In particular disappointent of you, MP-Ryan. During the slapfight before Goober got de-admined I called the entire HLP staff "retarded";
Well there's your problem. Redarded and autistic aren't the same words.
Autism spectrum disorder is used in the mental health practice today: It's the accurate diagnosis as of DSMV, now called Autism Spectrum Disorder as a catch-all term for what we previously called Autistic disorder, aspergers and PDD-NOS. It turns out that these diagnosis were vague and overlapping before, so it got simplified. And although language in psychology changes, I suspect autism as a term is here to stay: Effort has instead been put into making people understand the multi-faceted aspects of autism more. Autistic people refer to themselves as autists all the time, and often consider it a point of pride. Several members of this forum and of the discord have autism, and iirc even people in higher positions of power.
Retarded doesn't really have the same connotations. It flatly used to refer to people with an IQ below 70 who couldn't function normal in society. Before autism was recognized as a seperate thing, autistic people were just treated as "retarded". It's in part why the term "high-functioning autism" used to exist (high-functioning refers to having an IQ above 70) before the term was entirely decoupled from any level of intelligence. Retarded as a term has been entirely phased out.
Don't even get me started on Max Verstappen calling one of his fellow drivers a "mongol" a week ago, if you want the perfect intersection between ableism and terms that were considered racist even in the 60s.
In summerary: These words are not equivalent becuase autism as a term is part of the current track of increased understanding and empathy in mental health care. Retarded is from a previous, more cruel era.
I realize I'm operating on a hunch now here, but Nightmare, if you say that you didn't know how offensive retarded was as a term until it was pointed out to you, chances are that you might also be ignorant about other terms. I very much doubt that MP-Ryan has walked away from other stances, he's just more knowledgable then you about the language that's used wrt mental health.
Also autism speaks is a terrible organization and should be destroyed.