General Societal/Political Discussion Group (Autistic NYC)

• Meetings this month and next
• About the General Societal/Political Discussion Group
• Tutorials on how to discuss disagreements in a civil manner

Meetings this month and next

The meetings listed below are online chat meetings (text-based). To view the meeting details (including a link to our chatroom), you must first join the Autistic in NYC / Queens Meetup.com group (and be logged in to Meetup.com) if you have not done so already.

• Thursday, March 21, at 7:00 PM. (See meeting details, find chatroom link, and RSVP here.)

• Thursday, April 18, at 7:00 PM. (See meeting details, find chatroom link, and RSVP here.)

If you are planning to attend any of our chat meetings, please RSVP on the relevant Meetup.com page.

Please note that meetings of this group are intended only for people who have attended at least three other meetings of one or more of the groups led by members of the Autistic Peer Leaderships Group, or who have been invited by a regularly-attending member of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group. If you are new to this set of groups, please attend at least one of our other groups first.

About the General Societal/Political Discussion Group

The General Societal/Political Discussion Group is not an advocacy/activist group. It is a group in which we can discuss politics and social issues -- primarily issues not specific to autism, which can be discussed in the Autism Politics Discussion Group.

The first few meetings, at least, will emphasize the question of how to keep our discussions civil and how to discuss our differences in a way that leads to mutual understanding rather than hurt feelings. We will examine methodologies such as the Socratic method, and we will discuss such questions as which sources (if any) we consider to be reliable and why.

At least for now, the General Societal/Political Discussion Group will hold text-based chats on the third Thursday of each month. Please RSVP via Meetup. Currently we use the Autistic In NYC / Queens groups Meetup.com site. (Eventually a separate Meetup group may be created, if and when this group gets big enough to justify it.)

As the COVID crisis winds down, we will decide whether and if so when and where to hold in-person meetings. We will probably continue to hold text-based chats as well.

Please join this group only if (1) you're a regularly-attending member of one of the other groups led by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group, and/or (2) you've been personally invited by a regularly-attending member of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group itself. (A "regularly-attending" member is defined, for this purpose, as a person who has attended at least three meetings of the group in question within the past six months.) Most of our other groups do welcome newcomers, and indeed make an effort to welcome newcomers. But please do NOT join this group as a total newcomer to our set of groups, and please do NOT join this group for the sole purpose of promoting your point of view.

Tutorials on how to discuss disagreements in a civil manner

Note: The tutorials listed below should not be taken as holy writ. Not all the methods in these tutorials are necessarily the best, nor are all of them necessarily suitable among autistic people. In our meetings, we can discuss flaws in these tutorials. But we will use them as a jumping-off point for thinking about how to discuss our disagreements in a civil manner.

• How to Tell Someone They Are Wrong by Maya Diamond, MA, WikiHow, Last Updated: July 31, 2020.

• How to Politely Tell Someone That Something They Said Offended You - WikiHow, Last Updated: May 14, 2020.

• How to Use Socratic Questioning Technique by Simon Ash, The Right Questions, February 27, 2018.

• Street Epistemology.

• Video: How We Can Reduce Prejudice with a Conversation | David Fleischer | TEDx MidAtlantic, Jan 25, 2017