[ SECRET POST #5462 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5462 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 31 secrets from Secret Submission Post #782.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

General comments:

(If the thread contains spoilery/triggery content please warn/post as 2nd comment so it collapses!
Please collapse images, too!)

Spoiler rant

[(Anonymous)]

Is it really so hard for authors to NOT put spoilers in AO3 tags? Simply tag something like 'blankety blank' spoilers and if there is something major that happened like a character death, maybe NOT spoil that in the tags. And saying something to the effect of 'Sorry you were spoiled in the tags' makes you an ass.

Sorry needed to vent. Because finding this particular spoiler in this author's A03 tags when I hadn't yet seen the movie yet (fuck it, it was No Way Home that was spoiled), left me a bit pissed off.

Re: Spoiler rant

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that's been out for two days. You're right to be pissed. That author's an asshat.

Re: Spoiler rant

[philstar22]

Wow. That person is a real asshole.

Re: Spoiler rant

[(Anonymous)]

Was it really a spoiler that Garfield and Maguire were in Spider-Man: No Way Home, or that May dies? Because I am not even a Spider-Man or MCU fan and even I knew that a couple of months ago.

Re: Spoiler rant

[tabaqui]

That's amazingly annoying. I'm sorry you got spoiled.

Re: Spoiler rant

[meadowphoenix]

it does seem more like the norm is moving toward having to proactively avoid than everyone having the courtesy of waiting for a period of time, but I think if the new movie was tagged then you're going to have a difficult time determining when courtesy tag norms apply when people eventually do want happenings to be tagged.

Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I came across a post today that made me go, "...wait, what?" It started out by saying that neurotypical people are prevented from touching a hot stove by their brains. Since the brain knows that touching the stove will bring pain, it becomes physically impossible for the neurotypical person to do it. Neurotypicals are capable of performing other unpleasant tasks, however, because their brains reward them with serotonin upon completion of the task.

This is complete nonsense. And of course, the post ends with "neurotypicals should not respond to this," preemptively shutting down any nominally neurotypical person saying, "hold on, that's not true. I can touch hot stoves and I don't get a serotonin hit from scrubbing my toilet."

It made me think about some other things I've seen floating around, and the picture that emerges is this: neurotypicals are always able to focus. They never procrastinate. They never feel anxious, awkward, or depressed, and never have trouble making friends or relating to people. On the other hand, neurotypicals lash out when they encounter neurodivergent people, because neurodivergent people are incapable of lying, and neurotypicals are incapable of honesty. This makes neurotypicals naturally prone to abuse.

Neurodivergence, meanwhile, covers a wide range. Since it's not neurotypical to be anxious or depressed, struggling with either of those things makes you neurodivergent. Since it's not neurotypical to procrastinate, procrastination makes you neurodivergent. Since it's not neurotypical to have a messy house, if you have a messy house, it points to some inherent dysfunction in your brain that makes you neurodivergent.

My feeling is, increasingly, that "neurotypical" is a stand-in for two things: first, an unattainable ideal that none of us are capable of achieving, but that serves an important sociocultural purpose by completely individualizing our struggles and suffering; second, the bully, whether it be a peer, a teacher, a parent, a system, etc. There is no actual Neurotypical Person as understood by the denizens of social media. It's a spook.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

There does seem to be a growing trend of relatability-by-neurodivergence that on the one hand, can be a useful tool for people to vent/share about their situations, but on the other hand, tends to lay ALL issues at the ND table and, yeah, treat "neurotypical" as some other species (and frequently one that requires no empathy in kind, I've noticed).

This kind of shit absolutely didn't help me with my mental state at all because I was always assumed to be neurotypical, not having any of the "popular" mental illnesses (according to these kinds of posts), so that a) I ended up having to always be the understanding one in my group because everyone else has An Excuse but also b) it took me years to recognize that I actually did have anxiety that desperately needed treatment, because it wasn't As Bad As A Real Neurodivergent Person, according to the internet.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

There is no such thing as neurotypical, it is a word used by people, who do have issues tbf, to insult others in order to take the heat off their own failings or feel superior to others. It is a sneer!word

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I think as a general rule you could probably say that no concept or intellectual construct exists as envisioned by random people on social media. Social media is universally prone to this kind of error.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen hints of this as well and it's very... ugggghh. Like fine, I'm not neurotypical myself, but I'm also not emotionally invested in this Us vs. Them mentality where neurotypicals are just sooooo lucky and nothing is ever wrong in their lives which makes them heartless bastards, blah blah blah while neurodivergent people need all the hugs and understanding in the world blah blah blah. It's so damn WEIRD, as if blaming "neurotypicals" is a bad coping mechanism for feeling better about yourself? As if it's the fault of "neurotypicals" that I struggle to function on a mundane, day to day level? I don't know why, but some people feel better have a boogeyman to blame rather than their own brain chemistry or bad luck in the genetic lottery.

And then of course everyone wants to be neurodivergent because they're special, amazing survivors who get all the cookies. How exhausting.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, there's also a fairly popular tumblr post making the rounds that claims that Americans don't learn that other countries exist until they're 11. Social media in general is not a good place to learn about the world.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

Most of my friends are neurotypical and identify as such. The difference between me (ADHD and mild autism) and them is painfully stark. We've had frank conversations about it many times, they're interested in how the world is different for me and I in how it's different for them.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm autistic. I have several confirmations of this, including formal diagnoses. I'm also pretty heavily involved in autistic self-advocacy.

Growing up autistic, I (and others) generally describe the same experience: the feeling of being "apart" from other people, never quite being understood by others in ways you can't describe, a need to do certain things and walk to the beat of your own drum that other people seem capable of just... not doing. For example, I hid a lot in dark, enclosed spaces, and when people asked why, I just said it was comfortable that way and I liked it. This got a lot of weird looks and some assumed I was doing it for attention—it took time for me to realize that I was getting overwhelmed by all the sensory stimuli and was seeking out a calm, quiet place where I could recover.

All this pointed to me being neurodivergent, while other people weren't. People who had ADHD, autism, moderate to severe anxiety or mood disorders, etc. or who discovered that they had something later in life—they all understood me. They understood the need to be by oneself for a while, the feeling of intrinsic estrangement from others that they felt crazy trying to explain to other people. I think this is what people forget the more they attempt to define it in trivial acts that, frankly, quite a number of people do. A good amount (not all) of the construct of neurodivergence is contextually and culturally dependent (some disorders exist in the ICD that don't in the DSM, criteria differ between the two, severity of criteria to qualify for diagnosis differ). Someone who is a level 1 autistic individual in the United States may not even be considered autistic at all in Japan, because so many autistic traits are common in Japanese culture. People also seem to forget that all humans will experience depression or anxiety at some point in their lives, and some may even exhibit neurodivergent traits (e.g., becoming non-speaking after a traumatic event). The difference is whether these things have a cause you can point to (people with chronic depression or anxiety disorders generally do not) and whether they're chronic things you have to live with (the depression might go away in an individual without MDD/dysthymia given the right supports and strategies, but people with depressive disorders tend to cycle and can't be fixed even with medication).

In sum, I think the individuals attempting to codify this or that as neurodivergent behavior are new to this whole neurodiversity thing, or younger members looking for camaraderie and #Relatability while entirely missing the point.

(Nota bene: "Neurodiverse" and "neurodivergent" are separate ideas. Humanity itself is neurodiverse, but not all humans are neurodivergent. Judy Singer [who coined the term "neurodiversity" in 1998] takes great pains to distinguish the two and many individuals tend to get this wrong.)

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I have nothing to add here except that A) I'm pretty sure a lot of people who could be considered neurodivergent would be equally unwilling/unable to touch a hot stove as anyone considered neurotypical because their brains also tell them the stove will bring pain, B) I'm pretty sure a neurotypical person could still touch a hot stove if they had a gun to their head or something and would be perfectly physically capable of doing so even if they desperately didn't want to, and C) I hope touching a hot stove to prove you're neurodivergent doesn't become the latest TikTok trend or whatever.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[meadowphoenix]

I think this mindset is specific within a certain group of denizens of the internet and not all of them. Most of the people who are organizing off-line groups, events, and programs are pretty clear on the difference between neurotypical and neurodivergent. But if your point is to exist entirely in a conclave of people who think like you, which is also possible, then you're going to get whatever you encountered.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

probably because most of the stuff on social media is written by teenagers and the term "neurotypical" is just code for "my mean parents who want me to clean my room" and "that kid who bullies me in school".

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm guessing you and I saw the same post, although I didn't see the comment about scrubbing toilets.

I thought it was a serviceable metaphor, maybe not worded perfectly, but I can't count the number of times I've been told "I don't know what's so difficult about (whatever task), just do it, it takes five minutes," and for some stuff that I objectively agree shouldn't be that hard, my brain substitutes "skinny dip in a piranha tank" or maybe "pull out all my own teeth with rusty pliers."

I always understood the separation between neurodivergent and neurotypical to be pretty fuzzy, and also a matter of degree and how much/negatively it impacts your life.

If you worry about an upcoming blind date like "what if we don't like each other," and then you go on the date and decide not to go on another because you didn't enjoy yourself, your anxiety about the date didn't have much of an impact.

If you are so freaked out that you don't leave your apartment for six months after the not great date, you've got issues and need help.

It's obvious why there'd be more people talking about their issues anonymously or pseudo-anonymously online than most places irl that aren't group therapy sessions--if you can't handle in person interaction that well (raises hand) the anonymity and/or separation from real life acts as a buffer. Unfortunately sometimes that means people think they're free to be shitheads online.

I forget if there's a term for it, but sometimes it does feel like the internet can be like first year psychology or med students that turn into hypochondriacs diagnosing themselves and each other with all the stuff they learn about in class, when they're mostly fine. But lots of people who are actually mentally fucked up disproportionally spend more of their time online, too.

Idk if this holds true everywhere, but in the US the estimate is that 1/4 of the population has a mental disorder, otherwise known as being neurodivergent, and with US access to healthcare being complete shit and mental healthcare lurking somewhere behind dental so far as affordability and accessibility go, it would not surprise me if that's an underestimate.

--someone who used to bite people and hide under tables in class all the way through high school, and still can't keep my house clean, but has never been formally diagnosed with anything.

Re: Does the Neurotypical Person actually exist?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure I'm physically incapable of touching a hot stove for longer than the split second it takes for the pain to register and my hand to automatically yank itself away. Maybe what the article meant was that some neurodivergent people lack that automatic reflex and will keep touching the stove? I'd give it the benefit of the doubt because neurodivergence is a wide net and works in multitudes of different ways. People tend to be unspecific enough when talking about what type of neurodivergence they mean and that's a different problem but I wouldn't assume this was totally made up.

I did however once see a post that said neurotypicals basically speak in code and when they say X they really mean Y. Like when they say "What are you watching?" they definitely always really mean "Can I join you?" and they expect you to know this instinctively. Which could also have been true of a small number of neurotypicals, but none of them are how I talk and I had no clue where most of the examples came from.

[(Anonymous)]

https://i.imgur.com/4zqf1Is.jpg

What are You currently reading

[philstar22]

What book(s) are you currently reading or rereading?


I randomly decided this morning to do a Narnia reread, mostly because I was looking for something short to read at the Dallas Arboretum. I ended up reading all of Magician's Nephew and the first third of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe before it got too cold and I had to leave.

Prolific Fic

[(Anonymous)]

What are some of the most prolific fics in your fandom? Did you read them and were they deserving of the hype? Was it one of yours? Was there a lesser known one that you felt executed a similar plot better?/was altogether a better story?

Feel free to provide description or name of the fic.

Brought to you by the fact that the fic I'm currently loving and realizing that it appears in my Google search as a suggestion when I start typing in the name of the fic lol

C.S. Pacat's "Dark Rise" vs. Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" sequence

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, I'm the anon who set out to do a comparison read to see how similar Pacat's book was to the Cooper series. Short answer: not really. Long answer: I made a secret about it and will submit it shortly, but IMO it reminds me more of Tolkien than Cooper and I think the whole "I did it because representation" claim of Pacat's is flimsy at best.

Google Earth Help

[(Anonymous)]

Can I ask you guys a quick favor? If you have Google Earth, not Google Maps but specifically Google Earth, on your laptop or PC, can you just do a quick search for Ayr, please? It ought to resolve to Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland, but I've been getting a persistent bug that is causing it to zoom off to a random spot in Antarctica. Is anyone else getting this issue, and if you are can you please tell me, without giving specific identifiable details, which country and/or region you are in. Thanks.