So I'm sitting in a communications class that is a week long, for college. And of course something that came up was political correctness. Now the example of autism came up and the teacher asked about this example "what is better, to call someone with autism autistic, or say they are a person with autism." Now I am autistic and I spoke up and said, " I said I have high functioning autism and I prefer to be simply called autistic, because it is short and to the point." I got told I was wrong and that it is better to call them a person with autism. The teacher ( who is actually very good) then went on to explain about calling learning disabled kids in elementary and Jr high exceptional instead of disabled. That is downright stupid because these kids (I lived it) have a hard enough time being taken seriously and getting the help they need, without a patronizing softening of the language to make things seem more positive then they are. I say, call a spade a spade.
Your thoughts?

I agree with you, more or less, and think political corectness is liable to be the end of free speech, as well as democracy.

You can be tactful, sensitive, and compassionate when talking to/about someone without being politically correct. Truth should be said in love, but it should still be said.

Agree with you.

I can see the difference between the two. To me I would prefer to be called "a person with ____" because to me, to say I'm "autistic" is making that a defining quality about me. I wouldn't want my autism to define who I am. I am first a person. A person with autism. Not an autistic person. Make sense? That's just my opinion on it.

The same could be said about handicaps. Is it is a handicapped person, or a person with a handicap? Disabled person or a person with a disability? I don't know, but to me it's more PC to say, "A person with X" since you are putting their person-hood as primary and not demoting them to whatever "ailment" they may have.

(January 7, 2016 at 4:09 pm)Kingpin Wrote: I can see the difference between the two.  To me I would prefer to be called "a person with ____" because to me, to say I'm "autistic" is making that a defining quality about me.  I wouldn't want my autism to define who I am.  I am first a person.  A person with autism.  Not an autistic person.  Make sense?  That's just my opinion on it.

The same could be said about handicaps.  Is it is a handicapped person, or a person with a handicap?  Disabled person or a person with a disability?  I don't know, but to me it's more PC to say, "A person with X" since you are putting their person-hood as primary and not demoting them to whatever "ailment" they may have.

That makes sense, and I actually agree here. I wouldn't call this political correctness though. To me, I associate political correctness with denying or not saying something that is true.

(January 7, 2016 at 4:16 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:

(January 7, 2016 at 4:09 pm)Kingpin Wrote: I can see the difference between the two.  To me I would prefer to be called "a person with ____" because to me, to say I'm "autistic" is making that a defining quality about me.  I wouldn't want my autism to define who I am.  I am first a person.  A person with autism.  Not an autistic person.  Make sense?  That's just my opinion on it.

The same could be said about handicaps.  Is it is a handicapped person, or a person with a handicap?  Disabled person or a person with a disability?  I don't know, but to me it's more PC to say, "A person with X" since you are putting their person-hood as primary and not demoting them to whatever "ailment" they may have.

That makes sense, and I actually agree here. I wouldn't call this political correctness though. To me, I associate political correctness with denying or not saying something that is true.

That can be the case sometimes, but usually it's just avoiding expressions that are meant to insult, marginalize or exclude others or groups.  It's not that they aren't true, but more it can be found offensive.  Like no longer using terms like "crippled" or even now "disabled" is becoming offensive.  Or terms referencing black people have been changed throughout the decades.  Doesn't mean the terms or replacement terms are incorrect, just "less offensive" or "more accepted".  Truly, no matter what you say someone may be offended.

From Wikipedia:

"Political correctness can even affect terminology that's viewed by secularists as too "pro-religion" or an alleged "violation of the separation of church and state" in the United States. The best example of this is the active promotion of the use of C.E. and B.C.E. as the abbreviations used after dates (instead of the commonly and traditionally used A.D. and B.C.). Additionally, atheists as school administrators or government union workers at liberal schools use political correctness as a means for renaming terms they view as too pro-religious. For example, a Seattle student at a local elementary school volunteered to do a project as part of a community-service effort that she was doing through her school, supplying plastic eggs filled with jellybeans, called "Easter eggs." The student had an idea to fill little plastic eggs with treats and jelly beans and other candy to give to her classmates, but she was concerned how the teacher might react to the eggs after learning earlier in the week about "their abstract behavior rules." After asking the teacher for permission, the student reportedly explained, "She said that I could do it as long as I called this treat 'spring spheres.' I couldn't call them Easter eggs."

After being diagnosed with autism, my condition was never even mentioned, I was just treated like I had a learning disability.

I believe it's a person with "autism spectrum disorder". Were the rest of you being insensitive by not using the most up to date terminology?

What I don't like is being called on the carpet when I (or others) had no clue that I was not being PC enough. I normally do not go out of my way to offend. Shit, what is considered PC is changing all of the time (see above). If you want me to use the correct PC phrase every time the PC police need to put me on the PC email update list. Hopefully it doesn't come out daily. Plus, I'll try not to get as butt hurt when corrected. Oops, I mean derriere traumatized.

Political correctness is a cancer.