And it has all kinds of implications and context and shit.

How the fuck am I supposed to tell what’s just people doing things at random and what’s a part of all-singing-all-dancing-shit-show the neurotypicals call “social norms”? Down with NTs.

Honestly while it’s really fucking annoying that refusal to participate could result in some silly neuronormo interpreting a completely innocuous action as an offense, and it can cut you off from social shit, I think it’s basically the only way. The same button never does the same thing twice. Screeching rn.

  • the_itsb [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    mfw I found out that “are you hungry” actually means “will you eat with me” and “what’re you doing this weekend” means “would you like to make plans?” 🤦

    these are things I learned in the last 12 months – I just turned 42

    pretty much all the time, it feels like everyone got a memo that I missed

    • Acute_Engles [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      Once again this comes down to allistic people being afraid to be honest or vulnerable. If i ask you to go for dinner and you say no i have all the bad feelings of rejection and shame. If i say “are you hungry?” And you say not really i can still continue as if i wasn’t rejected.

      It used to be an innuendo to ask a person “would you like to see my etchings(drawings)?” I remember a teacher of mine finding old newspaper comics that reinforced this

    • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.netOP
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      13 days ago

      I often ask my wife “are you hungry” and then we both have a discussion about both our hunger levels and actual willingness to eat, lmao

      We really do need a Gayroller-2000 style emote for neurotypicals.

        • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.netOP
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          13 days ago

          madeline-smug That’s pretty cool actually, we arrived at the optimal solution individually. Convergent Neurodiverse Evolution!!

          Ikr, imagine having to ask weirdo questions instead of just saying “Hey wanna get food with me?” or something? Common neurotypical L toriel-glare

      • Gorb [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        13 days ago

        But this makes sense because i want to know other people’s hunger levels to make a decision on what to do about it. The followup question is usually about what kind of food and when and coming to a consensus on what eataging will satisfy our differing hunger levels.

        If I’m asking a rando colleague out to lunch my question literally just is. “Pub?” And i get a yay or nay

    • Łumało [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
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      13 days ago

      HOW MANY MORE COMRADES HERE ARE OLD ENOUGH TO BE MY PARENTS :kitty-cri-screm:

      spoiler

      You’re cool, I love you for being cooler than my dad. It sucks my dad isn’t as cool :sadness:

    • BountifulEggnog [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      I found out that “are you hungry” actually means “will you eat with me”

      Oh I just realized this one too, a few seconds ago. I wonder how many times I’ve said not really when I should have said yes??

        • magi [null/void]@hexbear.net
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          13 days ago

          How many people were flirting with us or just trying to be friends with us, and we were totally oblivious??

          I would imagine quite a bit, can be hard to tell with NT people, though I generally can pick up quite a bit though I have had quite a few people just randomly ask me out or what not in the past so they can misread me being interested in them makima-think

          • the_itsb [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            13 days ago

            misread me being interested in them

            oh yeah 🤦

            took me way too long to figure out that people were reading my natural cheer and enthusiasm as romantic interest instead of just the general interest I intended

            • magi [null/void]@hexbear.net
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              13 days ago

              Yeah I get that a lot also funny because I’m ace and just my natural way of talking can be misread as flirtation or just because I’d listen to people talk about stuff lol people are weird

          • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            13 days ago

            One of my weirder experiences in my college years was walking home from one of my retail jobs, one that was unfortunately close to a “scene kid” hangout where I found the squealing screaming valley girls loitering around insufferably loud and I hated having to clean up the restroom after they regularly trashed it, often ten at a time… and there they were, rolling up and honking and squealing at me. ralsei-startled

            And they offered me a ride down the road where I was going. I accepted, squeezing myself into a car packed with scene girls. ralsei-splat

            They seemed confused that I just sat there, annoyed, but glad to get off my feet for a while. Did they expect me to paw at them or something? I found them annoying, not hot, especially because I was some years older than any of them and the way they carried themselves was gratingly immature. ralsei-upset

            My lack of interest in them seemed to get them excited, like, I was forbidden fruit or something. Made me more uncomfortable and I politely took my leave once the car went far enough. kitsuralsei

            They started being nicer to me from then on, even trashing the restroom less while still loitering. ralsei-wut

            • magi [null/void]@hexbear.net
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              13 days ago

              Did they expect me to paw at them or something?

              I wouldn’t know, maybe they expected something to happen but lbecause you didn’t do anything maybe they were thankful.

              I’d have been the same, I tend to shut down if there is a lot of people. Like I’ll only really talk when spoken to so verbally I would be quiet and it would be misread as there something wrong lol. Depending on the people I would typically sit and happily listen to what goes on or listen to a radio or something if they were annoying lol I’m generally polite regardless.

    • Moonworm [any]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      People ask this because it’s an invitation to eat with someone without the respondant having to admit that they are would like to be fed, which could be consisdered as implying that their host or whatever is being negligent to the needs of their guest. It is a little silly. But, and I am a ND person who has learned a lot of this by trial and error, there are deep instinctual behaviors that these rituals are about. I’m not here to say whether or not any of this is good or not, but especially the rules about hospitality strike me as things that got ingrained into culture in order to make common uncomfortable situations more reliable by the means of rituals that people follow or don’t, indicating whether or not they’re someone who is going to play their prescribed role - this is maybe why there are often many ritual refusals and acceptances. It’s a way to play-act giving someone something that historically might have been precious and if they don’t play along, you can weed out people who are likely to take advantage of you. It’s imperfect of course and not considerant of neuroatypical people, but it just kind of had to work well enough to keep going.

      It is definitely frustrating to not know ettiquette and I often feel like throwing all of it out in favor of a more direct system. Sometimes I do! But for the rest of the time, I find that ettiquette manuals are super helpful, especially when they explain the reasoning behind otherwise inscrutable rituals.

    • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      “what’re you doing this weekend” means “would you like to make plans?” 🤦

      Bad news: sometimes this is just small talk and the only way to tell the difference is tone of voice and context.

    • Jenniferrr [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      Wow I’m allistic and I didn’t even realize those two haha. I mean, if I ask “are you hungry” and the answer is no, I’ll just be like “well do you wanna come with me to get food” if that’s what I’m asking lol