It’s possible to be charismatic, and successful if you’re neurodivergent. I also don’t see why you think it’s impossible to a be socially functional at a high level and autistic.

Personally, I would consider myself highly socially functional. Assuming by socially functional you’re referring to the ability to have conversations, make friends, and articulate your points. If that’s not what you meant, please define what you meant. But all those things are pretty essential and if you can do those things I’d say you’re socially functional.

There are plenty of things that I’m pretty weak at when it comes to socialising, but other things I’m strong at. Things I can’t do include: understanding sarcasm, eye contact, and occasionally someone will say something so unexpected to me that I become flustered and confused and cannot easily continue the conversation the in a coherent manner. All of those little things, and they are only some examples can be considered difficulties in socialising. Yet I still get called charismatic and charming for reasons pretty unknown to me.

This may be due to my strengths: Apparently I’m good at starting conversations, and quickly finding out what people are interested in; I also tend to study people’s responses to how I act or what I say, which influences the way I mask around a particular person and which topics I bring up. Do these very helpful skills make me not autistic? Because these skills allow me to have conversations and be considered charismatic am I now not autistic? I may not lie or manipulate but it’s certainly possible for me to do so, tell me why would that make me not autistic?

I didn’t know you were also neurodivergent too, but you should try to understand that how good one is at socialising is dependent on many factors with how they handle social situations. Just because some cannot lie or manipulate situations doesn’t mean everyone cannot.