What is weaponized autism?

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I dunno, I have a military-obsessed friend, and from a great many conversations it appears the ultimate soldiers in the ultimate military dictatorship would be autistics raised with a great deal of army training from age 8 if not younger. The sensory issues could be overcome with practice and the pure focus that people on the Spectrum have would be very useful in a military. Plus we'd blossom in the strict routines.
It's comforting to think that I can't be fully independent, but I'd make the ultimate killing machine (that being said, the friend in question appears to be on the Spectrum himself, and he's absolutely nuts. If anyone tries for world domination with an army of misfits, you know it'll be him).

Absolutely NOT an insult! It is a highly positive development- a compliment.

I'm following this term, as it's the sort of thing I study.

It means that an "autist" (they always use that term) can use their powers of focus and organized thought to research and work creatively at a near-superhuman level.

There is a joke that goes along with it that a person who can either research very effectively or create very clever, funny memes has either been vaccinated many times or has had a highly concentrated dose of a vaccine. People who say this DO seem to know that vaccines do not cause autism- they are using it as a joke.

There is another joke that is going around that if someone tries very hard they can develop autism. This is looked at somewhat like becoming a wizard or earning an advanced degree, or maybe learning a difficult skill, like nuclear engineering. It is considered a prized goal for non-autistic people to developed "weaponized autism."

The weaponized autism seems to be used for good, predominantly, but occasionally for mild mischief, such as with a making a meme or a funny video about a celebrity or public figure. I have never seen the term used for anything truly negative.

I am very excited at this development because it helps confirm a theory that I have had for a few years- that the definition of autism would start to change in popular culture as the autism acceptance movement took hold. I believe that the next natural step will be more people openly living as autistic and not attempting to pass, followed by another big change in how autism is officially defined.

Makes me wish I had telekinesis.

I love the expression 'weaponized autism'.

I am 47 and autism diagnoses were only just starting to happen when I was a kid. I was the 'weird kid' and from what I know now, I would have been diagnosed with Aspergers back in the 1980s if it was more of a 'thing' then.

All my life, I've been a bit ashamed of my weirdness, and I've tried to develop ways to be more normal out in public and in social settings. Needless to say, it's a shame.

If 4chan had existed back in the 1980s I know I would have been all over it. I'm way to old for it now but I love their notion of 'weaponized autism'. These young things revel in their autism. (I coined the term 'autist' way before them, back in the '80s.) I love the feeling of freedom the notion of 'weaponized autism' gives me. I'm definitely a believer in 'autism acceptance'. What I see with some autistic kids now is that while their NT parents wring their hands and fret over the 'condition', the kids live it to the full. My Aspergers gives me the ability to be a highly-paid software developer using obscure, difficult languages. I now think of that as weaponized autism.

The Internet gives autists a community where we all 'get' each other. I have to admit though to being a bit of an aspie bigot -- I think being NT is a deficiency and I feel sorry for them. They lack the ability to work with pure reason but have to filter everything through their social filter. I feel like for 'normies', things like inclusion are more important than truth: it's more important for everyone to feel included rather than doing things logically and in the best, most efficient way. It drives me nuts when I have to attend conference calls where some people are there simply because of social reasons: 2 devs and maybe a BA are actually doing the real work with the power of Weaponized Autism; 1 manager actually knows what needs to be done; but 8 other people have to be invited to the meeting because they would feel excluded and offended if they don't get the chance to put in their 5 minutes of irrelevant waffle ...

I think it's a pretty fun little expression. It refers to those times when loose conglomerations of people (such as 4chan) join forces and use ridicilously niche skills (like cloud-formation analysis or star-charting or whatever else) to track down a percieved culprit (that girl who was gleefully throwing puppies in a river on camera comes to mind).

Using the weapon as an analogy, in which a hammer or a razor knife or a gun can be weapons --
They are completely neutral, without someone to use them.

The slander, "weaponized autism," assumes that you are a passive, moral agent, to be used, particularly, toward destructive ends.

Of which I am aware, noone is taking personal credit, or being rewarded for their contributions; they get to be treated like an imbecile, after all their hard work. It's not a compliment.

Only if you assume that you = your autism, and that your autism can be used without your input or agency. The way I see it, weaponizing autism is just like weaponizing any other aspect of yourself. No one is in a position to weaponize your autism other than yourself, just like no one can use your hand to punch someone. And just like when punching someone, your agency is going to be hard to dismiss in that instance.

From what ive seen its when a supposedly autistic ability is used in a way to "fight" against something.

Like there was this thing with Shia LeBeof (I cant spell his name and im too lazy to google it now) who had a flag+webcam setup somewhere in the desert and people found out where exactly it was only using the patterns of trails left by 2 airplanes. They looked up flight routes on the specific dates, matched the trails with the flights and somehow calculated the exact position of the flag on earth. In this case i found the term weaponized autism somewhat funny, because an autistic person with a special interest in flight plans and stereotypical good abilities in math probably could have done just that. It was funny because it was somehow accurate to the stereotype. And i like to laugh at stereotypes. But what really goes on my nerves is people using terms like this out of context. They are using "autistic" as a substitude for "idiot" or "ret*d", "Autism" just for hard dedication to internet nonsense, and sling it around like an everyday insult. So im not sure how to think about the term "weaponized autism". Some posts here suggest that this is typically used in a different manner then "autistic" is, but im not that much into this whole "internet culture" thing and havent seen enough to have a conclusive standpoint on it...

Peace
TK

Only weeks ago, when this thread started, the phrase wasnt on the Net. You couldnt google it.

But now I just saw it at both "Know Your Meme", and on "the Urban Dictionary".

Both define it more or less as "using your socially awkward nerd skills of hyperfocus, to use computers to kick ass, or get payback, or even just serve society".

Like to hack into a child molesters facebook account to out him.

Or to locate a flag from a pic from vapor trails in the sky.

This is utter nonsense...

how come those skills have eluded me?

As I have said, before, slavery happened to Western and civilized peoples. Some were cartographers, chemists, and scribes -- learned people.

They would be considered passive, moral agents.

The slander, weaponized autism, assumes that you will not go Gault.

Some of the other people, writing about politics and religion, here, cannot comprehend the freedom of (dis)association as it pertains to enlightened self interest.

Discussion of safe spaces falls short, because they have no independent initiative, to provide for such.

Maybe, they are smart -- or even flawless -- but, in the same respect as a pocket calculator or xerox machine. That is weaponized autism. It's the collation of factoids. Nothing more, nothing less. Just aimless. It implies a lack of purpose.


So, let's say someone thinks you're a "tool." Not much different from a jackhammer.

A crooked boxing promoter or hawkish neocon can certainly use your hand to punch someone, and with no benefit to yourself.

As a larger, coordinated person, lots of people have tried to get me to do their dirty work, as a matter of fact.

They have a name, did you look it up?

The processing ability is there, you have all the resources, but not the initiative, imhblo.

Weaponized Autism is putting a dozen Aspies in a room and giving them all the information and money they need to take over the world.

In real life, ask whether your collaborators are meeting you halfway.

If you are indispensible, do you get the lion's share.

I have recently heard it in some youtube videos, so I googled it. To anyone who still wonder what it means the definition is

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/weaponized-autism