discourse, otherkin, biology, chess pieces, cw: deep cynicism
You know what all this talk about elements of the trans community turning on otherkin reminds me of?
Once upon a time I read a really good, really gross book by Carl Zimmer named "Parasite Rex," and it made an extended biological metaphor of the Red Queen's Race from Alice Through The Looking Glass, where one must essentially run just to stay still.
He used it to describe the never-ending arms race between parasites and their hosts. A fluke, say, will become hyperspecialized for living in a host species's liver. So that host becomes five degrees colder. So the parasite adapts to live three inches further up. So the host develops a toxin. So the parasite adapts to get along without the receptors that trigger it. So the host just evolves so it has a squeedlyspooge instead of a liver. So the parasite learns to live in a squeedlyspooge.
Yup. That's us. And this process is natural, though when a quasi-Gnostic like me says that, that is emphatically not the same as saying it's good. Barring some truly massive change to human social psychology-- or, bless us, a nice restful extinction-- we're going to be stuck in this dance forever and ever and ever.
I swear to god, someday like 30% of the otherkin talking about this are gonna be saying "OK, but not THOSE otherkin." I'll bet if you look in the right corners, you'll already see it. Someday it'll be people who have had brain mods, or cyber implants. We'll be arguing over whether splicing in real animal DNA is "appropriation of non-human experience" or something. Or whether it's "OK" to slap on the AR goggles and just act like that's the real world. (HINT: IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY MATTER AT ALL WHETHER IT IS OR NOT, AS LONG AS YOU CAN STILL SURVIVE AND BE HEALTHY. And that's only because that's the evolutionary cost of living with material reality as your substrate. Making a moral thing out of it is, IMHO, utterly inane.)
I'm not sure you CAN have a massive social innovation without attracting a bunch of people who see you as a colossal symbolic threat to their world-- and THEY'RE NOT ALWAYS WRONG, relative to their own real and imagined needs... but that's *not* a reason to stop. Not that most of us could if we wanted to. Do YOU think I really wanted all the awkward attention and outright mockery that came with postfurry? Looking back, I did a shit job, but I can't imagine a world in which I could have said no to it.
So at the risk of sounding dismissive, I guess my only advice is relax, enjoy the ride on the nightmare train as well as you can, fight like hell for whatever you think is right, be aware this Red Queen's Race is a thing and be merciful to the losers, and join me in grieving for everything good that gets ground to dust in the process.
discourse, otherkin, biology, chess pieces, cw: deep cynicism
@zebratron2084 i am reluctant to point out that yeah, within otherkin spaces there's already a lot of hate against "fictionkin" and it's exhausting.
But the chain can be broken, honestly, it just requires time and thought
re: discourse, otherkin, biology, chess pieces, cw: deep cynicism
@Oneironott This is another thing that really annoys me about modern human society: MOST of the ideological work necessary to make these advances was done, like, 1800 years ago by Nāgārjuna, and then all over again by cognitive scientists.
We already have *all* the philosophical tools humanity need to start recognizing all this cultural baggage as infinitely empty, and thus infinitely flexible. We just... all kinda said no to it.
FFS, we live in a nation that was founded before the social sciences even existed, and... man, does it show. We know all this stuff about how human brains are BUILT to delude us, we could have used it to make a fairer and saner society AGES ago... and nope, we're just gonna let money, power, and ego drive everything instead, because humanity-as-a-whole still LOVES that shit.
Philosophically, I have some real complicated ideas about what it means to "not be human" (some of which you'd probably HATE :) ) and at the end of the day, we're all still lugging 46 chromosomes worth of Primate Crazy around. >_< But man, take one look at what it means to participate in "human society," and just tell me it doesn't make sense to try to define yourself right the fuck out of that iron prison, by any means necessary...
re: discourse, otherkin, biology, chess pieces, cw: deep cynicism
@Oneironott Meanwhile, I guess I'm just riding the cynicism and despair I picked up from Transliminal exploding and T***p getting elected, and quietly rooting for the raccoons, crows, and/or coyotes to swoop in and gently take the reins from us, 'cause there is something NOT right with primate brains... >_<
