When I was 11 years old I found out that most people don't have The Mental Peanut Gallery. Do you know how scary it is to be a little kid and find out that, according to all the kids and adults around you alike, not only is The Peanut Gallery not normal, but The Peanut Gallery is actually a sign that you're broken and crazy, and if you ever tell anyone about The Peanut Gallery then they're going to try and take them away?
It won't matter if you say that you like having The Peanut Gallery. It won't matter if you say that your best friends are in The Peanut Gallery. It won't matter if you say that sometimes you switch places with someone in The Peanut Gallery and if you didn't have them then you'd be so alone. It doesn't matter that if there's no Peanut Gallery then you won't know who you are. According to the people around you, different = crazy, and crazy = needs fixing, and that means your self needs gutting and redoing until it's "right."
But here's a tricky thing about The Peanut Gallery-- they don't shut up. In fact, they resent being told to shut up. They're people too, you know. They have feelings. Thoughts. Opinions. Personalities. Worldviews. Identities. Why should they shut up? They thought everyone was equal and being yourself was OK. Didn't that include them, too?
The answer was no. No, not when you're 11 years old and not ever, said society to The Peanut Gallery. No, when we say it's OK for you to be yourself, we didn't mean you, said the classmate to The Peanut Gallery. No, you're faking, said the social media stranger to The Peanut Gallery. No, you're a disease that needs curing, said the doctor to The Peanut Gallery. No, you're not people, said society to The Peanut Gallery. Shut up and stop existing, said society to The Peanut Gallery.
What happened to The Peanut Gallery? Well, many things. Some of them started to block out their feelings until they could pass for a normal, likable, strong little kid. Some of them were filled with an anger so bright and powerful that it consumed them. Some of them retreated into themselves. Some found solace in helping others, or in escapism. Some of them became anxious wrecks. And still others believed they were monsters and grew bitter. But none of them went away.
Do you know why I say that "the future is plural"?
I say that "the future is plural" because I don't want there ever again to be a scared 11-year-old who wants to die because in their brain lives The Peanut Gallery. I don't want there to be a plural child who cries themselves to sleep because no-one loves them, all of them, ever again. I don't want there to be a plural system that bounces through incorrect diagnoses for 10 years ever again. I don't want a member of a Peanut Gallery to feel guilty for existing ever again.
The future is plural because it must be plural. It needs a place in the future. It needs a place in the future for the 11-year-old that still lives in me and for every other plural out there. Otherwise, what the fuck is the point?
And as for The Peanut Gallery... we're still here, of course. :)
Accepting identities I don't understand is actually extremely easy because I just go "this isn't about me" and move on with my life unbothered by someone else's identity, it's truly that simple.
The reason endermen don’t like it when you look at them is because they communicate telepathically with one another by locking eyes! Humans are absolutely not designed to do this so when we look at them we are accidentally projecting all of our thoughts into them at the same time and it hurts :(
First and foremost, you're not safe in my blog. You can read and lurk and whine all you want, but if you interact, I'll take pleasure in toying around with your sad little bigoted worldview.
I don't actively seek out any of you. You're safe if you're out of my blog. It's my own place and I'll handle it this way.
If you fuck around like a foolish bitch, you'll find out. You won't get me off your back for days. And you don't get to back out from it like the failure of a bully you are. I'm no pushover, and I'm no diplomat either.
I will tear down everything you believe in. I'll wait for you to desperately try to cling on to any semblance of it only to ruin it again. You are a bigot. You stopped being deserving of respect the second you messed with me. And your ideas? They were never respectable to begin with.
You don't get to argue against the experience of millions and get away with it. You don't get to deny heaps of research and get away with it.
And you especially don't get to be a dick to me.
If you want a civil discussion, go to literally any other blog. There's at least 2 blogs dedicated solely to sharing actual information about endogenous plurality. And I'm sure most pro endos would be happy to have a discussion.
And I know some of you like to exploit that. To hate, to demean, to hurt.
I'm not taking any chances with you sickos. Leave.
remembering the time i drunkenly told a stranger i was a trans man and he started going off about alpha sigma and beta males and how each one was equally important no matter what anyone says and that i shouldn't feel pressured to be a strong alpha male because emotionally intelligent beta males were just as important
here's the original blog post, from the 90s, that introduces 'plural' as a purposefully non-medical alternative to 'multiple'
[image text: "This is one reason our clan encourages use of the word "plural" rather than "multiple". "Multiple", even standing by itself, brings to mind MPD/DID, "multiple personality disorder", "dissociative identity disorder", which are specific diagnoses created by the medical/therapeutic community. "Plural" is a much more neutral word, more commonly heard in the context of grammar than psychiatry. (The other reason, of course, is that plural can be construed to have a broader meaning, applying to anyone(s) anywhere on the continuum who experience themselves as plural in some way. )"]
the concept of plurality was always deliberately inclusive. it has been for more than 20 years. there is no diagnosis that makes you plural or not plural. having a trauma history or specific symptoms cannot make you plural or not plural. there is no "real plurals" vs "fake plurals". it is an opt-in community and identity. plurality is not mutually exclusive with psychiatric diagnoses, but as a label, it is intentionally disconnected from medical terminology.