Otherkin and identity politics

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I think a lot of it has to do with a difference in communication as well. I've met some 'ootherkin' who really seem to be saying "I have these feelings, these likes, these dislikes... which seem more similar to a 'cat' thana a human" but somehow it comes out as "I IS A CAT SOUL". In a world where most try to define themselves with labels, I suppose its natural for the person to call themselves some absurd label rather than take the time to be more specific.

I know some pagans that have had various experiences and what they seem to be saying is "It felt like I was sucking from the earth" but it somehow comes out as "I SUCKED ENERGIES FROM THE GROUND THROUGH MY CHAKRAS".

I don't think that all of these people are just trying to get attention or consider themselves as special snowflakes. It seems to me, that in many of these cases its a confusion between perception and reality "I perceived/felt like X" becomes "X HAPPENED/I AM X". This isn't unique to outlandish claims like cat souls or energies. Its a pretty human behavior that people do all the time, maybe its just more noticeable when the belief sounds extremely absurd?

"THIS WALL IN MY BIP IS MADE OF FAIRY DUST AND UNICORN POO"

[Cramulus]

Klingons used to be the craziest thing you'd see at conventions

Then there were furries

we thought they were the craziest

now they seem totally sane by comparison


one day

mark my words

the otherkin will seem relatively normal by comparison


we are not at the bottom of the rabbit hole yet

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Adult babies bother me a lot more than otherkin, to be honest. If you're going to waste your time and energy playing make believe I should hope the very least you can manage is time travelling hermaphrodite dragon-kin, not sitting around in your own shit because you can't stand the thought that you already had your fucking turn being a baby.

They seem so banal.

[Ben Shapiro]

Klingons used to be the craziest thing you'd see at conventions

Then there were furries

we thought they were the craziest

now they seem totally sane by comparison


one day

mark my words

the otherkin will seem relatively normal by comparison


we are not at the bottom of the rabbit hole yet

SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I just want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them and say "You poor dear! You poor dear, don't you get it? It doesn't matter if you're a D-Cell Energizer stuck in a human body! You're still not special. It does not make you special. You're just like everybody else that you hate and that you can't wait to set yourself apart from, that you so desperately wish to be recognized as anything else that you'll just make things up. Make things up, even, that have already been made up by other people! You don't have to be special. You're a bag of meat with chemicals toiling around inside of it making you think that you're a rare wheel of cheese or some shit. Don't you see how delightfully weird that is already? How the very same carbon that was the scale of a Utah raptor a few million years ago is now a hairless ape talking to other hairless apes on what amounts a light emitting box made out of information about how it doesn't feel so much like an ape as it does a firefly? DON'T YOU GET THAT?"

I tried to say this at some board or another, only I said:

"If you aren't happy with a perfectly good human body, you would not be happy no matter what you were."

Bingo.

[Junkenstein]

I wonder whether the otherkin phenomenon extends further back in time than just the past 30 years. Were there medieval otherkin? Paleolithic otherkin? If so, what was their role? Were they mocked or did they become their villages shaman?

I would guess this to be a relatively recent thing. Previous eras were a little more efficient at throwing them into asylums and marginalising people who espoused such ideas. I'd think that those who could pass as "normal" or hide the worst of their excess would have probably graviated towards safe havens such as Monasteries and the like.

Further back, depending on how manipulative they were I would imagine that more than a few have ended up in Shamanesque positions. I'd suggest the evidence of that is pretty apparent when you look at the number of religions kicking around and the various beliefs they purport. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

HELP ME

I'M A MAGIC HALF-FAIRY, HALF-UNICORN

STUCK IN THE BODY

OF AN AVERAGE-LOOKING, MODERATELY INTELLIGENT HOMINID WITH DECENT FUTURE PROSPECTS, BUT THE SOMEWHAT PERPLEXING NOTION THAT THINGS COULD BE BETTER IN THE WORLD, AND THE OVERWHELMING URGE

TO DANCE

I feel like this should be an infographic.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

On one hand - do whatever the fuck thou wilt.

On the other hand - if it's getting you down, get fucking over it.

Some people seem to just need angst and will invent any excuse.

Personally I hate angst. It's a wanky, buzzkill feeling which I make a point of avoiding. People who overindulge are wanky, buzzkill people who I can't bring myself to give a flying fuck about.

It's basically the ultimate first-world problem.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I bet they could be cured, with helminth therapy.

Well, except for the helminthkin. It might only reinforce their ideas.

Perhaps I need a new identity, as a helminthkin.

Perhaps inside, I am really a roundworm. Nobody understands me.

[Junkenstein]

On one hand - do whatever the fuck thou wilt.

On the other hand - if it's getting you down, get fucking over it.

Some people seem to just need angst and will invent any excuse.

Personally I hate angst. It's a wanky, buzzkill feeling which I make a point of avoiding. People who overindulge are wanky, buzzkill people who I can't bring myself to give a flying fuck about.

It's basically the ultimate first-world problem.

You know, the thought occurs that we're all going to feel terrible when the link between abuse in childhood and beliefs like these come out.

Statistically it's got to be there. I can't see this many severely damaged people all being otherwise normal. I'd guess there's other factors that spark this thinking but we just don't have a large enough sample size to determine the common denominators. I'd put money on childhood abuse being up there though. Probably mixed with large amounts of praise too. That would help along the fucked up thought patterns that seem to be exhibited. I'd guess the longer the kid is trapped in the hate/praise loop, the more lasting the effects as an adult. Some of those involved in the sub-culture seemed relatively normal and aware that this was not sane/healthy. I'd guess these to be the ones who weren't abused in some fashion at some point.

Or not. I may just be looking for ways to justify this horror and consider it may be others at fault.

[Cain]

Demisexual seems out of place in that listing.

Given "demisexual" means "doesn't get sexually attracted to people based on appearance alone", it is indeed out of place, since that applies to practically everyone.

Whereas being fictionkin because I am secretly Twilight Princess on the inside, is not.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

On one hand - do whatever the fuck thou wilt.

On the other hand - if it's getting you down, get fucking over it.

Some people seem to just need angst and will invent any excuse.

Personally I hate angst. It's a wanky, buzzkill feeling which I make a point of avoiding. People who overindulge are wanky, buzzkill people who I can't bring myself to give a flying fuck about.

It's basically the ultimate first-world problem.

You know, the thought occurs that we're all going to feel terrible when the link between abuse being absolutely spoiled in childhood and beliefs like these come out.

Statistically it's got to be there. I can't see this many severely damaged people all being otherwise normal. I'd guess there's other factors that spark this thinking but we just don't have a large enough sample size to determine the common denominators. I'd put money on childhood abuse spoiling being up there though. Probably mixed with large amounts of praise too. That would help along the fucked up thought patterns that seem to be exhibited. I'd guess the longer the kid is trapped in the hatespoiling/praise loop, the more lasting the effects as an adult. Some of those involved in the sub-culture seemed relatively normal and aware that this was not sane/healthy. I'd guess these to be the ones who weren't abused spoiled in some fashion at some point.

Or not. I may just be looking for ways to justify this horror and consider it may be others at fault.

Ftfy.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Seriously though, you have a good point, and I'll do some research and see if I can find anything to back it up.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

You know, the thought occurs that we're all going to feel terrible when the link between abuse in childhood and beliefs like these come out.

Statistically it's got to be there. I can't see this many severely damaged people all being otherwise normal. I'd guess there's other factors that spark this thinking but we just don't have a large enough sample size to determine the common denominators. I'd put money on childhood abuse being up there though. Probably mixed with large amounts of praise too. That would help along the fucked up thought patterns that seem to be exhibited. I'd guess the longer the kid is trapped in the hate/praise loop, the more lasting the effects as an adult. Some of those involved in the sub-culture seemed relatively normal and aware that this was not sane/healthy. I'd guess these to be the ones who weren't abused in some fashion at some point.

Or not. I may just be looking for ways to justify this horror and consider it may be others at fault.

I don't see the need for childhood trauma for any of this shit. I also don't see it as objectively horrifying, to me it just looks like folks with weak egos (which can be associated with some types of mental illness, like depression, eating disorders, and anxiety) who latched onto a narrative that they like better than "I'm one of 7 billion normal human beings with normal human problems." There's a strong chance that they're acting out in a way that demands sympathy because they are suffering from mild to moderate mental illnesses that they can't get a good handle on, but know that they need some kind of extra attention to get through it. It's also possible that they're whiny little first-world-problem babies. Fundamentally, though, if they're not bitching about other-secution and they're just happily living their internal life of being weird, I can't fault them for it. Crossing that line to "a toddler and a flying dog can't do human work" is where it seems like crossing the line to pathological.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think there is also something to be said for the fact that the society we live in currently is inherently stressful and traumatizing, so we can naturally expect psychological disorders of various kinds to increase.