For the past half year or so of my life, a lot has forced me to reconcile with my past moral frameworks and ideals. From payment processor bullshit, far right activists disguised as feminism, friends ive grown close with who have confided in me, and my own personal realizations and experiences, ive grown to have a new understanding of right and wrong. A bolder, stronger perception of queerness, which can be summarized by a couple core ideas:
Thoughtcrime isn't fucking real, and we should stop policing people for the contents and functions of their minds.
All actions that involve harming another party and/or violating their consent are wrong. Everything else, I dont give a fuck about. And you shouldn't either.
Why are we so quick to give leeway to censorship, harassment, bigotry and demonization of people we don't understand? Why do so damn many of my queer friends lack the introspection to realize they are peddling the EXACT SAME TALKING POINTS FASCISTS USE TO OPPRESS THEM? Im tired of this, im so, incredibly tired.
Ya'll need to understand that just because you are disturbed by something, doesn't mean you need to rationalize a moral hatred of it.
This is a stance I am taking with no caveats or exceptions. I do not give a fuck if people like loli art, I do not give a fuck if people enjoy gore. I do not give a fuck if a person enjoys feral art.
Unless it is an action that brings harm or involves the harm of another party, such as CSAM, rape, bestiality, or CSA, I dont give a fuck.
I'm not going to demonize people for the contents of their minds, or how their minds function. Even if a persons fantasies, interests, or fetishes would be harmful if actualized in the real world, I do not care if they have those fetishes. I care if harm has actually been caused. Making assumptions that certain people are inclined towards abuse due to how their mind works is the SAME SHIT used against trans people, against gay people, and against every marginalized person in existence.
Do you assume that every person with antisocial personality disorder is destined to indulge in acts of murder? That every person with a CNC fetish is destined to rape? Then why the fuck do you think people with paraphilias are destined to lack any sense of morality? Are you going day-by-day acting entirely on impulse, or do you have thoughts of your own that you want but you know you can't act on?
This next bit is a bit of an aside but still relevant.
Why do so many queer people start parroting reactionary thought, anyways? And what's an alternative?
I believe its due to the environment we exist within and the trauma born of societal ostracisation and rejection. We spend every damn day being called groomers, being called rapists, degenerates, and lunatics by mainsteam news outlets. Our peers, our family, our upbringing is cradled in a feeling of hate. And for most of us, we want that feeling to go away, we want acceptance. This is one of the earliest and strongest feelings we have, and it creates a certain perception of queerness, and the goals of queer liberation. To be normalized.
For most folks, queerness is best described by the acronym of LGBT. A specific list of identities and circumstances, sometimes added to, sometimes subtracted from by TERFs or other bigots. These are the things we want to be normal. There's inherently still an out-group, the people not included in the acronym. Ive seen "queer" people attacking therians, plural systems, xenogenders, etc because they have internalized the tribalism of their peers. Part of being "normal" is to performatively display that you believe there are people that are NOT normal. To be included in the patriarchal, normative and bigoted society we exist in, to be left alone, we have to also hunt.
The alternative is not to flee ostracisation, but to fight it at its core. To reject the idea that there are normal people and weirdos. To reject the society that wants us conditionally. To burn down the old and build new frameworks, new ideas. To love and accept without conditions and stipulations. To widen the net so far that it no longer exists. To fight harm, and only harm. Id recommend everyone give a full and cursory read of The Queer Nation Manifesto (minding the outdated framing of straight vs gay as it was made in the height of the AIDs epidemic).
I figure im gonna get some people mad at me for my takes of all this, but idgaf, I can't be silent forever, I have to stick up for what I actually believe in when I see so many of my friends repeating the mistakes and reactionary thinking of their ancestors.
