I believe Elon Musk is Autistic; I definitely felt Autistic vibes from him in interviews

Don't expect most Autistic people to be anything like him; we are all very different people and most of us are struggling with things his wealth means he will never understand
#Autism

His use of Asperger's is outdated and problematic; his life is very much the kind of mythologized genius Übermensch narrative that Asperger theorized in his writings

His announcement reinforces this mythos both in name and in perception; he is playing into the mythos for his ego

It benefits Elon to think of himself as a Genius

He wants to portray himself as pushing against trends hence his constant "how do you, fellow kids" anime references, memes etc.

Through surrounding himself with yes men he has avoided having to grow emotionally with others

This role is very easy for white autistic men to slide themselves into in society; people are trained and groomed by media to treat autistic white men as sources of knowledge and expertise

It's a very specific social niche that arose from Hans Asperger, Lorna Wing, and Uta Frith

I know because I fit into this role for many years both in how I selected my own behavior and also how others interpreted my behaviors

This is the most preferential treatment of any group of autistic people... and it's explicitly discrimination and prejudice

There are some perks to this niche even other white men struggle to access

It means people rarely challenge your perception of things especially when it comes to technology and science regardless of actual expertise

It means people will not target you as often for outright mockery and are more likely to excuse different behaviors

Quite often it means people expect you to have very little emotional depth and don't point out where you have been insensitive to others

It also affects the standards you hold yourself to and the kinds of activities you seek out

For me this largely lead me to work in service to others; gaining technical knowledge and assisting others with it as it was a trusted and secure connection I could rely on

It's been a terrible path for me to take for the most part

It allowed me to truly ignore and repress my feelings and prevented others from giving the kind of feedback that would require me to confront them

It lead to a life where my most common interaction with other was helping them the best I can and then removing myself from their perception as quickly as possible

This really corrupted my idea of relationships into something transactional and helped me avoid my trauma memories

The only real way it started to crumble was through detailed study of the exact prejudice

It's still part of who I am and my comfort zone is still in helping others I am just getting a little better at actually accepting help from others

I am not sure any one will be able to challenge Elon

He can dismiss legitimate critiques of his dangerous and impractical ideas as jealousy because of his ego

Dismiss concerns of human rights violations, unrealistic ideas, and outright dangerous technology

Even if you aren't formally diagnosed if you act in a way that emulates enough of the Sheldon Cooper characters of the world you fall into this niche

The way Asperger wrote the mythos is specifically about "heritage" and it's been a way to justify colonialism and white supremacy

It's always been about justifying the rule of white men; from an early age Asperger sympathized with the philosophy of the Volk joining the German Youth Movement as a child

This was a regressive and nationalistic ideology stirring in Weimar which eventually blossomed into Nazism

For decades Asperger's mythos was largely forgotten until Lorna Wing adapted Asperger's writings into a modern diagnosis which was later adapted into Asperger's Syndrome we know today

Don't give Asperger all the credit and erase her work

Please don't fetishize Autistic white men as geniuses; be skeptical of their claims as you should be skeptical of most others with grand claims

Please challenge Autistic white men to examine and share their feelings; challenge them to empathize with others and see their impacts

Living in this niche gives you a specific experience that I think is difficult to understand and I would ask other other autistic people to consider this a unique lived experience within autism

If you are autistic and not treated like this sorry if this thread is insensitive

In a lot of ways I still struggle with a lot of these socializations

They direct my mind to over-value the things I build and create and de-value the feelings

I can see how just talking about it I could be insensitive and I would really appreciate correction if I have been here

If you are really struggling to understand how the history affects stereotyping today read the words of Asperger as translated and annotated by Uta Frith

Don't take my word for it; it's not very difficult reading and most of the same narrative is present
https://web.archive.org/web/20181027085903/http://4gp.me/bbtc/1540630579666.pdf

If you told me a week/month/year ago that Elon is Autistic I wouldn't have even needed to see proof he announced it; I believed it before I saw the video from SNL

You would probably have a harder time convincing me he wasn't; he literally talked about how his brain was different

It took an hour but I am starting to connect to this emotionally

I really internalized these beliefs as a judgment of myself and accepted judgments of others that trying at romance and intimacy was a waste of my time

I grieve for my loss of opportunity to learn and grow

Right now my goal in romance is to consider myself properly "Single" where these personal problems don't destroy the potential to fail legitimately instead of ensured failure

I am striving for a fair chance at failing in a romantic relationship like everyone else

To give myself some credit I have had significant progress at friendships lately challenging some of these beliefs

I am really gracious to the people who are being patient with me as I try to force my help on them instead of allowing them to get close to me

Just in case this gets more traction please don't call me a man, bro, dude, guy etc. in replies

Partner, howdy, cowpoke etc. are all gender-neutral and western flavored which amuses me so those are my preferred manners of address beyond the pronouns I have listed in bio