I was extremely sceptical at the premise of this based on the title, but having read the whole thing, there are actually some very good points in there that I agree with.
Thank you. Spreading the politics of soulism has been an uphill battle with the general public, but when I present any one of these points to an expert it’s immediately agreed with. The fact that reality is fake is basically common knowledge among sociologists. It seems, however, that few people have turned this fact into a political will and praxis. The closest I’ve seen anyone come is certain mystery cults. My long term plan is to build a serious political movement. In my opinion there has been a serious flaw in the trans acceptance movement globally up until now in that it did not include soulism. Soulist theory handily disarms every single transphobic talking point with the simplest of logic. And the lateral violence that some privileged queer people exert on those whose identities have less social acceptance suddenly becomes impossible. I think trying to claw forward in rights one identity at a time is a mistake. What our community needs is decisive action to protect everyone who ever has and ever will have a queer identity. And the soulist community is the only political group I’ve ever seen act in such a manner. Individuals, yes, but I have not seen blanket acceptance on a mass scale, because all hitherto mass movements relied on assimilating certain identities into reality.
My thinking has always been that the only “reality” I’m qualified to talk about is my own perception of it, and it’s not something I can define for anyone else. Therefore, logically, the only appropriate course of action is to accept what other people perceive as real for them, as long as what they perceive as real doesn’t require them to force their perception of reality onto others. Accepting a particular deity as real? That’s fine, it’s real for them even if it’s not for me. But when that drives the person to persecute queer people, that’s them trying to define reality for everyone, not just themselves, and that’s not okay.
I’m not sure if that fully matches up with soulist theory, but it seems to me that our thinking on things are compatible, and I’m happy to consider soulists as allies. :)
Sorry no, objective reality is objective.
There’s no such thing as objective reality. The belief in objective reality has caused untold harm through history. It’s used to delegitimise trans identities and indigenous spiritualities. It was used to form theories of race realism, phrenology, and eugenics. It was the justification used by Europeans for the Crusades, slavery, and colonisation. Every one of the worst actions of humanity has resulted from realism.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but…
Matter and information cannot interact directly
This is provably wrong, and everyone can check it for themselves with a simple double slit experiment, or the triple polarizer experiment. Information does interact with matter. Furthermore, all points to “matter” just being a different form of information.
Skipping that, the rest is a nice manifesto for perceptual relativism… but I wouldn’t go as far as disregarding all objective reality, or defending a “magical” interpretation.
Ah, yes. Conservatism.