Autism is an insult, it’s a shortened version of “autism spectrum disorder”, disorder is intrinsically an insulting word, and the diagnostic criteria describes variations in human behaviour as dysfunctions and so on.
The increased use of “autism” as an insult and people avoiding it is because it is an insult and always was from its conception. That is why doctors regularly try and plot to screen people’s DNA for this “autism” to exterminate them from the gene pool. Because it’s a bad thing they want to destroy, despite the fact it’s a “spectrum” disorder and thus is a label of convenience and there’s not really such a thing as “the autism gene”.
Which to me makes the whole “autistic person” vs “person with autism” stuff pointless. You’re either a disordered person or a person with a disorder, put a gun to my head and I prefer disordered person. I react with offence to any such labels on the grounds that “Asperger’s” is obsolete and “autism” was never diagnosed so people and call me disordered as shorthand to describe me can fuck themselves because I don’t want to deal with the stigma of a label which was thrust upon me through incredibly pseudoscientific means. The dsm-iv which I was diagnosed under was called a “noble lie” by one of its chief author’s.
> Autism is an insult, it’s a shortened version of “autism spectrum disorder”, disorder is intrinsically an insulting word, and the diagnostic criteria describes variations in human behaviour as dysfunctions and so on.
No, people use "Autism" as an insult because they think it's a way to say "retarded" which won't get them slapped down.
I don't really agree, because I see people who use both the word "Retard" and "Autist" as a slur. It's only the left wing who will exclusively use the word "Autist" as a slur because it flies under the radar and can be wrapped up in woke dressing, but the words aren't totally interchangable.
The word "Autist" has become popular simply because more people are called "Autists". This justifies parents getting more government assistance's, schools being able to rationalise away their standardised test scores slipping as being the students fault, doctors getting fat insurance payouts, TikTok celebrities getting attention, everybody gets their piece. It's a label of scapegoating problems people have with an individual justified by the subjective observation of their behaviour and the inference their brains must be "disordered", "disturbed", "disregulated", and "dysfunctional" without any requirement to look deeper into societal or physiological problems. No wonder prevalence has increased more than a hundredfold since it first started being diagnosed, it's so convenient to so many people, and the diagnostic criteria is relativistic and thus pliable.
The rise of autism's popularity was to justify (POSITIVELY!) discriminatory treatment in schools, social groups, and work which were always wrapped up in this faux-sympathetic concern over defective brains which totally justifies differential treatment. People who just think that "Autism" is a funny way to make fun of somebody without any further motivation aren't even the problem, they merely reveal the reality of what over-socialised people have always thought when they call people "Autistic", and that look in the mirror revolts people.
Way I see it, this thing called autism being treated as a "mental disorder" is no different than transgenderism being called a "mental disorder". A difference in behaviour being belittled as a mental defect without non-inferential evidence or thought about if this framing actually helps people. That is how I see it more than I see it as a PC replacement for the word "Retard".
The increased use of “autism” as an insult and people avoiding it is because it is an insult and always was from its conception. That is why doctors regularly try and plot to screen people’s DNA for this “autism” to exterminate them from the gene pool. Because it’s a bad thing they want to destroy, despite the fact it’s a “spectrum” disorder and thus is a label of convenience and there’s not really such a thing as “the autism gene”.
Which to me makes the whole “autistic person” vs “person with autism” stuff pointless. You’re either a disordered person or a person with a disorder, put a gun to my head and I prefer disordered person. I react with offence to any such labels on the grounds that “Asperger’s” is obsolete and “autism” was never diagnosed so people and call me disordered as shorthand to describe me can fuck themselves because I don’t want to deal with the stigma of a label which was thrust upon me through incredibly pseudoscientific means. The dsm-iv which I was diagnosed under was called a “noble lie” by one of its chief author’s.