Let’s talk about the astounding similarities between cats and autistic people, and how we should make them the official autism mascot instead of that godawful puzzle piece
Oh man, now you’ve got me going!
Firstly, cats stim. They purr, swish their tails and knead their paws against pillows, blankets, and other soft things. Many cats actively seek out sensory experiences, like listening to birds singing, lying in a sunbeam, rolling against the grass, etc.
Cats have sensory sensitivities— many of them dislike walking on certain flooring, touching certain textures, and certain smells or sounds may make them anxious. Their fur is very sensitive, they can sense the lightest touch, or speck of lint, or dust and their skin will quiver until they can lick or rub it off. When they become overstimulated cats retreat into a small, dark place to recover.
Cats love routine. Many cats know the exact time that their owners wake up in the morning and will wake them. A cat with a routine is a happy cat— they love to have their meals or soft food on a schedule and will learn their owner’s schedule. Cats will become anxious when the schedule is disrupted or if their owner doesn’t follow their usual routine.
In the same vein cats are very wary and/or anxious when it comes to the introduction of new things or people into their environment. Cats require time and patience to get used to anything or anyone newly introduced. Cats also feel anxious when existing furniture is rearranged or when a new smell (like an air freshener) is introduced into the home.
Cats often have “special interests”, a particular activity or thing that they love and can spend hours enjoying. It could be playing with a particular toy, chewing on something, listening to the radio, or watching the clothes in the washing machine. My cat Kitty has a certain ball that she fixates on and will happily enjoy and obsess over for hours.
Finally, cats have a very distinct and subtle body language. The difference is particularly evident when compared with the exuberant, unsubtle dog. The slightest twitch of a tail or turn of the ears, the frequency and timing of blinks, and the positioning of the tail in relation to the body are all little movements that can express much. To the untrained eye it may appear as if a cat is bored, aloof, or unaware of its surroundings. But once you learn to recognize cat body language and understand cat communication, you’ll be amazed at the depth of emotion and how expressive your cat really is.
Yes, I think that cats have a lot in common with autistic people. And that’s wonderful!
also can I add to this:
cats like to show their affection just by sharing the same space. a cat will generally want to be in the same space as you, even if you’re not really interacting and are half way across the room. still hanging out!
they don’t always want to be touched, and can be easily overstimulated by physical affection.
they don’t like to make eye contact.
their body language is often misinterpreted- and then they are blamed for it, or have negative motivations ascribed to it. a cat following you around is stalking you instead of wanting to hang out. a cat that doesn’t want to make eye contact with you is ignoring you instead of being polite. a cat that lashes out because it’s over stimulated, or you ignored their body language telling you to leave them alone is suddenly an asshole who hurt you for no reason.
I had this book as a child and I’m glad to see the comparison is so widely recognized too
I KEEP SAYING ALL CATS ARE AUTISTIC IM SO HAPPY THIS POST EXISTS PLEASE SOMEONE ARTISTIC MAKE A CAT WITH THE NEURODIVERGENT SYMBOL ON IT FOR AUTISM MASCOT :D
The book above has been updated to better align with the current understanding of autism as well!!
The fucking audacity of capitalists to lie on camera right in front of evidence of their failure is blood boiling. How the fuck do they not get the shit kicked out of them daily is fucking amazing.
Video ID: some sort of press conference taking place in an airport with an offscreen reporter and a woman being interviewed onscreen. There is a black band across the top with the caption “Cameraman sacrificed their job for this”
(offscreen interviewer) “Just a final question here–is there any sort of work being done with the airlines in order to get flights actually on time or not delayed as much, just curious if there’s any work happening there?”
(woman onscreen) “Yes–so we’ve seen almost a doubling in improvement in on-time performance since last year–”
(camera pans up to show that out of roughly 24 flights listed on the board, 6 are on time, 4 are cancelled, and the remainder are delayed. The camera continues to zoom in on the board as the video continues.)
(woman onscreen) “–that is a reflection of all the work that we’ve done across the ecosystem together with our partner airlines, with agencies, reducing processing time, reducing wait times, and fine-tuning operations with our air carrier partners, and we see the great results that have come from that.”
no but seriously I do remember reading this when I was 11 and being so enraged and aghast and fully like “why don’t the whales get that this is the right thing to do??” but now honestly I get them on this- and also the entitlement of responding to someone’s clear no with “if you don’t agree with me you must simply not understand well enough because my view is the correct one” which is absolutely a thing I am guilty of doing and is one of my uglier traits so like I get it Daine but the whales are not wrong here, this is not their fight and they don’t owe you their allegiance
See, I view it a different way personally - Daine says “I believe that you are good. I believe that you are kind. If you are good and kind, and you heard that evil was going to occur, evil that you could help stop, then you wouldn’t say ‘I will not help you.’ Therefore, I must not have explained it well enough- because I can’t imagine you would do otherwise, that would be arrogant and cruel!”
Because to the whales, it’s not about if this is their fight, that they don’t owe her allegiance. She begged, not commanded- she tried to convince them despite the fact that this wasn’t their fight, but that didn’t work because that’s not why the whales said no. The whales say
“Violence against higher life forms is disgusting. For centuries, the people have vowed that the taking of a higher life is an abomination… (Your friends will die?) You should not have asked them to fight then. There is no good reason to fight. There is no good reason to kill… We go far from this place you make a killing ground.”
And that is the biggest most entitled hock of horseshit I’ve ever heard. Cowardice would be more respectable. That is a wealthy judge who’s never known hunger, sentencing the starving man to death for stealing a loaf of bread. That is someone who said “My ability to be holier than though is more important than the lives of any number of people.”
To declare pacifism to be the only moral choice, is to declare one of two things: that you cannot picture a world in which violence is the only way to prevent evil, or- that anyone who would suffer the evil that violence would prevent it is less important than your own pristine hands. In fact, they probably deserve it, they’re probably actually evil and brought this on themselves.
Daine wants to believe it’s the first one. That’s why she keeps trying. The whales make it pretty damn clear it’s not.
So yeah, to me? Fuck them whales. I can understand why it rings badly to you, for sure, respect for other’s opinions is important… But sometimes, “I’m right, so if you disagree I must just not have explained well enough” is being generous. Because if you are factually correct, you take the assumption of failing on yourself- you say, surely you aren’t just denying the truth because it doesn’t fit your worldview! It must be my fault for not explaining well enough!
And unfortunately, that’s not always the case. We’ve seen antivaxers and climate deniers, Trump did nothing wrongers and Welfare queens are why I’m poorers run rampant for years now. I’ve had the dawning horror of realizing that no amount of truth, of evidence, of being proveably, factually correct will change the mind of someone you respect, you have faith in, if they have built their identity around those holier than thou morals. And it fuckin sucks.
this is so nostalgic. tumblr rolls out something terrible. everyone complains. it breaks several people’s dashboards. for some reason it only rolls out to a few people at a time with seemingly no warning. the community collectively and immediately searches for a browser extension that undoes the change. i know we’ve all gotten burnt out on all social media sucking but this is genuinely The tumblr experience. everyone who hasn’t gotten it already gets an achievement. welcome to the club
actually, im glad this post got notes
everybody in the notes going “but THIS TIME it’s an objectively terrible choice/a bigger deal/a cash grab!!”: first time in the clown car huh
A petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board today requesting a union election. The petition includes 66 staffers at Warner Bros. Animation and 22 at Cartoon Network, including roles like production manager, digital production assistant, IT technician, production coordinator, production assistant, design production coordinator, assistant production manager and senior assistant production manager.
They are involved in such Warner Bros. projects as Batman: The Caped Crusader, Harley Quinn and Teen Titans Go! and Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, We Baby Bears and Craig of the Creek.
The workers also requested voluntary recognition from management at the Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries.
A tweet was issued confirming the move, which was officially announced earlier on a joint Zoom call.
“Although many might not think it, production is a specialized skill; we might not be artists or writers, but what we bring to the table goes beyond traditional creativity and gets content on the air,” Warner Bros. Animation production manager Hannah Ferenc said in a statement about the organization effort. “Having lived through the existing state of the animation industry for the past seven years, I want to make sure that not only our current workers, but all those who choose to join us in the future, can feel secure in following their passion by earning livable wages and being treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
The Animation Guild has already established bargaining units on shows like Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad! It also is active at studios like Titmouse New York and L.A. and ShadowMachine. Establishment at Walt Disney Animation Studios is currently in progress.”
So these are both “Aw Fuck I’m outta real food” meals BUT ALSO: if you’re learning how to cook, these are great “baby steps” meals to learn how to cook basics into something enjoyable without “wasting” anything expensive. Though I maintain that even cooking screw-ups are valuable in terms of lessons learned.
Also they’re great for when you get absorbed in something and you realize your blood sugar is dropping and you need to make something Quick.
Making basic storecupboard or fridge ingredients less basic and more nutritious.
![Wikipedia screenshot reading: Regarding the subsequent interaction, occurring on September 9, 2002, witnesses came forward to the police with jurisdiction, the Beverly Hills Police Department, stating that "Mr Sibrel... lured Mr Aldrin to the hotel under false pretences in order to interview him." By Aldrin's account, he went to the Beverly Hills hotel on that date under the pretext of an interview on space for a Japanese children's television show. At the time, Aldrin was aged 72 and Sibrel was aged 37. Sibrel attempted on-camera to coerce Aldrin to swear an oath on a Bible that he had been on the Moon. Witnesses came forward to the police indicating that "Sibrel had aggressively poked Mr Aldrin with the Bible". When Aldrin refused Sibrel's request, Sibrel followed him, saying: "You're the one who said you walked on the moon when you didn't". The BBC reported that "Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Ratinoff told Reuters... [the] videotape shot by a cameraman hired by Mr Sibrel had shown the film-maker follow Mr Aldrin, calling him a 'thief, liar and coward'." Still being recorded by Sibrel's camera crew, Aldrin responded with "Will you get away from me?" and then punched Sibrel in the jaw. On the day following [text ends]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e0f680dadde099f49038d40d7f43668b/3ebaa2fcfe19505b-6e/s500x750/66d8d916a0669f76374d75d3bcaeef6f4d67c7ce.png)
