The increasing use of 'Autistic' as an insult

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glider18
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26 May 2013, 10:31 pm

I haven't noticed the use of the word "autistic" as an insult on the internet, but I haven't been looking for how it's used there either. I was in a restaurant a few days ago and began talking to an older couple I know. They mentioned a child they knew and said, "We think he might be autistic because besides his (social awkwardness and other traits) he is really smart." They implied that autism is often marked by being smart.

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Grimdalus
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27 May 2013, 1:02 am

oceandrop wrote:

Yes I play games online and have noticed this quite a lot lately. If someone makes a mistake or just plays badly I've seen a few times someone will ask if they are autistic (as an insult).

To be fair the culprits are probably teenagers, and at that age even I was guilty of using non-politically correct insults like "spaz".

Anonymous + normal person= Douchebag

PhilospherGhost
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27 May 2013, 1:27 am

I've been noticing this trend rise too. I think it's inevitable since the topic has slowly made it's way into mainstream powered by advocacy groups and over-diagnosis similar the peak of ADD/ADHD that we saw 10 years ago.

When Adderall and other drugs were manufactured in the 90's, ADD/ADHD got press and entered the minds of the masses. Even today, when a kid has an excess of energy or lack of attention span its common to joke that the kid has ADD. Also many adults will quip about having ADD in a self deprecating way among friends.

The same thing is happening now for anyone showing above average intelligence or introvertive behavior.

South Park did an episode, and Community of course has the Abed character who is referred to as having aspergers at least once.

I wouldn't take it personal and it's not going away. It's just a sign of the awareness we are at, good or bad.

vanhalenkurtz
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27 May 2013, 3:12 am

Just don't call me NT and we'll get on OK.

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JoeDaBro
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27 May 2013, 3:53 am

I'm an ACTUAL anti-brony which means i just hate the obessive bronies and not the ones that take the show calmly, and i have noticed lots of the conformist anti-bronies are using this word to describe bronies.
Please don't start any controversial comments and turn the original subject on its head, because that can be really annoying to the OP [original poster]. It happened to me once.

Schneekugel
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27 May 2013, 4:20 am

I would depend it, upon the purpose of the one doing the insult.

So as example, I have homosexual friends as well, have no problems with them, played with some without caring multiplayer online games, and when a guild mate insulted one of our homosexual WoW guildplayer on purpose, because of him being homosexual, noone even asked a second, but we simply threw the insulting guy out of the guild without any regrets. So its in no way important for me, if someone is homosexual or heterosexual. And still it happens to me, that I say things like: "Come on, dont be that gay." I dont know how its exactly in english, but in german the word gay is comparable to lamer. So when you call someone gay, you normally dont mean that he is homosexual, but simply that he is what you call in english a lamer. I know its political uncorrect, but still it happens to me, but I dont mean anything bad about that. However: If a homosexual person felt himself offended by me telling a lamer to be gay, I would excuse immediatly. Luckily the ones that we are around normally laugh at us, when we normally talk as we are used, then use without purpose the word guy, suddenly stop in the sentence, stuttering around because of being afraid to have offended our friend, and he suddenly laughs because of us having that much issues. Also the WoW-friend was often doing jokes himself about that topic, specially when random players asked him if he was gay, without the intention of asking him if he was homosexual. XD

Its the same with spast or mongo, its definitly not political correct, but normally if someone asks you if you are mongoloid, he doesnt ask you for having trisonometry, but means that someone is complicated at understanding stuff.

So personally I dont mind, if the word austistic gets a similar using, like describing introverted people that simply dont talk much or whatever. However, if someone ever insulted me on purpose because of me being autistic, I will not accept and tell him to f**k off. Additional I hope that other people simply would react, as we reacted when our guildmate was insulted on purpose for being homosexual. Noone ever cared if the word slipped out of you without any purpose of offending homosexuals, in the way it is nowadays used for a lamer, simply because we knew there was no real intention behind to insult someone. But to offend someone by purpose is not acceptable in my eyes.

hektik27
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27 May 2013, 5:35 am

Xanzotire wrote:

Has anyone else noticed an increasing trend on the internet towards using 'autistic' as an insult? I've only noticed on one forum I frequent but when I pointed it out people said that was also becoming popular on lots of other sites like Reddit. I'm not really sure what to make of this, I should probably just brush it off, but I can't help but get upset every time I see someone do it.

I don't know. Maybe because I distance myself from the disorder, it doesn't affect me, but I feel somewhat happy being an aspie.

Try to brush it off, they're just ignorant, like people who use "gay", "n****r", "ret*d" and so on as insults.

Verdandi
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27 May 2013, 5:55 am

PhilospherGhost wrote:

ADHD is largely underdiagnosed and undermedicated. There's no real evidence of systematic overdiagnosis to the degree that people seem to believe.

There are places (cities, possibly states in the US) where it has been overdiagnosed, but overall it's not really, and never was.

Ritalin/methylphenidate was first licensed by the FDA in 1955 and prescribed in 1960. Adderall was introduced in 1996, but was certainly not the first appearance of stimulant medications, which had already been present for decades.

I doubt ASDs are being overdiagnosed either.

http://jad.sagepub.com/content/11/2/106.short

Evaluating the Evidence For and Against the Overdiagnosis of ADHD

Quote:

Objective: According to the DSM-IV TR, approximately 3 to 7% of school-age children meet the criteria for ADHD. However, there is a common conception that ADHD is overdiagnosed. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the evidence for and against overdiagnosis.

Method: Recent prevalence studies and research on factors affecting diagnostic accuracy were reviewed. For ADHD to be overdiagnosed, the rate of false positives (i.e., children inappropriately diagnosed with ADHD) must substantially exceed the number of false negatives (children with ADHD who are not identified or diagnosed).

Results and Conclusion: Based on the review of prevalence studies and research on the diagnostic process, there does not appear to be sufficient justification for the conclusion that ADHD is systematically overdiagnosed. Yet, this conclusion is generally not reflected in public perceptions or media coverage of ADHD. Potential explanations for the persistence of the belief in the overdiagnosis of ADHD are offered. (J. of Att. Dis. 2007; 11(2) 106-113)

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27 May 2013, 6:48 am

StarTrekker wrote:

What's wrong with the word 'spaz'? To my knowledge it doesn't have any affiliation with a particular group of people like 'autistic' or 'ret*d' does.

The word "spaz" has been used as an insult towards people with cerebral palsy, as they have frequent muscle spasms. I learned this from my ex-wife and several of her friends, who also have cerebral palsy.

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Falloy
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27 May 2013, 2:18 pm

DJFester wrote:

I wonder if "Autistic" will become the new "Spastic"?

"Spastic" was a common playground insult when I was at school. Older Brits may remember Joey Deacon on the television show "Blue Peter" in the early 1980s. Deacon had cerebral palsy and became a figure of ridicule for children across the country (the opposite of what the programme intended).

It was also popular to ridicule people who had been affected by Thalidomide.

Both of these conditions were understood to mean that the sufferer was stupid, uncool and/or gay, the things teenagers were (are?) most terrified of being.

They could easily adapt "Autistic" to the same usage.

PhilospherGhost
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27 May 2013, 5:07 pm

Verdandi wrote:

PhilospherGhost wrote:

Quote:

I was using ADD/ADHD as a parallel in that it was known but not common knowledge to anyone outside the medical or psychiatric fields. But in the 90's it became a household word and people referenced it to typical behaviors, much the same way autistic behaviors now are referenced as mentioned in this post. That is the point I was trying to make. Autism/Aspergers has emerged into the public conscious and these are the effects.

Adding the over-diagnosis is a whole different topic. But I believe they both are.

"For ADHD to be overdiagnosed, the rate of false positives (i.e., children inappropriately diagnosed with ADHD) must substantially exceed the number of false negatives (children with ADHD who are not identified or diagnosed)."

This is a weak criteria for statistical analysis. Improper diagnosis will happen often and will not be discovered, and how do you collect data on people who are not identified or diagnosed? There are probably a lot of people never diagnosed that fit within the DSM criteria but who never seek help.

This is a whole other topic and it's really to deep to discuss, and would have no benefit for me to do so. But thank you for citing this information.

LeeAnderson
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27 May 2013, 5:09 pm

1401b wrote:

Anything can be "used" as an insult even "Nice hat".

Sometimes it's fear, "Spaztic, Spaz, Spaz!!"
Sometimes it's envy, "Hey, Rich Kid!"
Sometimes it's brusque empathy, "Are you deaf?"

. . .
The most important thing is to consider the source. Do you truly value their opinion?
Would you buy a car based solely on what they say?
Yeah this sounds like a lame "adult thing", and oh, do I get it!
But everyone that manages to not die too soon eventually hears so many opinions that you have to just start lumping them into categories, just to get anything else done in life.

. . .
They say that "Opinions are like A**Holes, everybody's got one"
but I disagree, I think "Opinions are like sweat glands, everybody's got thousands and poor mental hygiene will make them start to stink very soon."

Not quite the same snap, but then that's the basic difference between AS and NT: Tedious Over Accuracy v. OMG! SpArKLeS!! !! !!

. . .
What if an Autistic person asked, "Are you Autistic?"
What if their communication 'tinted' it wrong?
It might appear weird or insulting just because they have poor social skills.
What if they were truly 'reaching out' to other people.
What if I reacted badly. Ouch =(

. . .
I agree that often gamers can be quite young -teens & preteens- and when they grow up they're likely to feel horrified at some of the things they said and did.
I was.
But that's what kids do, it's part of the -whatever you want to call it- of growing up.
We all start off doing stupid things, like pooping our diapers -in public, eventually most of us stop that and move on to other stupid things. We're often judging our past by our present, by what we know now. (that's not fair, btw)

Don't sweat the small stuff, even it it doesn't feel small. (try to pretend it is)

Well ssaid.

Verdandi
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27 May 2013, 5:18 pm

PhilospherGhost wrote:

Adding the over-diagnosis is a whole different topic. But I believe they both are.

Why do you believe they both are? The only data that supports this is either anecdotal or spread in the media - which is notorious for distorting science-related stories in the first place. So where do you get the data that either is overdiagnosed? Personal belief doesn't make it so.

As far as weak analytical criteria, they explore data gathered in other studies, including data finding that a significant percentage of people who end up in prison meet the criteria for ADHD and were often not diagnosed as children, among other things. There are also studies of diagnosed populations that identify who does and who does not meet the DSM criteria. These aren't based on statistical voids, but on actual, existing numbers that are accessible and can be referenced in their research.

Yes, many people point to behaviors and make jokes about ADHD or autism, but this is not by any means an empirical basis upon which to stake an assumption that overdiagnosis is rampant. Unfortunately, the widespread belief that these disorders are overdiagnosed contributes to the failure to take people diagnosed with them seriously, to treat them as if they experience no impairment and as if they are making excuses and are just lazy. I can't imagine why anyone who has such a disorder would want to contribute to a hostile cultural environment in which such disorders are trivialized and ignored because of popular (and incorrect) assumptions about overdiagnosis.

Xanzotire
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27 May 2013, 6:41 pm

Thanks for the replies, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed something. I don't have much to contribute to discussion but I do think in most cases single word insults are more of a way of stating some kind of emotional disapproval towards someone's behaviour rather than any kind of reasoned argument, or just plain bullying, and never contribute productively to anything.

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PhilospherGhost
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27 May 2013, 8:47 pm

That is why I use the word believe. This is just my opinion based on my own experiences when the shift happened and how it effected people I knew and went to school with. Many of my views were developed from my interactions with a psychoanalyst who I knew on a personal level for many years (father of an old friend) who was in the game long enough to see changes himself.

I typed some stuff out, but I really should not talk about this field on this forum. No good could come it

Verdandi wrote:

PhilospherGhost wrote:

Adding the over-diagnosis is a whole different topic. But I believe they both are.

Verdandi
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27 May 2013, 9:29 pm

Psychoanalysts are just as capable of being mistaken as anyone else. In this matter I trust the research more than I trust individual opinions.

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