@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic Yeah, mansplaining and infodumping can look pretty similar. This is still something I'm figuring out.
I feel like a lot of it comes down to motivation and awareness.
To me, mansplaining is largely about ego. The mansplainer may be somewhat knowledgeable or not but the core desire and objective of the dump is to demonstrate how knowledgeable they are, even if they aren't. There's no actual conversation to be had because the moment the other person tries to engage, the mansplainer feels threatened and mansplains harder because it's fundamentally a competition. Maybe they're trying to impress a girl or maybe they're trying to convince their coworkers of their competence. In either case, again, it comes down to competition and ego.
Infodumping, on the other hand, is because the infodumper is genuinely interested in the subject. Maybe it's Japanese history or the Star Wars canon or the anatomy and behaviors of penguins. Whatever it is, it's a subject you love and just can't stop talking about it once you start.
Infodumping can be non-consensual and that can cause friction. Sometimes someone just made a comment about how they think penguins are cool and they really weren't prepared for a 3 hour lecture on penguins. 😅 It's also very possible for the infodumper to get lost in their dumping and not notice that the other person's eyes glazed over 30 minutes ago. But it can also be a great source of genuinely interesting and engaging conversation if both parties intentionally make room for the other person.
To me, the biggest thing, and the thing I'm really intentional about, is to watch the other person and try to gauge whether or not they're still interested. That can be a hard thing for autists to do but I think it is possible for many. (Probably not all!) When other person appears done with the conversation, I try to take the hint and move on. You can also try to help make space for the other person by stopping every so often and giving them a chance to speak, even if they change the subject.