Adults don’t get asked enough silly questions, and the employee in this story decided to fix that with a quirky poll about their favorite dinosaur sent to friends and coworkers.

The response from most people would probably be fun and lighthearted, but the response from these coworkers couldn’t have been more different.

Instead of being delighted by the question, coworkers sent paragraphs-long rants about how the question was an offensive stereotype about disabled people.

Meanwhile, this employee was completely blindsided, not even aware that her coworkers were autistic in the first place.

Keep reading for the full fallout.

AITA for asking an autistic person what dino they like?

For my job, I tend to be online a lot, especially at odd hours.

Because of this, I’ve made a lot of friends across broad time zones.

She’s often in contact with these friends, so they’re always looking for something to talk about.

Most of my friends tend to expect me to randomly text them — sometimes messages saying I hope they have a good day, and other times just fun questions.

This morning I was watching some silly YouTube short about dinosaurs, and I had a thought for a fun question.

So I went around to a bunch of my friends and asked what their favorite dinosaur was.

This didn’t go over well at all.

I sent it to a bunch of friends and a few people I work with who I’ve been friendly to.

One of my coworkers responded with several paragraphs.

A few quotes included: “Not every autistic person likes dinosaurs,” “if someone asked me this IRL I would flip them off,” “it’s the equivalent of literally directly asking someone if they are autistic,” and “try a different, less stereotypical conversation starter next time.”

To be honest, I’m not even sure I was aware they were autistic.

I was just asking some people a fun question since adults don’t get asked silly stuff anymore.

AITA?

Overreacting much?

If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about a woman who reports her creepy coworker to HR after he calls himself her “work uncle” and leaves his number.

Redditors weigh in.

Real friends don’t treat each other this way.

Maybe it’s best to keep conversations strictly work-related from now on.

This commenter is mad someone hasn’t asked them this question.

This user also doesn’t really see what the fuss is about.

Ultimately, this was supposed to be a silly, fun question, not some kind of malicious, targeted attack on disabled people.

If her so-called “friends” really knew her at all, they would have given her the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately and viciously assuming the worst possible intent.

Redditors proved that there are plenty of people out there eager to field these kinds of off-the-cuff questions about their interests.

Here’s to hoping this employee can find some better friends.