#human-centrism

[rjalker]

a thing I really fucking hate is when people are like, designing aliens or centaurs or dragons or something and just say, "Oh, well they can't use tools, because their hands aren't the right shape/they don't have hands/ect".

like.

that is not how this works.

Tools are designed to fit the person who is using them. Screwdrivers and scissors and keyboard and laptops and phones and literally all existing technology exists in the shape and form it does because that is what we can use.

Dragons can create and use tools just as much as humans can. They do not need to have opposable thumbs to make or use tools, because the tools they create will be fucking designed to fit their capabilities.

The only thing stopping a centaur from wearing shoes or having clothes is your lack of imagination.

If humans didn't have hands and instead had trunks like elephants, every peice of technology would look very different, to better suit the capabilities of a trunk rather than a hand. Same if humans had prehensile tails, or only paws like a cat or a dog, or no limbs at all, like a fucking snake.

Just because you can't draw the kind of tools your fantasy creature / alien would use does not fucking mean they're just physically incapable of using tools just because they aren't human.

Like for fuck's sake, people, if you don't even want to think about the different ways a species would adapt and create and stuff then why are you even writing about non-humans??? Why are you writing about scifi or fantasy with other sentient species if you don't even want to explore nonhuman cultures and shit????

Stop acting like humans are the One True Sentient Species that all other species wish they could be. That's not how this fucking works.

Edit: This post is not aimed at kids. This post is aimed at adults who have been writing and creating for decades. I'm not mad at kids for not having good enough world-building, I'm mad at adults who are older than me insisting that only able-bodied human beings are capable of using or inventing tools simply because they can't be bothered to look or imagine beyond their own perspective for five seconds.

Because if it's not obvious, a shit ton of fucking real-world ableism is baked into this problem.

#writing #human-centricism #human-centrism #humans are space orcs #humans are special #tagged out of hatred

[commsroom]

eiffel's problem is that he sees every injustice as an interpersonal issue. he doesn't understand how his flippancy or apparent leniency towards hilbert might look to hera; in his mind, it doesn't contradict his support for her. to eiffel, it seems obvious - he is also one of hilbert's victims, hera is his friend, of course he's completely on her side - but he fails to fully grasp how the stakes are different for her.

ep 19: "you need to stop treating this like a joke, officer eiffel." / "hey, i'm the person for whom the joke tolls." / "i get you're scared he put something inside you. but i hope you haven't forgotten emergency code alpha victor. he put that in me." and ep 51: "they're just jokes! they don't really mean anything." / "see, eiffel, you get to have that. they can be 'just jokes' for you because you're... well, you. but we don't get that."

the issue in shut up and listen is eiffel's repeated, if unintentional, microaggressions, but it's also his general use of dark humor as a coping mechanism - jokes he feels justified in making because of how the subjects of those jokes have impacted him. eiffel sincerely believes in treating people equally, but his idea of 'equal treatment' can be idealistic and naive. he has an awareness of interpersonal harm, but he's lived most of his life without ever being confronted with the reality of structural harm - being pre-judged and othered and having his life devalued on the basis of outside categorization.

but the thing about that is that it has happened to him, too. eiffel is an addict, and a convict, and marked as from a lower socioeconomic class than minkowski or lovelace, and those things are the reasons goddard futuristics was able to buy him as prison labor and - without his consent - consider him expendable for medical experimentation. none of that is a coincidence, but he doesn't see the systems at work, only his own actions and regrets. which he then equivocates to the worst actions of people who don't share his sense of morality or guilt.

eiffel's ability to recognize and bring out the humanity in the people around him is one of his best qualities, but... on the basis of his identity, he's been able to live a life where he conceptualizes himself as the default person, and that's been reinforced by the pop culture he loves so much. that's a massive blind spot. he assumes everyone navigates the world in a similar way, and so, on some level, he sees everyone around him as an extension of or a reflection of himself. if evil is always personal, then it can always be reasoned with.

#wolf 359 #w359 #doug eiffel #like. his answer for 'what is your worst quality?' #is a very tongue in cheek job interview answer: 'i empathize too much with others.' but from a certain angle... #i just think it's interesting. he has such believable faults and biases and assumptions about the world. #and the other thing is. eiffel's values are the show's values!! in some way he is also correct!! #but it's the line between diplomacy and centrism. #and the understanding that inaction is still an action that can hurt people. and that there's often not a right answer. #eiffel values the right things as far as the show is concerned #and as far as i'm concerned #but he lacks necessary perspective to really enact those values. decentering himself enough to really listen #while still keeping that personal focus. #i love that line where he says he's going to 'keep debugging his code' because it's so deferential like #'sorry for talking about you like this' and also 'i'm trying to see myself through your eyes.' means a lot to me. #and of course. the dear listeners literally reflecting eiffel while viewing him as the representative of humanity. there's something there #especially with the way eiffel externalizes both his good and bad qualities and projects them onto others #really good show. really good character writing. you know.

[invested-in-your-future]

What's wrong with Attack on Titan's depiction of racism?

Beyond AoT fumbling its metaphors hard (and landing somewhere in this weirdly centrist middle of "things bad"), one of the most unfortunate things one can do in terms of allusions to real world racism is to make your disenfranchised minorities "dangerous because of their magic".

I mentioned it before but that's one of the OLDEST stereotypes when it comes to variety of different cases of racism. All the urban myths about bloodletting, all the rumors about Romani people wielding "magic" and the long-running stereotype of black characters in the supporting cast having "magical powers" and serving as advisors to progress the plot. And that's just few examples.

Bigots LOVE those kinds of narratives to justify their hatred of the Other - its unfair to them you see, the deck of cards has been stacked against them from the start because "They" are running the world you see.

Sometimes the narrative manages to avoid it, like a lot of X-Men books highlighting how illogical racism towards mutants is in a world filled with cosmic beigns, superheroes, magic and literal gods. AOT is not that.

Rest is beyond the cut because obviously AOT spoilers

Within AOT lore you have a nation that literally holds the AOT world's equivalent of WMD in their blood. As in they literally have the power to end the world within their genes. Stressing the "literally" part here because the power literally activates via blood.

The Author then flip-flops between different cycles of racism where they are either victim or perpetrator, leading to "current " situation where they are essentially confined inside one concentration camp.

Let's ignore the troubling thematic ideas of centrism of how "minorities will go too far" for now. The story does.

Because that's not enough you see - the author then adds another flip where the MC, part of the said magical race living within a concentration camps, turns into basically Hitler who uses the hurt pride and grievances of his people to essentially kickstart apocalypse.

Now, given that would work real well to highlight the dynamics of authoritarianism and how people like that prey on the insecurities of other and how unresolved insecurities and rage can turn into something destructive and something awful.

Ironically, half the audience(readers and viewers) are caught by his charms and his rhetoric, just like it happens in the real world - using the show's equivalent of the hitler salute without even a single thought of what it actually means. People are angry that the rest of main cast are AGAINST this transformation of the MC.

Part of this sounds great right? The author had tricked audience into experiencing the allure of fascism and is just few steps away at pulling the rug from beneath them, right?

Except by the end of the final arc the MC, after doing the equivalent of setting off nukes through the world to destroy everything but his "Chosen Race", gets a pat on the back because somethingsomething magic bloodlines simply left him with no other choice you see. The show leers just few steps away from thanking the MC for doing genocide for the characters sake (and actually does that in the source). Its all the fault of alien magic powers that a special magic race of humans had now and not his.

So would the story now explore the actual power dynamics and how oppression and racism uses those power structures? No.

The very ending delivers a blanket statement that is basically "nukes bad and the world should do better to not be this way or everyone dies".

The ascent of authoritarianism of the lead character? The complex nature of oppression and generational trauma and rage? Doesn't matter because of time-traveling prophetic destiny-binding magic blood.

Not only does the story give the "magical minorities" the literal WMDs and has one of them become Hitler, but it also somehow manages to leer REALLY close to the WORST parts of Ken Levine's Bioshock Infinite where everything grows into thematically wishy-washy entertaining strawman arguments of "what if the minorities went too far"

The story blatantly uses and misuses allusions to real world racism and oppression and then handwaves it all away without making any clear-cut stance beyond "nukes".

It merely uses a harmful stereotype as a prop to deliver a milquetoast statement and walk back on any sort of stronger sentiment and also treats the part of audience (that missed the point it originally had made with the MC's direction) with kid gloves.

#rwde #tagging this because this tangentially relates to the ideas of making Faunus have genetic advantages #And because the way WF has been used in the show veers pretty close to the same vibes of centrism #And because I'd fully expect RWBY to also just dump every perceived human flaw on the Two Gods now if it were to ever conclude #SomethingSomething unchecked capitalism racism bigotry and other things are not at fault - the relics and the gods are

[technoxenoholic]

something that bugs me is people saying "neanderthals and humans" as though those are separate categories. you're saying "squares and rectangles" there, buddy. neanderthals were humans, exactly as human as sapiens. you wouldn't say "tigers and big cats". you would say "tigers and other big cats", because tigers are also big cats. same with neanderthals being also humans. ffs

#stfu blue #human-centrism is so powerful in the minds of the common people that they deny the humanity of other kinds of humans than their own #which is just stupid if you ask me #neanderthals weren't orcs or something come the fuck on

[marathehomosexual]

Nice dog whistle. Why do so many famous people i like turn out to be terfs? I still give support to the bayonetta boycot because thats a separate issue but holy shit i'm mad

#bayonetta #bayonetta 3 #video games #trans #trans rights #are #human rights #cw transphobes #cw transphobia #cw fake centrism #dog whistle

[katoska]

Disclaimer: I'm not defending Moclan society or the way they do gender, I'm just trying to make sense of it.

Maybe the female gender (or any strong sense of non-male gender identity) really is rarer on Moclan than the female sex, and being born with female anatomy is rarer than being born with male anatomy, though not "one female every couple of decades" rare.

If the vast majority of Moclans had always identified as male irrespective of their gender at birth, and the body modifications gave them some physical advantage (and who's to say that the cis males aren't also on "testosterone") in a very harsh environment, it would be no wonder that altering the female babies became standard practice and identifying as female was considered a mental disease. Or that the female-typical body is considered by most Moclans as deformed. A) they are rare, and unusual traits often get medicalised even if they are benign b) many of the Moclans who had that body type would have been dysphoric over it and considered themselves deformed, especially if they didn't know other afabs c) most of them (probably) are exlusively male-attracted, which would color their aestetic tastes.

It would be interesting to see if one - or more - of Heveena's Moclans decided they wanted to live as male on their home planet. Or just wanted to visit to meet guys. I'm sure Helveena would let them go. And of course they would be welcomed on Moclus as prodigal sons (it's good propaganda). Even more interesting if some male-assigned Moclans tried to board the return flight because they'd rather live in the colony with the (other) women.

#the Orville #I expect the females to get re-integrated (as females) into Moclan main society #seperate spaces but people being free to move from one to the other (ohhh I just got it) would be a step #getting to have a female partner or have a partner while female on Moclus would be another #also while I'm at it I want the Orville to get over it's human centrism #the cleft lip was a good analogy #the anatomical difference mightn't matter anymore now but they used to and the social effects of that should be understandable #are there any humans with dwarfism or down syndrome or autism or six fingers anymore? #are parents allowed to refuse a cure for their kids' neurodivergence? is being fat still stigmatised? #like yeah those are mostly traits rather than identities but are you allowed to have them? will you still get treated well?

[ohmystarsy]

I wish any post about literal war in Ukraine got so many notes here as a post about shitshow that is apparently British politics. like you lot don't want to have any uncomfortable thought EVER yet you think you are so morally above anyone else bc you excel in online discourse or sth and I'm done.

#im done with humanity srsly done #and with west-centrism #pointless post #personal

[iwillfuckingdoitdarling]

The photos of the premature babies at Al-Shifa hospital have reduced me to tears. If you find any reason to justify their death then you are not human to me. How can you gaze upon them and wish them death? Where is your humanity?????

#free Palestine #anti zionism #🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 #anti colonialism #anti imperialism #anti genocide #anti euro centrism #for fucks sake BE A COMPASSIONATE HUMAN #al shifa hospital

[unoisveimved-un-proffesional]

Anyway, Politics over...

For now...

#hexacles.txt #FUCK CENTRISM COMMUNITARIANISM AND FASCISM #I FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT THIS BECAUSE I WAS BORN INTO IT #CHANGE WILL COME ONE DAY IF WE FIGHT FOR IT. DISMANTLE THE FREE MARKET. #IF THE MARKET IS FREE HUMANITY ISNT

[rjalker]

"gender as a concept is 100% exclusive to humans because humans are Special™" is not actually a better alternative to "all robots and aliens conform to the white western human gender binary"

#whoever the hell wants to have a gender can have a gender people #you don't need to say it's illegal for aliens to have genders #gods damn. come on. be creative. have fun. #like people there could literally be aliens with their own gender systems and one of them sees a human gender and goes O: #I'm stealing that!!!!! #and vice versa!!!!! #''humans are the only Culture™ [not how this works!] in the whole universe to have gender'' is .....not the progressive idea #Humans are Space Orcs #people seem to think it is >.> #human centrism #exorsexism #transmisia

[llovelless]

for the first time in my life i’m dealing with trust issues. like god damn i made it so far and yet i just had to keep putting myself in bad situations 🙄 but also people are selfish and i SHOULD be more guarded idk

#in some ways i love the ego-centrism of humans but also … no

[aheeheemwhimper]

i can feel like i’m breaking through to my mom and then she’ll say some shit like “i just want a news outlet between msnbc and fox news.” hello?????

#humanity may never recover from the horseshoe theory or ‘centrism’ in general #not to mention she thinks msnbc is far left and fox news is far right #like ideally i /get/ it you want a rationalized discussion and analysis of both sides so you can come to your own conclusions #but it is impossible to find news that is not biased or propagandized bc we’re fkn human beings and we all have inherent biases #so you gotta go with people who’s biases are agreeable to your worldview or god forbid the same as yours #but admitting that will have the libs taking me out back and putting me down. do you really think republicans care about biased news?????? #except when it’s convenient to attack your news source?? #dont even get me started on how she reacts when i insult liberals. she thinks it’s the same as my antifeminist phase in highschool bc like.. #yeah it kind of is for the exact same reasons bc what i hated back then was radlibs and what i hate now are radlibs but she thinks i’ll #change my mind and realize i’m wrong about the necessity of the liberal struggle. the struggle for fucking what? to return to 2005? #when racism was defeated and only acceptable queers were in the public eye. and everyone still had faith in neoliberal economics

[youthofnausea7]

I think my favorite thing about centrists is the fact that they somehow think racism, fascism, and exploitation are these sacred functions that are innate to human nature and we just have to deal with them. As if there was some kind of spiritual balance between being racist and being not racist, and that's all the incentive you need to volunteer going out of your way to stand up for racists.

#youthofnausea #centrism #racism #fascism #exploitation #human nature #spirituality #fish hook theory

[technoxenoholic]

"people with such-and-such stigmatized trait should be respected because they're still humans"

no, we should be respected because we're people. some of us aren't human. we should still be respected.

#stfu blue #tired of seeing this shit on pd blogs #i know this is an extremely niche frustration but. man. i hate human centrism

[wanderingtycho]

For the longest time in Disco Elysium, I couldn’t figure out why Empathy was the stat chosen to represent Moralism, the other political stats made more sense to me.

Rhetoric is Communism, constantly arguing for you and dismantling the arguments of others, choosing to feel smart and miserable over acknowledging your hopelessness under capital.

Endurance is Fascism, purely physical, purely reactionary. No intellectual angle and not the emotions of your mind, but of your gut. The squirming, uncomfortable feeling of your insides telling you that everything sucks in your life because of *them*.

Libertarianism is Savoir Faire, the slimy show off stat, the ooze and groove and grinding of a real hustler. The kind of mentality that leads a terminally poor cop to walk around the most destitute ghetto in the city bragging about his net worth and his visionary money manifesting, to which normal people rightfully treat you as if you’re insane.

All well and good, all tracks, but then there’s Moralism, the political center, the Kingdom of Conscience. The stat for this would seem plainly obvious, Volition, right? The self control stat, the stat of temperance and rationality and measured action. The boring stat. Hell, Volition is the one who chimes in approvingly when you try on the Moralist pants. It seems like a perfect fit, but no, the stat for Moralism is Empathy.

Empathy, the stat that lets you, even forces you to feel for others. To reach them at their level, cut through to the source of all their feelings, the Superego. What does any of that have to do with Moralism? With slow, incremental progress and La Responsabilité?

At first, I thought it might have been an oversight, one Psyche skill swapped with another. Then I thought maybe it was meant as a subtly pro-moralist statement, that extreme political ideologies make it harder to connect with others, and being more “sensible” politically makes you more relatable. But that doesn’t really gel with the games stance on centrism, which is decidedly not positive, with the Moralist International depicted as a cold and dehumanizing force of oppression.

It didn’t make sense until I completed the Moralist political vision quest, which is by far my favorite out of all four. With Harry on top of the statue of Frissel III, begging and pleading with Coalition Warship Archer, it’s an Empathy check you have to pass to make the faceless drone on the other side of the radio see you. Hear you, acknowledge you as a person who is suffering, acknowledge the suffering of Martinase and Revachol under the unfeeling negligence of the Moralintern.

That’s when it hit me, Empathy is the Moralist stat because it taps into a universal human experience. Most people don’t have consistent political beliefs, even those ascribing themselves to more radical points on the spectrum. Most people have a complicated relationship with faith. But that moment of Harry on the statue, shouting desperately at a dreary sky for someone to please do something about this, that moment is empathetic to us all.

Regardless of political leanings, whether secular or spiritual, that gnawing existential dread is consistent. The world keeps getting worse and worse, and nobody with any power seems to care, every day we’re met with the silence of God and the silence of Capital. That’s why Empathy was chosen to embody Moralism, to recognize that deep down we’ve all felt that anxious longing. To look up at the sky and hope that something, someone. Anything, anyone, would please just listen and hear. Please just do something about this.

#disco elysium

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

It’s kinda sad we’re the only ones left. I get kinda existential when I look at fossilized specimens and reactions of other human species. At the same time, Sapiens and Neadrethals being so horny for each other one doesn’t exist anymore will always be kinda funny to me

It's definitely sad. It's also why anthropocentrism exists- the only way we could possibly justify the idea that we are different from other animals is because we don't have any close relatives. You would never see raven-centrism from a raven, because crows exist. Between our profound isolation phylogenetically, our brains inability to not find patterns (to the point that we find them where they don't exist), and to create "archetypes" in our brains to summarize different phenomena, we were on a collision course for a culture built on hierarchies and stereotyping and narcissism.

That said, it will be forever funny that all the different close-to-sapiens species that existed in the recent time just got folded into H. sapiens. The power of Love!

#humans #anthropology #human evolution #not dinosaurs