Lots of kids already had "autism" in the old days long before Covid and long before Bobby had internet or colour TV.
I'm surprised he can't demarcate the period of his childhood from this pro-diagnosis/pro-medicate era where the average doctor utters the word so liberally.
When he was a kid in the classroom, his teachers and classmates would have simply referred to their fellow autistic pupils as "d!ckhead" with misapprehension. e.g. oh he's just being a d!ckhead (not knowing that they had underlying mental issues.)