Haha, Ebert's definitely coming at it from a grumpy angle. OTOH, he's not talking about simply having a shared passion, but moreso about becoming totally obsessed with hobby trivia to the point of barely being able to face reality outside of those narrow confines. It's really just a case of taking fandom too far as I see it.

I also have to admit that when I was growing up, I was somewhat guilty of this kind of thing. I had trouble making small-talk, trouble talking to the opposite sex, and difficulties just hanging out and chilling with others. I turned to stuff like D&D, comics & videogames, and could relate pretty easily to people in the same boat. But I truly did use it as a way of walling off various worldly realities, using those things as a crutch until various social skills later started to improve. I have to agree with Ebert's final point though, especially if it relates to middle-aged people-- if the only thing they're able to talk about is their hobby trivia, then it pretty quickly turns in to a painful conversation IME.

Btw, "Triumph" famously does a pretty good send-up here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKT7bx-fmtk

This is the same dude who said video games weren't art. He was such an uptight rich snob, and I wasn't sad at all to see him go.

Okay, I have a working understanding of "autism" (while arguably being on the spectrum myself, haha), but could you put that all together in to a plain-language sentence, mssr or mdme?

Neurotypicals also over commit to fandom and flaunt social norms for the sake of it in bouts of nerdy excitement.

"subconsciously" is right!

As we say in Straya, "I stuffed up."