A Dragon's Perspective

After much deliberation, it’s with a heavy heart that Page, Rook, and I, have come to the conclusion that we will not be able to host our panel, “At the Crossroads of Otherkin and other Social Identifiers”, in a way that would live up to our own standards, or the standards of the con.

With the ongoing pandemic and unrest, we’ve found ourselves too preoccupied with just getting by to be able to focus on our panel and create something of a satisfactory quality, and we are thus withdrawing from the con.

We are deeply sorry to back out with such short notice, and would love to participate again, should there be a con next year, preferably with a few more weeks to prepare ourselves.

We nevertheless look forward to seeing other people’s panels and participating in this year’s con to the best of our ability.

Thank you for the opportunity!

If you've already registered as an artist or panelist, then you don't need to register again.

In my opinion, if you’re not otherkin or therian, you don’t have a right to tell actual otherkin or therians that we’re “taking things too seriously”.

Most of the people whom I’ve spoken to who’ve tried to laugh off my worries didn’t even know what otherkin was. If you don’t even know what the community’s been through, when who are you to say “it’s not a big deal”?

That’s my two cents on it. You can have your opinions, but if you’re not otherkin, you have no right to stomp on otherkin voices with “jokes are harmless”.

But with being human comes a complicated human mind. One that can attach itself to things distinctly nonhuman. It can turn a human like me into something a little less human. Completely human yet at the same time on partially so.

I don't know where my alterhumanity came from. Perhaps it's the residue of a recycled soul or a world beyond our own, but my guess is that a mind struggling to perceive the world through its body's eyes has attached itself to other creatures. Perhaps it finds it easier to navigate this life seeing the world through the lens or a cervine or a hound or a fictional vampire.

So what happened? I’m gonna give the TL;DR version:

April 15, 1989. Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party Chief dies.

Many people, including  workers, laborer, students and some officials come to mourn. You see, those protestors were originally there to mourn, not protest.

Time passed and there were some hunger strikes, and protests, and a call for accountability and reform from the government.

Eventually, things went south, because the communist party doesn’t have time to deal with these sorts of “demands” and grievances.

Keep in mind, the people wanted not the end of the Communist Party, but for the party to stop with the official corruption, rule of law, and the gross monopoly of information and power.

Incidentally, China still suffers from all of these SAME problems to this day…

June 3, 1989. The massacre started at night to disperse the crowd. Many were shot, wounded, and killed.

June 4, 1989. Some of the parents of the protestors who never came home went looking for them. It was still total mayhem.

June 5, 1989. The iconic image of the tank man was taken. To this day, no one knows what became of this person.

Content Warning for video: blood

“Tell the world…”

I cannot stress how important it is that people remember and know about this event. Do you know how China responded? With lies and censorship.

Even now, in 2016, we do not have an official death toll on the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Chinese government doesn’t even acknowledge the event as a “massacre”. And they weaves these cover stories of “counter revolutionaries trying to overthrow the government”. Therefore, the violence was necessary to ~protect~ the people. (Or some bullshit like that)

The amount of lying and censorship in China is, quite frankly, scary amazing. Tumblr, which somehow managed to fly under their radar, found itself being blocked in that country.

After all, tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.

And those who remember the incident in China? …………well, you tell me.

What the fucking hell.

Convention dates: August 14th - 16th

Volunteer Staff registration: June 23rd - July 8th

Panelist & Artist registration: July 8th - July 19th

Attendee registration: July 19th - August 12th

A Code of Conduct and Privacy Policy has also been added to the website.

The US - general public opinion - were pretty pro-nazi because they saw them as a way to beat back Communism and socialism in Germany (the two leading parties before the Nazis took power were the Communist KDP and Democratic Socialist SDP) and keep it from spreading from Eastern/Central Europe to the West.

Almost 40% of Americans polled in 1939 wanted to restrict Jewish-owned businesses and “Jewish business methods.” 53% said they thought Jews were too different from them and didn’t want them to “mingle in the wrong places”. 10% wanted to deport all Jews immediately, while 68% said Jews should be barred from immigrating to the US.

“I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were.

“This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and I’ve never felt confident enough to write it. It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt. It’s a time that I acted as a violent agent of capitalism and white supremacy. Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s lives but in so doing, made the public no safer… so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me.

“But enough is enough.

“The reforms aren’t working. Incrementalism isn’t happening. Unarmed Black, indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders.

“American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our communities and if you don’t believe it when the poor and the marginalized say it, if you don’t believe it when you see cops across the country shooting journalists with less-lethal bullets and caustic chemicals, maybe you’ll believe it when you hear it straight from the pig’s mouth.”

Read the full article here.

1. The "hub" of the con would be a discord server, and an invite would be obtained by registering for the con on the website (which doesn't yet exist)

2. Registration would be free, although I've been thinking about optional donations to an LGBT or BLM charity (don't yet know which one)

3. Panels/events would be held on Friday through Sunday at scheduled times (the exact dates are TBD).

4. Volunteer-run panels/events can be submitted for a chance to be added to the schedule. Due to timezones, priority would be taken to try and make sure there's a somewhat equal amount of events available for attendees in different parts of the world

5. Video call events will may take place in the hub discord or through other video call apps like google duo. A chat will be available where applicable, so users who can't use a mic can still participate in the discussion

6. An artist alley is being considered, where artists can have streams at scheduled times, and an art gallery which can be viewed on the website.

7. Registration would be split into pre-reg and regular registration. Pre-reg would be to allow a certain number of users to register early to help gauge the expected amount of attendees. Regular reg would open up later.

8. Currently there is no GoH

9. While there aren't any definite events yet, I plan to allow things like lectures, video meetups, and other things like multiplayer game sessions

I work in a non-restraint facility for special needs kids (21 and under) with extreme behavioral issues. I’m talking real violent stuff. Sixteen and twenty-one year old boys who can (and do) home-run swing desks at your head.

As a non-restraint facility, we are trained to respond to these outbursts in the most non-threatening, non-confrontational way possible, while still protecting both the bystanders and the person currently attacking us.

We are monitored every second of our shift to make sure the safety and dignity of our clients is maintained, especially–and just let me emphasize this–the safety and dignity of the person attempting to hurt us. Their right to be treated fairly and with empathy is not forfeit just because their brain chemistry fucked them up today.

We have to be calm, regardless.

We have to be gentle, regardless.

We can never respond with any kind of force, ever.

Those rules apply to all the staff, all the time, no matter what.

So when I hear bullshit about how somebody “reached for their waistband” or they were “resisting,” when I hear yet another police officer got off because the situation was “scary” or he “feared for his safety” or whatever the fuck, I lose my shit.

You wanna talk about how you were frightened for your safety, walking up to someone in the middle of a psychotic episode? Yeah, well, I’ve been there. Pretty regular–probably twice a week, at least–no gun, no taser, with guidelines that state I cannot even use my fucking thumb because that’s considered “grabbing” and therefore a “restraint.”

And you know what? I’ve walked away from every one of those. I haven’t died. I’ve never even been seriously injured. We defused the situation in ways that didn’t involving riddling the other participant with bullets and at the end of the day, everyone went home. Go fucking figure.

And yet–and fucking yet–I keep hearing “not all cops.”

“Not all cops” are bad. “Not all cops” shoot innocent people .3 seconds after rolling up on the scene. “Not all cops” are racist fuckbags, misusing power for a personal joyride. “Not all cops” rape people at gunpoint (and get off scott-fucking-free).

Yet, at my place of employment, somehow everyone is calm in a crisis. Somehow everyone responds to violence with non-violence. Somehow everyone is always able to act like a goddamn compassionate human-being in the middle of the worst kind of street fight–

but you’re telling me that cops, people paid to protect, can’t all do what I do?

You’re telling me that cops, trained to respond to crises, can’t all respond to the same crises, with the same skill, that I do?

And you’re telling me that cops have to stick together in the face of these “potentially false” accusations. That cops have to support each other, no matter what, because their job is dangerous or whatever. That yeah, some cops, but ~actually, sweetie, not all cops~

Fuck that noise. My job is dangerous, too. But you better believe that if anyone sees a member of our staff breaking regulation, their ass gets reported immediately. That person loses their clearances; they can no longer be hired in the field, anywhere. There’s no moving to another district. There’s no finding another location. We make it stop.

So until every cop is cleaning house, until every cop stops this strategically blind bullshit, until every cop refuses to stand by and watch the rampant abuse and corruption inherent in this system, until all the bad cops are weeded out and unemployable–

ABC News, May 7, 2020: 2 McDonald's employees shot after angry customer told dining room was closed (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

CNN, May 5, 2020: Park ranger was telling a crowd to social distance. Mid-speech, someone pushed him into a lake (Austin, Texas)