I think Autistics do our community & especially Jewish Autistics a disservice when we use "Hans Asperger was a Nazi" as an explanation for why Asperger's was removed from the DSM. We shouldn't give the APA credit for caring about something they didn't.

Asperger's was removed from the DSM in 2013 but the extent of Hans Asperger's Nazi collusion didn't come publicly to light until 2018. When we explain why it was reconceptualized, we shouldnt act like the APA had Jewish Autistics' interests and voices in mind when they didn't.

it is also strange to see Autistics who are otherwise critical of the psychological establishment talk about the APA as being the ultimate authority on what neurotypes exist and what they are called, in this context. We shouldnt position them as the arbiter of who we are.

Instead we should explain why we, as Autistics, view all Autistic people as part of a community that shares many goals and experiences, and how the concept of there being a special "high functioning" category separate from the rest is both specious and damaging

and further should explain how eugenicist it is to feed into a conceptualization of the disorder that saw a select few of us as "worth saving" bc we'd be useful. that is why many of us disavow Asperger's as a term. Not because the APA figured it out for us. right?

it's just... weird for Autistics who believe in bottom-up community self-determination to then turn around and say our current definition of Autism is correct bc the APA endorsed it.

But I will also say, we gotta grapple with how non-monolithic Autistic people are. I know multiple people who identify themselves as "low functioning" and who think it's important to distinguish between the privileged Elon types in the world versus themselves.

Here is how my friend Tay describes why he identifies as "low functioning" - he posted this publicly on his blog and got harassment and death threats for it which is why it's anonymized here

There are a lot of people who identify as Asperger's or Aspies, particularly in countries that don't use the DSM, and we as a community need to grapple with that, and grapple with the ableism that all of us who can speak/mask/have privilege possess, bc its very similar

A lot of Autistics who
disavow the terms "Asperger's" and "high functioning" are still very privileged Autistics who only associate with other privileged Autistics, and don't listen to those who can't speak or mask or control their stims or achieve a lot at work or school.

Many highly privileged Autistics have learned to use the superficial language of inclusion, but in their behavior and advocacy only include Autistics who look and function very much like themselves.

Personally I believe we need language to highlight the fact that some Autistics like myself both hold a lot of privilege AND unfairly hold a lot of sway in the community. But a term that positions ppl like me as special and smart and respectable would accomplish the opposite.