Pulling a few different comments from different people together here.
From
@Mary Terry in another thread – asd and sociopathy are not mutually exclusive and can both exist in the one person
From
@Atrapa Almas that there are no hard lines and that everything is a spectrum
From
@Vindiesel that sociopathy does not mean inherently bad
My brother and I have different natures but in intellect and abilities and in the way we think we were like clones of the one person. We even looked identical even though there’s 3 years between us. As a young man my brother was completely amoral and he was a con man, for a few years until people started catching up with him. I copped a few hidings as well because we looked identical, telling them it wasn’t me it was my brother didn’t go down too well.
Many years later he was a single parent, and when his daughter was 8 he started her going to the local Scouts group, then he got mixed up with it and ended up being the scout leader. Howard Springs, Northern Territory.
Cliff approached our Chief Minister and conned him into donating a new Minibus (12 seats) to the scouts. Then he organised a trip for the the scouts, he said he wasn’t sure how far they’d get but if all the parents chipped in $100 each for fuel and food he’d see how far they could get. Take the kids to see the springs at Mataranka, etc.
They camped at Mataranka, he got all the kids to put their scout uniforms on and they got the camp grounds for free and later on some local ladies felt sorry for the nice man looking after 11 kids on his own and they came down and gave them all home cooked food. So all he’d spent so far was a bit of fuel, let’s keep going. Straight past Tenant Creek and on to Alice Springs.
When he got to Alice Springs he took all the kids to Pizza Hut for lunch and put on a sob story to the manager in the hope of getting a discount. A completely fictitious broken windscreen and a blown tyre. The manager felt sorry for the children, he gave them the meal for free and also gave them free passes to the local picture cinema.
While the kids were in the cinema watching a movie Cliff went to the pub, but Cliff doesn't drink. He buys a beer but one beer lasts all afternoon, what Cliff does is talk to people. He started talking to people and one of the people he spoke to was the president of the Land Yacht Sailing Club. They race 18 foot Skiffs but they have wheels on them, Alice Springs is 1600 kilometres from the nearest ocean. They also have a Surf Life Saving Club.
So they camped for free at the land yacht sailing club grounds and the kids got to spend 2 days learning how to sail and had a great time. Then the next stop was Adelaide, they all camped in an aunty's back yard and Cliff got them into almost every local tourist attraction for free.
Then he took the kids to Melbourne and they they all stayed at my sister’s place for a few days. They got to see a big city and he took them up to the alpine ski resorts where they saw snow and got free ski hire and free lessons.
They travelled up the east coast, staying with relatives we hadn't seen since we were children, and getting free passes in to every tourist attraction we have. They got free rides in glass bottomed boats over the Barrier Reef, they went to Water World, everything. Then from the Gold Coast through Mount Isa where they got a free tour of the mines and finally back home.
The whole trip lasted nearly 3 weeks and covered more than 12,000 Km. Cliff ended up throwing a little bit of his own money in to it as well but he said he didn’t spend much more than the original $1200 kitty he started with. When they returned to Darwin Cliff sold the Minibus and used the money to buy materials, he got local tradespeople to work for free and the scouts got a new scout hall.