I dont want to sound like one of these hate mongers, but I'm old school, having done volunteer work as well as 2 jobs involving people with Autism. That was back when it was still considered a form of "mental retardation" but questioned if it was exactly that but before Asperger's came along.
Then with the advent of Asperger's came Aspie Cool amongst those diagnosed with it, and years later the Aspie Chic we see now, where anyone from the lonely to attractive dullards wanting to pass themselves off as Nerds who are actually closet geniuses taking some online test on FB or Tumblr so they can declare themselves part of the ASD Clique Interantional, which in the meantime became and umbrella for everything BUT actual Autism, as the DSM declared it insn't a thing anymore.
Granted, I may seem Medievel in origin, but you can see where this is going...
It's like Negro > Colored > Black > African American > POC and who knows what is yet to come, when it should just be American. Like the whole 37 genders thing, I can't help wonder if these endless redefining and distilling and branching is just a con created by those wishing to mock or exclude all these people from just being looked at as human beings. Sure, a 19yo may think saying they're ASD is cool, but it won't be as cute when they're 44 and alone and still clearing tables in a cafeteria for a living.
Hey, people do what they want to do with their lives and make themselves feel like they're not creatures to be shunted to the shadows, but veering into cutesy-isms has a bad habit of backfiring. From sectioning themselves off to reactionaries pushing back, it's more a detour into detrimental in the long term than a solution.
