1. Some of them talked me out of suicide. They didn’t judge me or tell me “grow up, you crying miserable b***” they just listened, talked with me for a long time, related to me with their own things, and didn’t make me feel guilty or like I’d done something bad by letting my emotions out. They were genuinely concerned for me and were almost like friends.

  2. When I was being harassed, they either dealt with them or offered me support/advice on what to do, and offered me encouragement, even if I was crying.

  3. Most of my friends at school were from this scene, and they were genuinely kind, loyal, and very funny people.

  4. One time I lost my purse and was freaking out. I was already having a bad day and some man who belonged to said subculture comes out of nowhere and finds it for me. Again, even though I was crying, he didn’t judge me or insult me over it.

When I’m feeling depressed, I look up videos, posts, etc about the subculture, and it makes me feel comforted. Relived this subculture that’s so sentimental to me is still going. Comforted, but also there’s this bittersweet feeling, because I think none of those people I knew before are with me right now, I either lost contact with them or the men who talked me out of suicide don’t hang out in the spot they hung out in anymore. Aside from therapists, they’re the only other group of people I feel comfortable about opening up to. I bottle up my emotions normally. I feel like if this subculture died out tomorrow my world would feel a lot colder.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    7·
    2 days ago

    Well, yeah, it’s normal.

    When you find goodness in the world, and it shares a common denominator, it is perfectly normal to develop some degree or another of affection/attachment for that common denominator. You don’t have to be depressed for that, it just makes it easier.

    It can turn into an unhealthy obsession, and it’s possible that the motivations may not be without strings (cults and such), but those aren’t going to be the case every time.

    Like, for me, I have a deep and abiding love for gay culture, specifically gay male culture, because of how much love I have received from that subculture. That has expanded over the years to embrace the entire rainbow of the LGBTQ+ community (with some extra affection for my trans folks). You go for a while needing acceptance and open appreciation, you’re going to end up returning it when a specific group is where you find it.

    Truth is that the more sub a subculture is, the more likely the people in it are to be outsiders in some way. Maybe marginalized, maybe just atypical; but whether they were individually outsiders that found solidarity, or they became such by joining the subculture, outsiders have a tendency to be at least a little more accepting of other outsiders (though you run into some weird shit where you get schisms sometimes).

    And it can be local. As an example, I’ve had universally great interactions with juggalos in my area, but they can be major dicks in other places. As another, furries tend to be really chill with non furries that accept them but can have bitter faction wars with each other.

    Don’t let yourself get sucked into any cult shit, but otherwise find the goodness of humanity wherever you can, and enjoy it. Nothing wrong with that