Society

This is an experimental page still in development (by MrPedroBraga -- talk).

Society is a construct engaged in by some animals (including humans).

Some of those species' individuals may be hard-wired, neurologically speaking, to participate in it. We call those individuals Allistic.

This hard-wiring exists because in nature those who do not gather together are less likely to survive.

Truths

A social truth is something which must be acknowledged as true for participation in a society. It is also the basis for Roles.

So, certain words, behaviours, concepts, have a specific purpose within a society. This is their 'social meaning.'

Allistic individuals are able to innately absorb social truths and the social meanings of things. Autistic individuals are not and must do so manually with much effort.

Roles

A social role is a construct which can be assigned to an individual (or an individual can be assigned to a role).

There exists Truths which dictate how individuals' behaviours correspond to roles. This set of truths is the "social norm."

A person which has proper roles is then called 'normal' (has positive connotation). A deviant individual is 'weird' (has negative connotation).

Not having social roles leads to Ostracism.

There also exists miscellaneous truths about specific roles -- how the individuals in them should be treated, what they can expect of others, etc.

Those role truths can be beneficial to the individual (perks) or neutral/detrimental (duties). An individual may engage on their roles' duties to be eligible for their roles' perks. And, again, to fight Ostracism.

Non-behaviourally assigned roles

As the title suggests, some roles may be assigned not by behaviour, but by some unchangeable property of the individual.

Here are some examples of how this works in human societies.

• Gender (which is assigned by the individual's sex).
• Class (spending power).
• Race/Ethnicity
• Place of Origin
• Age
• Attractiveness
• [...]

Hierarchy

The perks/duties are not balanced across all roles, leaving some roles to have a relative advantage to another.

Ostracism

When an individual is devoid of some social role, they are invisible and unaccounted for (at best).

They are devoid of all the 'perks' such as greetings, invitations, acknowledgement of existence and social protection against harmful behaviours of all kinds.

This apathy and disregards is incredibly painful for allistic individuals (see: Shaming) and, in general, is dangerous, since many individuals reserve empathy for individuals who participate in society.

Shaming

Shame is a pain-like response of the brain that can arise to incentivize an individual to act according to society's expectations. It's a hard-wired neurological pattern to avoid Ostracism.

In a society, an individual may provoke shame in another (this is called shaming) in order to coerce them to behave according to social norm.

This will be done for a plethora of reasons.

• The shamer may gain something from the shamee behaving according to norm and wants to force them to do so.
• The shamer worries that the shamee will face ostracism and wants to convince them to behave according to norm to avoid that. Ironically, they will often see the word 'shaming' in a bad connotation and be convinced they aren't doing just that.
• The shamer is sadistic.
• The shamer specifically points out the flaw in the shamee's behaviour and the fact they are different from themselves in order to protect their own status (look at how this person sucks -- I'm not like them, I am deserving of a role!). Often, social individuals bond over shaming another.

This can be easily observed on children -- who will often point out other kids' misbehaviour or their own good behaviour to an adult in order to gain validation.

Avoiding shame and ostracism is one big source of Anxiety for individuals.

• [...]

The dangers of trying to fit in too hard

An individual may change their behaviour in order to fit in in some role.

Individuals which have natural ways of behaving must systematically change those 'improper' behaviours in order to fit in. That's called Masking.

If an individuals' natural needs are not well balanced for their role's perks/duties, the damage caused by masking will not be compensated.

It will then inevitably lead to Depression.

Social Alteration Movements

There have been movements promoted to alter social truths and roles that are detrimental to certain groups -- notably ones that are assigned by reasons out of the individual's control.

Nowadays we've got:

• Feminism, Gender Equality (against gender-wise social inequality).
• Anti-Racism (against race-wise social inequality).
• LGBTQIA+ Pride (fighting ostracism and shaming of individuals based on their sexual orientation and/or their gender-sex mismatch).
• [...]