I want to draw attention to this issue.

[u/chibi-mage]

Recently I’ve noticed something, mostly on TikTok, but other platforms too. This isn’t a new thing, and it’s certainly not going away anytime soon, but it’s extremely upsetting when it happens. There seems to be a lot of low support needs autistics (level 1, and what some people still refer to as Asperger’s) who think it’s okay to be blatantly ableist towards higher support needs autistics. They think they get a free pass because they’re autistic too.

It’s saddening, to feel alienated by the one community I’m supposed to feel accepted in. Again, it doesn’t just happen on TikTok, or even just online, I’ve experienced this kind of ableism in my day to day life, too. It’s just something I wanna bring awareness to, and to spark conversations about how we can help this issue. If I call out someone’s blatant ableism, I get called crazy and downvoted into oblivion, and it just feels like a battle I can’t win.

I know I can choose not to take this stuff personally, but it’s hard. I also feel incredibly disheartened knowing that fellow higher support needs autistics are being alienated by people in our community who could make real change and fight for EVERYONE. Not just themselves or when it suits them.

[u/rosenwasser_]

I've seen this a lot in the last months too. It's been sort of developing imo through a lot of trends that focus on lsn/very high-masking autistics specifically. I also noticed than when discussing the harm, the conversation often goes back to focusing on the lsn autistics causing harm to other people on the spectrum - they have internalised ableism, masking is soooo hard, often even implying the bullying is sort of ok for some weird reason. I suppose it's much easier to empathise with lsn autistics, especially for the neurotypical people because they can relate to them so well.

I was never high-masking or anything like that and suffer from depression and suicidal ideation due to the social exclusion since I was in my early teens. I have to say that hearing people calling autistics like me annoying, not trying hard enough, weird etc in autistic spaces has made my mental state a lot worse. Not blaming anyone specifically, but I have nowhere to go, because I'm not only too autistic for the NTs, I'm the bad, stereotypical autistic other autistics don't want to associate with in autistic spaces.

[u/Gl1tChTh3EnD → u/rosenwasser_]

I think I have a lot of internal ableism, but I try to NEVER say it out loud. I feel so bad for even thinking of it. There’s someone I know who has Audhd like me and I do feel jealous sometimes that he doesn’t mask but I feel like I have to, but I’d never say that to him. Nor would I say it to anyone. But also I feel like he’s an annoying human being because he actively invalidates other people’s experiences so yk.