The increasing use of 'Autistic' as an insult

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"mongrel" (thats an insult from old man Alf in Home and Away

mongrel = street dog

Yes, there's a stupid insult that's seen oftentimes in online comments or comments on news articles, etc when there's an open discussion. Someone will say something like: "The autism is strong with this one." which I assume is riff on a Star Wars reference or something. Offensive.

It's a fair comment that those who use the slur are invoking rainman or some other similar misattribution to make what they think is a slur in the same vein as the r-word

I find that word, along with the "R word," and similar terms, offensive when used as a descriptive term.

I know I am in the minority on this, but things like this don't bother me.

I think it is possible to use words which are offensive without necessarily being a bigoted person.

Autistic people have certain characteristics which stick out, and people are going to notice this and reference it. It is just human nature to see and work in patterns (which is why we see 'faces' in certain fronts of cars, and see how clouds look like different objects).

Speaking of the word ret*d, it strikes me as really interesting how many words used to describe mentally impaired people have been invented over the years.

Words like idiot, stupid, ret*d, imbecile, etc have all at one time been objective medical term used to describe a certain set of symptoms.

People invariably then adopt the word as an insult, and then the word changes to reduce stigma. People then adopt the new word as an insult, and the cycle continues.

I think it is far healthier to laugh it off. Everyone has some problem that someone else is insensitive to. I choose to not take myself so seriously such that maybe I can enjoy the humor in it a little. It beats the hell out of feeling sad all of the time.

I actually did not know of this up until I started seeing "autistic" discord servers floating around

I thought Mongoloid was a term for people from Mongolia. I just looked up both those words on google & I'm rite. I wonder why/how Mongoloid became a term for Down's Syndrome



I like how you think. I think words like ret*d have become slang words & do not have people with diagnosed things like Down Syndrome in mind. The meaning of ret*d has changed & some could apply it to Down Syndrome but it no longer means a person with Down Syndrome. In fact I also think a lot of the people who use the word ret*d would not apply it to someone who they knew had Down Syndrome. I call myself ret*d sometimes but I am NOT thinking or comparing myself to someone with Down Syndrome when I do it. I just looked the word up on google & it says
adjective: ret*d

dated•offensive
less advanced in mental, physical, or social development than is usual for one's age.
"the child is badly ret*d"
informal•offensive
very foolish or stupid.
"in retrospect, it was a totally ret*d idea"

& I am using it to mean I'm not grasping things my peers are. I'm NOT saying people with Down Syndrome don't grasp things & I'm being like them, I just mean I personally do not grasp things & I do NOT have Down Syndrome in mind or am comparing myself to people who do in any way. I actually did not know till recently that the word ret*d used to be a diagnostic label for people with Down Syndrome. How could I know that I'm being offensive to people with Down Syndrome when I had no clue that the disorder had anything to do with them other than that they may both have problems grasping things but I was NOT thinking about them when I used it.

I do not have a clue why the word Autistic means Troll now & think the only thing we can really do as a community about this is to push to change the word Autistic to a different word. Everyone will get a new diagnostic term to use & the word Autistic will be used only as a slang term.

Kayla Harper is the wife of star baseball player Bryce Harper. Bryce Harper played a number of years for the Washington D.C. team The Nationals or "Nats". He left Washington and signed with the Philadelphia team that is why Washington fans are mad at him.
Kayla Harper, Bryce’s Wife, Reveals Some Nationals Fans Wished Their Son Was Born With Autism

I can see the absurdity of some of my own behaviors, I don't mind autistic being used as an insult. It can be funny sometimes.
If someone else takes offense I wouldn't use it but I would probably say to an aspie 'what you did was really autistic' as a friendly joke

This seems to be the trend. And yes my first instinct was to feel hurt by it, but I find it helps to 'own' one's shortcomings. By 'autistic', are they implying I have social difficulties, odd behavioral patterns, and general clumsiness? Guilty as charged.

Arguments like this leave me confused. It makes sense, don't get me wrong. But, when one person says that slurs and discriminatory language shouldn't be used, and another says that we should just ignore it and move on, it leaves me struggling to understand which is the "better" or "right" answer.

^ I hear you, and it's a matter of opinion, something you have to decide for yourself. I've been on gaming forums where the overwhelming majority think it's an okay insult to throw at people. And when you're grossly outnumbered, sometimes the choice comes down to martyring yourself as the unpopular 'keyboard warrior', or just keeping quiet.

Not exactly.

A "mongrel" is the opposite of "purebred". A mixed breed.

A street would tend to also be a mongrel though.

Alf Stewart in home and away is referring to a no-good person so like a street mongrel (as opposed to a dog breed)

In an article for the conservative publication National Review Kevin Williamson said of Senator Rick Scott he is "the demon lovechild of Senator Ted Cruz and Dr. Sheldon Cooper — one part nasty and one part aspy."