fluffboy   

 #horizontalism #selfexpression
Is the reader of this interested in horizontalism/horizontal organizing and unique forms of self expression, especially those which require research to fully realize? (therianthropes and dronethings as well as transgender folk come to mind)

The reader should come together with me and any others who are interested
to form a council for the Research and Development of Unique Self Expression with consensus-based decision making (a process in which a proposal is only passed when all members of the council feel comfortable to give their consent, and in which a proposal is modified until all concerns are satisfied)
(DM me, or respond to this if interested.)

Drones, therianthropes, queer/trans folk, furries, freaks, bodymodders, biohackers, fleshgrafters and in general all who value self expression highly are welcome.

What is the purpose of such a group?

  • To come together and leverage individual capacities to tackle greater research projects.
  • To research and develop technologies which help self expression.
  • To get together and cooperate/collaborate with like-minded entities.
  • To share ways of self expression and the technologies which facilitate them.
  • In general, to facilitate self expression.

Lastly, my personal motivation for attempting to start this group is my interest in horizontal organizing and my realization that I come up with wacky ideas for self expression purposes all the time. Additionally, to me, the primary purpose of this group is research & development.

Some Base principles
Below I shall suggest some base principles of the group and a rationale for each. The base principles can be modified by consensus decision but I offer the following:

  • No bigotry (transphobia, homophobia, racism, ableism, etc) of any kind.
    Rationale: Bigotry stifles self expression by creating fear, additionally almost all who would be interested in this group probably fall into some group where bigotry harms them directly.
  • Do not judge what others do to their bodies.
    Rationale: Unlimited bodily autonomy is a prerequisite to unlimited self expression.
  • Share technology openly with members of the group, keep software and hardware open. (This is less an organizing principle, but more a basic virtue of the group)
    Rationale: To come together in a group would have no purpose if everyone simply did their own thing and did not let others take part.
  • Never create any structure which de facto forces members to seek approval for their self-expression.
    Rationale: To explain this one I have to grant some context:
    The way I view facilitation of expression would include distribution of resources, such as donations and related things.
    However, how these resources would be distributed could become a structure similar to a research grant, where a project is brought before the group and then approved for funding. This could especially hinder those research projects where only one entity benefits, where funding could be denied by the general group, which then would essentially render a resource intensive task infeasible or impossible. Which could then in turn cause members to follow group trends to seek approval, rather than their own unique self.
    I do not want any of this to happen, ever.
    This is some extra rambling and discussion, feel free to add onto this: Additionally, this distribution of resources should be by need (I think, I’ve also considered like a slush fund where everyone gets some equal part of the resources no questions asked) and so that all individual needs are satisfied to the greatest extent possible, so those who do not have expendable resources would be preferred over those who do. This idea of distribution could potentially clash with the above point, in the sense that if one group of individuals within (hypothetically, therianthropes) has larger numbers, that satisfying all individual needs could also result in those groups of individuals (hypothetically, drones) which are in lesser number to receive inadequate resources, which then could again result in those lesser-numbered subgroups to need to gain popularity, lest they be restricted in their development.
    (Do note that lots of research that could help a drone, could also help a therianthrope, and there will likely be many subjects where the interests of various subgroups overlap.)
    I guess this sort of problem might always exist with any scenario where limited resources are distributed in a group, they have to be triaged, and this triage process won’t satisfy all as fully as each member would wish to.
    • Mar 28, 2025 at 1:02amWeb
    Show threadfluffboy   Mar 28, 2025
    for base principle 3. I have a less harsh version that I'll put here:
    3. Share technology openly with members of the group, keep software and hardware open. (This is less an organizing principle, but more a basic virtue of the group, where it's generally wanted, but members shouldn't necessarily be forced to make available everything they do and research)

    I feel this may be superior, since maybe forcing every member to open the stuff they do might be, like, overstepping I guess?
    Though I also really would prefer this group to share stuff with each other so every member can be enriched by the knowledge and development others have made. I feel that kind of collaboration is really fundamental to being a group in the first place.

    My reasoning for advocating a less harsh base principle 3. is partially also that I don't want "regular progress updates" to become a hard requirement for group participation.
    I've thought that to a certain extent, presenting stuff in an of itself is also work, so members should probably not be forced to present things, but still it should be largely culturally enforced to open hardware and software.
    I also feel, keeping software and hardware open as a principle won't necessarily require members to present anything.
    And I'd also add that some may use arcane tools that no one else uses, which might make their things less accessible, but I think its probably best to let every member use whatever arcane tools they please, even if that sometimes might bring unease to using another's research.
    Show threadfluffboy   Mar 28, 2025
    in general, feel free to discuss stuff here. to add things that one might find reasonable additions, objections, criticisms, etc.