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Professional Withnail Fan

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21, disabled catgirl deeply in love with the worst fictional addict you've ever seen. Too filthy to live, too spiteful to die.


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osedax
@osedax

kind of wild how it's totally normal for someone so consider themselves as an "Animal Lover" while disliking bugs*. Like... bugs are the majority of animals in terms of species, biomass, & individuals...
girl you don't Love animals, best-case you think the animal kingdom is mid... 2.5/5 stars.......

*bugs, colloquial term. If someone loves all animals except hemipterans specifically, i wanna hear them out, i have never seen this opinion before and im so interested lmao


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in reply to @osedax's post:

as someone who does claim to be an animal lover (despite loving quite a few animals) and also has a huge irrational phobia of all things one would consider insects, I have a lot of respect for them. I can appreciate the fact that, although they terrify me with their sounds and many appearances, they look like that because they're extremely specialized in doing a thing that helps keep this planet alive. Even invasive species, they're just doing it in the wrong place. people who straight up hate bugs like I get the resentment but not the attitude

i have legit clinical arachnophobia (that i'm more or less recovered from) so i get what you're saying but there's a big difference between people with phobias like us and the general population of people who simply don't like bugs, you know? i think you get that anyway but i felt like poking in 👋

No I absolutely understood what grim was saying with this post, I was just adding my feelings as a severe bugphobia haver and not understanding most animal lovers also really hating bugs. I understood how it could be seen in a weird way, so I appreciate you double checking, I understand the reply I made could be hard to understand due to the way I write.

If this didn't clear up my feelings, because of the way I write, please let me know

I think I misread a bit, missed a few things in your reply tbh! I don't think there's anything wrong with the way you write and I apologize if/that I seem to have brushed on a possible insecurity. I promise I was not trying to start an argument or something, either - if that was an underlaying concern you had.

I think the misunderstanding came in because we are probably at different points in our respective arancho/bugphobia journeys here. (I'm not using the word 'recovery' to avoid casting that on you even if it's relevant to me). I would go in more detail but I think I'd be overexplaining at that point. Anyway, sorry! Thank you for your patience.

I think having a phobia While having a lot of respect for something is like, super brave and cool, like phobias are tough to help but the way one handles having one can be navigated
The attitude is what im particularly bewildered by, as someone with pretty intense dog anxiety, because Im fully used to navigating a world where im around frightening animals and just have to keep trucking. Sometimes thats the best we can do and I think its great when ppl put in that effort :]

i think this is, like... a cultural problem? specifically a western/eurocentric-ish problem. it's something i've thought about a lot because i have a real actual clinical arachnophobia and while i have it because of numerous events that traumatized me i don't think it would have been so impactful/long-lasting if spiders specifically weren't a creature that people LOVE demonizing completely unfairly.

i know some countries actually like at least some of their bugs quite a lot or hold them in some regard, a good example being that japan has beetle hunting/bug catching as part of its like summer fun activities (the base love for which is why we even have pokemon; creator satoshi tajiri just loves bugs so much).

Yeah for sure its big time cultural -- one of the best helps for bug phobias is to learn cool, non-scary bug facts, like how some bugs can change colors and become red or gold. Being surrounded by constant Scary facts is not going to help dipping one's toe in.

I often think about it due to having dog anxiety, also from trauma, also sensory issues ... if my perspective on, and behavior towards dogs was anything like the way people treat a bug, I'd probably be in jail or something

so true!! my phobia is mostly recovered but it's of course (as is very common) one of those things where you still slip backwards into not coping so well and reacting poorly (i.e. somewhat recently i encountered a house spider and hyperventilated 😔👍). but learning Cool Spider Facts has made me appreciate them much more over the years. some of our systemmates even adore them which is great. :)

also yeah, definitely, re: your dog anxiety comparison. it's like, it's just socially acceptable to hate bugs? and that's really wild when you think about it.

i think, unfortunately, a lot of the bug-hating attitude is something people need to confront. like "why do you think it's okay to be so disrespectul to an animal? literally because of its size? because you think it's less intelligent?" i think that's a feeling/thought people need to introspect on and understand where the root of it lies. but i'm almost certain it's probably about some combination of size, intelligence, or perceived "dirtiness".