Every choice we make has an impact on the world around us. Sometimes that impact is very small, but it is still real. For example, we live on a planet with a limited amount of clean drinking water. This can make me wonder if using a service like ChatGPT uses resources that contribute, in even a tiny way, to water shortages in the future.

I also think about the things I buy. If I wear a T-shirt made in Malaysia, does that support unsafe working conditions or child labour? If someone is harmed in a factory that makes these clothes, do my purchases make me partly responsible?

These thoughts lead to a difficult question: if I am responsible for even a small part of many harms, such as being 0.001 percent responsible for the deaths of 1000 people through many small everyday actions, does that mean I have caused a death simply by living my life?

I wonder if it’s my autism that makes me consider these things because to me it seems no one else does.

Not diagnosed, unsure about autism status so assuming neurotypicality until proven otherwise, answering anyway because I hate buying stuff online:

When searching for a product, whether you’re looking for a specific one or just browsing a general category, you will find that all (actually, I meant “most of”, using “all” for emphasis) the categories are made up, useless or inconsistent: there are duplicate categories, obviously missing values that should be there - honestly, there’s no way a person created those labels. I get it, big online stores have lots of products, and lots of different types, it must be hard organizing all of those into neat digital boxes for a better user experience.

Oh wait! They’re huge corporations, they can afford to do that, probably! Just hire someone to categorize the products, or tell the people submitting those products to label them properly or suffer consequences. Provide better labels, I should be able to know exactly, or at least with near certainty, what a product is just from the tags (in my opinion).

Smokers that smoke around people in public spaces like in a busy pedestrian zone or at a train station

Women’s and Children’s pants sizes. It’s an 11 WHAT? THE FUCK DOES THIS NUMBER MEAN GODDAMMIT?

All pants sizes should be Waist circumference, Hip circumference, and (in the case of pants versus shorts) Length to ankle. Objective and not subjective measurements. Something I can put a measuring tape to and confirm. It’s not perfect, as everybody is different, but at least I’m not trying to dress my children and remember “A size 12 in this brand is a size 10 in this brand” bullshit.

I nearly foamed at the mouth ranting about how this shit drives me insane.

loud noises in general, stuff like applauses annoy me to no end, crowds being overly cheerful for no reason, noisy vehicles

The fact that the only way for 2 people to move around in public side by side and hold a conversation is usually when you’re sitting in a car.
Sidewalks and bike paths are too narrow for it or full of parked cars in cities, and non-existant in rural areas.

Dogs that bark at people that are just walking on the sidewalk. It pisses me off to no end.

Cannot people walk freely on public sidewalks without being bothered by a fucking dog barking as if I am committing a robbery? Owners should train their dogs not to bark like that.

It pisses me off. Seriously. Just thinking about that, my blood pressure is already rising. Imagine if every house had one of those dogs. It would be fucking hell to go anywhere by foot.

getting given advice by another person who you’ve already told that such advice does not work. Prime example: me telling my mother my sensory issues and triggers, then she tells me to just not think about it, as if that would ever change the fact I can’t filter environmental noise from my mind at all…

Laundry detergent. The detergent instructions, coming from a biased manufacturer, will always tell you to use waaaaay too much in order to encourage consuming more. They stuff them with scents so that you can tell they are working and have a constant reminder with you about your purchasing decision. It’s bad for the washing machine- residues stick around and can clog things up and cause moving parts to wear out faster. In fact, washing machine manufacturers often recommend running loads of towels without adding any detergent a few times regularly just to clean out the excess.

I could always feel it on my skin and feel suffocated by it. When I lived in an apartment, most of the rest of the building was from some Caribbean country and used some expticly scented detergent in the shared laundry machines, so unless I wanted to spend time and money to run empty cycles I had to just deal with it. I’m so grateful now to have a house with my own machines that only see my own, unscented, detergent and in reasonable amounts. And it gets cleaning cycles regularly.

Strong smells, especially campfire. Cannot stand the smell of campfire. Gives me headaches and makes me super sneezy.

I don’t have AC, and it’s legal to have campfires in town in private yards, which means I have the joy of being uncomfortable nearly every nice night for half the year. If I open windows for the nice breeze, my house stinks of smoke, if I keep the windows closed, it stays hot. Can’t win because people are selfish af.

People should not be allowed to burn shit in town, regardless of the fire spread risk. It negatively impacts other people who have zero say. I don’t have asthma, but if I did I’d probably just die living here.

And nobody else thinks it’s a problem because they LIKE having fires now and then. It’s the same mentality of not putting limits on rich people because they wouldn’t want limits on themselves if they get rich.

Consumerism and throwing away easily repairable things. Perceiving some brands as superior for whatever fucking reason even if you explain why that’s not the case. Cheap stuff that breaks apart by merely looking at it from the wrong angle. “Cost optimization”.

Not really autism-specific things but holy hell does it get me going.

Yeah and literally everything else in this thread.

Edit: The quality of search results. Jeeesus Christ has it become ridiculously hard to find anything human-written beneath all these AI trash sites. Fuck those ad-riddled, information-deprived, time-wasting pieces of shit.

Moving things, then not returning it to the place of order. Not holding up order in drawers.

My blood relatives are SO MESSY AND DISGUSTING! The plate and cuplery still has food on it after dishwasher wash? They put it to the clean stuff.

I spend a day making the perfect order and organisation in their kitchen drawers saving lots of space, the next day its all chaos again where you again have to play tetris to fit the tools into the drawers.

Tell me how can 3 people last 3 years without exchanging their toothpaste? Answer they do because they dont brush their teeth!!

Not following the washing instructions! It says to be washed at 30°C NOT 90°C!! It only takes a few minutes to sort those differences too but safes a lot of money from constantly having to throw out shrunken cloths!

I haaaateee how my birthgiver complains i dont show interest in her, bitch your entire life is work, i never see you doing any hobbys. You go to work, get home, work more, then cook for the 28 year old offspring that still lives with you for some reason and that doesnt know how to cook, then work till 8 pm then watch TV and then sleep! Woman where are you hobbys?!? You got none! And the most interest you show in me is ask how the day was but no further engagement. Even if i tell you about the news from my life or my hobbys you dont even react. Ugh (Yes i got parential issues how could you tell?)

I dislike music in stores. Yes i get it “atmosphere” or smth but it would probably all be better for everyone if you shut it off so everyone can better focus!

But my biggest quirrel is how people dont just understand the concept of “disliking something because of texture”. I dont really have it, but my partner, and when ever other dont just accept it, but continue questioning it as if it were a debate or something one can just choose not to, ooh that brings me to boiling point of annoyance

The smell of the smoke after a match is put out. Everyone else I know seems unbothered by it, meanwhile for me it’s extremely revolting, it causes a strong urge to get as far away from it as physically possible.

This ranks so far down the list of problems with society that it’s not even worth mentioning. But every day of the week should start with a different letter so they are easier to abbreviate! Having two “T-days” is just fucking nuts to me. I’m ok with the weekend days both starting with the same letter because that can just be a signifier that it’s the weekend. But ideally? Every day gets it’s own letter and you can just say “something happens T-day” instead of “something happens Tues”.

Inefficient loading of the dishwasher.

You put the same things to the same place! So you can grab them as one when unloading, saving time.

You spread everything out! The more bunched it is, the harder it is for the water jets to hit and clean everything properly.

You put each thing into the most appropriate place! Big spoons go into the bigger bucket, small spoons in the smaller one, big plates into the row with the wider space between plates, smaller plates into the more narrow rows.

It’s incredible how most people load their dishwashers, they mostly just put stuff in wherever is closest.