- Lukewarm take: Neurotypical culture also has tone indicators for text communication - they're just shit and don't work as well. #autisticNov 17, 2025 14:41
- Example: "This is actually a statement but I'm putting a question mark on the end?" Here, the question mark is a tone indicator that means any of: 1. (/uncertain) 2. (/confused) 3. (/irritated) 4. (/distressed) 5. (/you should know this already and you should feel bad for not knowing it)
- The difference between these can sometimes be guessed based on number of question marks used ("?" is more likely to mean 1 or 2, "??" or "???" is more likely to be options 3-5), but this varies between people.
- To clarify, when I say "Neurotypical culture" I don't mean "all neurotypicals do this", I just mean the cultural norms in social spaces where everyone's assumed to be neurotypical. I find some of these norms much more tiring than the ones that develop in majority-neurodivergent social spaces.
- Also to be extra clear, neurodivergent / autistic people are just as capable of being vague or passive aggressive as neurotypicals, we are not elevated beings, etc etc.
- Also I should possibly have been using the words "allistic" and "allistic culture" instead of "neurotypical". But oh well.
