As a nerdy and lonely 14 year old, I would go home every day to watch lectures on Austrian economics, atheism, historical revisionism, and race realism. I thought that, because I was relatively autistic (low empathy, anti-social, object-oriented), I was immune to the propaganda of the masses. Whereas “normies” were emotionally manipulated, I was a logical robot who could not be fooled.

But this was a flawed understanding of myself and the world. My obsession with esoteric “edgy” topics came from narcissism, arrogance, and low self esteem. I wanted to be superior to others, and I viewed the “redpill” as a sign of my moral and intellectual superiority.

Having low empathy, being anti-social, and getting obsessed with pedantic topics is not a sign of superiority. These are flaws. Spending hours on wikipedia learning about WWII or IQ graphs is irrational, when this comes at the expense of doing your homework. I learned about irrelevant topics and got a GPA of 2.7. Not a rational, self-interested, or logic choice, but the result of a desperate desire to escape from a world that rejected me, and submerge myself in a new community (religion) which would accept me.

There is a growing legion of young men (often called incels) who think themselves to be superior to others, especially women, who they consider “overly emotional” and “superficial.” What these men don’t realize is that they are driven by emotions too, but they hide these emotions behind a cold veneer of “logic” and “rationality.”

In some cases, this is a form of overcompensation for a lack of masculinity. If you get called gay too many times for looking androgynous (I had long hair and a feminine face, and the McDonald’s workers gave me a girl’s toy with my happy meals), then LARPing as a cold, emotionless robot is a way to insulate yourself from the fear of being “feminine.” But this coldness is a veneer; it is artificial, meant to protect a vulnerable ego.

Being “autistic” is not a superpower that makes you hyperproductive or immune to propaganda. People who are cold, low empathy, and anti-social are MORE susceptible to propaganda, and less productive. But these terms like “autism” and “incel” often obscure more than they help, to the extent that people end up taking pride in these labels.