Rant: People first language police online

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It is getting very annoying that in many comments section relating to autism the people first language supporters instead of sticking to the topic on hand try to correct other posters for using "autistic" and demand we use "person with autism". The sad part is they think they are helping us.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my- ... ent-614254
http://www.npr.org/2014/06/02/316462407 ... ed-schools

This trend is really is picking up. 6 months ago ago I rarely saw this, now I see this often. This is just plain condescending. We have decades more experience living on the spectrum then they do, but they think they know better then us on how we should identify.

As NT's are 98% of the population it is understandable they would not know many of us would prefer "autistic". I have no problem with this. What I do not understand is what is so difficult about asking people "do you want to be described as a person with autism or autistic?". What I do not understand is why they think bullying people into using a language correct expression is going to make said people feel better about themselves. And we are supposed to be the rude group?

The good news is that pretty much every time this is done autistics are standing up to them and explaining to confused readers why they prefer identity first language. The bad news is that many good online conversations are getting sidetracked by this issue.

Woman with children or woman who has children. Yeah both sound the same to me just like person with autism or person who has autism. It doesn't matter. I have seen people say someone has cancer or something with cancer. My dad is diabetic, he has diabetes. He is someone with diabetes.

agreed on the matter of person first language.
the majority of NTs will never understand how autism is the core of a person that influences their identity, people still view it as a disease and think its giving more power to conditions by naming them first.

I agree this kind of thing isn't really helping anything, it is just political correctness. A similar thing has happened with probably every minority group out there. It doesn't generate any kind of understanding or compassion in people to use this kind of language, maybe it even does the opposite, because it implies the person's identity is separate from them, like a "thing" that can be removed instead of being part of who they are.

So, if someone doesn't describe themselves as "a person with autism", people won't know they're people? People will think they're what... a goat or something? Ridiculous.
It says a lot about the people who are spreading this "message", that in order for them to recognize that we're people, we have to label ourselves "people".

It OFFENDS me ( I tell you!) to be called "an American"!

I'm "a person with Americanness" ( or is it "Americality"?).


And it offends me to be called "White".

I am "a pigment impaired individual"!

I'm a "person with maleness", and a "person with adultness", and so on...


Havent really noticed people being corrected from saying "autistic" to "person with autism". But if that is an actual trend then it is indeed really dumb.

I find the "people first" language to be insulting. The preposition "with" makes autism look like an object being carried---like "a man with a cane" or "a woman with a parasol"---rather than an inherent personality trait. You don't carry around autism. It's part of who you are! You can't prop it against an armrest when you sit down in a chair, like a cane. You can't fold it and leave it sitting in a closet, like a parasol. It's always there. It makes your life difficult. It causes you to put in tons of extra effort to get through the day. You can never get rid of it. If someone can be "with" something, they can also be "without" it. So the "with autism" construct is unfitting and patronizing. There is absolutely nothing wrong or insulting about saying "autistic person". Now, "autist" is bad, because you're not acknowledging their humanness, just their neurology.

I like Spectrumite.

The one I do find infuriating is 'Autism Spectrum Condition' (noun) as opposed to 'Autistic Spectrum Condition' (adjectival form). But, I know, can also be a noun. Seeing as the 'Spectrum' is also describing it, then it really should be '-ic' and not '-m' [Spectrum Condition]

PC gone too far .... like AutumSylver said, of course we're people. It's insulting to think it has to be specified ... what am I, an alpaca with autism.

Okay, well I'm offended as well. I'm offended that we're letting ourselves get sidetracked off of our main objective(s).