Saying to something in a bully way "he/she is autistic" has become an insult especially among PvP players and "vocal minorities" in gaming forums.
This insult means one of three things , or both :
- That someone is an idiot
- That someone has a tunnel vision on something / on a topic
- That someone is only interested in the own thing - almost like being egoistic.
Insulting someone as being "autistic" often is a try to undermine the insulted one's position.
Insulting someone as "autistic" is - apart from the question whether really all options have been thought through - often made by someone who is a REAL egoistic person and can't stand that others have a different opinion.
Insulting people by calling them "disabled" is not something new. I had experienced that in my elementary school, and that's 30-40 years ago.
Imho to deal with this "autictic" insult is best done - again, this is my very personal opinion ! - through this :
1. Applying some sort of self-criticism : Am I really single-minded over something ? Have I really not thought about other options ? Have I not tried to imagine/follow other paths of logic about that discussed matter ?
2. If I have thoroughly asked myself and applied self-criticim, I can see this insult as something it really is : An insult to undermine my opinion as something "irrelevant", because the person calling me "autistic" is the REAL person who is overly egoistic in/with his/ her views !
The problem with the is - on the meta level - that discuussions in forums often have become - as someone had put it in the SWTOR forums - a kind of "forums PvP2, which consists of insulting, undermining, destroying someone's view until he or she gives up - and the insulter is the winner of that discussion !
Discussions are - when done this wa - NO MORE done as discussions over a topic or there. No, they are done as a way to perform might and power and to get a level higher in social ranks - by crushing others).
The topic or theme has become almost irrelevant, then. The only important thing, then, is to become the winner of that discussion. This is often then when people with an overly big ego collide.
You can see that this kind of discussions takes place when only 1-3 people quote each other all of the time, and forcefully ignore any other reply. This discussion has then become a "closed circle" of 1-3 (seldom 4) people circling around each other, like a dance with blades.
They not only ignore all other replies, they don't even ignore them, they simply cast them out of reality, as if other replies simply do not exist. This is what i meant with "they forcefully ignore all other relies", because they use a lot of energy to not achklowledge any other replies as being part of Reality.
And then, this closed circle consits of people having an extreme tunnel vision, and sometimes even call others having tunnel vision. It's like with the old Bible saying : They see the splinter in the other's eyes, but cannot see the HUGE plank/board of wood hanging on their heads ...
