katt, still seeking, 🌈🌌 @starkatt@vulpine.club

I'm a fox. I don't know entirely what it means, but it's real.

What is postfurry? At the very core, it's a way of approaching what identity means.

Furry has been all about answering the question "what if people can also be animals?"

Postfurry says "okay, we can go even further than that. What if we claim authorial control over every aspect of identity? We're animal-people sure, but that's only a starting point. If the poststructuralists are right and all meaning is negotiable, let's go exploring and write some meanings of our own."

(re-post for new acct)

corners bad.

I knew I should have rounded that corner since there'd be a stress concentration...

need to cut more now...

fuck! cracked a thin part of the acrylic while starting to peel off the masking for the next rainbow sign.

Am I afraid of at some point getting harassed because a moderately controversial statement gets taken out of context and used to make me seem like a monster?

Yes. And that's shitty.

Am I afraid of getting run out of my local community if I do something awful?

...I mean, also yes, but I'm fairly sure that if it happens it'll be because I really earned it, because the people I'm close to wouldn't eject me without good reason. So that seems like a healthy thing imo.

Also, this isn't in response to any particular anything.

Each particular thing always has it's own context. And that's like... my point.

Also things can be a different different when "canceling" means " choosing to no longer engage with or promote the work of a creator" and that's a bit outside of the scope of what I mean here.

oh crap I forgot the link

"The Alt-Right Playbook: The Ship of Theseus" [11:29]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui-ArJRqEvU

So I guess where am I, at the end of the day?

Consequences can be necessary and good. But also, be cautious of trying to be the one enforcing them if you don't have an existing social context to operate within.

It's hard when the people who see a callout don't have any context. A common phenomenon is when there's still accusations floating around against someone, even after they've done the best they can to apologize and make amends -- and the apology is a lot less visible.

(Note: apologizing doesn't automatically make things okay, of course. But it is absolutely relevant information when trying to decide how to feel towards someone moving forward.)

A related problem is what youtuber Innuendo Studios refers to as Ship of Theseus accusations (link below). It's very, very easy to take a statement that's possibly questionable, and rephrase that as "person advocates Awful Thing". Again, this distortion works when there's a lack of context on the part of the audience.

And a related related problem in social media is when someone might make a relatively unconsidered off-the-cuff statement, which gets taken as their Absolute Opinion. So instead of responding like "hey that was a shitty take", people respond like "WOW that person believes something terrible." The Fundamental Attribution Error plays a big part in this too.

[cont]

More than one thing can be true at a time. Part of the issue, I think, with arguments here is that people are arguing about subtly different things under the same umbrella.

I absolutely do believe that consequences for shitty behavior can be necessary, both to minimize risk of ongoing harm and because consequences can spur growth and change.

At the same time, social media can cause a problem where consequences are disproportionate to the offence. Within a tight-knit social group, if one person levels accusations against another, people evaluate how to respond within the contexts of their existing opinions and relationships with the folks involved. "I choose to never associate with this person again" can and does absolutely happen, but it's not always a decision that can be made without cost.

With more far-flung social nets though, things can work differently. When someone sees a callout post that's often the entirety of the context they have for that person. The scope of an accusation can easily outstrip the social sphere of people who have any relevant stake in outcomes.

[cont]

@Ratttz so do you know what's going on with the rumbles I've been hearing about a grocery worker strike?

Anyway that kid was an asshole to me but that was a great moment.

Remembering that time in Freshman year of high school Health class when the students were tasked with doing presentations about various illicit drugs. Of course, the implicit assumption being that they'd be about how bad for you the drug in question is.

Instead, the student who was assigned marijuana did a whole thing about how awesome weed is, including showing a propaganda film to that effect.

What if, a headband that says "my ears are up here ⬆️"

Or maybe you just need to embrace the idea that all band names are actually bad.