There seem to be some people on Lemmy who genuinely believe that they are an animal. They say they are an “unperson” or discuss conversing with “animals” who “happen to be born in human bodies”. They see their struggle as on par with the struggle for trans people, and their right to be recognized as animals as a part of a broader societal struggle for queer acceptance.
Well, this is fucking stupid.
First of all, comparing “I’m a puppy uWu” to gender dysphoria trivializes what trans people go through. Furries are not struggling like trans people. They are simply mocking trans people (whether that mockery is intentional or not is besides the point).
Second of all, you’re not a fucking animal bro ffs. Being an animal isn’t a state of mind. It isn’t a vibe. It isn’t a social construct. It isn’t something you’re assigned at birth. It’s about DNA. You have 50% of DNA from a human mom, and 50% of your DNA from a human dad, so you have 100% human DNA (granted maybe you have like 0.1% Neanderthal DNA but whatever). So you’re a human. This shouldn’t be a hard concept to grasp.
If you can speak a human language, and have the mental wherewithal required to use the internet, then you have a HUMAN MIND. And if you “just so happen to be born in a human body” then you have a HUMAN BODY. HUMAN MIND + HUMAN BODY = HUMAN. IT’S ALL HUMAN. YOU ARE HUMAN. Just because you have a bestiality fetish does not make you a fucking bobcat ffs
You’re welcome! It’s probably worth pointing out that that denying/rejecting delusions is a bad approach according to the broad consensus of mental healthcare professionals/resources too - you can find loads of resources online, but I’ll share this random Australian government health website since there’s not really a universal source - emphasis mine:
I hope you can understand what I’m trying to get at, here - not only is arguing with people about their belief that they are an animal unhelpful, but might actually make the problem worse. I still think the best approach is to just leave them be unless they’re actually your friend, but if you really want to help them, I hope you remember this advice.
Also, I hope you’ll reconsider your views on furries! There are lots of intolerant people out there sadly who like to punch down on us underdogs (pun not intended) for being a little outside the norm, and there are those who try and make out that the furry fandom is really fucked up and engages in really heinous things that furries are actually completely intolerant towards in reality. We don’t deserve half the abuse we get, we’re good folks on the whole - there are definitely some oddballs, like with any fandom, but the furry fandom is very accepting towards people who are different, that’s one of the things that makes it such a positive community.
The person I was conversing said their belief they were an animal was a furry thing, so that’s the word I used in this post. Since then have been a number of comments here explaining the technical terms used to describe the different subtypes of furries. If someone just likes art of anthropomorphic animals then I don’t take issue with that