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Understanding the Use of the Term "Weaponized Autism" in An Alt-Right Social Media Platform
Christie Welch1, Lili Senman2, Rachel Loftin3
1University of Toronto, 500 University Ave, M5G 1V7, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Background:
The term "weaponized autism" is frequently used on extremist platforms. To better understand this, we conducted a discourse analysis of posts on Gab, an alt-right social media platform.
Methods:
We analyzed 711 posts spanning 2018-2019 and filtered for variations on the term "weaponized autism".
Results:
This term is used mainly by non-autistic Gab users. It refers to exploitation of perceived talents and vulnerabilities of "Weaponized autists", described as all-powerful masters-of-technology who are devoid of social skills.
Conclusions:
The term "weaponized autism" is simultaneously glorified and derogatory. For some autistic people, the partial acceptance offered within this community may be preferable to lack of acceptance offered in society, which speaks to improving societal acceptance as a prevention effort.
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