What about money?
It used to be said (in 1950s guides to etiquette, at any rate) that you should steer clear of the three topics Religion, Politics and Money when conversing with someone you don't know that well.

Yeah, that's what my mother always used to tell me as well, and in general I adhere to it. I believe it does prevent a lot of potential problems.

My cousin sometimes tries to start debates between me and other people she knows by blurting out some of my political opinions that don't exactly jive with the predominantly liberal atmosphere in this area, and I just try to ignore her.

Ah yes I forgot about money. That can be an issue of contention. Anyway got to go my daughter BADLY wants to go on the computer before she has a meltdown and hers aren't pleasant.

This is a problem for myself and nearly everyone with aspies I know and continually gets us into strife whether on the internet, at a BBQ, dance or anything else.

The three main areas that seem to cause the most strife are talking about sexuality identity, political persusian and religious conviction almost invaribly will bring a hostile response since these three areas are very deeply held core beliefs that a person will vigourously defend if there is a perceived attack on them.

I have seen what happens when these subjects are brought up first hand and the results are not pretty. I consider it advisable to steer clear of these subjects unless you are with people of the same or very similar beliefs.

There are many others I'm sure others will be added.

ATM: Strife is OK, as long as it is productive.  I think that people should disagree.  That is part of free discourse.

All the best.

How often are social conventions actually political correctness gone rampant? I know we have to have a certain number of conventions to allow society to run smoothly but if something is really important, I always think it should be written down or at least passed down to new generations via word of mouth.

I certainly think it is wise to be careful about bringing up sexuality/political views - particularly the more incendiary ones which I don't think I should mention in case they start a fight/having a mental illness. Our honesty makes us vulnerable to being thought of as weird because we tend to over self-disclose too early in a conversation.

But it's hard and we often are left with the idea "well, what on earth do they expect me to say?". Usually, talking about the weather is quite safe.

In mother's groups, it's very easy to offend with different views about breastfeeding -vs- bottle feeding, using a dummy or not and for how long, toilet training, weaning, sleeping in parents' beds, spoiling -vs- being strict, etc. But yet if you don't contribute to the conversation, you're seen as weird so what do you do?

We have a heap of those sort of magazines in the staff room, kept in the middle of the table where we all have our lunch.  A number of my colleagues will read them during lunch, flicking through the pages and looking at the pictures and commenting, while I am considered odd because I prefer to either do a Sudoku, a crossword, or read a novel brought from home.  I do attempt to join in the conversation, usually fairly successfully although I'm generally uninterested, but the magazines are another matter.  Who *cares* about what/who some starlet or B-grade actor or footballer is doing/wearing/living with?  But it's all solemnly discussed around the table by most of the people I work with, as if it's of vital importance to the continuance of civilization.  
Alison

This is a problem for myself and nearly everyone with aspies I know and continually gets us into strife whether on the internet, at a BBQ, dance or anything else.

The three main areas that seem to cause the most strife are talking about sexuality identity, political persusian and religious conviction almost invaribly will bring a hostile response since these three areas are very deeply held core beliefs that a person will vigourously defend if there is a perceived attack on them.

I have seen what happens when these subjects are brought up first hand and the results are not pretty. I consider it advisable to steer clear of these subjects unless you are with people of the same or very similar beliefs.

There are many others I'm sure others will be added.

All the more reason I try my darndest to avoid talking about it.

Congrats on your coral growing under stress!

I was that child with the interesting rock collection, and the other night I took my son out of bed (his choice of bedtime reading was an old childhood book of mine about how the earth was formed) to show him an interesting sandstone block in the back wall of this cottage!

We live in an area in Australia that was once an inland sea (talking 450 million years ago!) and the land is crumbly lumps of slate.  Lauren and I have found masses of stones with trilobite fossils embedded in them.  I also saw a local television program where a scientist was looking at the fossils around this area, and showed a mass of tiny shell fossils.  We love to imagine what the area must have looked like when it was covered in a shallow sea, before even the time of the dinosaurs.  And it brings home just exactly how *old* this continent is.
Alison

Oh, I might have meant shale?  I'm not any good identifying, I'm afraid!  It's a very crumbly stone and we have hardly any topsoil on it.  When we were building our house we had to import soil to grow plants on.  But it makes beautiful impressions of the trilobites, with all the little legs and big compound eyes.  I also found a fossilized leaf once, like your fossil it showed the individual leaf veins in great detail.  
Alison

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I was expressing annoyance about shallowness but not really asking for advice. I can socialise enough to get by but don't have many close friends. It's cool - I'm used to it now.
The price of popularity is becoming dumbed down and that's not a price I'm willing to pay most times.

Lauren found that when she was went to the local high school.  She could only "hang out" with people if she didn't talk about her interests but about theirs, and was very frustrated with them as she felt they were extremely shallow.  It's been a lot better the last two years since she began Years 11/12 for the run-up to University studies, since the kids she now mixes with are completing 11/12 because they intend to go on to Uni. She says they're still pretty shallow, but at least they don't penalize her when they find out she has a brain: it's expected more, or perhaps her "peer group" is now maturing into acceptance more.
Alison

It did come across as needing advice. One doesn't need a lot of friends. My wife is my closest friend and so are the kids (sometimes). As for being dumbed down I don't think they know what they are missing. Most people are extremly shallow and self centred.

Oh snap.  I broke two of those the very first time I spoke with Hyperspace.  And it wasn't the money one.  We also spoke of conspiracy theories, cheese jokes, rootbeer, and human nature.

Forget about those rules. If you break them as often as possible whenever possible you make Human Beings more likely to be open-minded about talking about the three topics right away.

You go to geek culture (they should be intelligent, right?) and hear all talks how smart they are, and how great their (next) startup is. At best,  computer games and zombie movies. How smart should be people who are busy showing off how smart they are all the time? I can bet, many are aspies.

Do you live in Cambridge, by any chance?