I can tell you that what works for me is to be polite but distant. I’ll say “good morning!” to my coworkers and “have a good night!” At the end of the shift. I’ll be helpful when needed, and I’ll do my best to work well with others.

I already do this, but to some where I work, it's not enough.

the rest of your sentences are worth a try.

thank you for these examples

thank you for defending me, but as you can see, being a minority is not easy: a neutrally worded and genuine question is met by animosity because people like maalus simply don't understand or don't want to understand. And he get's upvoted. Even worse, he and his followers assume malevolence.

Just wanted you to know that I appreciate the feeling, but they are more and talk waaay more.

But still, I don't know what to tell my delicate coworkers.

And make no mistake, this post will also be downvoted...

Workplace conversation should be casual at all times, no overly personal stuff, no hot button topics ever. If things are that friendly, meet up outside work and get back to the job. Not because of some bullshit protestant work ethic or capitalist bullshit, but because you agreed to do a thing for a period of time, and fucking around while the job is still on is lame.

exactly...

if I go the autism route, ain't there a chance HR will ask for proof?

am very careful with how I phrase stuff

I was always polite and vague with how I declined their questions early on

would you write some examples for me to use?

thanks a lot for all of this, so many things I didn't even consider. I never thought they could be this dangerous. Petty and childish? Every day, but this dangerous? Nope. How naive of me.

As I guess you know, it's very tiring to pretend interest when they bore me. It’s really dawning to me that the best outcome would be to work entirely somewhere else or follow your advice and ask my supervisor not to make me work with them.

I’m not that convinced about fake bonding with the nosy ones, because, why would I do that? I have no trouble discussing the weather or recipes with the other 50%, it’s just this clique that’s… childish and immature. And I don’t go to work to feel stressed.

while I'm very tempted to follow this route, what do I tell them if 2 of them gang together with the contradictory info I fed them and confront me? 'I don't recall ever saying that, please let me work'?

It's even worse when your supervisor sometimes acts like one of these people.

I might just repeat like a broken record 'I don't want to talk about it and I hope you respect that'.

I still believe a nosy person will test this boundary, but I'll try it and see what happens.

I don’t understand why you have to answer at all when someone asks your age

what would be your answer, when you don't want to disclose it?