Please read the Introduction first!
I have been spending too much time on X, lately. A few years ago, I let myself get embroiled into hyperbolic virtual shouting matches with other people who were doing the same thing. I called them the name-callers & fist-shakers. After seemingly endless months of going deeper into that rat-hole, my shrink told me that it wasn’t healthy for me. My wife told me the same thing. So, i deleted my rabble-rousing Twitter account and created a newer, kinder, account. One that I could use in order to have a few laughs, the occasional benign social commentary, and keep in touch with the few folks I knew that stayed with Twitter as it turned, almost, into a social media toilet. It was working, and I was much calmer with my new-found place in the sun.
In a completely unrelated event, I found out that I’m autistic. It has taken a long time (over a year, so far) to come to accept my autism; I’m still working out what being autistic means to me existentially. I have read truckloads of information about autism and being autistic. One of the things I learned is that I’m not just an opinionated old fart, I’m autistically inflexible in my opinions. I had previously thought that I just had strong opinions that were firmly founded on the bricks, rocks, and cement, of knowledge. It couldn’t possibly be that I wasn’t being objective, I was carefully and firmly balanced in my viewpoints. Uhh, not quite it seems. You see, I’ve fallen into the same old habit of name calling & fist shaking. But I realized, tonight, that I’m not nearly as objective as I thought I was. While I was on X, tonight, I fell into it big time. Nobody is right, everybody is too hyperbolic, nobody is wrong, everybody is just near-sighted. Everybody except me, of course. Tell this one how they’re wrong, and why. Block that one, mute this conversation, etc. That’s when it hit me. I’m getting bent out of shape because of… me!! It’s my own autistic inflexibility that is creating my inner angst. Sure, there is a lot of hyperbole going on in X, about a lot of things (besides the obvious issues of today). And my rigid thinking has me blocking & muting users who probably have valid points, but express them with frustration just like me! Get me outa here!!!
So, I’ve decided to forgo the fist-shaking & name-calling, and let people just be. I may still need to block and mute, but now it won’t be done because of a difference in opinion, viewpoint, or outlook, I’m just going to blot it all out. All the yelling and bile… block everything and anybody who is spouting anything controversial. It sounds lame, because it is. But I need to accept the fact that I’m autistic, and I have limitations. One of the many limitations is that there are just some conversations that I can’t get involved in, if I want a shot at being comfortable in my own skin. And I desperately need to be comfortable in my own skin. If you aren’t sure about why that is so damned important to me, come back and read some more of my ramblings… I think I will be able to explain😎