Can people with low functioning autism be very intelligent?

People use low functioning autism (not a term some people like to use) very freely for people with a fairly high degree of functionality as an insult.  When it was clinically diagnosed it was applied to individuals who are seldom seen in public and will need lifelong, highly intensive support. Unless you're related to such a person or professionally work with them it's highly likely that you'll never meet one.  I'm sure that some have good cognitive skills in certain areas but the interface with the outside world is broken which is why you and I don't see them out and about.

In certain areas they can be. 

I have mild Autism, and a normal or above average IQ. So yes, it's possible. I hate the phrase "low functioning". Do you even know how DEMEANING that phrase is to those of us with Autism? It makes us sound as though we are something sub human and not worth bothering with, at least in your mind. Can't you use more appropriate language?

PS: I get seen in public all the time, because I work full time and live completely independently. I do all the so-called "normal" things that any American adult does. And my connection with the outside world isn't "broken", as you put it.