Current Events > Aussie TV star blames his Asperger's after being accused of sexual harassment

(+) Yeah! (+)

Self diagnosed Asperger's that is.

The guy isn't relevant outside of Australia so I wasn't gonna post it here but this guy must have had the worst defenses for this stuff so far.

goo.gl/5E8zKM

"I think I deserve some of this. But not the sleazy sexual stuff."

Burke also claimed for the first time that he had Asperger's syndrome, although he admitted he had never been medically diagnosed with the condition.

He said this meant that he had trouble looking people in the eye and understanding body language.

"I can look at a lens but I have difficulty looking at people in the eye," he said. "I missed the body language and the subtle signs that people give you. I don't see that. I suffer from a terrible problem with that. Not seeing. No one can understand how you can't see it. But you don't."

The claim came in response to an allegation that he made a lewd comment about incest to a female producer that were he to have a child with one of his young relatives, the child would be genetically perfect.

"I'm an Asperger's person and I have a lot of other failings that are genetic," he said while denying that he made the comments.

Burke admitted that he had made mistakes including a number of affairs, which had a "devastating" impact on his family.

"A lot of this was 30 years ago. Who remembers what happens 30 years ago? What I know is that I know what I will say and what I will not say."

I think also this whole Weinstein thing, one of the things it does is to reinforce the victim mentality in women. Not in all of them, but for a lot of the others it reinforces a bit of fear and their victim position.

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shoulda pulled a kevin spacey instead
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I have diagnosed Asperger's and I'm no fucking pervert. Fuck this guy.
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ok first of all it's not called Asperger's anymore - it's called high-functioning autism, which I think is still pretty bad as a label, but at least it acknowledges that it's a kind of autism.

second, self-diagnosis is perfectly valid. this guy knows himself and if he says he has it, then he probably does.

but also fuck this guy - being autistic is not an excuse for this.
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the kids wouldn't be geneticlly perfect if he's the father. he would pass on his aspergers

averagejoel posted...

second, self-diagnosis is perfectly valid. this guy knows himself and if he says he has it, then he probably does.

He's a rather successful and charismatic TV presenter. I'd be surprised if it's true. Even during the interview when saying this stuff it didn't look like he was having any issues looking the interviewer in the eye.

Autism Awareness Australia ripped him to shreds over this too

Zikten posted...

the kids wouldn't be geneticlly perfect if he's the father. he would pass on his aspergers

That was his defense. That he couldn't have possibly said this comment because he thinks he has Asperger's.
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averagejoel posted...

ok first of all it's not called Asperger's anymore - it's called high-functioning autism, which I think is still pretty bad as a label, but at least it acknowledges that it's a kind of autism.

second, self-diagnosis is perfectly valid. this guy knows himself and if he says he has it, then he probably does.

but also fuck this guy - being autistic is not an excuse for this.

Not according to any medical or psychological professional on this planet
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