@8luelight [Sorry I didn't wanna just hit reply on my cringemain failblog]
Under a cut bc I cannot shut up. And I want to make it clear that I am actually pissed on behalf of Psychkin too, but I can't talk about it, because I cannot relate to it, and I did not want to speak on something that is not my experience to speak on.
Honestly, and I mean this in the kindest way possible, because I do respect psychkin, they were not mentioned in the essay because, well, it has nothing to do with them, I had no thoughts on them because I wasn't thinking about them, because I am not one!
To go further indepth as to what I mean, I have a friend who I adore, they've got psych roots and spiritual roots, I will gladly listen to their psych stuff, but I cannot engage with it the way I can with spirituality because I am 0% psychological kin and ergo not only have no desire, but have no right to intrude on their spaces. I would be, and am, fine with them using the word Fictotheist, because they do also have spiritual roots. System stuff, to be clear.
If you're wondering what that means for the term 'Fictotheism', I have no issue with sharing it with people who are partially psych and partially spiritual, their experiences are still religious, however, it was not made with psychkin in mind, and if asked I would say;
'If your experiences aren't religious, if your existence isn't spiritual, why do you feel the need to use my word made exclusively to name a religion?'
I do consider the use of 'Fictionkin' for psych kin and spiritual kin alike part of the early 'muddying the waters' of the original word and I do wish that right out of the gate there had been another word, however, I also think 'Fictionkin' was always a word that was going to be muddied, it's ethereal, it has a thin sheetlike qualia too capable of covering too many things.
Again, I do believe they're valid, 100% so, those experiences are very real, but I have as much in common with psychological kin as a Catholic has with someone who likes the way communion wafers taste, {we're both freaks} no, that was a joke, but the actual answer is 'we have nothing in common, other than eating communion wafers' which does not a religion make, the communion-wafer eater doesn't care what church their communion wafers come from, nor their relationship to the Body of Christ, it is not a Religious Experience, I will gladly be friends with someone who's favorite snack is Communion Wafers, but I would also politely recommend they get their Communion Wafers off amazon instead of showing up to Friday Mass to interrupt the preacher to ask for more Communion Wafers.
So I suppose the short version of my opinion is, I respect Psychkin, I think it's very real, it's a real experience, who the fuck am I to tell someone what's real? I think they should be defended, I even think they deserve a new word too because honestly I feel like 'fictionkin' has been muddied for them too, and I hate that, like I hate it as much as I hate having my original word taken from me, it isn't fair, if someone makes a word just for them, I will signal boost the fuck out of it immediately.
But the word I created was not made to include them, and it was on purpose.
