#like actual religions aren't even this strict when it comes to this stuff

[planefood]

This is just a thing I see on my internet romps every now and then but it drives me crazy for no reason, bare with me. Why do people draw lines in the sand about different kinds of therians lol? Who cares if someone woke up and decided that they're wolf therian or something when you decided unconsciously you were a wolf therian instead. Why do people fight about whether or not someone can choose to be therian, its the most silly gatekeeping I see. And don't come at me saying "well theres this label for chosen therians because they're not actual therians like me" you guys... made these terms up in the first place it literally doesn't matter. There is absolutely zero difference between a chosen therian and a not chosen therian and you can't convince me otherwise. How would a self proclaimed "real" therian know that they didn't just choose to be therian one day, there's absolutely no way you can know that for sure.

Every time I become curious about a subculture there's always some ridiculous gatekeeping, even objectums seem to fight over silly bullshit.

[mitchfynde]

I know you said you're stepping away from this, and the conversation has changed significantly since I last sent you an ask about it - but I have to say I do think people aren't being fair to you. I think you'd agree w me that like, a lot of the Jews mad at you are coming from understandable places of trauma w antisemitism and toxic antitheists, and they're not necessarily responding to what you're actually saying, which isn't fair. For me personally it's hard to not want to try and reach you and talk you around bc you're really not a rank antisemite and there's a lot of common ground. You have shown a lot of respect for other people even when you disagree fundamentally. I think a lot of people are seeing cognitive dissonance where you're actually pretty successfully holding multiple nuanced ideas - your ideal world and my ideal world aren't the same, but it seems like you're grounded enough that it doesn't matter anyway, we're allies.

There are some disagreements of first principles happening too - you don't think of religion the same way that a lot of Jews do, which doesn't mean anyone's wrong it's just a difference of cultural understanding. I think you have a really clear view of what's true and what's not, and I see a lot of righteous indignation about people being misled and deceived, which is really honorable.

I'm offering you this not from a place of trying to talk you around on anything or make you change what you believe. I have a lot of compassion for you being on the receiving end of some bullshit, and I think stepping away is probably the right choice. Everyone's dug in, and it's not helping anyone.

I do want to say about Israel: the religiosity of the country is complicated. There are a lot of issues regarding the power afforded to the orthodox rabbinate, who are pretty religiously strict and somewhat oppressive. That's not to say Israel as a whole is a fundamentalist country, either. There's nuance.

I'm curious about where metaphor fits into your view of true and false. That might sound like a kind of condescending question but it's genuine - I'm not wondering whether you're, like, "fiction is lies and worthless," that's stupid, I don't think you think that. But I'm curious about whether/where your framework on truth and falsehood makes room for, like, emotional truth. Do you know what I mean?

Again no obligation to respond - if you want to, I'd appreciate you doing so privately. I am genuinely interested in your viewpoint, it's unique and you've clearly put thought and care into it that a lot of antitheists haven't, which is cool of you.

I super duper appreciate this. Seriously, thank you so much. Reading stuff like this makes me feel sane, if only for a moment.

I'm not exactly sure if I'm going to answer your questions properly, because I'm not 100% clear on what you're asking, but I'll do my best. I'm certainly not against the use of metaphor and I'm not the type of person who thinks emotions are not valid or anything like that. I'm not exactly sure what "emotional truth" is, but I suspect it's something I probably interact with a lot.

Apologies if I totally misunderstood.