SocOfAutism wrote:
I mean, I know how it sounds to say "autistic person." I wrote my entire thesis using that terminology and frankly it made me cringe sometimes. But that's the only technically correct way I could say it. It's society that's made it feel like an insult. Like the OP said, to use it, it's reclaiming it.
Lol, Autismo the Wizard!
It has been drilled into my head (in Psychology and Criminal Justice) to use "person-first language", ALWAYS, without fail, since I first started taking Psych courses in the early 2000s. This article got me thinking, "what do the individuals involved really want? Did anyone bother to ask?"
As for me, saying "person with autism/Asperger's" is beginning to sound (at least to me) kind of pretentious.

Of course, some people I interact with still don't know what "Aspie" means, so that opens up a conversation.
"Autismo the Wizard" - or, "The Great and Powerful Autismo"! (Some of you will get that reference.

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The existence of the leader who is wise
is barely known to those he leads.
He acts without unnecessary speech,
so that the people say,
'It happened of its own accord.' -Tao Te Ching, Verse 17