Reply #23: as a relative of someone with autism, I find several terms he uses troubling

[spooky3]

"Autistics", rather than "persons with autism" or even "autistic people", sounds like "retards" or "cripples" to me. "Autistic" is an adjective, not a noun, like Democratic vs. Democrat. More importantly, calling people "autistics" defines the whole person by the disorder which is only a part of who they are. I realize that different people have different preferences, but this usage is completely at odds with the language considered appropriate for persons with other types of disabilities for a long time.

edited to add link:
http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/cedir/language.html

"became convinced that...vaccines destroyed their children's brains." Uh, that implies the children have no brains left, with all of the insulting though perhaps unintended implications. The vast majority of people with autism certainly don't fall in this category. Perhaps what he meant to say was that they believe these vaccines damaged or harmed their children in some way, or destroyed the functioning of part of their brains.

It seems very strange that someone who professes to be on top of this would use such terminology. I realize this is a side point but it's still important to me.