Post #2436548
2026-05-01 17:01 UTC
@emsenn@kolektiva.social This is super insightful, thank you.
I suspect another driver for complaints about the whistles but not the fidget toys is that the whistles are "standing up to the government", i.e. trying to disrupt the status quo and shift the balance of power, while fidget toys... look, they may be very useful for ND folks, but they're not exactly disrupting established power dynamics. I think that disruption worries some people — maybe even just subconsciously — and they look for ways to stop it.
Replies (1)
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@emsenn@kolektiva.social 2026-05-01 17:23
@kagan@wandering.shop I think a lot of folk view fidgets as a self-comforting that is disruptive to the status quo, because it soothes the anxieties the status quo causes. But... they rely on industrial extraction and so on. Personal wellness, secured via privilege, is not *actually* the radical thing so many folk seem determined to believe it is. What's weird is there seems to be less understanding of this these days than when I was younger, when a lot of techie-style wellness was called "zen fascism"