Aspie As The New Cool Term

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I have & will continue to use the term 'Aspie' to describe myself, in public. Not like a badge of honour, but sometimes as a course of explanation but usually in the context of needing it as a short cut to help others understand. For example, living in a small place, it doesn't take long for people to figure out you have a different way about you & sometimes those ways have lead to what they see as bizarre behavior. Often the easiest way to inform them is the use of a well recognized ASD term. Once informed I have found they are more adaptive & understanding, the result becomes a smoother integration across the community.
Before my neighbors knew me & saw cops outside on 3 occasions, various medical staff in & out, the talk around town was terrible guess work that resulted in fantasy scenarios made up about what was going on, who I was, & further ostracization & discrimination. Through using my Aspie/ASD label I was able to increase their awareness, & put them back in reality. They now look out for me rather than avoid me. I'm indifferent to the term, but if life is a toolbox, it's a tool that should be used, not over used or used to justify bad behavior, but to enlighten people around you swiftly. In a world without the need for labeling everything, where people just coexisted side by side we wouldn't have to use our diagnosis to subdue inherently random speculation from onlookers. We are so much more than our diagnosis & cooler & more complex than our tags. If NT's want to tag themselves because it's trendy...I'll take that as a compliment. They just want to be part of a superior race.

I like the term Aspie because sometimes when my speech is impaired it's just easier for me to say. Pure and simple, no complicated attachments to the word whatsoever. But since the DSM removed the Asperger's diagnosis I tend to just say Autism or Autistic or ASD now to describe myself just because my diagnosis says that since I was diagnosed after the official removal of the word "Asperger's". But to me it's just a word like any of the other words. I can't decide for others what it means to them and I can't stress worrying about what it means to them. I still use the word ret*d but never as a derogatory statement, never to put anyone down but only to mean what it actually, clinically means. I use it for myself as well to describe my emotional and mental capacities. People will decide whatever they want a word to mean and that is their choice, but as long as they understand what I mean when I say it, that is all that matters to me.

Huge numbers of neurotypical youth thinks it's "cool" to be thought of as having a condition called "aspergers"?

I find that hard to believe.

And even if that were true the claim that that would somehow hurt real autistics is also hard for me to believe.

You will have to massively back up both claims for me to even begin to take this subject seriously.

Amiri Baraka, who used to be known as LeRoi Jones, all of a sudden embraced the Black Power Movement.

As a result, he left his white wife. He is black.