I completely understand your position and respect the fact that you're willing to think out a respectful argument with me rather than resort to name-calling or flippant remarks.

The majority of my friends have some level of autism (I tend to get along with people on the spectrum more due to their tendency for straightforwardness) and while some people don't care how you use the phrase I know people who refused to consider that they might be autistic because the stereotypes that are so common didn't define them in any way. I don't necessarily think that high-functioning autistics need help, but I know that knowing the truth about yourself is always healthier than misunderstanding. When I was diagnosed with a specific disorder (that I won't share here for personal reasons) I didn't believe them and refused to get help because the symptoms I knew about didn't define me and whenever I let someone know about my diagnosis they assumed a lot of things about me.

As for the 4chan vs reddit great debate, I grew up on 4chan, and I understand the mindset. There are certain things that I'm fine with (I'm subbed to /r/meanjokes, for instance,) nevertheless I feel like the societal treatment of people within the autism spectrum is unfortunate and a large part of that is how people perceive autism from a societal, meme-based standpoint.

I'm not particularly sensitive to political correctness, and I'm all for a joke that is absurd, that plays on stereotypes, and even find jokes that are in poor taste (pedophilia jokes, racism, etc) generally hilarious. But throwing "autistic" out there as if it is the obvious status of someone who does something obsessive isn't the same. It's redefining the word rather than playing on it, and people have a tendency to believe redefinitions before original definitions. Of course it's not just autism that all of this applies to, but I do tend to feel more strongly about any statements that slight mental illness or non-neurotypical states.

I respect your opinion, and rescind my earlier strong reaction as you don't mean harm, but are you able to understand where I am coming from?