Published on 12, July, 2020
How do y'all feel about an autistic person identifying as an "aut*st" or calling their autistic friends they have close relationships with the same word? My autistic friend prefers it because he says it is "taking the word back", but only autistic people can use it. He likens it to the n-word or h*llbilly.
Personally, I agree with him. In fact, I designed a shirt that says "All my friends are aut*sts" (but actually spelled out without the astrix). It's from a running personal joke where I was completely unaware I was autistic and just thought I liked autistic people, which is why I would say, "All my friends are autistic." Using the word "aut*sts" in the shirt would be an indirect way of disclosing my autism flavor since only autistic people can use it. Would this shirt be offensive?
A rose is still a rose by any other name. I don't have any time for all this PC correctness nonsense nor does all this woke BS interest me. It simply flies above my head.
I'm sooooo looking forward to that thread.
An internet personality for whom I'd gained a lot of respect for telling the truth and "having her head screwed on" generally, instinctively responded to my revelatiion with "Oh your'e a retard then".
Overall my condition has not made me gain an ability for being particualrly "with it" and the main effect of my diagnosis has been a lowering of peoples expectations of me, and increased acceptance of my little foibles.
It's hard to accept someone who isn't as bright as me, (most people clearly are not) calling me a "retard" but easier when you know it's someone who is a fellow teller of the truth as they know it.
After a couple of years mulling it over, I can see how the label does fit me.m In many, many, ways I've gained some skills very slowly indeed. Particularly the social ones.
I don't like being insulted, and it's taken me a long time to get used to it, and learn to deal with insults. BUT in the real world, you ARE going to get insulted, and rather than struggling with it for fifty years like I did, maybe we can cut the learning curve down a bit.. I'll start a thread on the topic of how do we deal with being insulted.
As Autists we find it really hard to navigate the nuances of the insult, but like any form of combat, it can be dissected, understood, and the skills and strategies for success grown. Essentially if you can "take" a good insult with grace and then (in most, but not all cases) deliver a better one back, you can gain respect in normie society is my take on the matter.
It will offend someone.
Providing they aren't in any of the "special" groups you should be O.K.
I don't mind it so long as it's used in a nice way with a nice meaning. If someone says it, or any word come to that but it's meant as a direct insult or attack then I don't like it.
I fully agree with you. People are too sensitive.
Thanks for that.
I like it! Thanks for sharing. I will be employing this approach.
I love that!
Ooooh, yeah! This is a good point.
Neurotypical Spectrum Disorder
we probably are creepy to them in that respect though, and i dont mind if they think that.i have thought worse of them to be fair. especially after high school were id have wanted to nuke the entire country if i had access to nukes so my thoughts to them would have been far worse than them thinking i am creepy.
I see you are refferring to the uncanny valley effect where they react to us like they would in imperfect android, autistic youtuber AFTI mentions a possible way to get around it in his vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6dCZS1dpaE but that does require a degree of outing or dropping of the mask and disclosure for some people.
Except in a very real way autism predisposes others to finding you creepy. It turns out there is a kind of feedback loop where a couple of NTs faces talking reflect each others emotions to some extent. A bit like laughing or yawning being contagious but more subtle. And if as autistic people often do, our faces break that feedback loop, we don't mirror back to people subtle filtered versions of their own (facially displayed) emotions, then they read us as creepy, doll like, in the uncanny valley and as lacking empathy.
The lable of creepy they put on us is their brain reacting to our autism. And it has to stop.
tbh i dont think id care if someone called me creepy.... id likely half agree with them that i probably am seemingly creepy, but yet its just a opinion and everyone is creepy to someone.we need to be realistic and self critical too though... if one has no friends and everyone distances themselves from you, then perhaps there is some truth in when a person calls you creepy? then on that you can perhaps fix it if you want.... but lets be honest none of us care and wouldnt fix it anyway lol and some of us would like people distancing themselves and creepiness that repels people could be a nice shield from the world.
Actually the worst slur you can throw at an autistic person is creepy. It's a very hard accusation to fight. Because what's creepy? It's not a crime, not a specific activity. It's a perception that someone is different, in a threatening way, that they are not right. And we are different.
Built into the word 'creepy' is the assumption that peoples gut feelings and perceptions trump facts and circumstances. You can be good to your fellow man, painfully honest and ethical, and yet if people label you as creepy that's no help because its not a rational assessment.
*bullies who find edgy "humour" funny.context is everything
everything is offensive to someone these days, im not bothered by the word though. i suppose its how you use the word, if you use it as a derogatory insult and you can tell its used derogatorily then it could be more offensive and that would be its intention... maybe the intention is the offence in that case but yet still not the word... its all about intent.
ah well never studied Spanish.