The Honest Town

There was once a town where everyone was brutally honest, and no one said they thought someone looked good in a dress when they looked fat. In this spirit of straightforwardness, shoes that pinched people’s feet and caused blisters weren’t made or sold. Sometimes, the population of this town made the occasional odd noise because it brought them comfort, rubbed their fingers together, or popped their elbows. On the fourth of July, there were quiet drone displays; since no one in town liked loud noises, fireworks were never permitted. Because everyone in the town had different preferences for clothing, each wardrobe was built to the individual, and no one was ever made to dress more formally than they were comfortable. Light bulbs in this town could all be adjusted to varying degrees of brightness, just as the volume in any environment could be tuned. To further accommodate, everyone carried their own set of headphones that could either block out sound or make it quieter. Ultimately, this was a town where everyone was on the autism spectrum. They ran everything in the town: they were the doctors, the mayor, and every job in between. The town was very efficient; there were no issues until one day, when the neurotypicals arrived.

There were soon complaints that they were lying, telling coworkers they looked great, only to be overheard later that they really thought the dress made their appearance look unflattering, complaints that had phone-required music, and missing the reworks from their old towns. Soon, the autistic individuals held a meeting to discuss the neurotypical problem. Soon, committees and charities were formed. The original townspeople felt pity that the neurotypicals didn’t communicate freely and honestly the way they did. One of the charities created communication training courses. There were charity collections in restaurants where people could donate their spare change to help neurotypical people in need.  

Therapies were developed to help the neurotypicals adapt to this new way of living. One of the cutting-edge therapies involved encouraging a neurotypical individual to wear headphones and reward them as they built up a tolerance. Many of the adults had to go to honest training. Many of them wanted to put them in a separate town, but many of the long-time residents pointed out that if a group home for the neurotypicals was built too close to their homes, their property values would go down. In the end, the townspeople decided the only compassionate thing to do was to accept neurotypicals. Each April, all residents wear paper clips in support of Neurotypical Acceptance Month. Some of the older original residents didn’t believe neurotypicals were a real population, but most came to grudgingly accept that they could live honest and productive lives.