for Cringetopia users
Also I hope people in here are decent about plurals. r/fakedisordercringe is another one of the “be normal ” instances
CW
a libs diet fascist cola.
Which still led during the Nazi period to hundreds of thousands of dead: Operation T4 (address was Tiergartenstr. 4). This program was defended by eugenicists in the West. Even after the war.
Don’t forget constantly using person-first language when talking about autistic people, using the deprecated and Nazi-collaborationist namesake “Asperger’s”, and the pick-me autistic people who always chime in on mainstream discussions to validate anti-autistic ableism:
"I have high-functioning Asperger’s and I hate it when [autistic people do or request something].
Autism is no excuse for not doing [thing I am capable of but which others may not be capable of].
Personally, I hate other people with autism who don’t fit into allistic society as well as I do and it makes me resent people with autism who don’t because it makes us all look bad."
*Shudders*
constantly using person-first language when talking about autistic people
can you explain what you mean by this? i’m autistic but i don’t really know the controversy about it
Of course.
It’s generally accepted that autistic people prefer to be referred to using language that uses the term “autistic person” rather than “person with autism” because the latter is considered to be externalising autism and denying it as being central to the identity and experience of the autistic person.
Just as we wouldn’t say “a person with blackness” or “a person with womanhood” or “a person with homosexuality” because that is seen as separating out the core experience of being a black person, a woman, or a gay person so too does the autistic community feel that phrasing it as “person with autism” has the same effect. (Also in the case of a gay person, the way of phrasing it above has implications of pathologising and medicalising the experience, which is what happens a lot for autistic people too and that has historically been to serious detriment to autistic people.)
For me, being autistic, there is no “outside” of autism; it colours who I am, it shapes my relationship to and understanding of the world (and this extends to how I experience myself) so to put autism as external to me is to imply that it’s sort of additional somehow and it gives the impression that there’s a “real” me beneath the autism, which I personally reject the notion of.
Note that this is just the general consensus here; some people don’t care, some people prefer to refer to themselves as “a person with autism” and that’s valid. But as a rule I’d say that it’s best to refer to autistic people this way around as it’s the preferred term.
That being said, I will sometimes say things like “excuse my autism”, “this might be my autism acting up”, “today the autism won”, and “this is just my autism speaking but…”, although I do this ironically.
I need to say “today autism won” more, but as a brag after like a day of unstopped behaviour that makes NTs angry
This is so helpful, thank you. There has been a movement to change language in academia from things like “a leper” or to “a person who has leprosy” or “a depressed woman” to “a woman who has depression” etc in order to emphasize humanity of the person first and other characteristics second. I appreciate your perspective on that type of wording.
While I agree with what you write, ESL speakers often vary in meaning. The discourse and concept you mentioned is one that is part of learning a language. I do prefer for my diagnosis a person with specific diagnosis instead of diagnosis person, too. But that varies by person. Since the diagnosis is something that is an assigned thing, what is constitutional to me is not quite described by it. Though at the same time I am a queer person more than I am a person with queerness.
The word autism to me isn’t like “something I have” but rather just a descriptive term about me and my traits. It’s like
“That person is nice” = nice person “that person is mean” = mean person “That person is into art” = artistic person
Autism is just a label, an observation made that “hey people with X and Y trait also seem to have A, B, C trait in common”. I would be who I am with or without the word existing so putting it as something I “have” rather than am feels odd.
But you’re free to use and prefer what you want for yourself.
I have Asperger’s and my “special interest” is gender ideology, which means I spend every waking minute thinking and problem-solving on how to quell this monster. Everything points to exposing the abysmal quality of “scientific evidence” that props up their beliefs. 🧵
Not 100% what you were talking about, but is word for word an unironic tweet I’ve seen and idk it felt relevant somehow. And down in the replies they make the point that they can’t be wrong because of their Asperger’s genius powers or whatever
Ugh. This is abysmal.
Autistic people are just as likely to be cranks as anyone else. Perhaps even moreso because the degree of focus it usually requires in order to become a crank is not that common in the allistic population whereas autistic people are much more inclined towards hyperfixations and, thus, they are more likely to become a crank due to this ability to sustain their focus on a singular subject of interest.
We’re just as susceptible to the Dunning-Kruger effect as anyone else.
Just like how clumsily hammering away at the keys of a piano for 10,000 hours will not turn me into a concert pianist, so too is 10,000 hours of hyperfocus on a subject insufficient to turn me into an expert on it. With training and guidance, or in less common circumstances with a keen focus on self-teaching, devoting that amount of time can turn someone into an expert (which is why autistic people tend to be more likely to be a wealth of knowledge in their interests) but unless you’ve taken account of your biases and for the fact that information needs to be viewed with healthy skepticism and a critical eye then you probably aren’t going to end up an expert in a subject, you will likely just end up being a very proficient crank.
hey comrades, remember self diagnosis is valid. not everyone has years to wait and thousands of dollars to spend on a something that may not improve your life in anyway. there are some states in america where your parents can take your kids away and the state will do it just because you have a diagnosis. Also good luck ever winning sole custody of your kids. And you can get rejected from moving to many countries like new zealand. Not to mention my poc and afab (edit: so the majority of the population) comrades are far far far less likely to be diagnosed properly. diagnoses for adults sometimes just means society gives itself permission to dehumanize you more.
I am self-diagnosed bc if I have a single mental illness, I will not get hormones and DIY might be criminalized as well, either it is or it will be soon, idk rn. , folks
yes such a good point!!! especially since its an increasing “concern” by terfs to “protect autistic people from trans ideology”. trans comrades dont need another reason to be invalidated.
I have OSDD (probably), which makes it so easy to invalidate my gender stuff
Hang on I didn’t know about this and i’m in europe, can you explain what this means? Is having a diagnosed mental illness a justification for refusing access to hormones?
Are you really trans? Or is your “dysphoria” just being depressed? Is the kind of thing gatekeeping therapist can throw at you
Depends, my country has you at the mercy of wacky therapists and they often use stuff like depression to gatekeep you
Self diagnosis is valid but also a bunch of people aren’t actually self-diagnosing they’re just using it to be edgy.
They used to say “as an r-slur” but when that became unacceptable they switched to autistic. A lot of the people saying this stuff don’t actually genuinely think they’re autistic, they’re just assholes.
Which is a problem because our autistic friends struggle to recognise it. And they’re a vulnerable group for grooming.
i agree with everything you said, please read this in a friendly and confused tone. i dont see how that contrast with my original statement. My goal was to make self diagnosed comrades who were feeling insecure from assholes in the post above feel better. the fake disorder crigne sub is harmful imo. there are definitely the keffels of the world and tic tok teens and those people suck but do not invalidate actual autistic individuals self diagnosis.
Which is a problem because our autistic friends struggle to recognise it. And they’re a vulnerable group for grooming.
hahaha oh trust me I know. I have been left feeling tricked and hurt quite a few times, I still always believe my comrades unless I have reason not to.
i dont see how that contrast with my original statement.
I’m not disagreeing with you. Just adding that there’s an issue here in that we do need to find a way to counter the assholes somehow while also not invalidating our autistic friends.
Which is a problem because our autistic friends struggle to recognise it. And they’re a vulnerable group for grooming.
what do you mean by this exactly and how should the issue be adressed, then, in your opinion?
It’s similar to the vulnerability that young eggs (trans people that haven’t realised it yet) have to grooming by the far right.
They give them attention in a certain set of specific ways and then pipeline them into right wing online spaces and behaviours through various targeted grooming methods. I use the word grooming here because it’s specifically the young teens that are most vulnerable to it and the main core of the people targeted.
I don’t know how the issue should be addressed. I’m just highlighting it as an issue. We do need to avoid invalidating self-diagnosis autism but also need to counter the shitheads.
“Fake disorder cringe” is actually a subreddit? Wow. I had no idea. That’s just fucking awful.
The thing about FDC is that there are certainly people on social media who misunderstand things like autism and are likely diagnosing themselves incorrectly. But there’s a reason why pretty much all their focus is on TikTok, it’s because they’re children! Of course a 12-year-old on tiktok doesn’t have a deep understanding of what autism symptoms looks like. And yes that 10 year old probably doesn’t have DID when they say they’re a Danganronpa character but you know what they do have? An imagination.
At best they’re literally making fun of children having fun playing and not perfectly understanding the world and at worst are making fun of children going through serious struggles trying to find an answer for themselves.
And that’s not even to mention the FDC very rarely has an understanding of what these disabilities look like either. Like sensory processing issues is well known to have high comorbidity with autism and yet saying you dont like loud noises gets the response of “no one likes them, you’re not special”. But if no one likes them then why do people go to the movies? Why are concerts a thing?
It’s a horrible sub through and through that pretends to be righteous by “correcting misinformation” but in reality is just laughing at and insulting kids.
And they’re not just making fun of them, but acting like they can accurately diagnose someone else’s mental conditions perfectly from a 30 second tik tok video. They’re all perfect armchair psychologists who are never wrong in their assessment that everyone different from them that they don’t like is just “faking it.”
And that’s not even to mention the FDC very rarely has an understanding of what these disabilities look like either. Like sensory processing issues is well known to have high comorbidity with autism and yet saying you dont like loud noises gets the response of “no one likes them, you’re not special”. But if no one likes them then why do people go to the movies? Why are concerts a thing?
Who wants to bet those same assholes suddenly larp as autistic people with hypersensitivity when the topic of wearing a fucking mask comes up?
![[CW: ableism being mocked] Autism discussed on Reddit starter pack(hexbear.net)](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/33085413-9895-4eee-99a8-d679d626ef23.jpeg){kind=link}