People who use Autism as an insult?

Post Reply New Topic

I remember last year when we watched a movie in class about a boy who had Asperger's syndrome.
The character had problems with people touching him. So whenever a person in the movie touched him he would loudly say ''Don't touch me, I have Aspergers''.
The next month people in my class jokingly went around and pretended to have a meltdown screaming out loud that they had Aspergers whenever someone touched them.

That made me feel very uncomfortable because I was in the process of getting diagnosed at the time.

I feel like this is slowly starting to get back in my class. People frequently use ableist words (not always about autism) and it makes me and probably the other person in my class with Aspergers feel bad.

How do you tell people to stop using the words and actually get them to realize that it's not okay?

Get them to read for a few hours on the condition and read or listen to people's descriptions of what getting through a day with their sanity not too badly damaged is like if they have had a meltdown or been overwhelmed or other mental stuff has been provoked... they should educate themselves if they wish to be witty and feel great at other folks expense. I dunno not much can be done to sway them if they transform such a condition into a mere cartoonish concept or isolate certain parts of it to fit the insult, if someone is deeply affected by any condition, using it as an insult doesn't make any sense because it's the condition that causes the problems, not like they choose to be perceived as deficient or a 'lunatic' is it lol.

In the school environment people like to get a laugh out of one another with 'easy' go to topics, when I was in high school they called eachother aidsface and stuff and called a very smart girl a schizo whenever she stormed out of the room when they made pretty tasteless jokes about her, some kids have no idea about what they're doing at that age, if they read about the things they used as ammunition they probably would think a bit before using them, some people genuienly don't care as long as the things they use as bullets don't affect their lives or people they care about.

Tie them to the back of a 4wd truck and drive really fast across a very bumpy field in the hope that it may finally knock some sense into them.

Or the other option is to just educate them on the condition, get them to understand what its really like. Personally i prefer the first option.

The first option seems like the best option. If anybody did that around me, I'd call them a jolly joker.

Ignore it or they will pick on you. That's how the Neurotypical world works. l Suggest getting used to ignoring things in life with which you disagree. You're offended by that others are offended by other things. Just take their power away by not being bothered

In addition. I have learned just because people sometimes joke like that doesn't indicate their desire to be overtly nasty but I didn't know the difference for a long time. Interestingly enough. Its how some neurotypicals try to show affection

I remember once at my school, this boy started crying and screaming loudly in the hallway (can't remember the apparent reason) but people were whispering and saying stuff like, "What an autistic!" and, "What a weirdo; he must have Asperger's syndrome." I wish people would be kinder.

If people ever used autism as an insult on me, I would respond by treating it as a compliment. Asperger's syndrome isn't a bad thing... It has positive and negative effects; but it's not good or bad in itself.

Just sounds like kids being kids.
People at my school make crude remarks about autism sometimes.
Even though 90% of them have been diagnosed with it.

I would agree on the "kids will be kids" aspect.

Back when I was a kid, people called each other "ret*d" all the time. I used to get really insulted by it. But then I learned that it was the kids' problem, not mine.

And they really didn't know what intellectual disability was all about, either.

In my school kids were using the term gay and calling each other ret*d or ret*d. It never offended me. I just wondered how someone was ret*d and one time a kid called a teacher that behind their back and I wondered how is he ret*d and they would tell me it was a figure of speech when I would ask. Then after a while I figured out ret*d was the new word for stupid or dumb or when you don't like something or don't agree with something and it had become a phrase. Same as for the word gay.

I know people are offended by certain words and I respect that. But to me they are simply figures of speech not meant to be taken literally. Like if a new car is described as "cool", "hot", "wicked", "bad", "sharp" etc.