Sleekit Scotsman coming clean
Sleekit Scotsman coming clean
The challenges of an autistic newbie writing on contentious humanitarian issues.
Synopsis
An article from the heart outlining why I’ve started writing and sharing some personal information for the first time to try to explain why I write like I do - but I think the pros outweigh the cons.
Contents
Why I started Writing and Why Now
I’ve always been interested in humanitarian issues and the values of justice, fairness, integrity - but I’ve always worked in the worst environment for my naive idealism - big corporates! 🦈
After 25 years of working in these organisations, I’ve decided to try to make a change and make a go of writing.
The decision point was October 7th and subsequent events. I’ve been outraged by the treatment of Palestinians for many years. I was and still remain absolutely horrified at the events of October 7th.
But the unprecedented response thereafter follows a long pattern of behaviour that finally is getting transparency, and I want to add my own voice to calling out this hiding-in-plain-sight injustice.
So I have decided enough is enough and to speak and write about the issues and other subject matter.
I started writing on Facebook / Instagram - but realised I have a lot to say and a Substack is more structured and appropriate.
A different thinking style
I am aware that my writing style is verbose, can contain grammatical howlers and is heavily versioned (I do keep re-editing).
To “come clean” I have a medical condition - the holy trinity of autism, bipolar and ADHD, which I was diagnosed with over 15 years ago (undiagnosed for much longer) and have a long-term treatment programme including medication to regulate.
This has impacted my approach to tasks, communication style and my ability to relate to people.
I have struggled working in the corporate environment for over two and a half decades but I have never shared my medical conditions, despite the talk of mental health being more open in recent years (I feel like I saw the band before they became famous).
It’s been difficult, as being undisclosed people jump to the wrong conclusions about my behaviour and communication style, rather than being able to understand that I think differently but act with best intentions. It’s been a rod for my own back but it’s been a personal choice to stay silent in the types of fairly aggressive industries and roles I’ve worked in.
I’m tired of masking as they say and have decided to try something else I feel passionate about that suits my style of thinking and interaction.
‼️ Note to friends and others who know me: I’ve been open with my conditions to most of the friends I keep in contact with regularly, however if you know me, you might now be aware of this for the first time, and I’m sure a few things might slot into perspective for you! I appreciate your discretion (see below on writing under a pseudonym) and please ping me direct if you’ve any questions. 🙏🏻☺️
Autism: Impacts on my writing
In the context of writing with my differing thinking style this means my process is different:
Cognitive Approach
💭 Memory: I can recall exactly something I wrote on Facebook on an issue 10 years ago, whilst forgetting the names of family members or leaving the front door wide open. Helps in writing, doesn’t help with family relations or robbers. Practically this does cause issues when meeting people or socialising as I cannot remember names or events and do need to write down to recall.
🎧 Attention: I modulate between hyper focus (forgetting to eat, drink) and hyper distraction! This can contribute to a disjointed style of writing.
🖥️ Multi-Tasking & System Thinking - I work in chunks on multiple things at once on a 49 inch ultra-widescreen monitor and use digital whiteboarding apps which works well for me in multitasking and visual thinking. This helps my system style of thinking - joining ideas together from multiple sources in particular in a visual way.
📊🔍 Correlation & Patterns - I can often correlate and see patterns in the documentation I’m reading with others or notes I’ve taken previously, or articles I wrote years ago.
🔤 Need for order: with pattern matching and the processing of lots of information – I do feel a natural need to organise and categorise – whether its identifying themes, or simply filing notes. I sometimes get overwhelmed with lots of unrelated information taking time to review and reorganise logically.
Research Process
📚 Research Detail - I research (OVER research) meticulously, and get to the original source documentation where it is possible. I read verbose United Nations reports for example and draw my own conclusions. I have a whole filing system of original reports, research notes, and future story ideas using these resources.
🧩 Bottom-Up Thinking: I approach new subjects with a childlike naivety - and build up an understanding from bottom-level at source researching from a variety of sources over time. Eventually it allows me to see multiple relations in the subject matter and gives a whole-of-system understanding of a topic, based on data-driven analysis. Time consuming but I can’t help it and I hope gives an informed view.
🔗 Cross-Referencing - I put LOTS of footnotes on sources and references to other posts in posts. I don’t know if this is good or not. It’s relevant to the subject as a follow-on for those who may not have read earlier articles in the context of writing journals (additional information). I’m obsessed with references and often go back and add these as they occur to me as additional evidence or points of relevance. I have a network of cross connected thoughts in my mind, have a network of cross connected thoughts in my mind, as cognition notes above on correlation & patterns.
Writing Process & Challenges
Style - I write very long posts with lots of links and references. I do try to break this up with lists (LOTS 🔹⦁ ) sections and emojis (LOTS 🏴👍) but I like to be thorough. I’m going to have to work on this - I feel like I’m writing for my autistic detailed self rather than a bite-sized typical media consumer.
😀 Emojis: I use lots of Emojis in the body of my writing (in fact everywhere - my personal calendar etc. !). I find for some reason this helps me fix ideas in my head and helps me structure my thoughts. I appreciate it looks a bit cutesy and weird and doubt it’s in the Harvard Law Review style guide!
📑 Verbosity: With the amount of research detail and facts behind writing – I am often tempted to put in all the information chronologically for a longer argument. As such my online writing is more essay driven. For external articles of course I need to edit down and distil arguments within a word count but always tempted to not “miss something”. This is something I do need to work on - for ease of reading never mind publication guidelines.
👨💻 Rework & Republication - I usually can’t get my ideas out first time or in the right order and do need to edit after A LOT. Ideas are built incrementally as additional info occurs to me added in - which defeats the purpose of setting a dated article in stone. I appreciate this can be difficult on social media where people might “like” your first draft - then disagree with edits (but I wouldn’t change the base argument). The article you are reading I will literally have edited and re-edited up to a hundred times.
🤦♂️ Howlers - I sometimes type so fast I make grammatical errors or forget to finish sentences and on re-reading go back and edit. The complexity and argument may be correct - but I often miss the basics in terms of spelling and grammar - which is annoying and looks sloppy.
⭐️ Perfectionism: Ironically despite all the mistakes - I go back and edit, correct, update. If see something slightly wrong - additional space - I will edit. It bothers me. If there’s a howler still there it means I haven’t seen it. I read and re-read my work not because of vanity, but looking for my mistakes and lack of cohesion. I’m obsessed with patterns and consistency in presentation. It’s really annoying - logically done is better than perfect, good enough is a threshold, and there’s a finite amount of time. Logic doesn’t hold with autism.
Net result - it takes me a hell of a lot longer to get an article out than others would but I would hope with more detail and accuracy and insight (which will improve as I learn I hope!).
🤯 You can imagine how the above process goes in a corporate environment - you literally have TWO jobs! And I’ve just described impacts on ONE channel of communication - never mind impacts on other daily interactions like …. verbal, email, IM, video conferences, internal social media, meetings, presentations, Town Halls, conferences, company events …. all that good stuff as is de riguer in most corporates!
And on top of the whole lot, to get by, you have the masking. All of this has applied to a major extent in my personal life also. Different story for another time.
In the context of writing, I do hope that I have a significant advantage with my differing thinking style and process in more readily “joining the dots”.
I hope to produce in-depth and well researched posts with an informed, insightful and perhaps unique opinion of my own.
When I get it right!
Ok now that’s out the way….
Issues I write on
Current and other topics listed below.
Current Topics
Focusing on social justice in the Middle East and the injustice of corruption and self-interest politically driving this:
🇵🇸🇺🇳🕊️ Palestinian Human Rights in particular the Gaza Conflict 2023/24
🇮🇱🚨👩⚖️⚖️ Israel’s historical and ongoing breaches of international law
🏛️🇮🇱🚨💰Government corruption by pro-Israeli lobby groups
🇺🇳👩⚖️⚖️ United Nations and International Justice
📺📰🎙️🚫 Media Bias
Other Topics:
🏴 Scotland - country of my birth, education and heart ❤️
🐎 Animal Rights - primarily horse racing (though I’m not a vegetarian for full disclosure!)
🌎 Current Affairs
♻️🌍 The Circular Economy
🇦🇺 Aboriginal Rights in Australia
🇺🇳🕊️ Human Rights Globally
As to subject matters - as I write it occurs to me I may add to the above subjects writing on Autism. Since I’m newly open about this in a public forum, much as I don’t want to be branded “The Autistic Guy” at this point, good to write on something you know!
I would love to do some creative writing also.
Antisemitism v Free Speech
Writing on Middle East events from a political and humanitarian perspective is quite frankly a nightmare in terms of nuance and implication that may be derived from wording or interpretation.
🕎 In the current climate there is almost a McCarthyism around Antisemitism, and unfair weaponisation of the accusation to shut down valid criticism of Israeli foreign policy or even just indicating support for Palestinian human rights, both of which clearly are not antisemitic.
We should be clear on the definition and language acceptable to be used (which varies from country to country) and the difference between Antisemitism and criticism of a State’s policies.
Writing needs backed up with stated research sources and not blindly reposted from an echo chamber.
I’ve written an extensive post on this historically pinned to the top of the original Sleekit Scotsman Facebook Page before Substack. The sensitivities feeding the AI censorship algorithms vary from day to day and country to country so I wanted to ensure:
my principals and my intent in writing are understood by those reading the article
should a page be auto or otherwise shut down, in the event of an appeal those principals are transparent
It should be fairly clear in free speech what is acceptable and what is not, but as I say with the hysteria and McCartyite weaponising of antisemitism in the current environment, definitions and thresholds vary, but my non-antisemitic intent holds.
Antisemitism v Free Speech Article:
Antisemitism v Free Speech Statement
I’d like to also specifically restate here from the article the key tenets:
🕎 ❤️ I am not antisemitic
🌎☺️ I am pro Human Rights
🇺🇳👩⚖️⚖️ I believe in upholding international law including humanitarian law, maintained by independent institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the various bodies of the United Nations.
🇵🇸🇮🇱 By definition due to documented breaches of international laws and human rights laws by Israel - I am pro-Palestinian rights and hence anti-Israel STATE policies contributing towards those breaches or perpetuating misrepresentations or continued unfair treatment of Palestinians.
📢✅ This is NOT antisemitic
Research Ethics: Source References Quoted
I take the following approach to research:
I will always try to get to the original source documents quoted in an article and where appropriate review the veracity of the source using the MediaBias website -https://mediabiasfactcheck.com
I will always quote sources in the post either as a footnote in the body of the article, in the article itself, caption to an image or in a section Related Articles at the base of the article
On any corresponding Instagram post ( 📸 https://www.instagram.com/sleekit.scotsman/ ) I provide reference to link 🔗 to this page in the profile noting sources here (since you cannot store links on individual posts)
I have a bias towards Western Media sources for source material and quotes. This is a conscious choice to combat mindless racist refuting of stories just because the source is a quite reputable Middle Eastern media outlet for example. It’s annoying I have to do this but it’s on page 1 of the “call into doubt” discrediting manual for those with opposing viewpoints and no desire to cross-check.
However - if I get it wrong: we’re not infallible and I’m keen to learn - see section “Ca Canny” below.
If I get facts incorrect - I will always check, correct, mark the edit and from whom (if the source is comfortable being quoted).
Supplementary Articles - The Extra Mile
From some of the above the subject areas by definition a lot of my writing is on Politics which is a complex area.
Where I don’t know something or the governing structures behind it or I just need to organise my thoughts, I will research in detail. If relevant I will write supplementary articles with references and findings that I will provide links to which may assist reader understanding of the topic, as it does mine.
As an example, writing on the Scottish Parliament’s response to the current Gaza crisis, I ended up writing two supplementary background articles on the setup of the Scottish v UK Parliaments, and the policy positions of the SNP as positioning research articles as below:
Supporting Articles:
King of England my arse!
Scots - we're no like you by the way
Social Media
Sleekit Scotsman ☮️🏴 also publishes on a number of social media channels - please also consider subscribing to these:
📺 YouTube @SleekitScotsman : https://www.youtube.com/@SleekitScotsman
👤 Facebook @sleekit.scotsman2 : https://www.facebook.com/sleekit.scotsman2
🆇 X (formerly Twitter) @SleekitScotsman : https://twitter.com/SleekitScotsman
📸 Instagram: @sleekit.scotsman https://www.instagram.com/sleekit.scotsman/
Central landing page to all of the above: 🔗🌳 https://linktr.ee/sleekitscotsman
I expect to post on the above regularly sharing articles from others as appropriate but with my own commentary if relevant.
Substack - this. I expect to use this channel for more in depth article type writing. My Facebook posts have been so long it would be appropriate to just link here
I may retrospectively re-post Facebook posts to date here - but since the Middle East situation is so fast moving they may well be out of date. Still relevant I think with disclaimer on First Publication Date and link to the original unedited FB post (need some editing afforded by Substack richer formatting).
Post Format
TBH compared to WordPress or some other platforms, I’m finding SubStack formatting to be pretty limited (most probably because this unemployed person is currently using the free version).
Since I write such long articles, I’ve been experimenting with formats to try to make them more logical to read.
For longer articles, the common format I’m going with for now is:
Tabloid-headline and strapline (sometimes a nice bit of National Enquirer sensationalism for eyeballs whilst I try to build an audience!)
Synopsis - Paragraph and a few bullets up at the top outlining what the article is about. (Retrospectively adding in Dec 5 - the contents pages were getting too long to put this after them!
Contents section - with hyperlinks to sections, each having a “Back to the Top” hyperlink to return you to Contents
Concluding - as relevant, summary of the main arguments or points to leave with in the article
Related Articles - other articles relevant or summary of substack articles referenced in the main article
Footnotes - comprehensive list of footnotes used in the article. There will be A LOT - but that’s the intention - a detailed list of public domain references to refute misinformation with empirical facts.
At the top of each article to try to highlight navigation up front I’ll put this image:
Writing under a Pseudonym
🕵🏻♂️ I’ve chosen to write under the pseudonym “Sleekit Scotsman” - additional note over the obvious being Scottish on the choice of name:
The immediate reason I’ve chosen to write under a pseudonym is that some of the humanitarian issues I write about - with a viewpoint - can be considered controversial and people have different reactions.
This is the first time I have written publicly before - I’ve shared my viewpoints over the years with friends and family on private social media, but now sharing more broadly it is open to a range of reactions.
My considerations:
Future Employment (Autism): Rightly or wrongly I want to minimise risk to future employment opportunities, potentially back in the corporate sphere as the breadwinner or side hustle funding - you gots to eat. Open discussion of my different thinking style is not something I want to take to an interview - easy to hit the “too risky” kill switch. Also as I’m newly talking about this, at this point I don’t want a professional brand of “The Autistic Guy”.
Future Employment (Subject Matter): Fair enough disclaiming “opinions my own” and being professional enough not to share personal views on corporate or professional social networks - employers still always have a viewpoint and bias too and don’t need to justify a non-hiring decision.
Personal Safety (Subject Matter): I do not want harassed online or otherwise due to disagreeing keyboard warriors or worse. This is particularly important if anything does go viral. One of my FB posts was recently directly shared by a public figure to his page with 6.7M followers, so if directed to the page, statistically bound to be some “robust exchangers”! 🤺🤬🤬
Ca Canny
Ca canny: Scottish Doric for “Go Easy” !
🅿️ I have “L” plates on (alright, “P” in Australia for newly qualified driver) in terms of writing, with some of the challenges in my thinking style I’ve outlined, so I’m not always going to get it right on:
Current version of an article (re-edits post publication)
Style of writing or appropriate channel
Also we’re not infallible. If I get facts incorrect - I will always check, correct, mark the edit and from whom (if the source is comfortable being quoted).
Ca canny whilst I refine! ☺️
Turas math dhuibh!
Scottish Gaelic for “Bon Voyage!”
As I set off … I’d really appreciate feedback in my writing, both in content and style to help me refine. Much appreciated! 👍
Related Articles
Substack articles referenced in this article:
Since this is a “positioning” article for Sleekit Scotsman and as mentioned in the body of the article above it’s important to be clear on how I research articles and why my writing on contentious issues is not antisemitic “Antisemitism v Free Speech Statement” below:
As above - why Burns, Sleekit?
Background info on different parliamentary systems in the UK (illustrated with US/Australian equivalents):
Background info on the SNP / Scottish politics:
