As a major actually autistic speaker/influencer finally divorced themselves from Asperger/Aspie branding today, seems like a good time to encourage everyone else to follow suit.

If you don't know, Asperger was a nazi that decided which autistic kids could be productive enough to be useful to the nazis and gassed the rest. The productive ones came to be known as having "Asperger's Syndrome". It's really not great.

Additionally, there are a small amount of folks that cling to the Asperger's diagnosis to be like the "I'm not like other girls" of autism. They tend to be called Aspie supremacists and can be exceptionally ableist and anti-autistic/anti-disability.

If the dated-diagnosis of Asperger's has meaning to you, I'm not trying to be mean to you. But it really leaves a foul taste in the mouth for many and it is extremely worth knowing about.

This thread is getting a little more of an audience than I was expecting, so worth noting that Asperger's is included within "Autism Spectrum Disorder" in the DSM now. It's not a separate diagnosis. If you were diagnosed Asperger's, then you are autistic.

Autistic is not a bad word.

And less we forget, Asperger stole the research from a Jewish woman scientist who published nearly two decades before him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunya_Sukhareva

I was unaware that Silberman updated Neurotribes to show that Asperger was complicit with the Nazis. Glad to see it though as it was way too kind to him before (which almost everyone was back then) https://twitter.com/stevesilberman/status/986971821286162432?s=20

I have a lot of sympathy for people that were initially diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome and feel that it is representative of their identity, I have no sympathy for people that view it as a sign they're a superhuman and distinct from other autistic people.

should have been, "lest we forget" a few tweets back.

Please don't look for me, I am already dead from mortification. /joking

LOL, I'm gonna' guess that Elon Musk would be classified as an Aspie supremacist. Just so we're clear, having autism doesn't automatically make you a jerk (being a billionaire though . . . ).