Just to preface; I am Autistic and female. Been diagnosed for 6 years, give or take. So it is not any ableism on my part, at least I don’t think so.

I had two Autistic male acquaintances, one who is currently blocked for this exact same reason. I like a healthy debate like any nerd, it was just that discussions with him were hellish. It didn’t matter what I said, I was wrong. I couldn’t change his mind or have a discussion because he would just completely talk over me. He would try to actively find reasons why I was wrong even if it was just an opinion. If I didn’t agree with him it seemed like it was his life goal to prove me wrong, even if it seemed to be at the cost of our friendship. I had told him multiple times (during multiple discussions) to stop, that I wasn’t enjoying it. That I was done with the conversation and that I felt very uncomfortable/mentally drained/whatever else. During our last discussion I said to stop doing X because he was being completely dismissive and just plain rude. I warned him two more times to stop. When he didn’t, I told him that I didn’t want to be friends anymore and said I was blocking him.

A few weeks ago I saw a friend of mine having a discussion with another male with Autism. It was so familiar to my ex-friend. He was just trying to get his point across, not listening to her. She was wrong and when she said that she was uncomfortable and wanted to stop, he didn’t until me and my boyfriend intervened.

Is this an Autism thing? Like, is this just an awkwardness in social skills? Or were they just jerks (neck-beard, incel type) that just so happened to be Autistic? It was such a coincidence I’m wondering whether it’s common in Autistic men. Anyone else experienced something like this?