The concept of using "autism" as an ableist insult is one of the most disgusting trends I've ever seen online. No one is entitled to take autism (which is a very real thing) and use it in the form of a slur.

I still have no idea why anyone would call someone "autistic" as a bigoted slur, but whatever the reason, the people who use it as a slur are sad individuals who stooped to no worse than a racist. In fact, more people need to speak out against using "autism" as a slur to let people know they won't tolerate it being used that way.

The main reason why this neurodevelopment disorder is used as an insult is some mishaps on the internet. You see, there was once this dude named Chris-chan, who made the infamous webcomic called Sonichu. One of the last chapters of Sonichu features the creator himself torturing four people who kept on teasing him because of his kookiness, both in real life and how the webcomic was handled. Chris's rude behaviour was so bad that people used his autism as an excuse for said behaviour. Because of that autism is now seen as a degrading term for people who like odd things.

Personally, I'm indifferent to this insult. As somebody who has high-functioning autism, I see it used as an insult a lot to the point where I just don't care anymore. Yeah, it may not be the best way to deal with it, but I really am not proud or ashamed of my autism. It's just... there.

It's because people are under the mentality that autism=stupid, retarded, or weird. It all started when people like Chris Chan came into the scene, who had all the autism stereotypes. Unoriginal OCs, odd interests, admits to things he shouldn't have, throws temper tantrums when things don't go his way, and blames his autism on his own mistakes. This caused people to use these stereotypes to label any person who has at least one of these without realizing that autism exists on a spectrum. Meaning that anyone could have any of these to varying degrees.

Then people got very disjointed perspectives on what autism is and just started throwing the word around left and right at anything they didn't like without really knowing it's meaning. Heck, I've seen people get called autstic when they've said they aren't. And this led to bronies getting called it. People saying that all bronies have autism just for having a unique interest. It instantly paints a bad picture of it and just makes people come off as jerks.

I agree with all of these viewpoints.

Good points guys.

People who put other people down to feel better just aren't worth anyone's time.

This is something that has always happened.

The words "idiot", "imbecile", and "moron" were originally medical terms for people with respectively profound, severe to medium, and mild intellectual disabilities.

By the early 20th century these had become pejorative, so people started using "retarded" instead. This itself became pejorative by the mid 20th century.

It's the euphemism treadmill. Doctors come up with words to describe these people; they enter common consciousness, and people start using them as insults; doctors have to come up with new words.

Unsurprisingly, it's happening with "autism" too. You can already see a trend away from medical professionals describing individuals as being "autistic" and instead saying that they "have an ASD".