May I ask why you say that?

Shore! But, it mostly comes down to a combination of my anger issues (the fighting) and me watching Dr Bashir do ridiculous stuff on TV and being like “same” (the autism).

I don’t have caps, but here’s a handful of incidents of note:

Every time someone is like “you’re one vain, stubborn asshole, Dr Bashir” he immediately doubles down on the stubborn assholery

He literally has a schedule for how long certain romantic gestures can delay a fight. not a rough concept, a series of numbers. Up until that point I had been on the fence and then I was just like, that’s it my son is confirmed for autistic baby.

I’ve seen allistics with a crush, and they tend to react pretty badly to their crushes busting into their room in the middle of the night like “hey let’s break several space laws” with no explanation for this behaviour. Dr Bashir just sort of roles with it, and I can’t shake the feeling that it’s an extension of a general inability to tell where the limits of appropriate behaviour go.

He tells the exact same flirt story about the final exam again, and again, and again, with nearly no variation. Scripting.

It literally takes O’brien drunkenly being like “man, I used to totes hate you bro” for him to realize O’brien used to totes hate him, bro. More social lack of awareness.

Kukalaka the Bear matches an overall pattern of autistic people developing a fixation on a comfort object in early childhood or adolescence and then carrying it around with them forever. When his bear gets hijacked by his ex, it literally leaves him morose and out of sorts because a critical part of his pattern of self care is interrupted.

Hyperfocusing on his new medical research problems and reacting very angrily to interruptions, disproportionately so, and completely at odds with his usual patient oriented behaviour.

He is canonically confirmed to have a developmental disorder (this is why his parents shipping him off for gene therapy) but the one in question is not confirmed in canon. It’s symptoms, however, are recognizeable to many autistic people: slowness to speak or lack of speech, difficulty processing language, trouble identifying abstract concepts like what this shape represents from the complex category of “animal,” etc

That part where Kira is being sent home and he spends the entire conversation basically just saying “what is happening? Hey, hey someone explain what all these meaningful glances and double entendres mean? Hey, hey, I have no idea what any of you are saying.”

This gif:

(Actually it’s better in this gifset)

Also his breathing exercises and tennis warmups, and general inability to recognize why these might be perceived as weird since he explained them already, gosh guys.

As the series progresses, he noticeably picks up scripts from other characters (lookin’ at you Mr Garak, but also O’brien, Dax [the first one, I haven’t finished S07 yet so IDK about Ezri yet, other than she is good and precious and must be protected] and Sisko).

Speaking of Mr Garak (no one was) Julian sure is easy to manipulate with the application of even the smallest bit of praise from someone he respects over subjects he recognizes he isn’t very good at. People describe this trait as childish (which, I mean, yeah it is okay I’ll give you that), but it’s also part of the reason why autistic people end up in such deep shitholes so easily.

Many of the other genetically modified people present traits that are A) recognizeable to Julian in himself, B) recognizeable to autistic people (as well as several other diagnoses) as us.

This ridiculous line is literally how I speak. Why create new scathing insults for people who won’t stand still for 5 seconds so you can process, when you can just rely on the “well I think you’re [echolalate their own insult]” script. Much faster and easier. Imbue it with enough of a scatching tone of rejection, and people don’t even tend to notice that you’re basically hitting them with kindergarten level shit.

And finally, the only ONLY excuse to go anywhere fancy in a velour running suit is if you literally just cannot handle the other fabric options all rubbing on your skin in the heat and stuff (see also, holofoil speedo). So I’m chalking that one up as sensory sensitivities, along with the peaches- which is fair, peaches are a mess, they are full of weird strings and the juice is sticky, overly perfumed, and gets everywhere, and don’t get me started about the pits (worth it for me, but obvs not for him).

Hope that helps explain it!

When he almost skips a stone on the Great Link, that’s a moment of forgetfulness and almost autistic restlessness.

When he’s reminded, and takes a moment to realize, and carefully puts the stone down, and sighs, that turns it into one of Julian’s most recognizably autistic moments.

(And don’t even get me started on those beets.)