About the word "Aspie"

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25 Dec 2020, 6:06 pm

I've learned that Hans Asperger was a Nazi who participated in Projekt 14 and sent children to camps where they were experimented on and/or euthanized.

I don't mind attributing the research he did to him. But why are we naming our identity after him?

What would be a good alternative name for our identity?

Feyokien
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25 Dec 2020, 6:32 pm

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) so autist, maybe modified with descriptors for those that really feel the need to delineate functioning level. I was never a fan of aspie/asperger anyways. People can call themselves whatever.

KT67
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25 Dec 2020, 6:46 pm

I describe my personality as my personality and my disorders as specific disorders.

So for eg 'I can't handle those lights because of my light sensitivity' or 'I guess I coped better with being away from family this Christmas since I'm not much of a people person'.

I hate, hate, hate, considering my personality as being 'disabled' or 'wrong'. It isn't.

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DesertWitch
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25 Dec 2020, 7:53 pm

I just read Neuotribes and this issue was addressed carefully. Asperger wasn't a member of the Nazi party, but he did sign off on several "low functioning" kids being sent away to be murdered. The author felt that he did it to protect a lot of other kids from the same fate. He seems to have been trying to convince Nazi officials that his "little Professors" might be able to help them win the war, which is likely the only thing that saved them from extermination. What a horrible time. What a terrible position to be in.
Highly recommend that book, though. It's a great history of autism.

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Pepe
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25 Dec 2020, 8:05 pm

DesertWitch wrote:

My life experience tells me that Asperger did the best he could.
They were very difficult times to negotiate.
If he wasn't there, there would have been someone worse, in all probability.

I didn't know he wasn't a card-carrying Nazi.
That is very telling.

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25 Dec 2020, 8:08 pm

Feyokien wrote:

Well, I call myself "The Most Brilliant Mind of the Universe", but all I get is guffaws.

Pepe
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25 Dec 2020, 8:15 pm

dorkseid wrote:

He wasn't a card-carrying Nazi, apparently.

Quote:

Although he was not an avowed Nazi himself, Asperger joined affiliated organizations, played into the German public’s legitimization of Nazi race politics and, at times, actively participated in the Nazi child euthanasia program. Speaking about the National Socialist (Nazi) movement in 1974, Asperger stated that "one could well go along with many let’s say quote unquote ‘national’ things, but not with the inhuman [ones]."

Those were tough times, that many fail to appreciate, because they lack life experience.

"Life is simple for simple people."

naturalplastic
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25 Dec 2020, 9:10 pm

Feyokien wrote:

An "autist" would be "someone who does autism on purpose as a craft, or a profession". Like an artist does art, or a scientist practices science. So that doesnt make sense as a label for anyone on the autism spectrum.

What you are would be an "autistic".

Edna3362
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25 Dec 2020, 9:43 pm

In my point of view it's... Irrelevant. :lol:
Where it came from, how it is associated, etc.

There are already countless cases of non indicative names and misnomers.
:lol:

So one doesn't want to be associated with some doctor in Europe who participated and supported some apparently villainous party.

So one doesn't want to be associated with badly hamburger puns.

So one doesn't want to be associated with a name that can be interpreted as solipsism.

So one doesn't want to be associated with constant meltdowns and intellectual disability.

What one would rather be called instead?
It's a personal matter. Anyone can call themselves or name it whatever they chose.

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Feyokien
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25 Dec 2020, 9:47 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

Feyokien wrote:

If we're going to get into the latin roots, than -ic doesn't really work either in my opinion.

Words ending with -ic are generally adjectives, where 'aspie' is a noun, so it doesn't really work well either. I know its recognized as a noun, but I don't agree with that assessment. Autistic also still contains the -ist so the meaning issue is the same.

Any ideas on a self identifying noun?

Maybe just Aut :lol:

naturalplastic
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26 Dec 2020, 5:59 am

Feyokien wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

Feyokien wrote:

In English adjectives become nouns. I am a White male American. And I am "a White", "a male", and "an American". All three of those words were originally adjectives that later became nouns. A child may spontaneously show "artistic" talent, or "artistic" tendencies. But only when the child grows up and gets paid to do art does the person become known as "an artist". Similarly a child can show autistic tendencies/traits. So (as with White Male American)you could call the child "an autistic"( if they get officially dx'd). But no one gets called upon to PERFORM autism on command for money (the way an "illusionist" gets paid to do magic tricks, or an artist gets paid to do art, or scientist science). So you wouldnt call the child "an autist".

"Autie" might work.

steve30
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27 Dec 2020, 4:48 pm

dorkseid wrote:

I recommend being grateful that the condition wasn't named after Asperger's boss, otherwise we'd all be suffering from Hamburger Syndrome :lol:

nomad48
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27 Dec 2020, 10:36 pm

It's hard to judge people from decades ago, that did what they were told or they might be killed, not condoning it but, it is a slippery slope. mafia, street gangs, soldiers, people who look the other way, there is a lot of going a long to get along.

CockneyRebel
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27 Dec 2020, 11:08 pm

I tell people that I'm HFA which is my diagnosis, anyways.

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