So much of what made Boris Johnson such an effective politician from an American point of view was that he himself was in on the joke. He was able to brush off scandal after scandal, such as his serial philandering, his partying during Covid-19 as the rest of Britain remained locked down, and the general fact that the top of his head resembles the bottom of a hockey rink zamboni — all because he wore himself lightly.
That explains how he skated through scandal in a way that Donald Trump could never — until he couldn’t. For a certain type of upper-class man, everything is a game because they never have to live with the consequences of their actions.
But his latest defense of his actions isn’t so funny. In a recent interview with the Rosebud podcast, Johnson was asked whether he was a “feeling” person, to which he responded: “I’d love to think so. Sometimes. I think sometimes I can be a bit spectrum-y, probably.”
He later elaborated that “I can sort of zone out and fail to appreciate what people are really feeling, and that’s a bad thing.”
This is, of course, balderdash. Poppycock. It’s malarkey. It’s a gross misinterpretation of what autism is. Autistic — so-called “spectrum-y” — people have historically been thought to not be able to empathize with other people. But scientific studies have shown that yes, autistic people empathize and sometimes, they actually feel more empathy than their non-autistic counterparts.
Rather, the issue is that oftentimes, they misunderstand social cues. Damian Milton, a British researcher who is autistic himself, has said that when two people with different experiences — as well as neurotypes — interact, they will struggle to empathize with each other, which is known known as the “double empathy problem.” That explains why some people assume autistic people don’t feel empathy.
But the facts don’t matter to Johnson. If they did, he’d still be prime minister. The bigger issue is that for too long, privileged upper-class men have used autism as an alibi for their poor behavior. For men in the upper echelons of society, being autistic is the perfect excuse: it says that their genius is the price to paid to be in the presence of their brilliance.
Just a few days ago, it was alleged that MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace was prepared to tell investigators that autism caused his inappropriate sexual behavior. This is utterly repulsive. It basically implies that autistic men are incapable of having any kind of sex life that does not include sexual misconduct. As the late autistic blogger M Kelter told me back in 2017, “Pinning violations like this on the spectrum just serves to stigmatize autistics and normalize sexual abuse.”
In 2021, when Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, he said, “I'm actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger's to host SNL” (spoiler: he wasn’t. Former cast member Dan Aykroyd, who is autistic, hosted it before Musk did). But he said this tee up a joke: “To anyone I have offended, I just want to say: I reinvented electric cars and I'm sending people to Mars on a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?”
In Musk’s case, he was arguing that his outlandish and offensive tweets — that have only become more repulsive in the years since his rightward turn and full embrace of Trump — can be chalked up to him being on the autism spectrum. This is, quite simply, garbage.
It’s also particularly disgusting because of the fact that autistic people who are not in the upper echelons of society face higher unemployment rates. Stories of autistic men shot and killed by police abound. Black autistic children often don’t get the benefit of having an autism diagnosis they desperately need in the first place, since they are often seen as badly behaved instead and misdiagnosed with a conduct or adjustment disorder. Undiagnosed autistic women often present in a way that has been misunderstood by the medical establishment for decades, causing them to go undiagnosed for longer or for their entire lives.
Our understanding of autism has improved drastically in the last decade or so. We’ve also seen a proliferation of autistic people coming of age and advocating for their rights and for acceptance.
Such rhetoric from men like Musk and Johnson is the exact opposite of progress. It’s gatekeeping of elite behavior. It’s saying that autism is a pass for the wealthy and allows them to be immune from the consequences of their actions. It’s not acceptance. It’s an excuse.
Eric Garcia is the Washington Bureau Chief for the Independent and the author of the book ‘We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation’. His next book, ‘Stimming While Manly’, will explore autism and masculinity.
