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FWIW I do hope you come back after the ban and keep posting here, even though we disagree you clearly have things to say.
On the particular topic of plurals: It's not even a new thing. There have been waves of multiple personality disorder diagnosis before the internet was a thing, and in the resulting controversy a consensus emerged that the diagnosis was actually helping to cause and perpetuate the supposed disorder. here's a very nice article about that.
There's an interesting parallel here to claims I've seen here about how teachers "find" transgenderism in kids, it fits really nicely. However: I think in your discord explorations, most of the kids weren't diagnosed by a psychologist, but "discovered" it themselves on the internet. I think the same thing happens with the trans kids.
I don't think so! I'd read it.
About 10+ years ago when I signed up for tumblr I took the username I have now and boy, oh boy, did I get a lot of messages from people who wanted it badly. They offered to buy it, they threatened me over it. There were many exclamation points. So, I'd agree with the idea that this is just an old thing with a new name.
Though, I do agree that plurals is definitely a thing that has expanded beyond its normal base because of people's fetishism over identity these days. It's like diagnoses from doctors are now invitations to a fandom rather than treated as any actual problem. I feel like every person I meet online under 30 is either furry/bi/trans/nonbinary/plural/etc. because, I suppose, there's power in being something more than just normal. Most just put it in their bios and I wouldn't know if I didn't check them but there are a few, notably ones that are plural that have a lot of performative elements to their identity specialization where they make new discord accounts, change their account name constantly, etc. They're like Anthony Hopkins in Magic when he tries to stop talking as the puppet for five minutes. They have to tell you all about their multiple personalities, it's impossible not to.
It's also interesting to me that unlike whatever fiction on MPD I've seen where they put on a big show, the plurals I've noticed change nothing about their presentation except to deliberately tell you how that personality is different (this one is gay, this one is a girl, etc) but there's no discernible difference to me in the text, it's just the same person telling me a list of biographic details. I suppose back before 'systems' you'd have to perform to get a diagnosis, I somehow doubt you'd have to now if someone is handing out diagnoses for this, and even if they aren't self-diagnosis is good enough, anyway.
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