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   Soatok Dreamseeker (soatok@furry.engineer)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 17:46:56 JST Soatok Dreamseeker

   in reply to

   If you want a good idea of who matters, look at all the kind and creative souls that make the things you enjoy in life possible.

   The artists, musicians, and so on.

   But also the folks that run their own Fediverse servers so you can keep in contact with your friends (and maybe meet new ones) without needing a government or corporation's permission (or to pay them the cost of admission, for that matter).

   Think about the hundreds of volunteers that make each convention possible.

   Think about the people in your life who have been kind to you in some small way.

   I promise you your life would be immensely worse off without them. Without me? Not so much.

   And even if you're one of the few people that has materially benefitted from my blog, the idea of a persistent continuous self is an illusion anyway.

   We're different people throughout our lives. Sometimes drastically.

   Would you say the same about me 20 years ago?

   Will you be able to say the same in 20 years, with all the unforeseeable changes?

   Surely not.

   • Embed this notice
     Soatok Dreamseeker (soatok@furry.engineer)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 17:46:58 JST Soatok Dreamseeker

     It's really quite funny that I can write an introspective piece about not mattering and so many people respond to it with an argument.

     https://soatok.blog/2024/09/09/doesnt-matter/

     Maybe I'm a terrible writer if I can't be easily understood on such a simple concept.

     Self-importance is an anchor. It can be useful in the proper environment, but it's dead weight otherwise.

     Parasocial relationships and hero worship elevate others' importance. Narcissism elevates one's own importance. Neither of these things end well.

     While I appreciate when others are trying to be kind, it does sadden me a bit when people miss the point so broadly that they insist the contrary to me.

     That post wasn't me trying to fish for compliments. I would never publish something so shallow or self-serving.

     If I died suddenly, there would still be furries, hackers, and furry hackers. Most of the people in either camp would be unaffected by my absence.

     The same cannot be said of the overworked staff at your local conventions, and so on.

     Rich Felker repeated this.