The increasing use of 'Autistic' as an insult

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Asperation
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Joined: 15 Dec 2013
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17 Dec 2013, 4:06 am

I remember a movie a few years back that used the wording "Autistic ret*d" as a direct insult towards an awkward young guy.

The problem here is not the insult itself and those it might offend and hurt directly, but the affect it can have on peoples attitudes. Peoples attitudes are very much influenced by what they see and hear on the screen. Attitudes in turn can affect the lives and outcomes for people living with AS/Autism. Attitudes can be helpful and harmful, negative attitudes can insight further discrimination and misconceptions toward those on the spectrum.

You can't really have much respect for the sauce of such insults anyway, just by making the insult they have already proven their fairly low level of integrity and credibility, so the insult is really on them.

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slickbacksteve
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17 Dec 2013, 12:22 pm

Asperation wrote:

just by making the insult they have already proven their fairly low level of integrity and credibility, so the insult is really on them.

Exactly.

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Fluttershy11
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14 Jan 2014, 12:57 am

OliveOilMom wrote:

Fluttershy11 wrote:

This sort of has a little to do with the thread, but not much but it's interesting so I'm posting it.

anyway, her group, which is popular, has this one extremely popular boy in it. Let's call him Nate. There are three or four others but he's the most popular and he has the most popular gf in that group. Remember, eccentrics/brains, but on the middle level of popularity - things have changed a lot since I was in high school, thank goodness. So, Nate is sort of short and chubby and wears glasses and looks an awful lot like Eddie Izzard. There are several guys who are more traditionally better looking than him, and just as nice, and all the guys are Bronies. Even the one tall guy who is on one of the varsity sports teams. However, even though all the boys have cars, and they are all fun to hang out with (the girls say) and watch Dr Who and play D&D and go geocaching, and watch MLP and Adventure Time and such, Nate has a MLP car. Yessiree, the most popular boy in one of the actual midlevel cliques in the high school has a regular economy car, four door, but painted MLP. Not just the colors. Horse decals. Seat covers, steering wheel covers. He, and all the girls and other guys too will tell you "It's not a chick car". They do wear a lot of MLP stuff and Dr Who stuff, along with other, regular fashion, and have the multicolored hair but when I was in high school, that would have been social death for a girl to have that car, let alone a boy. It's that popular now. Even the cheerleaders like to get rides with him in it. Get their pic made by it. For real, and not being smarmy or talking down to him about it or anything like that. Everybody thinks that car rocks. Nobody has said "autistic" for anything to do with the car, MLP, or any of that.

I just wanted to post about it, since some people put it down.

Well, thank you for your insight, Frances. And sorry if my contribution to this thread almost completely derailed from its original point (but not quite); it was just on my mind and I HAD to vent that out. I'm aware that most people on the forum board aren't into MLP, so most of what I'd said flew over their heads, and I apologize.

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EzraS
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14 Jan 2014, 2:56 am

The only time i remember "hearing" it was in a game thread on one of my teen forums where you make up
something you got put in (imaginary) jail for - one kid wrote "set a bus full of nuns on fire and blamed it on the autistic kid". But i really like that person (who sounds like he's AS to me) so i wasnt bothered by it.

cyberdad
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14 Jan 2014, 5:19 am

One thing to keep in perspective is teenage NT boys aren't particularly advanced in terms of brain development to start of with. If you keep that in mind then it makes their use of silly slurs just childish...

qawer
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14 Jan 2014, 5:36 am

Autistic joke in the roast of Donald Trump:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6179b4ypOM[/youtube]

Joke at: 4:51-5:00

You can clearly see people find it extremely offensive to be compared to an autistic.

T1nd1v1dual
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14 Jan 2014, 12:12 pm

It can be just as bad as that R word. I try to let it slide and come back with a sarcastic response if it happens though.

Fluttershy11
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23 Oct 2017, 1:06 pm

OliveOilMom wrote:

Fluttershy11 wrote:

Tokiodarling21 wrote:

I see the autistic insult get passed around youtube all the freaking time :roll:

it's annoying and insulting. Most of the time I see it on videos relating to My Little Pony by fans of the show.
Of course, other fans have called these trolls on such actions but it never seems to do any good since more people from the same fanbase show up using the same variety of insults.

THANK YOU! I was waiting for this to be mentioned before I said anything, but yes, I have noticed that, in a LOT of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic-related videos, the word 'autism' is thrown around a LOT by trolls. Well, if I may be allowed to ask one simple question...

What the f**k does being a Brony (a fan of MLP) have anything to do with being autistic, and vice-versa?!

If anything, I'd see the label of autism as a compliment, and I'll explain why. You see, a common trait in most high-functioning autistic people is the ability to REALLY get into subjects/topics that they care about, to a depth that most other people wouldn't go. Take for instance, the Trekkies: Some of the most hardcore fans have written extremely detailed essays about the mythology of the Star Trek universe. And the majority of Trekkies DO happen to be autistic (Temple Grandin watched the show too, and related a LOT to Spock). The same could be said of Doctor Who.

It's the same thing to me with the Brony phenomenon: there have been SO MANY fan works (art, music, fiction, and even fan-produced animation that rivals the show itself!) created in the current generation of MLP that it gives me a headache! Just like the Trekkies, Bronies also have conventions they attend a few times a year; they sometimes dress up as their favorite characters (cosplaying), and sometimes the people behind the real show make guest appearances.

I guess the reason why trolls like to use 'autism' as an insult to the Bronies is because they figure grown men who openly enjoy a show meant for little girls have to be 'fag*ots' and man-children. Well, let them. To me, 'autism/autistic' is not an insult; to me, it means I have this wonderful ability to see deeper into the things/shows which I care about and love.

That's all I wanted to say. Love and tolerate.

Fluttershy11

This sort of has a little to do with the thread, but not much but it's interesting so I'm posting it. Ya'll know we live in a small town in the Deep South, in a very rural area in the middle of nowhere. My kids went to the county high school. My youngest daughter is a junior there. She's fairly popular while her group isn't the cheerleaders/football player top of the social ladder type thing, her group is the next one down along with several other groups that share the same level. There are the stoners, and the brains, and the eccentrics, and the kids who are into lots of extracurricular stuff, the imitation gang and rap kids that all share that second level. The lowest level is the emo's for some reason. Not all of them, but the ones who go overboard with it, and also the bullies and ho's are all at the bottom level. Oh, and the snitches. The special kids fall into whichever level their group is on and some are in a lot of the groups on the midlevel like my daughters group, and there are crossovers as well. Her group is a crossover between the brains and the eccentrics. She hangs with a group of about ten or twelve kids. Boys and girls, black and white, gay and straight. I don't think there are any special kids in her little group but there could be and I just didn't notice. Anyway, her group, which is popular, has this one extremely popular boy in it. Let's call him Nate. There are three or four others but he's the most popular and he has the most popular gf in that group. Remember, eccentrics/brains, but on the middle level of popularity - things have changed a lot since I was in high school, thank goodness. So, Nate is sort of short and chubby and wears glasses and looks an awful lot like Eddie Izzard. There are several guys who are more traditionally better looking than him, and just as nice, and all the guys are Bronies. Even the one tall guy who is on one of the varsity sports teams. However, even though all the boys have cars, and they are all fun to hang out with (the girls say) and watch Dr Who and play D&D and go geocaching, and watch MLP and Adventure Time and such, Nate has a MLP car. Yessiree, the most popular boy in one of the actual midlevel cliques in the high school has a regular economy car, four door, but painted MLP. Not just the colors. Horse decals. Seat covers, steering wheel covers. He, and all the girls and other guys too will tell you "It's not a chick car". They do wear a lot of MLP stuff and Dr Who stuff, along with other, regular fashion, and have the multicolored hair but when I was in high school, that would have been social death for a girl to have that car, let alone a boy. It's that popular now. Even the cheerleaders like to get rides with him in it. Get their pic made by it. For real, and not being smarmy or talking down to him about it or anything like that. Everybody thinks that car rocks. Nobody has said "autistic" for anything to do with the car, MLP, or any of that.

I just wanted to post about it, since some people put it down.

Sorry about that. I feel like s**t. (heh, I AM s**t.

)

But yes, I am still alive.

Pieplup
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23 Oct 2017, 1:13 pm

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.

Oh you autistic person!

Joking aside. You give power to words. If you let something offend you it will offend you.

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League_Girl
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23 Oct 2017, 11:42 pm

I saw this word being used on the Uber forum by saying the Uber drivers are so autistic about wanting tips from riders.

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Kamoku
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24 Oct 2017, 1:42 am

I play video games a lot. I see it everywhere.

"What's with all these autism people at spawn? Yep, look at all these ret*ds."
"You're an idiot with autism."
"You're as autistic as 'so and so'."
"I got a autism vaccine today."
"This chat is getting autistic."
"Please give me gold, I'm autistic REEEEEEE."
"Are you drunk or are you autistic?"

I've also seen people running around with names like:

Maxautism
Autist
Autismreee

With all of that, no wonder why I feel shameful for who I am.

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Pieplup
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24 Oct 2017, 3:27 am

Kamoku wrote:

Lol, I just say I am how did you know and move on with life! I haz no shame!

JrJohnbarn1
Emu Egg
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05 Nov 2017, 4:13 pm

Yeah, these "Autism" insults and mockery seem to have reached literally everything online at this point. I spend a lot of time online and it's rare for me to see a day go by where I don't see it somewhere being used in a derogatory manner.

It seems especially common in anything to do with Gaming or the "Internet Culture", as well as YouTube comment sections. Seen it quite a few times on Facebook posts too.

It really does annoy me a lot and I'm fed up of seeing this ignorance everywhere. If I can, I usually respond to it if I do see it and, depending on what they posted, I tend to either insult them in some way or just tell them that they're ignorant/uneducated.

Tader
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05 Nov 2017, 10:21 pm

noone called me autistic , just a ret*d

xatrix26
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06 Nov 2017, 1:05 am

Let's see I've had people call me:

autistic
ret*d
stupid
diaper boy
Rain Man
a-hole
idiot
moron

Is it any wonder why I avoid social situations and NTs at all costs?

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heffe1981
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06 Nov 2017, 7:15 pm

Just report them for harassment. However, I think it is better than saying someone "has Autism". That's like saying someone "has Caucasian".

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