One thing I've noticed

[Thunderbird is the word]

It seems like a lot of people in the uselectionsatlas/AH.com community (there seems to be a lot of overlap) are somewhere on the as aspergers spectrum. Discuss

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'm surprised Ian doesn't ban the aspergers posters over there at AH.com.

[Bacon King]

Yes it makes perfect sense because those forums are both places dedicated to the discussion of a single thing. Aspergers and other autism spectrum disorders are characterized by "restricted and repetitive interests". A self-selection bias exists because one is much more likely to find and join a forum dedicated to political maps or alternative history fiction if they are obsessed with those topic(s) as one of those "restricted and repetitive interests".

The real question is how come this forum has so many gays, I have no explanation for that

[Ban my account ffs!]

Be careful...last time I talked about this a veritable sh**tstorm of "OMGZ SNOWGUY YOU'RE SO CRUEL FOR EVEN DARING SUGGEST IT!" came rushing out like a deluge of fiberglass insulation up your buttcrack.

Apparently Aspergers is so traumatic that it results in outbursts when someone who could be on the 'spectrum' if he cared to want the label tries to unweave the knot of unhealthy sensitivity self described aspies have about the issue.  Obviously the only remedy is endless spreadsheets of election data and microsoft paint.  Yes.  That "in the zone" spergalerg.



We are Spergdom.  We are legion.  We are Bob Ross.

[publicunofficial]

Yes it makes perfect sense because those forums are both places dedicated to the discussion of a single thing. Aspergers and other autism spectrum disorders are characterized by "restricted and repetitive interests". A self-selection bias exists because one is much more likely to find and join a forum dedicated to political maps or alternative history fiction if they are obsessed with those topic(s) as one of those "restricted and repetitive interests".

The real question is how come this forum has so many gays, I have no explanation for that

People who are on the internet a lot tend to explore their sexuality a bit, for starters. Also people are more willing to admit their sexual orientation anonymously on an internet forum than in real life.

[RFayette]

The nerd of yesteryear is the sperg of today.  It's just labels at this point.


As someone who upon research might be autistic, HFA tendencies correlate strongly with an affinity for data and computers as well as an aptitude for math, at least among my peer cohort.

[Thunderbird is the word]

Yes it makes perfect sense because those forums are both places dedicated to the discussion of a single thing. Aspergers and other autism spectrum disorders are characterized by "restricted and repetitive interests". A self-selection bias exists because one is much more likely to find and join a forum dedicated to political maps or alternative history fiction if they are obsessed with those topic(s) as one of those "restricted and repetitive interests".

The real question is how come this forum has so many gays, I have no explanation for that

People who are on the internet a lot tend to explore their sexuality a bit, for starters. Also people are more willing to admit their sexual orientation anonymously on an internet forum than in real life.

Could also be that a lot of gay people are politically active within both liberal and more radical politics.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Yes it makes perfect sense because those forums are both places dedicated to the discussion of a single thing. Aspergers and other autism spectrum disorders are characterized by "restricted and repetitive interests". A self-selection bias exists because one is much more likely to find and join a forum dedicated to political maps or alternative history fiction if they are obsessed with those topic(s) as one of those "restricted and repetitive interests".

The real question is how come this forum has so many gays, I have no explanation for that

People who are on the internet a lot tend to explore their sexuality a bit, for starters. Also people are more willing to admit their sexual orientation anonymously on an internet forum than in real life.

Could also be that a lot of gay people are politically active within both liberal and more radical politics.

Definitely being gay today tends to make you more politically aware. 

[All Along The Watchtower]

Yes it makes perfect sense because those forums are both places dedicated to the discussion of a single thing. Aspergers and other autism spectrum disorders are characterized by "restricted and repetitive interests". A self-selection bias exists because one is much more likely to find and join a forum dedicated to political maps or alternative history fiction if they are obsessed with those topic(s) as one of those "restricted and repetitive interests".

The real question is how come this forum has so many gays, I have no explanation for that

People who are on the internet a lot tend to explore their sexuality a bit, for starters. Also people are more willing to admit their sexual orientation anonymously on an internet forum than in real life.

Could also be that a lot of gay people are politically active within both liberal and more radical politics.

Plus,  this forum disproportionately attracts a younger demographic drawn largely from socially liberal, upper-middle class suburban families.

Also, this forum is very white. And very male. The latter is perhaps more easily explained by the self-selection bias that Bacon King mentioned (because ASD = less proficient social skills,  especially in mixed company, almost by definition ), while the former speaks more to the class biases of this forum.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

TIL being middle-class and growing up in suburbia makes you gay.

[All Along The Watchtower]

TIL being middle-class and growing up in suburbia makes you gay.

lol, touche. I guess what I meant by that was that, at least in America (where a lot of this forum's members are from), the more "socially liberal" youngs tend to be from suburban (or just urban in general) areas, and that socially liberal young people are more likely than non-socially liberal young people (or even the population as a whole) to identify as gay. Is that so implausible?

[Mr. Morden]

Also, this forum is very white. And very male.

I don't think the racial composition of this forum is all that different from countless other forums populated mostly by people from North American and Western Europe.  It's the male/female ratio that's more of an outlier, IMHO.  I've seen other forums that were something like 80/20 male/female, but this forum is about 98/2 or so.  That's unusual, even for a forum about politics.

[Hatman 🍁]

What's the gender ratio at the AH forum?

[RFayette]

One should ask people if they have an autism dx or just a self diagnosis.  This does affect prevalence rates.  

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Also, this forum is very white. And very male.

I don't think the racial composition of this forum is all that different from countless other forums populated mostly by people from North American and Western Europe.  It's the male/female ratio that's more of an outlier, IMHO.  I've seen other forums that were something like 80/20 male/female, but this forum is about 98/2 or so.  That's unusual, even for a forum about politics.

I would say that the gender disparity is likely due to the fact that blatant misogyny and sexual objectification of women both tend to pop up all over this forum, but that sadly seems to be true on much of the internet.

[Mr. Morden]

Also, this forum is very white. And very male.

I don't think the racial composition of this forum is all that different from countless other forums populated mostly by people from North American and Western Europe.  It's the male/female ratio that's more of an outlier, IMHO.  I've seen other forums that were something like 80/20 male/female, but this forum is about 98/2 or so.  That's unusual, even for a forum about politics.

I would say that the gender disparity is likely due to the fact that blatant misogyny and sexual objectification of women both tend to pop up all over this forum, but that sadly seems to be true on much of the internet.

Right.  I don't think Atlas is much worse in that regard than plenty of other forums, many of which have more female members.

In any case, Beet gave the best ever explanation of why the Atlas forum is so different from others that are predominantly male:

Well, places usually grow by word of mouth or by advertising. In first person shooter forums for example, the advertising is the game, which men and women both see in stores, and is played by so many men that some women are bound to come into contact with it, try it, and like it enough to post in a forum. With other political sites that I go to, they tend to be well known, or the people in them started out drawn together as a group in real life that expanded into a online group, kind of like phknrocket1k was saying. Groups in real life tend to be mixed gender, so when translated online, it became that way as well.

This site is a place where you aren't going to find it unless you go searching. We're not tied to any particular famous events or personalities. Dave doesn't have a blog that attracts many links or hits to this site. We get a traffic surge around election day just for people looking for information, IIRC, but it mostly hangs beneath the surface. People have made friends here but it's relatively rare for existing members to bring in their friends or family. Statesrights is one of the exceptions and the result that was one of our few female members.

In other words, this site is designed very much as a social networking island. It's unusually disconnected. I'm not sure that answers the OP's question but I think it has something to do with it.