this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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Autism
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I thought, autistic folk have stunted empathy by definition? (they can't reliably read other people's emotions).
In my experience, "stunted empathy" refers to the reading part. As in we're bad at reading facial expressions or situations unconsciously like neurotypical people do without even thinking.
What comes off as coldness is just missing information. Thats the frustrating part.
But the actual feeling/response isnt stunted, necessarily. In may even be unusually strong, but I think that is down to personality.
so the autistic response if they have high enough function is to learn to fit in to avoid pain, they generally want to be apart of a functioning group
whereby oddly becoming quite good at learned emotional response
the difference is a sociopath in power feels no need to care or hide it
you’d think society would care but as long as said person in power gives them someone to hate they get a pass