Honestly I’m not on the spectrum at all (that I know of) and your SO’s half of those exchanges sounds utterly exhausting.

Like, in their shoes, I’d probably just start sharing less and less about how I feel, especially when I’m not feeling well, specifically because I wouldn’t want to have to play 20 questions every time until you finally gave up on the analysis.

Like, I totally get that you’re just trying to help because you love them…but maybe you could simplify the process (and cut to the chase and give them some more agency) simply by saying something like “Ugh, I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. Is there anything I can do for you?”

That lets them express their own thoughts/feelings/desires without having to pass a gauntlet of questions.

Again, I totally get that you mean well (I end up on your side of this exchange whenever my own SO isn’t feeling well…you just want to fix it for them), but I’ve also learned by time and experience that often my best move is to offer help, and if the answer is just needing some time and quiet, I just tell my SO what I’ll be doing nearby (but not up in their business) and if they need anything at all, just let me know and I’m happy to help.

Or it has little to do with emotions at all and more to do with physical changes based on environment.

And the middle east and their known long history of free expression.

Isn’t she that crazy woman that ran the bakery with her criminal husband?

Yeah anytime I’m in too good of a mood and need to be infuriated, I know I can always read about the aftermath of WW2 and the fates of so many nazis and how so very few of them faced any sort of actual justice, let alone anything remotely proportional to their actions.

If gay would mean many things, the word would be useless.

Yeah, totally. I mean, that’s definitely why there aren’t any words at all in the entire English language that have more than one strictly defined meaning, and that meaning has never, ever changed.

The OGL bullshit, while absolutely scummy, I could at least understand as a business move, even if an absolutely unconscionable one.

Getting Pinkertons (who should’ve been eradicated from existence long ago) involved in anything is enough to get me to write them off forever.

Man, the more society progresses in open and honest conversations about sexuality, the more I’m sure that “spectrum” doesn’t even begin to do justice to the vast, bizarre complexity of human sexuality.

It’s more like…that crazy 3 tier chess they play in Star Trek.

Using the beforemath to avoid the aftermath!

I’ll use it to fix the hyperdrive and gtfo.

Unless you’re watching the Director’s Cut.

Well said.

I have no problem with the State having its secrets. It’s a necessity, and one of the many reasons that public trust in their government is so important (which itself is another can of worms).

I just feel that it’s equally if not more important that individual citizens are also entitled to their secrets, and in fact the presumption of privacy absent consent or significant circumstances.

Okay, fair point, but now you’re changing what they said.

Right?

The older I get, the more I realize how much I’ve been screwed by the older generations, and because of that, my positions on issues have sort of “forked”, having both a “what I think should reasonably be our course of action as a democratic republic” and “what I’d do if I were supreme overlord”…but both of those forks skew further left now than they did when I was in my teens.

Grim acceptance of the reality of our current sad state of affairs has led some of my “do what’s feasible and don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good” positions to be fairly moderate…but for every one of those positions, there’s a “supreme overlord” opinion that basically consists of “they’re a blight upon mankind and should be dragged through the streets to a public place where they’re thrown in a pillory for a day or two then hanged, with their assets liquidated and the funds used to undo their damages”.

Except now you’re wracked with crippling guilt every time you mow the lawn, chop up veggies for dinner, or walk by some poor little scrawny weed growing out of a crack in the sidewalk.

Excelsior!

God damnit.

And in fairness the Romans did do it, but only at the absolute insistence of the Jewish religious leaders.

Depends who’s saying it.

I remember many moons ago I was on a hike with my scout troop and one night we camped in this group campground with a lot of…well…super rednecks, most of which appeared to just live there.

Anyway, one of these little redneck kids (maybe 6 or 7 years old) for whatever reason picks one of our scouts (who was maybe 15?) and just basically starts following him around the campsite calling him “Daddy”.

It was hilarious…to everyone except him.

I wish I could say that was the weirdest thing that’s ever happened on one of those hikes.

Yeah the entire Senate should just start to only ever refer to him as Rafael.

But intentionally mispronounce it “ruh-FAIL”.

And when he inevitably gets bent out of shape over it, tell him to sit down and let the grown ups talk.