That type of over-payment for a local wine is a variation on the theme of conspicuous waste, something that has plagued humanity since the dawn of civilization. It isn't unique to any economic form, governmental system, or culture. It will take a lot of human evolution to finally move past it.

Kudos to you for wearing your campaign shirt regardless of the reaction! You'll win the respect of good people, even those who support someone else. Those who will trash you for it aren't capable of genuine respect. Hiding yourself only causes damage. Yet another lesson I had to learn the hard way.

There are some good TED talks about the different types of empathy, and lots of books and articles. I don't have any links to posts, but a general search should bring up something for you. By your posts here, it's clear that you have very deep empathy for a wide variety of people despite being treated so badly for most of your life. In case no one tells you this very often, you are awesome, Lundi. You compassion is strongest for the most downtrodden, the very people most of those around you would spit on if they could. Expression your thoughts and feelings is hard for anybody on the spectrum, or with ADD or other neurological differences.

Knowing how to screen dates is something even NTs struggle with, and many never master it. People who have very good social skills don't judge those who don't; they're patient and kind. The ones you met only pretended to have skills, the "fake-it-'til-you-make-it" mentality. I'm still working on learning to distinguish an act from the genuine article. My own Aspie-ish tendencies make me too inclined to take people at their word. I'm learning to hold back and see if their actions, and how they interact with others, actually match what they say.

Genuine social skills are based on empathy, both cognitive and emotional. Those who use cognitive empathy as a weapon because they lack emotional empathy are fakers, and are likely either narcissists or psychopaths (and of course narcissism is an essential part of psychopathy). It sounds like you fell into a hornet's nest of them.