AIBU to ask you to STOP

[Dawndonnaagain]

using the term 'autistics'. Four fucking times this weekend on different threads. You mean person with autism, people with autism, child with autism. Autistics is not shorthand for any of those. Pack it in.

[Eustace2016]

We should also get grammar right. So you might say. She is female. She has brownr. She has asperger's syndrome. You would not say she is brown hair. You would say she is deaf or she is blind but not she is mumps or she is chickenpox.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Sylvia I have not said I have a particular preference for anything really on this thread.

Nor do I often point out use of language on MN. But my point was merely that if someone is decent and well meaning but accidentally using the wrong terms then I don't think they would object to being told if they were saying something offensive as I'd imagine they'd prefer not to.

Am slightly being quoted out of context here as if I meant everyone should go around stridently berating others.

I didn't I was answering someone else.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Someone who said that we should never ever correct someone using offensive language as their intention is all that matters.

I agree in that I wouldn't leap in and flame someone if they accidentally said something I felt offensive but were clearly a nice person - but I think maybe if they were nice they'd want to be told they could offend people.

Although it is clear from this thread that what is offensive is very subjective.

[NaughtToThreeSadOnions]

Sorry I'm an autistic person I'm not under any circumstances a person with autism it makes my skin crawl!!! Your saying its up to the person what they call themselves yet your dictating what we should be called! I don't want to be called a person with autism!

And no I'm not an autistic either! But I don't think you can dictate!

[BeyondTellsEveryoneRealFacts]

Looking at those charts, noone has even mentioned "on the autistic spectrum" yet according to that its one of the most popular?

[PhilPhilConnors]

I've gone from never seeing "autistics" to suddenly seeing it all over the place.
This photo was shared on FB, in this context I think it's ok, it gets the message across clearly without uneccessary wordage. In other contexts though, I can see how it could offend.
Someone up thread mention dyslexia. Singularly, someone is dyslexic, if a school advertised that they were supportive to "the dyslexics" it sounds quite derogatory.

[SylviaWrath]

But my point was merely that if someone is decent and well meaning but accidentally using the wrong terms then I don't think they would object to being told if they were saying something offensive as I'd imagine they'd prefer not to

I know thats your point. Its the point I answered. / Which, if you didn't understand was: what are the WRONG terms? You could tell me that you find a term offensive, and as a decent person you'd expect me to thank you and stop using it. Ok, so then I use a different term and someone else tells me they find that offensive and I should stop using it.
So then what, I find a new term? Until of course a third person tells me not to use that one....

There is no consensus on what are the wrong terms, just varying opinions, many of which directly contradict each other. It is only when a consensus happens that society agrees on what terms are then nonU.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Did you read my last line Sylvia?

Namely "what is offensive is very subjective".

Seems not,or you are choosing to ignore it for some reason

[BeyondTellsEveryoneRealFacts]

"there is no consensus on what are the wrong terms"

Being able to agree on the right term is not the same as there being no consensus on wrong terms. I could write you a list of wrong terms, if you really need one.

[SylviaWrath]

If you think there is one right term, then by definition ALL the others are wrong terms. Thats how language works. Some may be wronger than others, but if you are out to choose ONE right term, then that leaves only wrong ones for the others.

Fanjo you don't make the slightest bit of sense. You can't say that people should be told when they are causing offence so they can do the right thing and not use that term, and also that it is subjective to each person. The two points are contradictive.

Honestly, some people need English lessons before they began to lecture others on terminology.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

I didn't say people must be told.

I merely said if someone is decent then I don't think they would mind being told. In no way did I lecture anyone on terminology.

Some people need lessons in not going around trying to conjure up a bunfight out of thin air.

[SylviaWrath]

Of course perfectly decent people will object to being told they are being offensive when they are using a normal, well recognised, and perfectly acceptable term to the majority of people.
What are you even talking about?

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Maybe read the thread and see that I was answering someone instead of taking a phrase of mine and trying to have an argument about it?

[sleeponeday]

Sylvia this is the second thread in as many days you've been on showing pointless and unprovoked aggression. I am sorry if things are tough on you at the moment, which I can only presume may be behind it, but would you please try to remember other posters are human beings, and not there for you to snipe at?

[BeyondTellsEveryoneRealFacts]

Sylvia, re right/wrong words.

Autistics / autistic people / on the spectrum / with asd - possible right terms. No consensus as yet.

However.
Insults along the lines of 'retard', 'spaz', 'mong' etc (sorry all) - wrong words. Definite consensus and not that difficult to understand unless you are trying to pick a fight in an empty room

And may i make a small suggestion, that if you want to claim the high ground on english usage, you dont use words like "wronger". Hth :)

[SilverBirchWithout]

Honestly, some people need English lessons before they began to lecture others on terminology

What on earth do you mean by this comment?

English is not a dead and static language. It is a living and evolving language, changing as new words, phrases and accepted meanings come into common usage. Which is the one of the main points of the development of this thread.