Have you ever fallen down an online rabbit hole?

[u/Impressive_Olive_703]

Hi everyone,

My name is Michelle, and I'm a journalist in Australia with SBS working on a short documentary exploring the intersection of autism, online rabbit holes, radicalisation, and the support people receive (or don't receive).

I'm approaching this topic very carefully. I know there is a lot of stigma, misinformation, and bad reporting in this space. I'm interested in understanding individual experiences, the role the internet can play, and whether there are gaps in support.

I'm hoping to speak with people who feel they've fallen down a rabbit hole at some point in their lives. That could be anything from incel spaces, extremist politics, conspiracy theories, hate groups, cult-like online communities, or other online worlds that became all-consuming. I'm also interested in hearing from people who found a way out.

I know this is a sensitive subject and I appreciate anyone willing to share their perspective. Can be a confidential chat if that helps!

Feel free to comment below or send me a DM.

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[u/CptPJs]

be very, very cautious when talking to journalists. you can't take back anything you've said and journalists are very good at taking things out of context to get the story they want, not the story you want to tell.

I would advise avoiding entirely.

[u/petermobeter]

what about researching internet rabbit holes like "newborn horses have fingers on their hooves which dissolve shortly after birth" which leads to "some bulls hav sperm which is prized by farmers but the bulls happen to be homosexual so the farmers hav to acquire their sperm using different methods than when a bull is heterosexual" which leads to "many many species of animals are bisexual and very few are exclusively homosexual but sheep hav one of the highest rates of exclusiv homosexuality for some reason" and then that night u hav a dream that ur a lesbian llama

[u/Coondiggety → u/petermobeter]

Now that’s autism!

[u/bubbleyjubbley → u/petermobeter]

Yes this is my understanding of falling down a rabbit hole - not an all consuming thing. And all consuming things are frequent for Autistic people and those with ADHD, but can be very fleeting, or last for years and are then dropped in favour of something else.

[u/HammyHavoc]

The use of the word "rabbitholes" tends to be positive, and usually relates to researching special interests, which, generally speaking, are usually extremely technical, creative, sometimes both simultaneously, or sometimes just dorky and fun.

If you were approaching this without bias and a specific way you want to frame it, you would want hear about positive stuff in equal measure, so I'm very skeptical of your intent towards the community and hope you asked the mods before posting this, as I feel it's quite inappropriate and smacks of an agenda.

FYI, I haven't known any neurodivergent people fall down any negative rabbitholes, though I have known a shocking number or neurotypical people to become neo-fasc trash, obsessive transphobes, loads of conspiranoia tinfoil hat crap of all kinds, manosphere pillocks et al. People who I would have expected better from, but seem to fry their brain with algorithmic echo chambers and lose all reason.

The interesting thing is that most autists in my experiences are unusually intelligent, firmly rooted in reality, truth and objective fact. That's without even getting into fixations on justice and ethics.

Look around, the number of autists who are activists for all kinds of positive causes, be it humanity, animals or otherwise.

Whatever narrative you're looking to spin, go fish off some other dock, because FUD doesn't help anybody and is sensationalist drivel.

[u/Viatoriix → u/HammyHavoc]

I mostly agree but please don't moralize autism, there are a large amount of incels who are autistic, and I have had the displeasure of interacting with many of them. Autistic people are generally no more or less likely to go in one direction or another morally. There is a large prevalence of morally good autistic people online because we are much more likely to be openly autistic than the morally bad autistic people, but they are just as common when you actually start looking. Plenty of autistic people are also quietly bigoted, being things like racist, homophobic, or transphobic, even in passive ways. The narrative that autistic people are more likely to be morally good does much more harm than it does good.

(edit: typed "autism people" instead of autism)

[u/HammyHavoc → u/Viatoriix]

Note the following in my comment: "tends", "generally speaking", "are usually", "sometimes", "I haven't known", "though I have known", "most autists in my experiences"

Strawman, I'm afraid.

Furthermore, what you think doesn't matter versus what science is telling us:

https://neuroclastic.com/autistic-people-care-too-much-research-says/

On average, autistic people were more likely to be selfless, and to show integrity in their moral values, than neurotypical people. Autistic people were less likely to change their moral values based on their own individual gain, even when that individual gain was large. And just to extrapolate that further, autistic people cared more about their values than themselves, whereas this was not clearly shown in neurotypical people.

So what they said originally, what they concluded was essentially this: autistic people cared too much about their morals, and too little about themselves.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38745228/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8795511/

This same journalist posted on the /r/evilautism sub, this same journalist who is looking for tales of autistic people becoming dangerous, I bet she would love a scoop from a sub called 'Evil Autism', this sensational story writes itself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/evilautism/s/YA9aKOF8VO

Please don't be so naive as to feed the journalist what they're looking for in being contrarian for the sake of it.

[u/Skav-552 → u/Viatoriix]

I think every person has prejudices. The question is how you handle them and if you question yourself about the logic they follow.

I agree with you, plenty people are like you say, we are not all the same and some people have questonable views (to say it nicely).

[u/Skav-552 → u/HammyHavoc]

Oh, I did not considered what you sayed about negative influence. That is interesting. For me it is knowledge I seek not an political agenda. If what you say is objectively correct and evidence proven, I change my opinion but I can listen the whole day to people talking shit without that it has an effect on me, other than getting annoyed.

I think this is because the constant feedback loop that I have in my head. It gots taken apart and questioned in any case.

[u/Lotuselise230]

Did you clear this post with the mods?

[u/Skav-552]

Why is that a sensitive topic?

Sure I did that, that is how I work. My late childhood and teenage years I spend online as much as I could. I for the most part played Games. At that time I did know a fuck ton about the games I played but also about hardware, overclocking, was active in community's and so on. After gaming became more and more a service and we no longer could host servers and mod the games, the communitys were falling apart and I lost interest in it.

But that is just like how I do things if I find something interesting I learn how it works and how I can alternate it for myself. For my work that was always a strong point but there are people that dislike that side of me.

[u/Avon_Barksdale63]