Foster Nuances Needing Homes. Like A Shelter Pet

BUT

This is a common misconception, which I absolutely don't blame you for having, because it's unfortunately been getting spread since before lots of us (myself included) even found the aromantic, asexual, and/or general a-spec communities to begin with. "Queerplatonic" was coined back in 2010 in asexual communities, by a mix of aro aces and aces who didn't identify as aromantic or alloromantic, and those coiners considered QPRs a useful concept for asexual communities. There's very good reason that it quickly spread to (then nascent, now much broader) aro communities, and took on personal significance to a lot of aros, but it's still important to properly cite the history, because it doesn't fix aromantic erasure to gatekeep non-aro asexuals from a term that the ace community coined, as a non-zero number of aros have sadly tried doing over the years.

This particular form of self-expression: not allowed for some reason. Literally comment sections and reblogging is for responding to what a post brings to mind. That's like . . . how it works.

This is super important considering if transgender people start getting put before juries in places like Florida and the propaganda does a good enough job such that it’s hard to locate even-handed or supportive people, this pre-existing concept for governing systems needs to be raised.

Never thought discussions on social shaming behavior immaturity on Tumblr would bring this to mind.

The goal shouldn’t be “skinny,” but going from your bones and joints constantly hurting to being manageably chubby is a worthwhile trajectory

It's not about being tough on crime, because the absolute toughest most brutal measure you could take against "crime" as a social problem is to alleviate poverty, and increase access to education, healthcare and social mobility.

It's about performing "tough on crime" as an aesthetic by enacting violence against a prop, i.e. minorities and the impoverished, who are fetishized and objectified to represent "crime." They are brutalized as punishment for crime, but never with the purpose of alleviating the problem of crime.

It’s important to know which one you’re dealing with, because of how to approach talking about it.

People whose base motivation is greed, and simply jump on socially acceptable ways to forward it, are slightly different from those who believe with their whole heart that they won the meritocracy race, too.

Some people genuinely are out of touch.

Also relevant to bring up the quote “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” Sometimes people who are trained simply not care about the lower class do just pay them no mind. It is not about ‘cruelty’ in the sense of ‘sadism.’ It is about categories passed down of who is worthy of non-indifference and who isn’t.

It’s also good to keep these things in mind for your own mental health. Running on a mental simulation script that the world is largely populated or run by demons who get off on cruelty, as opposed to a lot of human beings who have just been trained to look the other way, is not exactly a great mental space to be in.

But don’t assume anyone who believes and experiences otherwise is stupid. Or damaged. Or dysfunctional. How do you handle a Pentecostal telling your about their Spirit encounter or someone telling you about a haunting?

I want you to think about your answer.

Because calling any of these things derogatory names? Not only is that lowkey ableist. And it’s not respecting others’ beliefs. They’re not necessarily suffering for no reason. Your beliefs about the world are valid. But to claim you know for sure what “reality” is, is super arrogant.

https://thigmatropes.tumblr.com/post/640861662147182592/some-tulpa-formers-claim-that-they-can

@jumpinjohnnyjumble

and super cool of you to call me ableist when you’re the one who wrote a whole essay that’s basically guaranteed to trigger an entire demographic! you must be really smart :)

But because I’m not presumptuous, I allow that may not be true.

If the attitude is that you are only able to be safe from demons if you cling to the side of you which people have dictated you to think, then that’s a problem.

Plenty of people are able to be safe from their self-proclaimed ‘demons’ because they find something that works for them.

Existing =/= no ability to be safe.

Why would anyone do that? Well, hopefully they wouldn’t.

Telling people that they have no ability to fend off negative entities the moment they start thinking one could be around is essentially the same thing.

Telling people that the only way they could ever be safe from anything is if they swim back to that island of disbelief when they’re drowning, instead of teaching them how to swim.

We know that humanity, since recorded history, has claimed it is dealing with negative entities. This extends into the present day, where you can go on forums in real time and read stories. Firsthand experiences, in your words. This includes people who have experienced physical pain from these encounters. Now in my own opinion, that’s psychosomatic. But in the interest of arming people with all the possible tools, the mental self-defense, these people would recommend not viewing demons as some unbeatable problem, or to be skirted at all costs, especially when this is almost guaranteed to happen to a psychotic person!!! nor spreading this mindset! But rather viewing them the way these people do: as something that simply exists- something you can ward off.

Whether shaman or saint, New Age or ancient verse, casting away demons is entirely “canon” to the human condition.

If all of these stories were merely the placebo effect ... keep in mind that the placebo effect has saved some individuals from physical, absolutely deadly diseases.

“Spontaneous remission” is a growing field of study. Anyway, back to the point.

People shouldn’t be spreading the outlook that a “belief that a demon is present” should affect someone any more than encountering a bear in the woods. Bears are scary and dangerous, sure, but their body language can also be read, and there are steps to take to ensure the highest possibility of safety. Retaining a little bit of groundedness while under threat is a thing the mind is capable of. Especially if it’s rehearsed.

But picturing warding off a demon, which is something these people practice at, sometimes daily, is, according to what people discussing the subject have told me on Tumblr at least, ironically the very last suggestion anyone here would make. Funny how running from problems is pushed instead of figuring out how to dismantle them.

Ultimately, believing or not believing in demons is up to the lucid mind, when it is out of crisis. Some people take these data points of experience and conclude that something did “really happen.” Others don’t.

But when it is in that mode, equipping it beforehand with positive tools and confidence rather than despair is the goal here. You’re free to not believe in your own experiences, because that’s your choice.

But, as I’ll say again, doctors pushing this conclusion on you, or even other psychotics insisting that they’re not real, is not their call to make!

They think they’re being helpful, when in reality ... they’re just pushing a doubly complicated narrative- that (1) demons do not exist, and you’re not allowed to think so or you’re more disordered, (thats the ableism part) and (2) the only way to deal with them is to not think about them.

Imagine if you approached any other problem in your life by “not thinking about it.” Instead of examining it or preparing for it ... does that make sense yet?

You’re free to think these things don’t exist

but

verbally beforehand treating or thinking of one slip up in the other direction as if it is a housefire, instead of a controllable loaf of bread that happens to be smoldering, seems to be hurting far more people than it’s helping.

this isn’t a matter of teaching people how to defend themselves. this is a matter of what, in one’s own personal experience, has proven to help the most. what you’re doing right now is saying “i know this is what helps you, but i’m telling you what i think should help you more”.

and this isn’t about religion. this is about mental illness. there is a distinct difference between someone with that kind of religious connection and someone with psychosis. i’m guessing you don’t have any schizophrenic friends because if you did you would see the distinction there.

using your own analogy here, what you’re doing right now is saying “people are around every corner to attack you”. in this circumstance, it doesn’t matter what you’re saying is a helpful way to go about it, because you’re actively triggering people! do you not see where the problem is here?

im guessing you didn’t read the original post, because if you did you’d know that we’ve already been saying that

• outright telling people their delusions aren’t real isn’t helpful,

• the best way to go about things is to talk people through the delusion as if it was real

They could be benefiting from treatment right now, for other aspects of their problems, if the establishment had not decided to actively malign their beliefs.

To label them as defective.

So I’ll say for a third time or so. It is not your place to decide what is real and what isn’t.

It is not a doctor’s place to decide what is real and what isn’t.

It is a doctor’s job to provide assistance to a patient, and not judgement.

Untestable claims are just that- untestable, non-provable, and not able to be dis-proved, either.

If you’re walking people through delusions involving mundane, directly observable reality- i.e., that someone is after you, or your food is poison- those things can be contested and examined beforehands when reported and remembered, or afterwards. Those that do not, cannot.

@furryhamlet dunno if this answers your ask or not. If not, feel free to send me another, or a PM.

Saying that “phew, now that’s over, and you can go back to living in reality” is still an assumption. It is perpetuating that enforced belief and treating it a “safety.”

Pretending there are no other options.

save all that mental energy for important things

Have ambitions. You don’t have to change the world. But be something of a producer, (not a forever-consumer of content) and structure your schedule to spend time alone in your own ideas. Grounding.

save all that mental energy for important things

Have ambitions. You don’t have to change the world. But be something of a producer, (not a forever-consumer of content) and structure your schedule to spend time alone in your own ideas. Grounding.

Yes, people should be held morally accountable.

But you’re accidentally invoking a deeper idea here.

Because obviously somebody with different experiences who was dropped into these peoples’ skin would make different choices. However, if these same individuals had been removed from their particular circumstances and social conditioning, they also wouldn’t have made those choices.

They are, in a sense, starting at a disadvantaged point.

Maybe the intent of this post was specifically to point out gender differences, though? That we hold men more accountable than women? Which is an interesting inversion of the usual blaming women for everything, in an effort to generally pad mens’ egos, and in other cases, to reassure them their “over-pursuing” style sexuality is ok and normal.

Anyway.

At the end of the day, it’s actually more useful to discuss techniques to break such people out of such mindsets, not simply write condemnation posts.