cashew | Friday, October 15th, 2021

So, uh, I've been having some serious writer's block (and other issues I will not disclose in a public entry). Thus, I've been binging things in an attempt to get over it. (I know, I know, the best way is to just sit down and write anyway, but sometimes, I have terrible discipline.) Anyway, the point is, the following is a fascinating essay-discussion-autobiography-stream-of-consciousness thing made by Kyle Kallgren that interrogates AMURICA and how White Americans perceive their American identity. Also, science fiction. And American identity of science fiction. And being a cis-White-man examining/confronting his privilege-trauma while receiving abuse from other cis-White-men for having the audacity to implore them to do the same. Because even if you are a cis-White-man, it doesn't mean you don't have some kind of trauma, too. And that trauma, unexamined, can lead to really bad stuff for the not-cis-White-man.

Watch on YouTube

Highly recommended. Give it a watch.

P.S. As a third culture child that comes from the unholy union of the two geopolitical competing poles of power, it's nice to see a non-outsider outsider perspective, if that makes any sense.

P.P.S. Because this really bothered me when reading the comments of Youtube (why self why?!), "sentient" and "sapient" are not interchangeable. Most people meant "sapient" when they use "sentient". Sentient just means responds to sense, e.g. insects are sentient. Sapient refers to having "wisdom", or as we say in the behavioral sciences "theory of mind". We can't really prove, yet, that any species other than humans possesses sapience (hence Homo sapiens), but some species get pretty damn close. (In other words: sentience = edible, sapience = not edible, morally.)