Anyone else who has autism struggle to let lies or unscientific / inaccurate information go?

[Mittens67]

I find it so hard to keep my mouth shut when others out forwards their views if not based on fact and thoroughly evidenced science. Stuff like alternative medicine (in fact I am finding it hard to write that term without putting the word medicine in quotation marks) or religion, climate deniers, conspiracy theorists, gender ideology, animal communicators, mediums. I can actually feel my stress levels rising if somebody starts talking to me about any of this which they do as I have a longterm friend who has some of these beliefs.
I know I need to be tolerant and I do understand and respect that everybody has a right to their own opinion and mostly I manage to keep quiet by so as not to alienate people but occasionally I just can’t stop myself telling them (politely) that it is nonsense.
I have the same compulsion with outright lies. I am ok with polite white lies to be kind etc but complete untruths for the teller's own gain I simply can’t get past. It really shocks and upsets me above and beyond how most people seem to feel about lying.
I think this is an autistic thing so wondered if anyone else has the same experience?

Suspected autism here.
So I no longer get angry, and I generally engage a lot less in these types of conversation, but I have been known on occasion to (nicely) keep going 'can you show me what evidence you are basing that on?' Or variations of - as you will know, this generally leads to people deflecting/ignoring the request so I generally give up after a few times. I work in a job that's almost entirely fact/source checking so I know what questions to ask and it seems to really unsettle people! Which I find so strange! It's okay to admit you don't know, or you hadn't looked that far into it, or say 'oh I didn't realise that, maybe that's not a trustworthy source as I thought after all' but people are very weird about doing that, I find.

I don’t have autism so I can’t speak from experience but you sound wedded to specific views being ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and that this doesn’t encompass the grey and nuance in between. For example, various forms of alternative medicine have a scientific evidence base, such as acupuncture and other forms of Chinese medicine. Some conspiracy theories are insane and some merit further investigation. Is it possible for you to explore a bit of that to help you tolerate why people may hold these views, instead of just everything in a box of ‘nonsense’ or ‘ not nonsense’? But like you say at the end of the day people will have different views to you and it’s a method to manage your emotions about this you are after. Disagreeing with them politely is ok isn’t it?

I’m autistic and share your abhorrence of lying. Throughout my life I’ve tended to take people at their word, often (it turned out) to my detriment. Trying to exercise a little more caution now, without totally distrusting everyone!

I’m also a Christian, I became one at the age of 22 entirely independently of church connections etc through a direct personal encounter with the Lord. I find that being in this relationship with Jesus is absolutely logical.

I'm autistic and I agree with this. I also cannot stand inaccuracies, lies, hypocrisy, double standards, lack of critical thinking or nuance, close-mindedness, unwillingness to learn, group-think, opinions touted as facts, etc. They really give me the rage.

I'm the same. I'm trying to give up rolling my eyes because I give myself headaches from it. I can't control my facial expressions well and my face tells people they are talking bollocks even if I don't mean it to. My face gets me in a lot of trouble. I am very black and white, right or wrong. I have a very strong moral compass and lying is something I just can't tolerate.

My moral compass has caused me many difficulties throughout my life because I feel compelled to speak especially if somebody else is getting hurt or being wronged.
I would definitely rather be as I am but life would have been far easier if I could look the other way as so many people are able to.
I honestly wonder how people live with themselves and sleep easily when they lie or treat others badly because I know I can’t do this at all.

A lot of what we accept as science isn't founded in 'absolutes', it isn't usually 'thoroughly evidenced'. It is usually sufficiently evidenced that on on the balance of probabilities it is true. Many things operate on a spectrum with the place where most cases fall being considered the norm. But it is still a spectrum. All scientific discovery works on an iterative process.

What was considered the 'right' treatment 200 years ago isn't the same as the 'right' treatment now, but it doesn't mean it was wrong. It just means we have built on that learning to get a better 'right'. Similarly, in 100 years, things will have changed again.

Sadly a complete lack of knowledge, generally, about this and the concept of risk is why so conspiracy theories gain hold - and of course fear.

I wonder, OP, if you are interested, doing some reading around research methods would enable you to be a little more flexible in your thinking and understand why things don't always boil down to 'right and wrong'.

Even so, I can't process people telling out and out lies. It must be such hard work.

My autistic teen DC has more tolerance for difference of opinion than I do in some of the areas you mention ‐she understands that 'agreeing to disagree respectfully' is a thing, so does that thing very well.
She finds my frustration and absolutism irritating and irrational.