Weaponized Autism

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About

"Weaponized Autism" is an expression referring to the impressive capabilities of socially awkward, tech-savvy internet users, typically associated with those who frequent imageboards like 4chan and 8chan.

Origin

On August 20th, 2010, the internet humor site Cracked^[7] published a listicle titled "The 5 Most Ridiculous Martial Arts Movies Ever," which described the powers of the protagonist in the 2008 martial arts film Chocolate as "Weaponized Autism."

Spread

On December 19th, 2014, FunnyJunk^[6] user friedgreenpomatoes submitted the comment "I think we have finally weaponized autism" in response to an anecdote regarding a student at school who attacked another student for saying that "old Spongebob episodes were garbage." On April 5th, 2016, Redditor Fahrenheit_616 posted an gallery of screenshots taken from a 4chan thread in which viewers identified the location of a Rebel training camp in Syria, which many speculated led to its subsequent bombing by Russia. In the comments section, /r/The_Donald^[9] users described the incident as an example of "weaponized" and "military grade" autism. On September 11th, 2016, YouTuber dougRiss uploaded a video titled "Anime Thesis," in which he speculates that anime was invented by the Japanese as a form of "weaponized autism" against the Western world (shown below).

On October 25th, Redditor elsuperj submitted a post asking for /r/AskThe_Donald^[3] readers to "explain the 'weaponized autism' in-joke." On November 29th, Urban Dictionary^[1] user BarrySoetero submitted an entry for "weaponized autism," defining it as "the focused application of nerdiness, computer tech avvy and social awkwardness in the cyber pursuit of justice" (shown below).

Following the capture of the He Will Not Divide Us flag in early March 2017, which 4chan users discovered by tracking flight patterns and star movements, many referred to the incident as an example of "weaponized autism."^[4]^[5] On March 14th, Redditor aspergersteen submitted a post titled asking about the phrase to /r/aspergers.^[8]