I think we need to culturally go back to roughly Daria as a metaphor for / example of autism.

She can see through basically every social situation, almost always reads them with more accuracy and insight than everyone else, is analytical, witty, deadpan, detached... but still has and is capable of expressing emotions.

Thats a high functioning autist to me, the difference to nowadays is... nobody really had a widely used (and often misused) pathologizing term for that in the 90s, and hadn't spent 20 yrs infantalizing such people as socially stunted, so Daria had actual self confidence and wasn't stigmatized.

I had tons of friends growing up, they just thought I was quirky... nobody knew I was autistic till I figured it out in my 30s.