Do you find "person first" language to be stupid?

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I have switched between the two phrases throughout the years. I only take issue with either "person with Autism" or "Autistic person" when someone uses their experiences with a neurological disorder to assume they know what is best for me when they don't actually know me.

We say "person with Down Syndrome" and you pretty much can only say it person first. "Down Syndrome person" sounds strange.

"autistics" sounds better than both

What is so great about being a "person"?

Just curious if anyone introduces themselves that way? or do they wait for somebody to ask?

I don't really care, I mean I guess whatever is the easier one to say...I mean I don't see any real difference between the two..person with autism, autistic person, I just don't see the difference.

Depends on who I'm with. When I'm with people I consider decent, language use doesn't matter. But there are some people here who hear the word 'autistic' and immediately plasters every single ugly stereotype the media perpetuates on me or whoever they're talking about and then they make jokes using those stereotypes and won't stop even when I ask them to. With these people, I use person first language because I want to hammer it into their thick heads that these are PEOPLE they're insensitively mocking and making fun of and we have feelings too so stop that BS.

I don't care if its person-first or identity-first language. In the big picture, does it really matter?

Amen, inkgirl!

I don't care for it either. I think it's silly to be policing stuff like that. Seriously, whatever you call it makes no difference in the amount of autism I actually have.

"Person with autism" sounds kind of patronizing to me, for some reason, but I don't insist that people use one or the other.

Sometimes, I think that "person first" language is a smokescreen to distract people from more important matters, such as the lack of services. Not only could the effort spent in pushing for person first language be diverted toward services people actually need (such as home support, employment help, school accommodations, etc.), sometimes I suspect that there is something even more nefarious going on - that those who think they ought to be in control want us to use up our energy talking about this rather than the real issues. Truth be told, I'd rather be "an autistic" with meaningful support services in my life (e.g. a job coach) than "a person with autism" who is told that he can accomplish anything and then shown the door.

I read the subject line as "First Person" Language and opened it because I type "I" instead of "A" all the time. So I guess I am disqualified from this conversation.

That said, I am new to ASD and my instinct would be "I am autistic" or HFA or on the autism spectrum. Not sure how to use ASD... I'll read more responses when I have a moment. Although I am confused about whether to stay in the closet and when to advocate.