More hostile when finding out?

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Why is it that sometimes people who have little or no knowledge of autism can become more hostile towards you when they find out you have got the condition?

Some people are a**holes, and a**holes who think you're using something they don't understand as an excuse tend to become even bigger a**holes.

Because all the lies they may "know" about autism makes them afraid of people with the condition.

The kids at school were like this. As soon as I received my diagnosis at age 8, one girl in my class knew because my mum was friends with her mum, then during an argument one day in the playground among the girls in my class (including me) the girl who already knew I had AS got all the girls together and told them that I have AS. I was not near enough to hear, but I just knew what she was telling them. Then after that a lot of the girls in my class (plus some from other classes too) started acting hostile towards me or patronising. And then there were the small number of nice girls who treated me the same way as they did before they were told I had AS. Those were the girls who had higher-than-average IQs.

It even got passed round some of the boys too. About 4 years later a boy who had not long joined the class didn't get a joke and he joked, "I must be autistic". And the boy who was sitting next to me said, "she's autistic" (meaning me). Don't get me wrong, neither of them were trying to make me feel bad or anything as they were nice boys, but it just proved that it wasn't only the girls who knew.

If I hadn't of got a diagnosis so early in life I wouldn't have had all this. I probably would have been accepted as a quirky child, because as soon as you have a label you become the label and the other kids become afraid of you and avoid you like you have COVID.

I think it's human nature to be uncomfortable toward people who are mentally ill. I realize autism has a genetic component but many of the problems people have with autistic people are due to their emotional problems which is what most people probably think of when they hear someone mention autism.

Also, many people have experience with autistic people being stubborn. Most people don't have the time or the energy to try to get through to stubborn people especially since stubborn people are almost never willing to change.

Because they do not understand what autism is as their concept of autism is likely to be related to the most severe cases where individuals are wheelchair bound and have a hard time.
Now if you don't look or act like they thing autistic people look and act according to their concept of that they think autism is, they will think you are a fraud and treat you badly through their lack of understanding about the condition.

But can't they learn from it instead?
When I was a kid there was a girl with one arm that went to my school, and while some other kids who were afraid of her had to bully her, I was also afraid but I didn't want to show it because I didn't want to hurt her feelings. So instead I decided to learn more about what life must be like with only one arm. So when I got home from school I'd tuck one of my arms into the sleeve and do everything with one arm for the rest of the evening, like playing with toys, eating dinner, bathing, and even climbing trees. It was all doable but rather tricky. But I was happy to gain an understanding of how it feels to have one arm and I became less afraid.
And to cut a long story short, I ended up playing with this girl in school and I didn't notice that she had only one arm any more, all I could see was a nice little girl who's feelings were just as important as mine and she was fun to play with.

Now why can't all kids be like that? It's not hard. You've just got to understand and put yourself in their shoes, which NTs are supposed to be savvy with and autistics are supposed to suck at, apparently.