#asperger was a nazi

[distinguishedscientist]

do you have autism?

In my early years of studying as a child I was diagnosed with Aspergers. The more accurate term these days would be high-functioning Autism.

[changecomesforyou]

Hans Asperger if you weren't already dead i'd kill you all over again

[aster-ish]

In light of the things RFK said about autistic people recently, I feel like it's important to remember where the term "Asperger's Syndrome" came from.

It was the nazi's way of sorting between "useful" autistic people that could still work for them, and "unwanted" autistic people that would be sent to the camps. We kept using the term until very recently to my memory, and I'm not one to speculate but I wouldn't be surprised if the distinction comes back into popularity in the near future. Or even becomes legally recognized.

This isn't about whether or not you personally paid your taxes or wrote a poem. People have value and a right to exist regardless of their ability to do those things, and the second we forget about that and say "oh but I'm not the kind of autistic person he's talking about, I'm useful" we've fallen directly back into the line of thinking they had in literal nazi germany.

[what-even-is-thiss]

It’s pretty telling that Elon Husk identifies as having Asperger’s instead of being autistic given all of the other Nazi things he’s associated with.

Like most people who identify as having Asperger’s don’t know about the Nazi history behind that term but given the fascist salute at the inauguration of it all I highly doubt that he doesn’t know.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Anna Merlan at Mother Jones:

At an event late last week in Arizona, anti-vaccine activist and Donald Trump transition team member Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’d fire and replace 600 people from the National Institutes of Health on “day one” of a second Trump term. The NIH is one of the public health agencies Kennedy loathes the most—and despite still lacking any defined role in a new administration, he’s clearly relishing the opportunity to promise retribution against them.  In comments that were first reported by ABC News, Kennedy declared, “We need to act fast, and we want to have those people in place on January 20, so that on January 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave.”  Kennedy, a long standing opponent of vaccines, has consistently been critical of the NIH, the Centers for Disease Control, and other federal agencies that are part of the basic infrastructure of public health. His The Real Anthony Fauci attacked Fauci, a former NIH director, at book length, albeit with what one physician reviewer called “many errors and gross misrepresentations.”

The remarks offering some concrete details about Kennedy’s Trump-aligned and so-called “Make America Healthy Again” agenda came during an onstage interview at an entrepreneurship event in Scottsdale, which included discussions of Kennedy’s workout routine and his relationship with the once and future president.

[...]

(Experts believe that autism was underdiagnosed until recent decades; the earliest prevalence weren’t conducted until the 1960s and ‘70s. Autistic adults have a range of abilities and autistic self-advocates have said that Kennedy uses offensive and ableist language to talk about autism: rather than “full blown,” public health experts would generally say “profound autism.” Kennedy also still uses the term “Aspergers,” an outdated phrase referencing a scientist who worked with Nazis during the Holocaust.)

This anti-public health bozo plans to fire 600 NIH workers.

[galacticneighbor]

Nazi Doctor Hans Asperger separated autistic children into "Useful For Society" (Asperger's Syndrome) and "Unworthy of Life" (Autistic Psychopathy) in Nazi era Austria as part of the Third Reich's CHILD EUTHANASIA PROGRAM and y'all are out here mindlessly parroting back his talking points to argue against modern day eugenics like you're doing anything but proving him right.

Autistic people are worthy of life whether or not they ever pay taxes. Autistic people are loved by their families and communities whether or not they experience romantic love. Autistic people deserve care and respect whether or not they are able to play sports.

Where is the line between "contributing to society" and "unworthy of life?" What makes you as an autistic person who is able to hold down a job better or more deserving than someone who needs full time care? Why do you feel the need to throw other autistic people under the bus to defend yourself rather than trying to uplift your community?

Also stop saying you have Asperger's we need to cut that Nazi shit right out. Okay thanks <3

[snakeautistic]

The issue with ‘Aspergers’ (aside from its Nazi associations) as a diagnostic label is that there is no way to effectively distinguish between it and so-called ‘high functioning autism.’ Even when it did exist as a label, whether or not you’d be classed as having mild autism or Aspergers syndrome was arbitrary, and depended on your assessor. Having an entire different name for something that boils down to ‘autistic but I don’t want to call it that because they seem too smart’ is not useful.

I do actually think there is some need to reintroduce more distinct subcategories under autism- the three level system is overly simplistic, and the supports needs within these groups varies wildly- but these subcategories need to be based on more distinct behavioral and neurological differences, which we unfortunately have not been able to properly sort out yet.

[solarishashernoseinabook]

Okay I didn't want to add this to the last post I saw on this topic bc that would be derailing but

"The gap between high support needs autistic people and low support needs autistic people is too wide we need two diagnoses" that's literally what Hans Asperger did. Y'know, the Nazi. He diagnosed children with Asperger's if they were able to be trained to be good little Nazi workers and sentenced the ones whose needs were too high to death camps.

We do not need two diagnoses.

[cripplecharacters]

hi, i'm AUDHD myself and i've been trying to figure out if "high functioning" and "low functioning" are appropriate terms to use about autistic people?

i've heard that they're ableist because, well, to be honest it sounds ableist and very inappropriate. i might be wrong, but weren't the terms made by Hans Aspergers?

but then again i've heard/hear autistic people using there terms for *themselves* claiming they are correct terms and help them with their identity but it feels so wrong. maybe i'm misunderstanding? how could someone call another person "low functioning"?

Hello,

They're outdated. For a lot of people in the community, these terms are the ones they were diagnosed with and the ones they self-described with, so they keep using the terms even though new terms have emerged. Some people like these terms, some are neutral to them, some are only okay with them if autistic people are the ones using them like me, and some do not like these terms at all and may even consider them akin to slurs. Functioning labels are seen by many as ableist and dehumanizing, I would air on the side of caution and only use them if you're autistic to self-identify or to describe someone who uses those labels (I do know several people who use functioning labels because they're easier or familiar.)

As for Asperger's, you're right, it was named after a Nazi (Hans Asperger) who created the category for eugenics purposes. It used to be a diagnosis, though, and many people were diagnosed with it and might even still be diagnosed as that in their medical records. Some people are attached to this label because it's how they self-describe and are reclaiming it, but it understandably makes a lot of people very uncomfortable due to it being a label created explicitly for eugenics and due to it being a term coined by a Nazi. It's also named after Hans Asperger who created the divide between "useful" autistics, who could be in the Nazi forces, and "useless" autistics (as the Nazis called them, a "life unworthy of life,") who would be killed. This term is also based on an extremely outdated understanding of autism, which was the belief that autism is a disorder similar to schizophrenia and "psychopathy," which is no longer a valid diagnosis (never really should have been a valid diagnosis to begin with) and largely falls under the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, when autism is very much its own diagnosis and not part of or defined by schizophrenia or a personality construct. This idea is extremely outdated and has been scientifically proven to be incorrect, similar to female hysteria. This term is really not one someone should be using unless they are autistic and using it to describe themselves, and even then it's still a very loaded term.

(Asperger's is also still a valid diagnosis people are being diagnosed with to this day in other countries that use the ICD-10 rather than the DSMV-5 of the ICD-11. The DSM isn't the main diagnostic criteria in many countries and some countries haven't yet updated to the ICD-11, so make sure to research which text is used in the country your setting is in.)

The modern terms are autism spectrum disorder and support needs labels, which are generally no support needs, light support needs, medium support needs, high support needs, and very substantial support needs. There are also autism levels (levels one, two, and three, one being light or no support needs and three being high or very substantial support needs,) though not everyone likes those.

If someone uses terms that are, medically speaking, outdated when describing themselves, it's fine to use those words in reference to them. But don't force them on people who don't like them. And when writing an autistic character, it is best to use the most up-to-date knowledge possible unless the time of the setting prevents that, because the most up-to-date terms are the ones considered most medically accurate.

(And if your setting is before autism was created as a diagnosis in 1910 by Eugen Bleuler, here is a Wikipedia page that includes other terms used up until the World Health Organization in 1978. It might be best to avoid using the r-slur if at all possible. Lois Lowry in her book "The Silent Boy" did this rather elegantly in her description of an autistic character who lived long before the autism diagnosis was a thing, in which he was referred to as "touched," meaning "touched in the head," or "touched by God," rather than as the r slur. Try to avoid using the r slur, I cannot stress this enough.)

Mod Aaron

[transmascpetewentz]

hey so. can we all agree to stop saying "asperger's syndrome".

the arguments have been made already for why the term is offensive to autistic people as a general whole, so i'm not going to repeat them here. what i want to focus on is the less talked about issue with the fact that we as a community still use this word.

there is literally no excuse for any person, but especially jewish & romani people, to have their medical condition named after a fucking nazi who tried to genocide their ancestors. ZERO.

and before i get a ton of people in the replies trying to make excuses, let me pre-emptively answer the most common replies i know i'm going to get.

"ohhhh no but it's sooooo hard for me to switch my language, it's only been ten years since the dsm five came out!!!!!"

boo hoo, it's hard for you to use a different word after over ten years of the dsm five removing asperger's as a diagnosis. it must be soooo much more difficult to give a single shit about jews and roma than the experiences of jews and roma who went through a genocide and are still facing violence to this day /s

"but i'm an aspie and i get to reclaim that word if i want!!!!!"

yeah, the term asperger's syndrome is offensive both to autistic people who fall under the criteria and to autistic people that don't. but do you know who else that term is offensive to? the people who went through a genocide. unless you are jewish or romani i don't want to hear it.

"but i was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome before the dsm five came out!!!!!"

see the above two points about how not continuing to glorify genocide is more important than keeping the same words we've always used for things. it's fine to say you were diagnosed with asperger's, but you do not have "asperger's", you have autism (or are autistic if that's the language you prefer).

"but i didn't know that asperger was a nazi!!!"

well, now you do.

"but naming a medical condition after someone doesn't necessarily glorify them!!!!"

would you apply this logic to literally any other field of science? if we decided to name an element after a nazi, people would rightfully be angry. people have been calling for years to rename a beetle named after a nazi. if you name a medical condition after someone, that generally means one of two things: the person was a very important and good researcher in the field, or the person was a notable person who had the medical condition. this might be a hot take, but i don't think that a nazi scientist working for the nazis should ever be considered the best and most important early researcher in any field to be deserving of having a discovery named after them.

"but you can't speak for all jews!!! look, you aren't even jewish yet, it says that on your profile!!!!"

no, i cannot speak for all jews. but i am speaking for myself when i say that all of your (general) excuses have stopped working, and that y'all need to put others' needs above your feelings sometimes. during the writing of this post, i spoke to other jews who have made posts about this before, but y'all continue to ignore jewish voices and make excuses for yourselves when it really isn't that hard to just stop saying a word.

"you're being ableist by telling me, an autistic person, how i can and cannot identify!!!!!"

i'm writing this post as someone who is autistic and would have been diagnosed with "asperger's syndrome" had i gotten my diagnosis before the dsm five came out. being autistic is no excuse for being racist, antisemitic, or any other bigotry. autistic non-jews have continuously spoken over autistic jews on many issues, including this one, and guys, it is not that hard to care about jews and roma enough to make this tiny change to your vocabulary.

i hope all of this has been enough to ward off some of the responses that i'm going to get to this post. i'm willing to engage in good faith if you're genuinely ignorant or confused, but if you have read this post, you no longer get to say that you "didn't know" that hans asperger was a nazi and that we shouldn't name any medical condition, but especially one that many jews and roma have, after people who committed genocide.

[m0thmachine]

One thing I hate about Elon Musk is that this has unironically led to a certain type of liberal (or even just annoying fellow leftists) insisting that Hitler was autistic. I’ve seen people reacting to the Nazi salute with “well the guy he’s emulating also had Asperger’s.” Autism is just going the NPD/“narcissist” route again I guess

[mousegirlheart]

if you try to say i have aspergers that means im allowed to hit you with a pillowcase full of soap bars.

im autistic. stop saying i have the fucking nazi disorder. they removed it from the dsm years ago for a reason.

[tonitheloftwing]

Not being petty is no hard. Like I’m watching a vid from my fav YouTuber about the shit RFK Jr has been saying and my petty brain the entire time is like. “Asperger’s has been an outdated diagnosis since 2014 at the release of the DSM-5, and yet the person in the punch out fandom who stole my OC and used autism as an excuse wrote that they headcanon Aran to have Asperger’s. Which is also a term that was invented by a Nazi to decide which autistic people they’d force to work in the camps and which ones they’d brutally murder. But no go ahead and headcanon Aran with ‘Asperger’s’”