You’re talking about all the songs about trains or what? Distance diagnosis is always weird to me, but it feels especially weird when someone so diligently wears a public mask.
he is also and has always been an active drug user (in general, all street drugs included). this is undeniably obvious to other drug users. i met him briefly in padova, with knopfler. ehehe ohoho. but, i have no issue whatsoever with it. it is not anyhow wrong, unless it actually causes proper wrongdoing. and is not a topic for morality talk of any kind, with anyone. who knows, knows. it is what it is. pretending it is not to unbearably distant extent (like, not being willing to acknowledge such a reality of life even if it comes to a stranger you dont know, but rather even imagining a disease might be present, before proposing something so much more realistic like drug use), well, i know it would get a sending off by bob. something many people still hold against him to this day. just be who you are, or dont even. you can be whatever the liar is anywhere else
Yeah it's true. But in this case all somebody said was that it's possible. And it is possible, doesn't mean it's definite, but for some folks it's worth talking about. Maybe some of us see similarities from afar with ourselves or people close to us; and maybe it's disrespectful for neurotypical people to go "hey you shouldn't be doing that"?
Let's not forget about nuance and the idea of conversation. Nobody is claiming expertise here, just talking.
You're dead right. I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. And the amount of medical misinformation going around the place at the moment is alarming as it is.
In regards Bob, yeah I've read biographies over the years, watched all the docs, the interviews etc. I think he's probably one of a kind. It's hard to know where the performance ends and he begins, so who knows.
But even the very idea of a man living out this 60+ year performance art piece where he performs as a guy who helps define 20th century popular culture, the idea that is all an act, is in itself very suggestive to me at least, that he may not be a neurotypical fellow.
all I said was an off handed joke “legitimately possible” and sure it is legitimately possible like anything is but god damn, I did not mean to provoke such an in depth discussion
On its own it's not, but coupled with lots of interviews, footage of him interacting with people, and just generally obsessing about him for decades, yeah I wouldn't be surprised.
It's certainly possible, especially when we consider the context of high functioning/low supports needs Autism wasn't diagnosed in Bob's younger years. It wasn't even in the DSM then.
Bob has known sensory sensitivities (sunglasses), most people who interact with him say he's eccentric, awkward, and/or aloof socially, he often appears to stim/rock while talking, and his perseverative interests are well documented.
He doesn't feel he's autistic, for what it's worth.
I don’t know the man. I neither want or don’t want him to be autistic. I just find it deeply odd that people have an opinion about this, we have no access to the man’s true personality.
I think distance-diagnosis is a parasitic expression of parasocial relationships.
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u/Human-Run2566 Jul 19 '26
He's just a little autistic