There's something to be written about how TikTok/Tumblr self-diagnosis communities and NoFap dudes are parallel. They both presume that the irrational impulses (sense of unwellness, sense of pleasure-sickness) of a human must be subordinated to & validated by social recognition (medicine, romantic partners). They form communities of peers, nevertheless, to generate the kinds of affirmation that are rarely forthcoming from real audiences.
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My counter to both would be:
A. What if you're just a weird lil freak? and what if that's fine?
B. What if the conceptual basis for your entire inner life was arbitrarily assembled without any long-term interest in efficacy? and what if the people who made up "the rules" don't really give a shit about you?
