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Comment by burlesona | Hacker News Reader

He has Asperger’s and has talked openly about his difficulty understanding social cues.

https://www.axios.com/2022/04/15/elon-musk-aspergers-syndrom...

I don’t think that fully excuses or justified everything he does, but it has some explanatory power.

It’s obvious by his work output that he is not a very typical person, and it seems like society as a whole is gaining tremendous benefit from his eccentricity. I don’t think we have to like him, but speaking for myself, I still respect him and on the whole am grateful for his life’s work. I wish he’d stay away from Twitter… but, oh well.

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>He has Asperger’s and has talked openly about his difficulty understanding social cues.

In the history of items written on Musk in the past 20 years, was it ever mentioned prior to 2022?

Yeah, sure, like 90% of SV claims to be "on the spectrum", often as a behavioural excuse. Don't believe me? Look at any comment section of an article discussing the subject on these forums.

I hadn't heard it was Asperger's specifically until recently, but if you've ever heard Musk speak it's always been readily apparent that he had some kind of mental abnormality. He seems to have more trouble forming ideas into sentences than your average person.

Do you have any data that proves it wrong?

A quick google says 1 man out of 42 is autistic and 1 out of 200 workers in the U.S. is a software engineer. Let's assume every SE is a man and half the working population is men, that would mean 1 out of 100 men is in software.

Based on those numbers, it would be possible for every software engineer to be on the spectrum.

Asperger's isn't an excuse for poor behavior.

> Asperger's isn't an excuse for being a dick.

Labelling non-neurotypical behavior as "being a dick" or "poor behavior" is very neurotypical.

[Addendum]

I for one am happy to see the larger world and its expected rules of behavior get a taste of what it constantly dishes out.

I'm talking stuff like calling people you don't like pedophiles in a public forum. Not social missteps. Attacking people using your twitter account as a megaphone and doubling down when people call you on it is absolutely unacceptable behavior.

Aspegers does not excuse intentionally hurting people you don't like.

I see you have moved from the indefensible bailey to the motte from which you attempt to redefine the bailey. You may have your misconception about the conversation topic. I do not.

Referring to the rescue diver as a pedophile is uniquely odious and as far as I’m aware the only time Musk has done that. Maybe you are closely tracking his public utterances against pedos, MAPs, and groomers and can shed more light on how that occasion is part and parcel to a broader pattern of behavior, unacceptable in your mind. Of note, the public letter didn’t coincide with that specific incident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy

That makes sense, thanks. Being on the autism spectrum doesn’t forgive any behavior of course but can explain it. He should get people to explain social issues, and people to filter/write his own output. It would benefit everyone, most of all him.

That is an excuse. Musk should see jail time.

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