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?
Keeping up with what words are regarded by some people as offensive is tiring, as they seem to change all the time. I do not think that being offended by word use is very important in the grand scheme of things, or that anyone has a right to never be offended. It is the people who resort to violence because they are offended that concern me.
I half agree, insofar as intent is always key and picking a fight instead of explaining the preferred term is silly. But sometimes you hear people put more effort into not updating to the more respectful terms, and that's where you have to ask 'which is really tiring?'
But the goalposts are constantly moving. I'm old enough to have seen words go from inoffensive to offensive and back again. I'm more concerned by people who are offended by homosexuality, who blow up gay clubs, or are offended by cartoons and react by shooting journalists. People should be prepared to be offended from time to time and should certainly not see their state of being offended as a licence to resort to violence.