The Description Problem

This blog post deals with "the description problem" that I have with some of the words I encounter when people try to assign a label to what Cat is.

Otherkin

Where to start with this specific word. Well why not start at the place where the wikis start. This word is way too heavily associated with spirituality and gets you into the realm of stuff like astral projection and whatever other spiritual matters.

Cats’ problem with this is that while the word may make a bit of sense to someone as deep in this rabbit hole as Cat the word only works between people who understand this rabbit hole and know my exact situation. Otherwise, you might get lead into thinking that I believe in astrology, astral projection and reincarnation and whatever more the websites that are returned by google talk about.

Therian

Well now that’s a fun word because some groups might say Cat can fit that criteria after all the humble house cat is a real creature that does walk this earth. A misunderstood creature that the dog propaganda has made the Hooman’s forget the divinity of. Now yes Cat is not a house cat Cat is a catboy so that doesn’t exactly match but that distinction is not a universal hard line in Cats understanding that it has to be pure or its invalid.

Still this word is connected with the spirituality stuff that otherkin is tied to and that is where Cats problem rly is rooted. Maby Therian is a good word for Cat but Cat doesn’t know. Cat just knows there is that taint of spirituality there that causes Cat to instinctively recoil a bit.

The Spirituality Problem

This problem can be explained in that Cat approaches this problem from the perspective that a fanatic materialist from one of Cats stellaris empires might approach it from.

So how does the fanatic materialist view on this look if we ground it using the laws of that universe for a second. As far as that universe is concerned the spirituality aspect is not stupid because in that universe the soul and planes beyond this one is a fact that a fanatic materialist that has sufficient knowledge of reality is not only accepting of but has even come to understand is a fundamental truth. While its easier for Spiritualists the framed as polar opposite to the materialist to embrace this both factions can embrace the soul in Stellaris is as real as the flesh and blood that humans tend to be made of and that it has power real power. This is a universe where psychic powers allow you to communicate with the denizens of an alternative realm with great powers. And where machines can live now if they have souls or not that is a question, I don’t know the answer to canonically but as far as some of my modded adventures are concerned the answer is yes. Sufficiently advanced synthetics have souls as real as biological sentient life.

So back to our universe. As far as modern scientific consensus is concerned souls are very much only a spirituality concept they are not yet confirmed to exist. And well Cat doesn’t want to get dragged into all that mess because it takes away from the fact of what Cat is.

As long as crap like astral projection, souls, metamorphosis and those videos with weird sounds and candles and incense and all that is how people see Cat the objective of being allowed to just be Cat is not going to be made any easier. I don’t want to be treated like some astrology lunatic I want to be treated like a person to be studied to understand how to fix this cruelty that nature imposed on me and those like me. Mother nature is not perfect and anyone who proclaims that is very very misguided. I’m a scientist not a spiritual leader after all.

When this problem is approached from the angle that a fanatic materialist might take this is simply a problem where someone fucked up royally and allowed evolution to create a flawed creature that is doomed to suffer because the wrong creature is in the wrong shell. Put a catboy into a human body and that won’t end up with anyone happy. Now doesn’t this sound like spirituality? No, it’s just the species version of having the wrong body plan just like people with gender dysphoria problems have. Its pure and simple science with minimal new facts being required. If psychology is going to be accepted as a science this should also be considering its on about as firm footing. Just look at the colossal screwup that is anything to do with DID as its currently called by the DSM as far as Cat is aware.

So, what is Cat?

Well Cat likes the words creature and that Cat is a catboy and also Cat refers to Cat as a feline. While Cat has not yet meowed during this blog post that is due to the type of writing. Get Cat into a much more casual context and meowing is bound to happen.

Closing words

This has been well a larger post for sure. And well that is fine as far as Cat sees it. Cat also wants to say that Cat doesn’t have a beef with the mentioned communities. This is much more of a how does Cat feel about these words being used to describe Cat.

For a first blog post on the new page this was indeed a spicey subject to get into.