Expert on autism: Musk's Twitter behavior isn't from autism. He's a "billionaire asshole"

[highplainsdem]

Link to tweet

[yankee87]

1. Never said no to

He’s a winner of the family lottery and never has been said no to. Everything he ever wanted was given to him and all his employees have to worship him. You’re right, he’s just a over indulged asshole

[highplainsdem]

3. Very much like Trump.

[tenderfoot]

2. From one of the responses - Elon Musk's claims of Aspergers

[highplainsdem]

4. Thanks! Really interesting video!

[Jspur]

5. I'm confused about Autism when it comes to adults.

I wish I had a better understanding of it but to me I always thought of Autism as a social disorder in which you couldn't articulate your thoughts properly or communicate properly along with not being able to read social cues.

[meadowlander]

7. It's a spectrum disorder with a cluster of symptoms

and different people are impacted by different ones to different degrees.

The main ones are:

Social and communication differences - difficulty reading social cues, understanding your own and other peoples' emotions, in some people lack of social drive and focus on objects or interests instead

Language and cognitive differences - literal speech, black and white thinking, drives to systemitise and order things logically, challenges with executive functioning

Special interests - obsessive focus on specific topics, ability to hyperfocus, repetitive behaviours, speech patterns or thinking, comfort in routines

Sensory processing differences - experiencing unusually heightened or dulled sensations or experiencing them differently to other people (e.g. experiencing music as colours)

Many autistic adults are able to articulate their thoughts and communicate "properly" but may do it in a different way to neurotypical people. Also many people struggle with symptoms but are able to do them for limited periods of time with extreme concentration which wears them out.

[NullTuples]

11. That was a wonderfully succinct yet complete brief description.

[Mr.Bill]

6. Think of it this way.

We are all autistic, it's just a matter of to what degree.

[meadowlander]

8. No we aren't.

Many people have similar symptoms to autism but having swollen ankles doesn't make you pregnant and pretending "oh, we're all a bit autistic" diminishes the challenges faced by people who are actually diagnosed.

[NullTuples]

10. Nooo, please don't.

Saying "we are all autistic, it's just a matter of degree" is something people say when they want to include us as being part of the acceptable in-group. It implies that without that inclusion, we are less-than. Just accept us as we are, as equals.

We are a different neurotype (which, btw span the entire so-called IQ range). Some parts of our brains are organized differently from allistics (not-autistics). We perceive & process sensory information differently, process it differently and communicate it back out again differently. Along with a few other minor differences. A good analogy would be thinking of us as being from a different culture, except it's innate, not learned behaviors.

[Mr.Bill]

12. You are way over-thinking things.

Last edited Tue Nov 15, 2022, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)

[meadowlander]

13. They're not though.

It's like saying "we're all a bit blind" because I get eyestrain too after staring at a computer for 14 hours or "we're all African if you really think about it" and therefore you can understand what it's like to have dark skin in America. There is a whole culture and identity there that people who do not fundamentally belong to that group can never really fully grok.

You may have had experiences that help you understand some aspects of some challenges faced by autistic people but that does not make you "a little autistic". And it is patronising to assume that autistic people need to be made to feel better about their "terrible affliction" by your observations that sometimes you struggle to organise your thoughts too or miss the point of a joke.

Suggest reading Neurotribes as a good introduction to autistic culture and the historical reasons why autistic people have struggled to have their differences and identity recognised and not pathologised or "cured" by people with neurotypical saviour complexes.

Also for reference: https://researchautism.org/what-to-say-what-not-to-say-to-someone-with-autism/

5 things to NEVER say to someone with Autism:

1. “Don’t worry, everyone’s a little Autistic.”

No. The number is one in sixty-eight. We’re not all a little Autistic. There are countless struggles that I deal with on a daily basis and comparing Autism-related struggles to other struggles is just plain insulting. You have no idea what it’s like… and you’ll never know.

https://themighty.com/topic/autism-spectrum-disorder/autistic-friend-how-to-respond/

"2. Everyone’s a little bit autistic. I hate (large groups, fireworks, strong smells…) too."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/drnancydoyle/2021/01/16/is-everyone-a-little-autistic/?sh=6ac9a5195666

https://medium.com/artfullyautistic/the-issues-with-saying-that-everyone-is-a-little-autistic-75fb0947744e

[Warpy]

9. I just wonder which Russian operative he's been boffing

I mean, he always was a jerk, but he had more sense than to be a TP/MAGA Republican. Also, paying through the nose for a company that had never turned a profit and had stopped expanding is fishy beyond belief, the stated reason being he thought the site was unfair to right wing trolls, TFG chief among them.