MY HATE, pt I Otherkin

[Cainad (dec.)]

I'm assuming Otherkin is another word for Furry but with the attempt to be less ridiculous?

MORE ridiculous, really. Otherkin are people who think being a Furry isn't weird enough, and need to marginalize themselves even further by identifying as fictional creatures (fairies, unicorns, the brave little toaster, whatever the fuck).

[EK WAFFLR]

I'm assuming Otherkin is another word for Furry but with the attempt to be less ridiculous?

Why would you want to be other than a human being? Sure, we're flawed, but we've split the atom and gone to the Moon. Plus, we're generally ugly if we have scales or normal amounts of mammalian butt hair.

They are WASTING the ONE CHANCE humanity has EVER had to step up and DO GREAT THINGS.  Or even just to party it up like GODDAMN PHARAOHS.  No, Yiff conventions don't count (I have had the misfortune of seeing one in action), so shut up.

It is a goddamn waste. We're hypothetically on the verge of being a multiworld species and we end up doing stupid shit like apparently pretending to be something else when we should take being a human to THE WALL, and both party it up like GODDAMN PHARAOHS while inching ever closer to Mars at the same damn time. Really this planet isn't large enough for THE PARTY that we're capable of throwing. Hell, on the Moon, Saturday night works out to be 56 hours (on Mars, it's still approximately 12, with a few extra minutes). Imagine what it would be like on a terraformed Venus where Saturday night is 1/14 of the whole goddamn year?

Also, you've given me a respect for Juggalos, who are essentially black metallers who listen to shitty music and are the antithesis of the seriousness which black metallers take themselves.

To be fair, black metallers know how to Saturday Night. At least the ones I know, do.

[EK WAFFLR]

Also, great rant Roger.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm assuming Otherkin is another word for Furry but with the attempt to be less ridiculous?

MORE ridiculous, really. Otherkin are people who think being a Furry isn't weird enough, and need to marginalize themselves even further by identifying as fictional creatures (fairies, unicorns, the brave little toaster, whatever the fuck).

These are to be distinguished from those who merely FALL IN LOVE with imaginary and/or inanimate objects, which is its whole own pathology. I've been guilty of that, myself... see Mr. Language.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I'm assuming Otherkin is another word for Furry but with the attempt to be less ridiculous?

MORE ridiculous, really. Otherkin are people who think being a Furry isn't weird enough, and need to marginalize themselves even further by identifying as fictional creatures (fairies, unicorns, the brave little toaster, whatever the fuck).

These are to be distinguished from those who merely FALL IN LOVE with imaginary and/or inanimate objects, which is its whole own pathology. I've been guilty of that, myself... see Mr. Language.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Seriously, the ONE GOOD THING about the existence of "otherkin" is that it implies we don't have anything serious to worry about.

That, or that the problems are so huge that pretending to be a unicorn tiger with wings seems like a reasonable alternative to thinking about them.

Or the subject sees the problems as too huge to deal with so takes refuge in fantasy. Thus stunting normal biped thinking and resulting in all future interactions being fucked as they can never communicate as an equal. How are you equal to a MIGHTY FUCKING DRAGON? You're just not. I'm X and you're just a boring Y. The only people you'll end up actually talking to seriously in these cases are those that appear to share your particular delusion.

Consider the "Sarah Saga". I wouldn't be surprised if that was an exceptionally abusive childhood resulting in a lot of time in a sort of fuge state with whatever game it was. Then some kind of shift happens resulting in the crazy having to venture forth into the world without any of the required tools to deal with it.

Possibly. It's quite likely that the VAST majority really should just fucking know better. Just seemed worth noting as there seems to be a significant number that are somewhat damaged.

Junkenstein, I frequently think you make totally excellent and valid observations and speculations, and I think you probably have a really valid point in this case (although from my preliminary research there isn't a particularly strong correlation between body dysmorphic disorder and past trauma) but it's really offputting when you begin a post with wording that normally implies that you are disagreeing with the previous or quoted post.

If you want to restate and expand on a previous person's post, I suggest using words such as "Also" and "in addition" rather than words like "but" and "or" to begin your response, which imply that you are being argumentative, and at least in my case, can put people on the defensive or make them less receptive to your post.

Ah. That wasn't the intention, the "or" just seemed to be the best way to add the possibility into the mix. I'll try and phrase shit better when I dive into the middle of something.

No worries, I just noticed that I often get my back up and, honestly, will have a knee-jerk reaction to your posts, which is entirely on me, but I finally analyzed why and figured you would probably benefit from knowing.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm assuming Otherkin is another word for Furry but with the attempt to be less ridiculous?

MORE ridiculous, really. Otherkin are people who think being a Furry isn't weird enough, and need to marginalize themselves even further by identifying as fictional creatures (fairies, unicorns, the brave little toaster, whatever the fuck).

These are to be distinguished from those who merely FALL IN LOVE with imaginary and/or inanimate objects, which is its whole own pathology. I've been guilty of that, myself... see Mr. Language.

DANG!   

Ladies and gentlemen, I've met Mr Language.  This is not some horrible thing said by an Ex.  It's the simple truth.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

All my replies to this are pretty moot. I keep writing and deleting but the bare bones is this.

I identified as an otherkin for a long time. It was escapism and a coping mechanism for shit I could not handle. It was also the manifestation of a deep, unrelenting feeling that I'm in the wrong place and the wrong body.

The group I associated with online were decent people. The people I knew in real life were bugnuts insane and I stopped hanging out with them as soon as feasible since one or two of them were my roommates at the time. Eventually the online community was somewhat over run and then abandoned and things have somewhat devolved.

It's basically a fight to be relevant and have all the rights and courtesies accorded to them that everyone deserves. For instance, one fellow I know wanted a separate bathroom so he could pee on the floor with his leg lifted like a dog. Not joking. It's a lot of people wanting to change the language and adjust social stereotypes to put them on equal or superior footing with the cheerleaders and jocks in the lunch room. And now it's more about fictives and plural systems than anything else.

Like any other subgroup, it got weird. Unlike most others, it got real weird real fast and largely collapsed under the weight of its own crazy. But apparently it has regrouped for a second attempt on Tumblr.

And from what I can gather it's a fight about who's real and who's faking and everyone is equal - except for the fakes - who are determined by popular vote. So it's already doomed to blow up again.

Another generation of lost and fucked up people going to war in paper tanks with plastic claws.

[Junkenstein]

CPD, I for one would be interested to see you write more on this if you feel up to it.

It's basically a fight to be relevant and have all the rights and courtesies accorded to them that everyone deserves. For instance, one fellow I know wanted a separate bathroom so he could pee on the floor with his leg lifted like a dog. Not joking. It's a lot of people wanting to change the language and adjust social stereotypes to put them on equal or superior footing with the cheerleaders and jocks in the lunch room.

That kind of ties into what I was thinking with some of this as it being some kind of magical social status adjustor. "I'm a X so the hot Y will now totally want me" logic distorted and self/group reinforced?

More an aside, but you also mention a difference between those online and those you met and dealt with. Did your real life crazies exhibit abnormal behaviour online? It's a tricky one for me to gauge. For all I know, I appear to be a decent person on the internet.


Finally, kudos. It takes balls to admit you previously held a crazy belief and the considerable regard I hold you in has increased.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I honestly think that a lot of that dysphoria is about the world being a bad place. It creates a lot of tension in most people, and I think a lot of young people react to the tension by feeling that the thing that is wrong is THEM, their body or even their very existence, rather than recognizing that they are all right and it's the entire rest of the world that is wrong.

Which, really, in so many ways, is a very reasonable conclusion to come to. "Wow, I am really uncomfortable with THE ENTIRE EVERYTHING. Obviously, the logical conclusion is that the problem is me, and not EVERYTHING ELSE".

But in this particular case, it actually IS that the entire society and the habitat we live in is fucked. So on that level, I can't totally blame anyone for not wanting to be human.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

CPD, I for one would be interested to see you write more on this if you feel up to it.

It's basically a fight to be relevant and have all the rights and courtesies accorded to them that everyone deserves. For instance, one fellow I know wanted a separate bathroom so he could pee on the floor with his leg lifted like a dog. Not joking. It's a lot of people wanting to change the language and adjust social stereotypes to put them on equal or superior footing with the cheerleaders and jocks in the lunch room.

That kind of ties into what I was thinking with some of this as it being some kind of magical social status adjustor. "I'm a X so the hot Y will now totally want me" logic distorted and self/group reinforced?

More an aside, but you also mention a difference between those online and those you met and dealt with. Did your real life crazies exhibit abnormal behaviour online? It's a tricky one for me to gauge. For all I know, I appear to be a decent person on the internet.


Finally, kudos. It takes balls to admit you previously held a crazy belief and the considerable regard I hold you in has increased.

I eventually want to write up what I remember about that shit but I don't want to drag it all over PD. There was just so much shit.

Yeah, stuff like that is basically a D&D modification chart for meatspace. I have this that and these so you owe me all that and some of this and a bunch of those. And there's a lot of feeding on that whole need to belong while being a special snowflake. You either drink everyone else's Kool-Aid or no one's going to drink yours.

The real-life crazies came across as online gurus, mostly. "I've had all these experiences and done all these things, I can guide you if you give me all due respect and then some." But in real life it was "I ate ants for lunch today just to prove my superiority over ant-people. Tomorrow it will be squirrels because one threw a nut at my car." or "I'm a gypsy werewolf princess and no one respects me. I will cut myself and leave bloody smears all over the bathroom and make hex marks so everyone fears my power."

One of the reasons I tried to avoid EBS and C_A at TCC. They're probably licking paste off tongue depressors and gluing sparkles to their eyelids or some crazy shit.

Yeaaaaaaaah. That line of y'all came up with . . . if you stand for anything, you'll fall for something. I really liked that because it seemed to sum up my life in a tidy package. It probably won't be the last time something crazy takes root in my skull. But at least now I've got better odds at fixing it quick.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I honestly think that a lot of that dysphoria is about the world being a bad place. It creates a lot of tension in most people, and I think a lot of young people react to the tension by feeling that the thing that is wrong is THEM, their body or even their very existence, rather than recognizing that they are all right and it's the entire rest of the world that is wrong.

Which, really, in so many ways, is a very reasonable conclusion to come to. "Wow, I am really uncomfortable with THE ENTIRE EVERYTHING. Obviously, the logical conclusion is that the problem is me, and not EVERYTHING ELSE".

But in this particular case, it actually IS that the entire society and the habitat we live in is fucked. So on that level, I can't totally blame anyone for not wanting to be human.

That seems reasonable, and it definitely helps explain why so many people who fall into that mindset usually express themselves in negative terms.

Almost every time I've seen someone identify as somehow other-than-human, they refer to personal experiences that are negative. Activities they can't do, things they can't eat, social situations that they can't adapt to, etc. A lot of the time it comes down to "I can't seem to relate to most people around me," which is of course a feature of our highly alienating contemporary culture. They develop all of these little aversions and stress reactions that fit the persona. Thing like Furries hissing or snarling like animals, or Otherkin reacting to things their fictional identities would be averse to (Vampires averse to garlic and sunlight, etc). They tend to cite all of these things as "evidence" of the reality of their identities.

If the motive behind adopting these identities is dysphoria brought on by an alienating and toxic culture, it stands to reason that the things these people will refer to as proof of their condition are all negative experiences.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I honestly think that a lot of that dysphoria is about the world being a bad place. It creates a lot of tension in most people, and I think a lot of young people react to the tension by feeling that the thing that is wrong is THEM, their body or even their very existence, rather than recognizing that they are all right and it's the entire rest of the world that is wrong.

Which, really, in so many ways, is a very reasonable conclusion to come to. "Wow, I am really uncomfortable with THE ENTIRE EVERYTHING. Obviously, the logical conclusion is that the problem is me, and not EVERYTHING ELSE".

But in this particular case, it actually IS that the entire society and the habitat we live in is fucked. So on that level, I can't totally blame anyone for not wanting to be human.

That seems reasonable, and it definitely helps explain why so many people who fall into that mindset usually express themselves in negative terms.

Almost every time I've seen someone identify as somehow other-than-human, they refer to personal experiences that are negative. Activities they can't do, things they can't eat, social situations that they can't adapt to, etc. A lot of the time it comes down to "I can't seem to relate to most people around me," which is of course a feature of our highly alienating contemporary culture. They develop all of these little aversions and stress reactions that fit the persona. Thing like Furries hissing or snarling like animals, or Otherkin reacting to things their fictional identities would be averse to (Vampires averse to garlic and sunlight, etc). They tend to cite all of these things as "evidence" of the reality of their identities.

If the motive behind adopting these identities is dysphoria brought on by an alienating and toxic culture, it stands to reason that the things these people will refer to as proof of their condition are all negative experiences.

Hmm, that is a really interesting observation, I bet you're right.

[Cainad (dec.)]

That's all based on anecdotal memories of various corners of the Internet I've been to, but I'm confident that actual research would verify it.

Hardly anyone who identifies as other-than-human talks about their cool cat abilities or majickal faerie powers. When people do identify as supernatural beings of any kind, claims to things like psychic empathy or psychic "sensitivity" seem to be common. The evidence for these claims very often comes in the form of describing incidents of emotional distress in situations where they didn't expect it.

These claims aren't unique to Otherkin, of course. We've all seen that shit on pagan forums everywhere, with the same special-snowflake mentality. However, pagany/majickal types are more likely to also make claims of actual powers or abilities. Seems to be a slightly different headspace that leads people to that kind of thinking.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Otherkin are losers. They don't identify with human society, so they piss and moan and feel all persecuted. Fuck that noise. There's no excuse I've heard so far to identify with human society, it's a fucked up boring abortion of a thing but pissing and moaning isn't the answer. Smashing things and roaring, like a demented primate is.