[Hatter08]

Has anyone else noticed this happening? I just saw a bunch of it on a post and it made me really angry. I can cope with and understand people not understanding mental illness but I've been seeing a number of posts of people responding, 'autistic' towards people who are not as if an insult to someone, kind of in the manner of how people say 'gay' to call something stupid. I'm just wondering as to why this is happening and why more widespread understanding of a particular mental illness leads to responses like this.

[glok]

Hello, Hatter08. What you describe is wrong. Have you considered reporting the authors of the posts?

I wish you well.

[Hatter08]

I'm not a member of these forums, I'm just usually surfing them and it's not on PC. It probably wouldn't be considered that big of a deal on these sites, I've just seen it happening more often lately with no real opposition and it baffles me.

[-jimi-]

I actually am a member of such a forum. And I've seen it many places lately. It's like they feel calling someone a "retard" isn't harsh enough, they deem a deficiency in the social game play a worse thing and a "better" word to use as an insult.

So yea, I've seen it and it's not bound to stop.

[Hellion]

Well that is dumb, honestly not sure how I'd respond to seeing that...

I think I've seen this.

It leaves me confused because I keep thinking I've read it wrong. How can being autistic be an insult?

I have no hope for humanity.

[-jimi-]

As for reporting, all sites I go to are not mental health support and they all have different rules, name calling might actually not be a breach. If I only went to forums where I could have written the rules myself I would have... well one to go to, where I actually did write them myself. Other people's rules sure you can live by them but you rarely agree to 100 % with them. Still you might want to be on that particular forum.

[Hatter08]

jimi,

You are probably correct in assuming that it's not soon to stop as we still have the phrases that have been mentioned above that are equally offensive yet are still used. It's just astounding that there is no opposition and I've been coming to understand exactly what it is. Based upon common social perceptions of autistic people who, if depicted in the media at all, are perceived by neurotypicals as just insensitive and unable to socialize, nothing else.

Hellion & Betenoire,

I agree. It's getting harder and harder to care for humanity at all. It's just a way of people being insensitive and only understanding what they can perceive without really knowing what it's like to be the person with the disorder.

[-jimi-]

I feel the days of compassion are gone. I used to not hear too much crap, but these days I hear hateful comments everyday... those aspies... those Muslims... those Christians... those mentally ill yadda yadda always in a negative context.

To be accepted today you should be a pretty surface and have no personality traits whatsoever.

[ToeJam]

I suppose it's context, ignorance and situational. Amongst gamers for example, especially in competitive communities, flaming is quite prevalent and members will use anything they can to get a rise out of a competitor or member they don't like.

Not defending it, just indicating that in most cases the users of such words have nothing against genuine cases of autism or whatever other condition that comes to their mind... it's just a means to an end to get the other person pissed off.

Some sites will differ in their rules on what is allowable in the context of flaming or trolling (two concepts that don't always go hand in hand) from very lax to very strict... so yeah, in some you're going to come across it.

Sometimes a useful site to ascertain why words are used in a demeaning way is the Urban Dictionary. In terms of 'Autistic' it has (unusually) a lot of informative information in this instance... but as you scroll down you'll see how it is also used in the context of an insult towards people who are not in fact autistic.

[Hatter08]

I understand and I'm usually pretty okay with insults, they don't really bother me. Ignorance without any form of hesitation like that just drives me up the wall. Attempting to look on the bright side, the Urban Dictionary link had a lot of really positive and good definitions of autism.

Thanks for the link and the insight, Toejam. When I posted the first post of this, it was a mix of anger and just wanting to see if others had seen it happening as often as I had started to but right now I feel like I get it more as not being intentionally directed at people with autism but it still irritates me at how ignorant and insensitive people can be.