Social experiment

[Jumpinbare]

I tried a social experiment - muah ha ha ha!

Some background:
1. I'm an old retired fart, and as long as I'm not causing distress, I don't really care what people think about me. It's not like I can get fired or go to jail for being a WEIRD old retired fart.
2. Since I finally accepted my diagnosis, I have made the decision to "own it".
3. I found several autism related T-shirts on Amazon, and purchased several including -
"This is what autism looks like"
"Autism: Not a flaw in the code - different operating system"
"Don't touch me. I'm autistic."
and my favorite "I'm autistic. I'm allowed to be weird."

So I have been wearing these shirts in public and watching people's reactions. As expected, most people ignore them (or at least pretend to ignore them). But I have been surprised at the positive effects I have seen. People have gone out of their way to tell me how much they love the shirt (especially the operating system and allowed to be weird). Several of them have told me they have autistic family members or friends.
I have seen more smiles and people holding doors for me than I have seen in decades.

I had expected most people to ignore the shirts, so no surprise there. I had expected people to tell me they knew someone autistic. Again, no surprise. I was concerned some might be offended by the shirts. So far that hasn't happened at all. The increase in courtesy has been very surprising. I have always tried to treat everyone courteosly, but I had given up on expecting courtesy in return decades ago. So seeing a noticeable increase in niceness is refreshing.

I do not have a lanyard, but I do have a wallet card in case of emergencies. I may get a lanyard and see if wearing that around with the card gives comparable results to wearing the T shirts.

 

[Slime_Punk]

Wow, that's awesome. Especially in our state of all places

I've been wanting to make my own ASD shirt designs, but it seems like a semi-hefty investment to make like 5-10 custom shirts and get them printed, especially when I don't already have a shortage of shirts. Still, things like this are such an excellent idea to let people know what's up, because just being myself with ASD has gotten me some pretty bad responses, and I bet that's pretty common for a lot of people on the spectrum and a lot of people here.

Also weirdly, anyone being a jerk to you (or I) for wearing an ASD shirt wouldn't be too far out of the norm anyway for how a lot of us get treated for being different, so it's almost better to gamble with softening the blow. I literally see no downsides.

 

[Aspychata]

We are out there in numbers. And by bringing it to the collective consciousness, you are doing all of us a favor by wearing your flavor on your shirt. My mom surprised me, and told me a mother called regarding her autistic son, and enquiring about their services they provide. At first my mom was very closed to the idea, but now she is starting to open up and become more accepting which is great since clearly l do get it from her side of the family.

 

[mysterionz]

I've been wanting to make my own ASD shirt designs,

Same here but I would need to have a design in mind. I may cross over SP but I could see if I could get a t shirt printed just for my use, or make a version with one of my own original characters (non copyrighted ofc)

 

[mysterionz]

anyways I like this t shirt here that popped up on Amazon when I searched “autism t shirts”

 

[mysterionz]

@Slime_Punk if I were to make a t shirt design with copyrighted material (like fictional characters) and not original content (like oc’s) for my use only, should I be fine doing that? I don’t intend to sell it or anything but may make a version with one of my original characters.

 

[Slime_Punk]

@Slime_Punk if I were to make a t shirt design with copyrighted material (like fictional characters) and not original content (like oc’s) for my use only, should I be fine doing that? I don’t intend to sell it or anything but may make a version with one of my original characters.

Technically, the best way to answer this is with another question: "Who would even know?". I don't personally know anyone who has gotten in trouble for wearing an unauthorized shirt before, but it's still copyrighted material.

Selling them or using them commercially without authorization will definitely get you at least a C&D (if not just taken down from wherever they're hosted) so that's obviously a really bad idea, but with personal projects it's probably up to the artist's discretion about whether they think the shirt will cause personal trouble or not. It's always a personal risk, but to which extent is really in the eye of the beholder.

In fact, even drawing copyrighted material carries the same risk, but I know plenty of people who still roll those dice anyway, which I can't personally condone or vehemently condemn. Food for thought!

 

[mysterionz]

Selling them or using them commercially without authorization will definitely get you at least a C&D (if not just taken down from wherever they're hosted) so that's obviously a really bad idea,

Reminds me of what happened when after Etika’s passing (a twitch streamer). A fan of his made custom JoyCons to raise money for mental health awareness that ended in a C&D from nintendo.

Custom-made Etika Joy-Cons are “a way to honour Etika’s legacy”, creator says

Alex Blake defends his decision to sell Etikons online

www.theloadout.com

 

[mysterionz]

Reminds me of what happened when after Etika’s passing (a twitch streamer). A fan of his made custom JoyCons to raise money for mental health awareness that ended in a C&D from nintendo.

Custom-made Etika Joy-Cons are “a way to honour Etika’s legacy”, creator says

Alex Blake defends his decision to sell Etikons online

www.theloadout.com

I remember watching a South Park episode where Stan, Kyle, and Kenny pirate music as inspiration for a band they began called “Moop.” (Eric was briefly part of the band Moop but got kicked out for suggesting they branch into Christian Rock music for money) and end up getting into trouble for doing this act as it doesn’t directly support the artists that made the music. Piracy is bad mmkay?

 

[Slime_Punk]

Reminds me of what happened when after Etika’s passing (a twitch streamer). A fan of his made custom JoyCons to raise money for mental health awareness that ended in a C&D from nintendo.

Custom-made Etika Joy-Cons are “a way to honour Etika’s legacy”, creator says

Alex Blake defends his decision to sell Etikons online

www.theloadout.com

That's also a really good point, because some companies (Nintendo being one of them) are notorious for defending their IP to the death, which may influence what some people decide to do with Nintendo-inspired designs or anything that cuts it just a little too close to Nintendo's IP, or companies with similar practices.

Honestly, I wouldn't even get a Nintendo tattoo in today's world but that's just me -- because even though people do it all the time, they're still actually using copyrighted material, and you never know just how bloodthirsty companies like this will become in the future!

 

[mysterionz]

That's also a really good point, because some companies (Nintendo being one of them) are notorious for defending their IP to the death, which may influence what some people decide to do with Nintendo-inspired designs or anything that cuts it just a little too close to Nintendo's IP, or companies with similar practices.

Honestly, I wouldn't even get a Nintendo tattoo in today's world but that's just me -- because even though people do it all the time, they're still actually using copyrighted material, and you never know just how bloodthirsty companies like this will become in the future!

I remember during the 2019 pacific hurricane season a tropical storm was named “Mario”. Kinda surprised Nintendo didn’t pull a C&D on the national hurricane center

 

[Jumpinbare]

Wow, that's awesome. Especially in our state of all places

I've been wanting to make my own ASD shirt designs, but it seems like a semi-hefty investment to make like 5-10 custom shirts and get them printed, especially when I don't already have a shortage of shirts.

Some of the Amazon vendors allow you to upload custom images

Also weirdly, anyone being a jerk to you (or I) for wearing an ASD shirt wouldn't be too far out of the norm anyway for how a lot of us get treated for being different, so it's almost better to gamble with softening the blow. I literally see no downsides.

That's pretty much the way I looked at it before trying this out.

 

[Shevek]

I made a discovery in social science. I used to hand out leaflets on the street as a volunteer, standing at downtown intersections to get double the traffic. Groups of pedestrians would get a green light, and head towards me. If the first person across didn't take a leaflet, almost all of that group would also refuse. However, if I returned that rejected leaflet to the bottom of my stack, and dealt off a fresh one, all in a fraction of a second, that restored the odds for each new person. Once the first person took one, most of a group would, even waiting a few seconds for the tail-enders.

 

[tazz]

I may get a lanyard and see if wearing that around with the card gives comparable results to wearing the T shirts.

I'd be interested to see these results!

 

[Judge]

My favorite, but rarely spoken thing about autism in public is that when I say or do something people don't understand, I sometimes smile and say, "Autistic children grow up to be autistic adults".

Nothing more, and nothing less. Amusing sometimes to see the expression on their faces.

Something few people seem to consider unless they actually know someone on the spectrum.

 

[Alexej]

Several of them have told me they have autistic family members or friends.

Yes it is encouraging when we get a positive response to us being "out" there. In talking to folk I know it is jsut part of who I am - or rather "now know myself to be"

 

[Dagan]

I still think that I want a shirt that says... The vaccine cured my autism! (not really, but you had to actually think about it, didn't you?)

 

[George Newman]

MOURNING THE BACON! and empathy for those who don't understand or have taken the time to understand my autistic personality traits.

 

[Kavigant]

I made a discovery in social science. I used to hand out leaflets on the street as a volunteer, standing at downtown intersections to get double the traffic. Groups of pedestrians would get a green light, and head towards me. If the first person across didn't take a leaflet, almost all of that group would also refuse. However, if I returned that rejected leaflet to the bottom of my stack, and dealt off a fresh one, all in a fraction of a second, that restored the odds for each new person. Once the first person took one, most of a group would, even waiting a few seconds for the tail-enders.

Shevek, I love that it occurred to you to conduct this experiment, and I also feel that I recognize in you a kindred spirit!

 

[Kavigant]

I know that my wife accepts my diagnosis because she just bought me an autism-themed t-shirt!