As a person who is chronically online and oftentimes playing online games, I hear many “insults” thrown around. I put quotations around insults as they should not be considered insults but oftentimes are used as such. “Insults” such as “gay” “autistic “retarded” etc. I’m not even going to get into the insults I hear as a woman playing such male-dominated games. 

The use of these words as insults is more prevalent than I’d like to think and I’m sure many of the people reading this if not all of you have heard the word “autistic” used as an insult, especially if you have ever set foot in a middle school. I feel as though the main reason this word gets thrown around so much by people, especially youth is because of desensitization to the word.  Hearing it over and over again and by your friends or even family may make one think that it isn’t that bad to say yourself, and boom ignorance is born. Although I do believe that a percentage of people who call someone autistic don’t actually intend great harm, most kids with autism are targeted by bullies so intention does not matter because these kids are being harmed.  As I said before desensitization to the word makes others believe it is okay to say, so the population of individuals who don’t understand the impact of using that word as an insult only grows larger causing more harm to the kids and adults with autism. 

You never know who you might insult with your words, silence does not equal agreement or acceptance, and oftentimes it means discomfort. You don’t want to contribute to the growing desensitization of using “autistic” as an insult. We need to be more loving, understanding, and accepting of everyone around us, not hurt people who already are having a hard time and quite frankly are just trying their best to fit in.