That's a whole lot of N-bombs to drop just in the name of conflating autism with race.

I consider this a very interesting topic... Don't think I have used the term to directly insult someone but I definitely used it joking while talking with friends. I guess you could say I'm one of the people you are referring to as I was banned on this very site for calling the game Autismcraft lmao

1. These words are offensive/hateful by your definition.  And that's the problem with "hateful/offensive" words.  Every person is offended by different things.  Really any words can be derogatory depending on how you use them.  And quite a few people are just out to find the next offensive thing for the sake of virtue signalling.  Just like how actual medical classifications slowly become "offensive," so they must be changed.  As someone posted earlier, this is how the classification was changed to retard, as the ones used before were "offensive," and then changed to mentally disabled.  And I bet before I die, that will be deemed offensive and changed, yet again.  Crippled was changed to physically handicapped, and we are already seeing some people being offended by that.  It's just pathetic really.

2.  Because people are not equating a group of people.  They aren't insulting truly autistic people, or gays, when they use those terms.  Language is fluid.  It's the reason people use homophobe, even though that word should describe someone who is actually afraid of a gay person, not someone who dislikes them.  Of course, that word, as well as racist and misogynist, are thrown around so loosely, they have almost lost all meaning.  Anyway, gay meant happy at first.  Then, the gay community took that word to describe themselves.  Well, straight people just took it back, making it mean bad/lame.  It's not an insult to gay people, it's just being used in a different way.  If gay people don't like it, they can either get over it, or find another word.

I agree.

Don't worry, I would never use autistic as an insult. Imagine being insensitive enough to do it.

Because essentially they are similar, people don't choose whether they have autism in the same way that people don't choose their race, so criticizing/attacking them for it should not be acceptable. Using autistic or "dripping with autism" as an insult is saying that being autistic itself is a bad thing.

That's like telling a gay person that he is dripping with gayness or homosexuality, people can have the freedom to do that offcourse and im a defender of freedom of speech but it makes you sound like a childish douchebag and it does not help to do that in conversations and surely not if you want them to open up.

BTW the OP just asked everyone to be nicer, thats not much to ask its not like he wants to restrict freedoms.

As someone who works with autistic kids; I agree with OP. I'm very, very far from being politically correct as a person but I really dislike this term being used this way.

I'm just going to add that the person who used this term in that article is just quoting a meme, there was no hate or targeted person really included in their posting of it, it was meant no more an attack on people with autism as commenting "riiiiiiiiiiidge racer" regarding Sony around the launch of the ps3 is not at attack on those who enjoy namco's arcade racer, it's just a meme and in the context it was used in a humorous way, now it can be said that it can of course offend people who suffer the condition but you should be aware that the original poster wasn't attacking a user on here and I would wager has zero ill will towards the subject matter. He just used a more current meme than forever alone or riiiiiiiiiiidge racer etc.

Was possibly a bad call given not everyone knows it's jovial meaning but I just thought I'd add my 2 cents.

The thing is we all have things like this on forums or tv/movies that rub us the wrong way, Deadpool's recent description of Russel as having a splash of diabetes done it for me, but then... It was DP so I know it was a joke.... Think I'm going in circles here, (might be the diabetes after shortening a leg! Who knows)

That's because you're taking it as literally as possible to where it's offensive regardless of context. Context matters more than the word itself. Also, people are more than able to disassociate a word from its original meaning to mean something else. Take your use of homophobe as an example of that. 😽