So. Earlier today, I posted on my Overwatch blog about the urls I horded. They're just the Overwatch hero's names, except with "kin" tacked onto the end. I got met with a bunch of hateful backlash from people who were pissed off about it, and were quick to call me a "neurotypical" and all that other fun kind of stuff. Saying that I must obviously hate mentally ill people and that I should literally die. The thing is, I don't quite get why fictionkin is a thing, and why people are so rabid to "protect" everyone who identifies with fictional characters. I would consider myself otherkin, to a point. It's not like I don't know what I'm talking about. This was my initial response to the ask that I was first given, but the original post with my urls has a bit of heat added to it. So who is correct? Am I honest to god a sack of shit who should kill themselves because I believe that you shouldn't rely so heavily on immersive roleplay to cope with things? I'm mentally ill. I was professionally diagnosed with mentall illnesses when I was 8 years old; over 16 years ago. Probably longer than some of these kids have been alive. I know what the fuck it's like to have mental illnesses and strange ways to cope with them. But what I don't like are people claiming that my favourite characters belong to them, and that no one else can have them or "identify" as them. It seems that being "mentally ill" is nothing more than a green card to be a complete asshole to people and tell them that their favourite characters don't belong to them and that their own personal headcanons are now canon and if you disagree with them, then boom, you get a callout post made about you. I want to enjoy my Overwatch characters without someone trying to shove their way in and tell me that THEY are literally the character. I don't want that. How do I deal with this situation? Yeah, maybe I didn't start it off on the wrong foot, but my point still stands.
I think you're perfectly justified in your views of kin and fictionkin; they seem very reasonable to me. and you aren't going around attacking people who disagree with those views, unlike the people who're calling you a "Sentient Trash Heap" for expressing your disagreement with their belief that they literally are a character. seriously, if you're ever being attacked without having first attacked someone, you're probably in the right. you seem like a chill dude who doesn't deserve this type of shit. I'm afraid I don't have any advice for dealing with these unprovoked attacks; I think these people are already so unreasonable that they're going to ignore anything you do or say if it disagrees with their view that you're Problematic, no matter how reasonable it is. just know that you're definitely in the right here—not even on a basis of, like, "correctness of belief," but on a basis of "isn't an asshole to other people about their belief"—maybe write a post coherently stating your position on the matter like you did here that you can point to if asked, and try not to let these people get to you. also maybe check out this thread if you haven't already for a previous Kintsugi discussion on the topic of fictionkin. you certainly aren't unusual in your views.
