Okay, your post makes a lot more sense, eskielover. Now I understand why Aspies and other autistics are considered to not have empathy.

I will admit that I don't empathize or sympathize with a lot of people and their issues. Intellectually I know that I should and about half of the time I'm prepared to give a "proper" response even though I really don't feel anything. I don't like doing that, though, because it's not really being true to myself, so I try to only use it when I absolutely have to. I think I'm a bad actress, but people seem to buy into it.

When I'm genuine about my response (if that response is indifference), then people tend to give me weird looks, and I start feeling like my indifference is invalid and we all feel bad. Like, I'm that person who sees "295" in a news text and worry that there's a wreck on I-295 but them I'm totally relieved when it's just an airplane crash that killed 295 people that I have no connection with whatsoever (this actually happened). I said so to the person next to me at the time, and she was shocked at the plane crash and my general indifference towards it. Is that so wrong? Yes, yes it is.

WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO FEEL INDIFFERENT JUST AS EVERYONE ELSE IS ALLOWED TO FEEL HAPPY OR UPSET OR WHATEVER.

And then it also works the other way sometimes -- meaning I can feel indifferent to other people trying to express empathy/sympathy. I could be upset about something and just feel the need to rant, so I do, and then people are like, "I'm so sorry." And I don't feel any different because their "I'm so sorry" doesn't really do anything to fix the problem. So I tell them not to be sorry, that it's not their fault (because it usually isn't). They usually go on to explain why they're sorry, and I already know why they say they're sorry, but it still doesn't help anything. So then I get even more irritated and start regretting the rant because that was equally unhelpful as the person who apologizes for my struggles that they have no part in.


Am I alone in this? Is this even relevant to the article anymore? LOL