This system’s social abilities are paradoxical. That is, we can pick up on nuances fairly well in some circumstances, but there are social areas in which we are just plain stupid. That’s part and parcel of being on the autistic spectrum, but it plays out in a few different ways for us. There are ways in which of us have social advantages and disadvantages over one another–for example, Richard has a lot more tact than I have–but there are areas in which we’re all affected to a certain degree. It is really hard for us to judge ’social space’–sometimes we can give too little space, or too much, which makes people think that we’re smothering or neglecting them. (Hess and I are amongst some of the worst judges of that, honestly, with more introverted people here being less ‘dumb’ there.)
Conversely, we have no difficulty understanding larger-picture social issues, like culturally-sanctioned oppression and the privilege that stems from that. I’d say that’s a bit of a special interest of mine, honestly. That sort of social messiness is something that’s fairly easy for most of us to understand, actually. (M.D. is a bit of an exception, because he has a hard time with organised philosophical or sociological thought.) It’s a matter of understanding the big picture, but not really getting the little picture. (In fact, this describes a lot of our ‘autistic deficits’ in general, like our visual processing problems–we can notice if an area is messy or clean, but we will not always notice *why* something is considered out of place when someone complains about it.) That means that I (I’ll use myself as an example) can talk to you about why sexism, imperialism and homophobia intersect with each other in post-colonial society, but I might have a harder time working out why I’m offending you personally, unless you tell me exactly why.