These people aren't AS, are they?

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The people described in this article sound like anything but Asperger's, unless I'm nissing something. These people sound more like formerly geeky NT's with narcissistic personality disorder or something similar.

If they are able to turn their social skills off and on like that, and do superficial socializing in order to climb up the corporate or political ladder, they'd need to be good at small talk and reading facial expressions and body language, wouldn't they?

The fact seems to be that the people described in the article care more about power, fame, money & status than they do about personal relationships. I'm not saying some Aspies couldn't be like that, but I think it's more likely to be NT's, who are after all able to have relationships when they want.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/opini ... a7&ei=5087

Sheesh, the more AS is getting known, the more it's being misunderstood.

This article to me is about Eliot Spitzer and people like him. It is his opinion about how politicians and other powerful people end up in sex scandals. I think it is about Spitzer particularly because that is the most recent one. His use of "walking Aspergers convention" was an unfortunate metaphor to describe the lack of interpersonal skills he believes these people have, not that they literally have Aspergers Syndrome.

Sounds like this guy is an Alpha Geek who wishes he had Asperger's.

This article, though it does use ASD terminology at one point (as a slur meaning 'emotionless', unfortunately), is not a criticism of aspies. It's a criticism of overachievers, or bootlicking NTs who succeed despite never connecting to their environment, their learning material, or the people around them. The type A personalities churned out by the college prep factory. Social-climbing zombies only in it to win it.

David Brooks is smart enough to know that most aspies aren't like that.