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.

YANBU.

She's not being at all unreasonable. You know how some terms, over time, have become unacceptable - for good reasons? And been replaced by other, more acceptable - for good reasons - terms?
Well, DawnDonna is telling you that this is a term undergoing that process.
You can listen to her, and take what she says on boards, or you can argue with her, not-pick, ignore.
The fact remains that she is just telling you about the preferred term.
I actually don't understand how this can be something to have a bun-fight about. Especially if you aren't actually engaged in this area.

But we are autistics
People with autism, autistics...I don't mind either way.

Messaged you, Phil

thecat preferred term to who?

I'm still not sure what the OP is trying to say.

cat

I have a dc with autism, I get what you're trying to put across. Unfortunately anyone who is 'different' or has a disability, is not always viewed as an individual, but as a collective. It's one of the barriers we have to break down, but not with this government and their policies, very much them and us, divide and conquer.

Must say, I personally consider myself to be autistic. I don't feel I "have" autism. It's not an affliction. It's a different way of being.

Are you saying it's bad to call yourself autistic or to refer to someone as being autistic?

Or are you saying it's bad to refer to a group of people with autism as autistic?

But people with autism are autistic.. Is it offensive?

If I was in a group of people who all had autism I honestly wouldn't mind being collectively referred to as autistics. Should I mind? I might even refer to ourselves as autistic.

Or is my fuzzy autistic brain missing out on something obvious again?

Various institutes for the Deaf, the Blind...none of those terms are offensive, are they?

You're unreasonable to expect other people to fall in with your terminology requirements. You can be referred to in any way that pleases you personally but you do not get to decide that for others.

that the term Apologies.

However I have a feeling I'm going to end up being upset by this thread so I may as well back away now.

I will say that I find it tiresome being told how I should feel or should be thinking.

Minecrafty following that logic (which I agree with BTW), it's acceptable to call people 'the homosexuals' or 'the blacks' then?

I'm not talking about the term Autistic singular, I've said that.

It surely depends on context, if someone was saying "a lot of autistics struggle with loud noises" then I don't see how that would be any more offensive than "a lot of asthmatics struggle with pollen"

OP, I understand that you don't like the term being used to describe more than one autistic person. What are you thoughts on the word "autistic" which some use to describe themselves and have a preference over "with autism"

SmallCarrot - they sound weird. But technically, yes, why not? If you had a reason to refer to that specific group.

I find existing in the neurotypical world stressful enough without yet another person dictating to me how I should define and refer to myself

YANBU.

In the same way, that describing someone as 'black' is not offensive, but describing someone as 'a black' is.

I don't think it's exactly about a collective noun, more the difference between an adjective and a noun.

I have a friend with ASD. When we're together we might (and have done) refer to ourselves together as autistics.

I haven't really thought about it before but neither of us have a problem with it. Are we supposed to?

"I'm not talking about the term Autistic singular, I've said that."

There is a difference between 'autistic' and 'an autistic' though. The former is not offensive, the latter certainly is.

waiting I have absolutely no problem with it. We all use it in this house, along with Aspie. I'm Autistic, I received my diagnosis eleven years ago. I have three children with ASCs. I just object to Autistics as a collective noun. It's rude, it's often used as an insult. There are lots of people with autism, there are lots of families with Autistic children, that's what they are, people with autism, not autistics.