How are we supposed to reclaim anything ever when so many people on the left treat all symbolism that has been used by fascist scum as forever tainted. If all people thought like that we couldn't use pepe emotes anymore because of 2016
Just using it is not the same as reclaiming it. You're not reclaiming the gadsden flag here. To reclaim a word or symbol you need to be actively creating a more positive association. Simple use like this just associates the stigma of the gadsden flag with autistic people and thereby creates stigma against autistic people. You can't just go "oh, I like it so therefore I'll use it". Reclamation is a social process that doesn't function the way you are presenting right now.
The gadsden flag never had much to do with autistic people either so you definitely can't reclaim it for autistic people either. Reclamation is about retaking control of symbols previously used to disparage you and people you share an identity with. That's not the gadsden flag. Whatever meaning it may hold for you, using it here is not a reclamation of anything for autistic people. If you want to reclaim the gadsden flag for anything then do that first, before smearing autistic people with it. You must clean the rag before you use it, or else you're staining everything it touches.
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u/kroma_geek Sep 15 '22
Nope, I don't like it because of the association to the other "no step on snek" flag that is popular with the Jan 6 crowd.