if you are an aspie you are not autistic

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Doesn't it depend on how you define "autism"? Because nowadays, with the way the DSM-IV defines it, Autistic Disorder and Asperger's Disorder both fall under the heading of Pervasive Developmental Disorder... meaning that an Aspie would technically be a person with a PDD, and not autism, because autism (as well as Asperger's) is a specific sort of PDD.

That said, if you refer to PDDs as "the autism spectrum", then yes, Aspies are autistic. Just higher-functioning, with more language. Considering that there are NTs with autistic traits, we could be considered "auties with NT traits"....

I'm with Orwell re 'just go ahead and take whatever label suits your own needs best'. That's the idea - read as much as you can & use what makes sense to you.

But, as Zukenkerl says, you can't go around telling people your autistic. The autistic Aussie writer Donna Williams says (when she complained of the difficulty of always being misunderstood) a psychologist advised her to try explaining to people that she was autistic. She did & it was a disaster.

It's as KingdomOfRats says - until the stereotype of autism is changed, there is no hope. The article on autism in TIME this past year ate up the stereotype big-time. How are we ever going to change it when big media is reinforcing it?