Transcription: crude line drawing of a young goofy person sitting in a school chair. They have mid-length straight red hair, messy and needing a trim. They are wearing a hoodie of GIR from the cartoon show Invader Zim. That character is a pet-coded green alien dog with a goofy long tongue. Dialogue: off screen character saying “She has Aspergers” main character thinking: “ha ha ha ass burger” Thought bubble of a very crudely drawn pair of butt cheeks and a hamburger. End transcription.
It’s ableist because it was used to reinforce the idea of autism that’s good and autism that’s bad. It was a quiet endorsement of the eugenics that Dr. Asperger and the Nazis supported. Using a different category of disability specifically to call them lesser is ableist. It’s not just the name, but the separate categorization that pits autistic people against each other at diagnosis.