[mcmcmc]

People would understand what he meant if he called someone awkward “autistic” too. It’s wrong to use medical terms as slang because it erases the actual meaning and disregards the lived experience of people who have been through the condition. People who have been around psychosis would come to the same conclusion. The majority of the population not having that exposure doesn’t make it right. It’s tasteless and inappropriate.

[noufalibrahim]

Using terms from domain metaphorically in another is a common and, I think, useful way of communication. While a view like yours has genuine merit, especially for a subset of the population who have experience personal or otherwise, with the medical condition, I think it's overly restrictive and counter productive to label it as outright tasteless and inappropriate.

[benatkin]

It's also harmful to overly gatekeep the term autism to the point where a lot of legitimate uses are discouraged, and it happens a lot, if you let it.

[mcmcmc]

If the tweet had called his friends autistic, would that be a legitimate use?

[mathfailure]

Yes.