Comment You don't understand autism (Score 0) 78
There's a distinct lack of understanding autism in these comments. How it may present, the different types of autism, and dangerous misconceptions are plentiful here. Autistic people are not sociopaths, and are not inherently dangerous. This person's autism isn't the cause of the hacks, exploits, and damage caused by this person. What is misunderstood is that the autistic capacity to hyper-focus on a special interest is what enabled this person to be so successful at hacking.
What seems to have been missing in this person's life is the appropriate rewards system to direct their efforts away from malicious hacking, and towards more socially acceptable "white hat" hacking, to feed and reward their special interest. The appropriate support, guidance, and opportunity for "acceptable success" was not available to them without confirming to the neurotypical constructs of our societies. This person sought and achieved success, notoriety, acceptance within these hacking communities, but this happened to be something which causes damage. He was pulled out of school, assaulted by his government caregivers, and misunderstood by his peers. This person craved to be seen and respected by others, and he was able to achieve that in these hacking circles. This same story is played out over and over again in the stories depicted in Darknet Diaries, wither the hacker was autistic or not.
Does this excuse his behavior? No, of course not. But autism is not the CAUSE of his illegal acts. Behavior is a product of the individuals' environment as well.
