>>44648468the difference like the other anons said is that while weird/eccentric people act out of place or quirky sometimes, autists can't react to people's emotions or social norms normally at all, not without extremely rigorous training. Autists lack the ability to intuitively know or predict how they should react to other people or even sometimes how other people feel at all. They can understand emotions in other people but don't react to them appropriately if at all. That, and they social norms wash over them like water on a rock, unless they learn that something they're doing is out of place or socially bad, they won't realize.
Of course, you can be an autist and come to understand social norms - but just not care about them anyway. A non-autistic 'weird' person on the other hand, even if eccentric will still react normally in the right circumstances e.g. crying at a funeral, comforting someone when they're sad, facially reacting to people talking to them and emoting as if it's second nature to them, hugging people, recipricating behavior etc.
