Don't you feel like it's all degrading

Yes what is the point? we can't access benefits, so it is not in any way helpful for us. Also it is irritating to have people pretend to embrace neurodiversity when they don't really, they have no idea what it means, most of them. 

"life ruining", thats a perfect description of whats happened to me

Here where I live, lots of knowledge and science hasn't reached yet, and people think in binary ways, about everything, about gender, about personalities, about sexuality, about decision making, etc. I have known English since I was a teenager and that helped me learn lots of things and open my mind, and if we're talking about autism specifically, it helped me personally, but talking about it with others wouldn't end in a meaningful result at all since I'm in such a different world and their worldview is so different. Still I can see your point I think, I think it's nice that people might think of me maybe only as 'weird' and not know too much about me, sometimes I wish I didn't know about it myself since I don't always like when autism is part of my personality and character, I wish I was still 'just me' but it can't be helped since autism has explained SO MUCH it's hard to forget it.

Sorry I think this doesn't really relate to your post, it just made me think of this. 

yep.

Uhane said:

No

Sometimes a monosyllable hits the spot nicely

No

Caelus said:

they only seem to target the better workers

They are trying to kick the better workers out because they make them look bad to the management. Oldest trick in the book.

It can be a bit of a double edged sword, busy people like in the workplace for example will have probably had a days training and have learnt the basics. I can be quite combatative and am very likely to challenge people who try and use my diagnosis as a weapon and ask them if thats the best they can do and if it is then they don't really have a problem with me, but with themselves. |Some people are just nasty, and I'm glad I don't have to live in thier heads.

The other thing, is ASD is a spectrum it has a list of traits and a person will have some, but not all of them, unlike something like measles, where everyone gets the same symptoms. This makes it hard for people NT or not to understand.

I don't like this us and them stuff, whether it's politics, religion, ethnicity or anything, I just see people as people, there are people I like and people I don't. I treat everyone the same at first with a basic level of respect and kindness and as I get to know them, they will either be treated with greater respect and kindness or less by either avoiding them or when nessercary confrontation.

i think it worked for me in my favour as i was being constantly attacked and dragged into the office and my supervisors tryna fire me all the time, but after fighting back and doing grievances and telling them half the stuff they try pull me on could be protected under autistic traits they eventually fucked off and are now picking another person to bully, which i see they are doing the same thing to that guy what they did to me, they give him file notes and disciplinaries every day and drag him in despite him being one of our good workers, they only seem to target the better workers to try bully out of here.

i think its opposite...

before the understanding and it being known more it was a insult... infact i saw it as a insult when someone called me autistic before we all knew what it was and i thought he meant it as insult but looking back on it now he wasnt insult but suggesting or observing.

but before i knew what it was, yeah i always saw it as a insult. knowing what it is takes away the insult from it. as the insult in it lies in the wrong assumption of what it is. its not as bad as what we all thought it was before we knew what it was lol i cant describe it without offending or being banned though to make that clear. as the meaning behind the word when one doesnt know what it is and would bring up bad stereotypes of other conditions instead.

And also, the idea of a spectrum seems to cause particular difficulties in understanding. That misunderstanding appears to be either - that everyone is 'on the Spectrum'; or that autism isn't a real thing. 

People serm to need simple boxes for categorization in order to understand them. 

NAS92316 said:

but they know only what the perceived negative traits are and base everything on that.

In fact, the NT majority don't really look at anything. much in any detail. Broad outlines are generally sufficient, in my experience. If the received picture contains negative images, they'll (generally) accept that without question. If positive, the same. People are myopic by comparison to our own tendencies to research and explore, they don't ask many questions.

The narrative needs to change, in simple terms that can be easily understood. 

NAS92316 said:

They're gonna start seeing and treating you differently. if it gets known at work?

When I disclosed my diagnosis at work everybody started treating me like a poor r-word. Everyone made sure to talk to me in a soft and non-threatening tone. Managers only spoke with me via Teams or with a witness in the room. I think HR instructed them to do so to protect themselves from a lawsuit. I managed to get full WFH via Workplace Adjustment (equality act 2010), and everybody was happy. I will never disclose again.

I will happily face this "weapon" that you are concerned about .... ie being called autistic.

I am, however, very concerned about the increasingly prevalent use of 'key word' terminology to try and impregnate, associate and convince "others" that "the other side" are "out to get us."  This is not just in relation to autism, but for all manner of politics, religion, science - you name it - there are oodles of inflammatory hyperbole being pumped out into the interweb.....everywhere.....all the time.....it seems to me?  Now that IS dangerous?!

If someone calls me autistic (ie wields that weapon to try and brand me [to use your language]) and is intending to cause me harm with that, it feels like they are pointing a neon coloured plastic water pistol at me....without any water in it even.  Slightly amusing, but also rather tragic on many levels?!

The intent of the individual = that is what matters, in my opinion.  Trying to proclaim what "everybody else thinks" is dangerous and inflammatory folly, in my opinion.

There has been a lot of change in the criteria. Some people may have an idea of Autistic person still based on the past.  Now there is a spectrum and some people who may pass for normal and may be got  level 1 before and would have been ASD are now Autistic. Also, they added sensory and probably more in around 2014. Sensory was always there in the original study for both disorders, but not added for decades. I don't know why. I'm glad the sensory was added, I'm getting used to the change, You see some people who seem so functional on social media and the media and had first thoughts them saying they were Autistic, but I try and read around the situation and stay silent now. i think people are still getting a bit confused.

Well that's the thing, people still DON'T have a true understanding of it but they know only what the perceived negative traits are and base everything on that.

So it has become a harmful thing to be branded as because of that and people use it as a weapon.

I've worked in IT all my life and people have always talked of coworkers being on the spectrum but I really didn't understand what autism is until a couple of years ago. Most people still have very little understanding of it and almost everything in mainstream media is misleading.

NAS92316 said:

I mean a term like "masking" for example. Like we're wearing masks trying to be "normal". I feel like a phony just reading about that aspect of ASD. I'm a freak for being something I can't control and I should try to be normal, yet when I try I'm "masking".

Yes, I feel like a phony too but for good reason I think. Everyone, including NTs will mask to some degree and put on a different face with different social groups, but many autistic people - me included - consciously and deliberately constructed a set of rules and behaviours which are completely fake, in the hope of fitting in. The result is nobody ever gets to know me. The reasons are, I think understandable, but the consequences for me are life ruining.