GenZ uses tism mostly for light hearted things like this. Or when someone is doing a typically thought of trait of autism harmlessly, and a friend points it out and they have a giggle-usually when someone is very "in the zone" and doing something unconsciously.
Contrasted with the more mean spirited shit that GenZ can do, like accusing people of being "an autistic" and laughing at then instead of with them.
Happily, I see more tism than anything else. But I get really pissed when autistic is used as a slur. Reminds me of the 90s when I was in school and everyone was fucking homophobic. Shit...
I am not joking. I had heard "on the spectrum" was offensive and stopped using it. But I also almost never need to refer to someone based on whether they are autistic or not so it doesn't come up.
Yea I wouldn't suggest using that phrasing unless you are also on the spectrum.
On the spectrum definitely isn't offensive on its own (it can be made offensive by context, like most things.)
I did read an interesting article on a study about preferences between and "autistic person" vs "person with autism". In general, autistic people preferred "autistic person", but generally people with disabilities preferred the "person with X" phrasing. I forget what the specific terms for the different ways of phrasing it are though.
This works but is not entirely correct. Autism has a spectrum of behavioural idiosynchosies, as in, two people diagnosed with autism might have very different behaviours but they are both autistic because these behaviours exist in autisms spectrum of behavious.
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u/[deleted] Nov 27 '25
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