It was suggested to me not so long ago that when I didn't understand something that was supposedly obvious, that my explanation of it possibly being down to my AS was an excuse. I told the person who made the comment that I found it quite insulting, I've never once used my difference as an excuse for anything, though it can be a legitimate reason.
Their reply was: "Well if I was autistic I'd use it as an excuse all the time. I could be as rude as I wanted or play dumb when it suited me and It'd be the perfect 'get out of jail free card' wouldn't it?"
To which I could only reply: "You're not autistic whilst I am, and it would never occur to me to use something like that as an excuse. If that's one of the differences between people like me and people like you then it's one I'm glad of."
To be fair, I'm sure some of us DO use it as an excuse from time to time, but I know I never have and I'd be surprised if many of us had done so regularly.
I don't even directly think of it as caused by autism. When I don't understand something supposedly obvious, which is often, my thinking is that my intelligence is not in that area. Autism may be defined as a lack of intelligence in that area, but that feels once-removed to me. My excuse is often something like, "oh, I'm not good with stuff like that."
Imagine the guy is like, "Wow, excuses. If I wasn't good at something, I'd use it as an excuse all the time."
Same thing.