the distancing of humans from nature.
    The rise of nation states and industrial lifestyles that further compounded these issues and increased the reliance on living within an artificial construct of not just capitalism and patriarchal pressures, but class and economical constructions that further normalised the separateness and artifice of our lives. Artifice that we are still more than aware of and which is so hard to make others see.

    💬 2🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 1
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • lifewithtreeslifewithtrees@mstdn.social
    Oct 31, 2026, 12:23 PM

    @pathfinder @Tamtam @autistics totally agree. I want to choose the “what makes me and others most free to show up as ourselves” as a default whenever and wherever possible”

    And that’s by definition countercultural and undermining to the mythology of domination that is disconnecting all of us from the universe ( including each other )

    💬 2🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Evan Lightelight@tenforward.social
    Oct 31, 2026, 1:38 PM

    @lifewithtrees @pathfinder @Tamtam @autistics Indeed, it is countercultural in almost every culture. Cultures generally favor conformance. I'd argue that it is almost one of the definitions of a culture: it's what defines someone who is part of the tribe from someone who is not.

    Tribalism and, so, fear of the foreign is an aspect common to many species. I have to imagine that this naturally evolved from the scarcity mindset needed to survive. Capitalism thoroughly encourages this mindset. For that matter, it keeps us concentrated more on our same and near-rung social competitors and far less so on those further up the contemporary feudal hierarchy that we live in. And that's how capitalism likes it.

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • TamtamTamtam@mastodon.de
    Oct 31, 2026, 1:59 PM

    @elight @lifewithtrees @pathfinder @autistics patriarchal non- cultures do. I wouldn't generalize that. culture is a human thing. Every dominant patriarchal culture is underpinned by the creativity of grassroots or counterculture ( or whatever you want to call it) As every such cultures is underpinned by female unpaid labor. Hierarchies that are prevalent in most of today's cultures, live on the creativity and labor they suck out of the diversity that exists on the bottom tier of their construct. We are still one species. Energy , ideas, and creativity still flows from all kinds of people just the hierarchies are tying to control and use/abuse it, which comes with a lot of restriction and suppression that ultimately makes us poor and stuck in uncreative ways, through which those cultures( as ours) then destroy themselves. Then the cycle begins again, Until we learn not to do that anymore. Not to fall for artificial scarcity, control, power, fascist leaders and not have our primal fear and aggression instinct manipulated into war and destruction. And reconnect to abundance of the real and the natural world.
    Or it did start again. This time we'll have to learn. It won't restart. Because the bottom tier has always been nature, and it's marvelous creativity, diversity and abundance. And it bears no more cycles.

    💬 2🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Evan Lightelight@tenforward.social
    Oct 31, 2026, 2:13 PM

    @Tamtam @lifewithtrees @pathfinder @autistics I respect your optimism and also disagree with it. Human nature seems to be to repeat the mistakes of the past when we either forget or believe that we are somehow exceptional in ways that the lessons of the past no longer apply.

    There are too few of us, and we are all different and sparse, that I strongly doubt that we NDs can create and foment such an idyllic culture, standalone or otherwise. History supports this.

    I say this because I don't see our species as substantially more intelligent, in some ways, than others. The vast majority, including even us, often function from the older parts of our brains. Those parts consume less energy. And conserving energy, when possible, is a behavior of life.

    That said, it is one of our peculiarities that we hyperfixate, and, so, fail to conserve, that causes us to appear uncanny.

    💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Evan Lightelight@tenforward.social
    Oct 31, 2026, 2:22 PM

    @Tamtam @lifewithtrees @pathfinder @autistics A way to foster these cultures you seek is to create them ourselves.

    I did this, two decades ago. I a subculture focused on encouraging tolerance and inclusion and mutual support, akin to what you described. I partially succeeded but the cost to me was high: the emotional labor to hold it together, to steer it toward the unselfish yet just close enough to the mainstream to encourage more participation.

    It cost me too much. And it contributed to the bill of suffering that led to the burnout I have existed within for years now.

    Constructing and maintaining a subculture so out of alignment with the dominant culture either takes an immense selfish drive or its opposite. Neither of these are sustainable.

    The dominant cultures win because they appeal to natural human instincts. We, NDs, tend to exist outside or adjacent to those natures.

    💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Evan Lightelight@tenforward.social
    Oct 31, 2026, 1:49 PM

    @Tamtam @pathfinder @autistics For this neurodivergent who thrived anyway meaningful way through history, I can only see two primary avenues to that thriving: either they found a way to dominate or they found a peculiar niche operating in a role seen as a medium to the superstitious.

    We tend to appear uncanny to NTs. For those of us who are "Level 1"-ish, our abilities and limitations, who were seen as somehow capable, I suspect we were head with a form of reverence coupled with degrees of fear. When I say this, (and this always offend someone because they hear it in the contemporary context rather than historical), I mean that those of us in that category were seen as "wise ones", "shamans", "sorcerers", "the gifted touched", and "oracles": people to be feared but also sought out for aid. Those same people lived on the edges of cultures, unable and unwilling to be a part of the day to day but existing in a form of symbiosis.

    We still have these people. They're the iconoclastic experts, appreciated by some for their craft and despised by others for their countercultural lifestyles and promulgation of same. For example, some are open source software maintainers of projects used by many.

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Kevin Davypathfinder@beige.party
    Oct 31, 2026, 4:44 PM

    @elight @Tamtam @autistics
    I believe that in earlier, smaller societies there was always an advantage to being neurodivergent that could be recognised, irrespective of how it presented. There was always a role for those who didn't need supervision or who were hyper-vigilant, pattern seeking, or basically nocturnal.
    From night guards, trackers, scouts, hunters, safeguarding lifestock, making sure fires didn't go out 24/7 and so on.
    It was when humans began to settle into an agrian fixed existence that society became more and more hierarchical and patriarchal.
    Brought on by the need to defend fixed assets that couldn't any longer be just picked up and moved and increased competition for the limited resources needed to be able to exist this way. And the stricter requirements for discipline and cooperation it requires, where differences became seen more as a threat to this, than a value to be cherished.

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Evan Lightelight@tenforward.social
    Oct 31, 2026, 5:34 PM

    @pathfinder @Tamtam @autistics I was about to say: the moment we began to commoditize human behavior, we became problematic for society. We are far less interchangeable. In most cultures, that is undesirable or worse.

    Interesting and seemingly indisputable point you made. I'll elaborate: the human move the agriculture was a first "industrial revolution". Humans became the first interchangeable parts.

    Eli Whitney and his cotton gin began the second one.

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Taran Rampersadknowprose@mastodon.social
    Oct 31, 2026, 2:32 PM

    @Tamtam @pathfinder @autistics I have thought about this. I believe it started with the Agricultural Revolution and hardened in the Industrialization with the emphasis on specializations.

    Before then, NDs were more valued. Now they are handing out boxes.

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • TamtamTamtam@mastodon.de
    Oct 31, 2026, 2:37 PM

    @knowprose @pathfinder @autistics we need to integrate the fact though, that all of the older cultural forms persisted and do persist to this day. As part of the peoples culture. It's been a back an forth of creating new iterations and of repression of them.

    💬 2🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • TamtamTamtam@mastodon.de
    Oct 31, 2026, 2:49 PM

    @knowprose @pathfinder @autistics right, Ownership, extraction, control, artificial scarcity.The important layer of this is what this material change creates, in terms of emotional and mental change. Change, or rather shrinking, of consciousness A revolution can change material structures, but in order to change our consciousness, it takes a lot more, a deeper process, That's why revolutions fail, unless they are underpinned by such processes. They often end in the erection of a similar hierarchy and just being reduced to a temporary venting of pent up aggression.
    That's why I believe our work of selfhealing and -discovery as neurodivergents is structurally important to lasting change. As well as female healing and empowerment and any healing work that restructures our humanity to a more integrated state. It takes out the limits to what we can do and where we can go, once a crack in the system opens up.

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0