My op-ed What’s love got to do with neurodiversity and HE art and design? was published on the Society for Research into Higher Education SRHE website on 29/11/2024. Through a loved-filled  Neurodiversity in the Arts Symposium directed by Dr Timothy Smith for which I was the keynote speaker, and which took place amid a severe winter storm in Helsinki, Finland — because culture change must involve learning and un-learning and re-learning — I outlined the need to dis-arm love-less stormy populist violence today, including those embodied by Musk, Trump and other self-proclaimed ‘high IQ revolutionaries’, weirdos and misfits. The 3000-word article drew on posts I had published on LinkedIn and Instagram previously, found here (15/11/2024, written in response to this Guardian article published on the same morning) and here (24/11/2024). The article made immediate impact. At the SRHE conference 2024, which was nicely entitled ‘Higher Education: A Place for Activism and Resistance?’, a quiet space was provided on site. According to the SRHE manager,

Your blog post was so timely, as it touched upon some issues we’d had been discussing in relation to provision for delegates including around neurodiversity in the run up to our conference. There are a number of changes we’d like to make but one new initiative we did manage was to create a quiet /comfortable room for delegates – as this was very well received. We have a very limited budget for our conference, but keen to look at some of the issues raised in your blog, as not all are costly!

An earlier version of the article was entitled How Musk weaponises his autism — and how autistic academics, artists, activists and allies must dis-arm him. See Screenshots and description below. An abridged version focusing on the symposium is published on the CHEAD website, entitled How to curate a love-led symposium? Neurodivergent artist-academics show a way. The SRHE article was cited in the 01/2025 SRHE newsletter.

CITATION: Tan, Kai Syng. 2024. ‘What’s Love Got to Do with Neurodiversity and HE Art and Design?’ Society for Research into Higher Education Blog (blog). 29 November 2024. https://srheblog.com/2024/11/29/whats-love-got-to-do-with-neurodiversity-and-he-art-and-design/

  • IMPACT of article – feedback by SRHE CEO
  • IMPACT of article – feedback by SRHE manager
  • 2024 November 15: Post on LinkedIn condemning Musk and other ‘anti-establishment’ establishment weirdos and misfits
  • 2024 November 15: Op-ed written drawing on LinkedIn post and in response to Musk article on Guardian
  • 2024 November 15: Responses to post on LinkedIn condemning Musk and other ‘anti-establishment’ establishment weirdos and misfits
  • 2024 November: more discussions with peers on LinkedIn
  • 01/2025: Screenshot of my op-ed on SRHE newsletter 01/2025 which featured the post https://srhe.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SRHE-News-59-January-2025.pdf
  • 11/2024: Screenshot from published SRHE op-ed (UniArts Helsinki conference)
  • Screenshot from published SRHE ope-ed
  • Screenshot from published SRHE ope-ed
  • Screenshot from published SRHE ope-ed
  • Screenshot from published SRHE ope-ed
  • Screenshot from published SRHE ope-ed
  • Screenshot from published SRHE ope-ed
OUTTAKES FROM MUSK-ANGLED DISCUSSION

These outtakes are just the tips of the iceberg (as we know, some of the iceberg include links with autistic incel fanboys; over-breeding, great replacement theory and eugenics; connections with slavery through the family mining business South Africa…)

I’m not here to provide more air space for one Elon Musk.

The multi-billionaire does a decent job of this himself, firing salvo after salvo. When not firing his critics from his factories and firms, or firing shots to father yet another offspring, or firing cock-shaped rockets to nurse his wet dreams to colonise the moon and mars, Musk is firing spats on social media — before buying up site to make it his temple for ‘unmoderated toxicity’, leading to the exodus of many, including the Guardian. Having bought his way into power with the recent Trump triumph after firing pot-shots at child-free cat ladies, he’s asking ‘high-IQ revolutionaries’ to work for no pay on new Trump project. 

The latter is interesting because three years ago, Musk announced that he was autistic — on live TV, and a comedy sketch show, no less. Correction — he didn’t use the term ‘autistic’.  Instead, Musk said that he was ‘with Aspergers’, the outdated terminology favoured by those of his ilk to indicate how he is not just high-functioning but a genius — ie a high-IQ revolutionary himself!    

But enough about eccentric/erratic cartoon-tycoons.

Let’s return to the discussion of why I’m here.  

and

The irony is — and yes, autistic people can grasp irony — is that Musk, as well as Trump and other self-proclaimed ‘anti-establishment’ are in fact the establishment epitomised. Instead of outsiders, they are the very personification and product of the system. Isn’t Musk theparamount poster boy of capitalism, and Trump the essential embodiment of all the worst aspects of capitalism?

While we’re here, we haven’t forgotten about one Dominic Cummings who had urged for ‘weirdos and misfits’ outside of the Oxbridge set to join Number 10. He’d thought that his impersonation of a dishevelled hobo could hide his pedigree as an archetypal member of the ruling class — private education, Oxford degree, political strategist to a prime minister also as dishevelled, also with private education, Oxford degree  — you get the picture. How cute! How eccentric! How quirky! 

Except that none of this is laughing matter, because the fandom of these misfits include disenfranchised misfits (studies have shown overlaps between autistic male and violent incels such as here). And they make up some of the 76 million people who voted for Trump. And some 200 million followers of Musk on his X. 

ABRIDGED VERSION ON CHEAD 03/12/2024
  • ABRIDGED VERSION: An abridged version entitled ‘How to curate a love-led symposium? Neurodivergent artist-academics show a way’ appeared on the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design CHEAD blog on 3rd December 2024.
  • CITATION: Tan, Kai Syng. 2024. ‘How to Curate a Love-Led Symposium? Neurodivergent Artist-Academics Show a Way’. Council for Higher Education in Art & Design CHEAD (blog). 3 December 2024. https://www.chead.ac.uk/how-to-curate-a-love-led-symposium-neurodivergent-artist-academics-show-a-way/
  • CHEAD: This is the UK representative body for 70 Higher Education institutions (HEIs) in art, design, creative media, and related disciplines.
ABOUT THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH INTO HIGHER EDUCATION/ SRHE
  • Founded in 1965, the Society for Research into Higher Education SRHE is a UK-based international learned society concerned to advance understanding of higher education, especially through the insights, perspectives and knowledge offered by systematic research and scholarship. The Society aims to be the leading international society in the field, as to both the support and the dissemination of research.
  • The blog is read in more than 100 countries.
  • SRHE isn’t on Instagram but is on LinkedIn.
2 OTHER OP-EDS ON SRHE
  • On the SRHE platform, I’d previously discussed a neurodivergence-inspired pedagogical approach to transform HE culture, illustrating how this isn’t just an armchair exercise or a theoretical pontification from the ivory tower, with examples I have led, such as a four-day festival for Black History Month 2020 in Manchester.
  • To mark Valentines’ day this year, I discussed the need to build love into HE curricula – standing on the shoulders of great artists, activists and teachers before us, like bell hooks, Paulo Friere and James Baldwin.
RELATED WORKSHOP 18/12/2024