I want to talk about the psychology of Elon Musk and why he's doing what he does.

[meadowlander]

8. Yes, absolutely.

Nothing about how Elon is is an inevitable consequence of being autistic. But I can see how he has gone about being a terrible person in a very autistic way.

I also forgot to add that "black and white thinking" is another typical autistic trait. This feeds into "there are only two genders and nothing in between" which is fueling Elon's transphobic obsessions. Also "men are inherently this way, women are that way - it's science, end of story" or "create classification - race; assign characteristics - X, Y, Z".

You can train yourself not to think this way if you are autistic and self-aware but potentially autistic people are more prone to fall into this way of thinking and Elon has never really had a reason to examine his core assumptions about life and acknowledge complexity or grey areas. Instead of admitting he was wrong, he can retreat to the internet where there are a nearly infinite number of people who are wrong in the same way who can reinforce his original assumptions.