I can tolerate anything except the outgroup (2014)
This is one of the few things I like being autistic for – I don&#x27;t think I&#x27;m socially capable of having out-groups.<p>I have racist friends, sexist friends, homophobic friends, but also antifa friends, feminist friends, homosexual friends. I get on with them all just the same... I don&#x27;t even like labelling them as such because it&#x27;s weird to categorise them in those terms. I might disagree with them on things, but I don&#x27;t dislike them or have any negative emotional feelings towards them as people.<p>If I have an out-group it&#x27;s probably intolerant people. And again it&#x27;s not that I dislike them, but I&#x27;ve lost several friends who won&#x27;t tolerate me defending &quot;intolerant&quot; people. But there&#x27;s not much I can do about that. I get on with everyone who wants to get on with me.<p>Being highly tolerant is socially difficult which is probably why more socially-abled people seek groups and are susceptible to group think. How do you get someone who believes women shouldn&#x27;t have the right to vote to hang out with a feminist? This is an issue I have in my life constantly. Everyone I like hates each other. To some extent our societies probably depend on group think and intolerance – otherwise why form a society at all? Unless your bound by some shared ingroup beliefs forming a society makes no sense. And if you&#x27;re born into that society if you know what&#x27;s good for you you&#x27;ll want to adopt those beliefs!<p>It would be a weird world if we were highly tolerant, i think... I question if my tolerance is moral often. To be highly moral you probably need to have good intolerances which I&#x27;m not capable of. If we were all like me the world would probably be a worse place. I would have been fine with the Nazi&#x27;s. I disagree with them and I&#x27;m glad they lost the war, but I don&#x27;t hate them enough to fight against their views. I&#x27;d rather we try to find a way to all get along.<p>My inability to form out-groups is why I don&#x27;t vote anymore because as much as people don&#x27;t like others, embracing tolerance is probably the only way to ensure people will fight and disagree more.