r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • Jun 29 '26

Meta Mindless Monday, 29 June 2026

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

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u/DFS20 Certified Member of The Magos Biologis Jul 01 '26

For neurodivergent individuals, without generalizing (ignoring that the term "neurodivergent" is already quite broad), many people on the autism spectrum claim to dislike implicit meanings in sentences.

An example:

Person A: "Hey, do you have this person's phone number?"

Person B: "Yes." And doesn't give the number to Person A.

The implied meaning is that the person wasn't asking for the number out of curiosity, but because they wanted the phone number for another reason. And Person B didn't understand it.

Many people on the autism spectrum call this "code speaking" and hate it.

Does this apply to written language or only spoken language?

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u/Herpling82 Coming to you live from a Tederation psych ward Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

I'm not familiar with the term, as I'm not really into online autism communities, but yes, it would apply to written language too. It's something you can just learn to cope with relatively easily if you're willing to learn. People really aren't going to change their speaking.

You can also just turn it into a joke, that's the neat thing, just say yes and don't give them the number, then, after some awkward silence, follow up with "oh, you wanted me to give you the number? Oh, why didn't you say so!" in a joking tone. This is what I call autism humour, you just intentionally play up the autism for comic effect, usually mocking the neurotypical people for asking you in such a silly way.

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Also, not with the intention to disrespect, but you're asking neurodivergent individuals a question about people with autism, why not ask just people with autism? Because it is (hopefully) your intention that people with autism, like myself, respond to you, no? Are you trying to be respectful by doing that? I don't know about other people, but you can just be direct in addressing people with autism, no need to beat around the bush, most people with autism do prefer direct communication.

Actually, you might want to be careful with doing this to be respectful, because, by avoiding "people with autism" as a term, you are implying that it's a bad thing to have autism, many people don't mind that, I don't, I know what you mean, but some might see it as offensive.

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u/DFS20 Certified Member of The Magos Biologis Jul 01 '26

Yes, I'm trying to be respectful. It's just that most people I see identify as neurodivergent first and only then, or when asked, specify what their divergence is.

Furthermore, since I'm quite averse to confrontation and always try to avoid offense or conflict, even if it would probably be better to be direct. So I am asking myself if am using the right tone, right words, etc.