@actuallyautistic

I've posted my opinion about the new hashtags, in the following article. I've prevented commenting directly on that article, because unfortunately the ActivityPub plugin makes a mess of it, when you have replies to replies.

(Actually... I'm not sure whether the plugin will prevent people from commenting in the fediverse... oh well.)

yourautisticlife.com/2023/09/1

#ActuallyAutistic

@yourautisticlife

Now that I've been around for a couple of months, I understand the history of the hashtag and I understand I'm allowed to use it.

But I do relate to the folks who have expressed concern about the word "actually". My first experience with the hashtag #ActuallyAutistic made me think: this hashtag must be from people who are trying to distance themselves from non-autistics who say they're "a little autistic" or people in general claiming to be autistic. I felt that maybe I'll be judged for using it because I'm not _actually_ autistic.

I totally understand the hesitation to split up and possibly confuse a community with an array of hashtags, but I also believe there's legitimate concerns about the word "actually" and I don't agree that a hashtag like AutisticMe has the same problem.

Seeing AutisticMe for the first time, yes, I might think "can I actually use this if I'm self-dxed?" but it doesn't carry the additional confusion of the word _actually_, which denotes that it's a group that's differentiating itself from another.

Which is exactly what ActuallyAutistic is: differentiating autistics from autistic-adjacent folks.

But the _who_ it's differentiating from can be unclear and confusing for new folks.

At the end of the day, I truly am not arguing one way or the other. I'm fine continuing to use #ActuallyAutistic, and I'd be fine using the new suggested ones. I'm just sharing my experience and thoughts.

@actuallyautistic

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