>>30645058That's a complicated question. But I wasn't joking about working with severely autistic people for a living, and I'm mildly autistic myself, so hopefully I can give it a shot.
Somewhere along the line, "autistic" became synonymous with "uncool." Like how "retarded" means "unintelligent." I think it could be because autistic people often just don't fit in with "normal society." No matter how outwardly functional you seem, there's usually something distinctly "off" about autistic people that "normal" people can pick up on with varying degrees of ease.
You also have to keep in mind that the 4chan community tossed around "autism" like monkeys flinging their shit. It's a common buzzword on here, so as a result you can identify things that the community would identify as "autistic" easier than those who have never heard of 4chan can.
A lot of the more severely autistic people get stimulated by the colors and lights in video games. The social systems in video games are also significantly less complex than IRL social systems, which makes it easier for autistic people to latch on to them and understand them. So I think the stereotype comes a lot from reality.
t. An armchair autism expert
