Why do people always feel the need to augment their statements to downplay someone's autism?
What I mean are phrases like:
"They're slightly autistic" (you either are or you aren't)
"They have Asperger's, not autism" (they are the same thing, and Asperger's isn't even a recognized diagnosis anymore)
Of course, that was a rhetorical question. I know why people downplay someone's autism diagnosis. Because autism is a "terrible, no good, very bad thing, and if you have to be attached to it, you may as well be as far away from the root of it as possible".
For decades, fear mongering campaigns that were incredibly ableist and misinformative portrayed autism as though it were a fate worse than death to be diagnosed with. To have autism was to be doomed. Oh, except for those Autistic people, the "acceptable" ones, who are actually super genius savants that just happen to be a bit rude and socially oblivious. You're either one or the other, no in between. (fun fact, Nazis played a big part in this. Look up where the name "Asperger's" actually comes from)
This has caused countless pervasive stereotypes and negative stigmas around autism that Autistic advocates are still working hard to dismantle.
For those who don't already know, trying to distance someone from their autism isn't the compliment that you think it is.
Autism is genetic. It's from birth. It isn't caused by vaccines, or taking ibuprofen while you're pregnant, or 5G radiation. It isn't something that can be cured or removed from a person, because the person is Autistic. It's a different way of thinking and experiencing the world; a different kind of brain. If it were even theoretically possible to "remove" autism (which it isn't, barring death) they would not be the same person they once were.
When I hear someone distance somebody else from their autism, I hear that they think disability is something to be ashamed of. I hear that they wish that person wasn't Autistic. I hear that they wish that person wasn't themselves, because who they are is a "bad thing".
