im actually really resentful of the way that “kin” as a term has been watered down and diluted to be practically meaningless at this point but if you tell people that they throw rocks at you
@goroakechi Is this an otherkin thing, or is there some other discourse on the word kin I'm unaware of? Just wanna make sure before I give some totally irrelevant commentary.
@celyandil it’s an otherkin thing, about how people have sort of co-opted the term to mean “i relate to this” instead of “in some shape or form i literally am this”
@celyandil ive heard that term, as well as “synpath” i believe. maybe it’s just been my bad luck, but most of the people i come across nowadays who use the term “kin” tend to spread misinformation like “being otherkin isn’t that serious, we don’t actually believe we’re this” or “it’s just for fun” or etc. it’s a bit frustrating
@goroakechi Now that you mention it, I have seen a bit of that around. This reminds me of the otherkringe Reddit as well, where most of the screenshots they shared were of trolls or people making a farce of otherkin. I kind of have mixed feelings about all of this, because on one hand... yes it feels like your beliefs are being disrespected. I've talked to otherkin who are ashamed because of the public perception of us. But on the other hand... (to be continued...)
@goroakechi In my experience, otherhearted is still the accepted term for that sort of thing, though I'm sure there are exceptions to that where people maybe don't know or don't care about proper terminology. I do agree that there's been a lot of change to what it means to be otherkin, since the term emerged in the 90s. Interestingly, some people who helped build the community decades ago are now no longer 'otherkin' by definition, as what it means to be one of us has changed.