Well, it works well with stereotypes of how autistic people are expected to act I guess. Just like how my aunt calls unmowed lawns "niggery", a family friend calls a deed to the house a "nigger's will" and how my uncle calls jerry-rigging "nigger-rigging", the fact of the matter is that it is using an innate trait as a negative term.

You are suggesting that describing another person or company (who or that doesn't have austism) as having autistic behavior in an attempt to denegrate said person or company by conflating their behavior with that of an autistic person shouldn't be taken personally?  There isn't anything intrinsically negative about a person with autism (it's a very wide spectrum, btw), but nonetheless you are using the term autism as an insult which suggests that being autistic or having austistic qualities is inherently bad.  It's the same as using "gay" or "retarded" to describe something that you don't like, again by infering that to be gay or "retarded" is a negative quality.

Own your hatred if that's how you want to express yourself, but don't be offended if someone gets offended by the meaning of your words.

Its just words. Being offended by them is a waste of time.

My sincere apologies. I often have this issue with posting images here where I post what looks to me like a nice crisp image, only to come back hours later and find an ugly low res mess. Not sure what I am doing wrong, I'd love it if someone more tech-savvy than I could explain my error. I have installed a replacement, hope that fixes the problem.

As to the topic at hand, I feel I should clarify my intent was not to install a reign of terror under which anyone using the term autistic is instantly perma-banned and their family sent to the gulag. Nor do I hold any personal grudge against those who've used the term as a negative.

I'm not here screaming hostilities and calling for digital lynchings. I'm not triggered.

I simply came with a humble request that when it comes to the term we remember there are people here who are autistic and exercise courtesy. That's all.

Would be more effective if we could hear from them what they think about it.

You're taking the expression as literally and personally as possible so it's "direly" offensive to you. People can literally be offended by anything and it's ridiculous to expect everyone to walk on egg shells all the time for the perpetually offended. People being rude or saying offensive things is just something that's a part of life. It's not exclusive to "hatred". This is a reply to your post and people like you. 

My response to more reasonable people is this. I respect the op but I disagree with him on this. He's taking it personally and he'd be better off adapting to the world versus asking the world to change. It's important to have realistic expectations and wants. Asking people on the net to not use certain words only makes them want to use it more.

I just don't understand how somebody can use austistic as an insult and not look down on people with autism. Just like I don't think somebody can use gay as an insult and not be a homophobe.

That's because you are only looking at the world from your own view and set of standards, without being open to the fact that others have differing opinions and viewpoints. Instead of excepting it, it's easier for you to think those who oppose your point of view are in the minority and therefore are fine to be marginalized, which is why it is so easy to just assume they are racist/homophobic/misogynistic. 

Why would somebody use gay as an insult if they are not homophobic? Also I do think people should use whatever insult they want, I think it's just a little childish.

For a significant portion of my life, I used "gay" as an almost exclusively lighthearted jab at a person, or perhaps as a critique of a tv show, movie, whatever......I'm not homophobic. I HAVE removed it from my lexicon, but again, did use it for a looooong time. I wouldn't recommend it be used flippantly, or at all really, but it's totally possible to use it in such a manner.