3:47am May 21, 2014

I’ve never told anyone not to use the word allistic, but now someone is going around in response, telling people not to use the word ‘nonautistic’.

I find this really offensive, on behalf of people with language disabilities everywhere. I find it offensive because usually I can understand why someone is saying a word is awful, but there’s nothing remotely awful about the word nonautistic, nothing worth telling everyone not to use it.

Every time you ask (or, in this case, demand) people not to use a word, you are asking them to pay a price. Some people can pay that price easily. Some people can pay that price only with great difficulty. Some people, if they obey you, will be paying a very steep price for a very long time. This is why I almost never ask people not to use words, even when I talk about words I find offensive.

Asking people to pay that price over a word as harmless as ‘nonautistic’ is really fucking offensive to everyone who struggles with language.

Asking people to find harm in a word as harmless as 'nonautistic’ makes people pay another price.

I mean for fuck’s sake, I know that you’re angry that someone had the nerve to question a word that you’re extremely attached to. (Someone who at least explicitly said that I wasn’t telling you not to use the word, just giving my own opinion on the word and its meaning and origins, stuff you didn’t even know about.) But responding to that by telling everyone not to use a perfectly serviceable, harmless word? Responding to that by ensuring that some people are going to add a perfectly harmless word to their list of words that are offensive in some way? All of which harms people with certain language disabilities (including many autistic people)?

I just hope nobody takes you seriously enough to do any damage.

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