This is an example of behavior which cannot be tolerated if we want autistic people to feel welcome in our communities. The problem with said behavior is not, as Ocarinaplaya ignorantly suggests, that it accuses people of actually having a mental disorder, but that assumes there is something negative about having said disorder in the first place. This is not only a symptom of the prejudices the insult user already holds, but it reinforces negative stereotypes about the disorder, (such as that autistic are unable to understand copyright law in this case) which makes the stigma against autistic people worse, worsening the lives of real people. As such, it is important to fight such language when you see it.
The only way to stop stigmatizing language is to cause it to become socially unacceptable to use out of respect to the people who would be stigmatized (without the later). Most often people are just being insensitive, in which case politely correcting them suffices. Once they learn they were being insensitive, they will stop as they don’t wish to be hurtful to people they didn’t mean to insult. It may take some time and reminding to change as old habits to die hard, but as long as the person has a general since of decency they will make the effort. So if they refuse to correct their behavior, you know you’re dealing with a nasty person. When people choose to use ableist language, they are declaring themselves to be be a bigot, and we need to send the message that we do not tolerate bigotry in our community.
If someone says they don’t care, you need to make them care, and since such people tend to be tremendously selfish the only way to do that is hitting them where it hurts. The first step is to report them the community moderators. Unfortunately, while most online communities have rules against hate speech against racial minorities, they tend to lack similar standards for ableist comments, which is a sign of how much work still needs to be done in disability advocacy. As such, the second step is to take grassroots community action to send the message such behavior is unacceptable. One common way of doing such is to organize boycotts against offending parties. Unfortunately boycotts are often ineffective at actually hurting offending parties nowadays because they often prompt other bigots to come out of their holes and organize counter-boycotts, but they do have the power to elevate little known causes up in the public sphere so that then more influential people can take action.
Fighting ableism is a battle, and it’s battle worth fighting, If you care about autistic people in the community, the least you can do is share this message. I also encourage you to do further to fight ableism in your community, but considering how little exposure this gets in the first place every little bit helps.
PS:
The comment was taken from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM14RCAUAw0
One criticism you may see against “language policing” as seen here is that it goes against freedom of speech. Actually, the opposite is true. Freedom of speech gives one the freedom to not only choose what to say, but to chose what NOT to say. By choosing to not use ableist language, you choose to respect people with disabilities. This is important because language has power (if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be important to protect free speech in the first place as no one would feel threatened by it). People say things to send a message, and people act on that message. It’s important to listen to what people say and make choices accordingly. As such, when ever you say something, there is consequences, and that is as key part of freedom of speech. By choosing to not support those who are disrespectful to those with disabilities, you are choosing to support those with disabilities.
