#It would be better if the world wasn't vehemently dismissive of people's needs

[delightrolls]

Some Possible Reasons Sonic Fans Tend To Be “Weird”

When people complain about how so many Sonic fans only ever think about Sonic and nothing else I can’t help but wonder if these people take into account that a significant portion of the Sonic fanbase is neurodivergent, most notably autistic. 

Many people say Sonic fans need to play other games or experience other media but when taking into account many Sonic fans are neurodivergent / autistic some well known Sonic fan behaviors start to make sense. People that engage with Sonic so intensely they have few if any other interests is often how Special Interests work for many autistic people and also has some overlap with comfort media for people with anxiety as the things are both consistently enjoyable and safe which is extremely helpful to people who get easily overwhelmed. 

Sonic fans that repeat the same point over and over and over again are reminiscent of the repetitive behaviors that many autistic people fall into and even people who are generally mentally ill can get stuck in this loop because the mind registers these repetitive and predictable behaviors as safer than the unknown that has likely been hostile to them before. 

Sonic fans that make connections to seemingly unrelated thing are likely to occur when the people in question are neurodivergent since the one or few things they constantly reference is are the only things they feel safe engaging with and do so frequently which can be bolstered by the low empathy many autistic people have which leads to mentalities like “I like this thing so everyone else will definitely like this thing.” because some autistic people struggle with understanding the needs of others to varying degrees. 

Sonic fans that respond inappropriately to situations with memes and references are liable to stem from the innate difficulties autistic people have in social situations which can lead to trying to refer to familiar material in an attempt to remedy this and can even appear in fully neurotypical who just have the bulk of the social practice and experiences online where making references is rewarded and commented. 

Sonic fans getting angry or just generally stressed out by seemingly minor things is also a regular occurrence in autistic people due to autism as well as other forms of neurodivergence often causing aversion to change as well as emotional dysregulation leading to strong reactions over seemingly minute things because to many, this is a minor inconvenience at worse but to someone who is easily stressed and has difficulty managing emotions this can easily feel like the end of world. 

Sonic fans being terminally online is potentially another side of effect of being neurodivergent since online social interaction can often be safer than in person interaction for many minorities, neurodivergent people included, as online interaction often allows for things like taking your time and thinking things through and being extremely thorough when discussing a topic and are commonly rewarded, where is in person social interaction often punishes this behavior. 

Another point of contention is that some Sonic fans have legitimately been bullied to conformity or isolation for being Sonic fans due to reviewers labeling both all Sonic games and all Sonic fans as bad in the 2010s which worse when you realize many autistic people like Sonic characters be they tend to display neurodivergent traits meaning things they like, relate to, and are one of the few things that can bring them comfort in a hostile and unknowable world are worthy of mistreatment, mockery, and isolation, which in some cases cause them to retreat further into their interest and become exceptionally defensive of it since it's now their one and only point of safety, so Sonic fans being enraged over reviews that happened long ago may be a genuine point of trauma for them. 

Another sometimes neglected aspect is the Sonic series is marketed towards children thus they likely also make up a significant portion of the fan base and may also share similar issues due the fact that they are inexperienced and still developing social and emotional skills which likely be exacerbated if they are both neurodivergent and a minor.

An additional point to be made that can magnify this issue is that the world is unfortunately very hostile to autistic people. People with different needs in any capacity tend to get brushed off and neurodivergent suffer from this, as do many others. This leads to things like others telling neurodivergent people to try new things, go outside, get out of your comfort zone without realizing that many neurodivergent people, autistic people especially, have a very small comfort zone and are easily overwhelmed by things they just aren't so, when someone forces themself to engage with something new (which can be terrifying due to unpredictability), go outside (which can overloading for autistic people who commonly have sensory processing disorders or people with anxiety who are often on edge and thus easily stressed), and get outside of their comfort zone (something that has likely been the only the can keep them stable and happy when everything else is overwhelming) they can often struggle or fail and even if they succeed it's still often stressful to the point they will often need time to recover and when neurodivergent people express their needs others often respond with dismissiveness or hostility because they assume neurodivergent people like this overreacting and just need to get over themself because to neurotypical people these things are nothing but to many neurodivergent people these things are Herculean Tasks that are now being rewarded with dismissiveness and hostility which furthers negative reinforcement leading these people to get stressed or burnt out and driving them to continue avoid anything and everything that overwhelms them.

Tell people like this “Go outside, do something else.” DOES NOT HELP

Too Long, Didn't Read. A significant number of Sonic fans are neurodivergent, mentally ill, children, or some combination of the 3 leading to underdeveloped social skills, low distress tolerance, and a tendency to “Be weird online,” and dismissively telling them that they “Overreacting”, “Annoying”, “Need to grow up” is likely to be very distressing to them to the point it helps no one.

I don't use other social media at the moment so if you wish to spread to other platforms you may, all I ask is that you link to this original post.