I’m a magic-using weirdo and if someone in My coven said this shit, I would tell them to stop using the astral plane to stalk people. In fact, I once was in a situation like this! One of My more benign exes introjected Me and had been having an intimate relationship with the factive based on Me. I requested that they banish/euthanise the factive and expressed a lot of anger and disgust that they had kept this from Me and treated it like a “fun little secret”.
Happy to explain the terms at play here to any non-mages who are curious.
I understand the context here, but if you genuinely wish, to have positive discussions with people, you should probably not call them “mundane”. People will assume you mean they are boring and dull.
Good advice, thank you. And this is why I hate JK Rowling. We had a perfectly good word for non-magic-users, and then she went and started a crusade to exterminate trans kids and we found out the books were super racist and ableist and bad. And now I’m not comfortable using her word, but I don’t have any good words for non-mages, so I’m using these other words that have other side effects I don’t intend. I wish I could say “muggle” in good conscience.
Yeah fuck Rowling, that piece of human garbage. It does leave a bad taste in your mouth, these days… The only English term I have figured out, that is usually understandable in the context, and triggers no negative connotations, is just “non-practicing”. Which then, is really inconvenient in form.
The thing is, even without Rowling ripping the mask off, muggle was always a fucked up term to use in this context because it’s literally describing a group of people who are treated as second class citizens on the basis of an immutable biological characteristic, a situation that is basically never interrogated throughout the books. The fundamental ideological divide between the villains and the heroes is basically “We should enslave or exterminate the muggles” vs “We should treat the muggles like unfortunate idiot children.” In retrospect, it wasn’t actually all that surprising that Rowling turned out to be a gender-essentialist (and I do say that as someone who used to be a fan).
Sidenote, this is why Witch Hat Atelier absolutely kicks the pants off of Harry Potter.
I have legitimately loved almost every witch anime I’ve seen (I like magicillusions Michael, my favorite quest for glory class was the wizard, go figure) I should convince the wife to watch this
I agree in the context of HP, and I also love Pointy Hat Studio.
But in this context, “muggles” are the people with the social power. Elsewhere in this thread, someone has said “you need psychiatric help if you think magic is real.” So sanism and stigma against mental illness are being used to enforce an ideology that denies the cultural experiences of magic users. Those are the actions of the privileged majority.
And our world is more like Pointy Hat than Harry Potter. Because anyone can learn magic. And unlike in Pointy Hat, it’s not a secret. Or at least, the secret isn’t being kept by us. It’s being kept by capitalists. If you want to be a mage, you can just learn magic. I’ll even teach you if you want. In fact, here’s a link to a spellbook you can read for free: https://usermanual.wiki/Document/PsychonautFieldManualSmall.49336827/view (disclaimer: Archtraitor Bluefluke is a good teacher but has problematic views on chakras and cultural appropriation. Please skip the chapter on chakras, it is a closed tradition. There are plenty of open spells you can learn).
So I don’t think “muggles” are being oppressed in our world, and I don’t think it’s possible for there to exist a meaningful slur against non-mages.
Here’s the thing; at no point did anyone suggest that real life “muggles” are some kind of oppressed class or that you were engaging in some bold new category of ‘-ism’ by using that term. You can use whatever word you want for “people who don’t do magic.” No one really gives a shit. But if your purpose in using that word was to entirely divorce of it’s original context as an oppressive term for a biologically distinct underclass… Why use the word? Why not just invent a completely new term instead? If it’s going to mean something almost entirely different, why carry over those associations?
Now, this is the point where the sane thing to do would be to say “Honestly, at the time when we co-opted the term we just hadn’t done the work of interrogating how messed up the original context was,” and I would completely respect that. Because as I have just stated, I was a fan of those books too. I also let a lot of stuff slide that I really shouldn’t have, and it wasn’t until later that I went back and re-examined the material and started to really piece together just how fucked up Rowling’s worldview is, even as expressed in the context of her children’s stories. So I’m just as guilty as anyone else is in that regard. None of this is a call-out, just a call for further examination.
Anyway, thank you for the offer of the primer, but if I want to learn more about spellcasting I have at least a dozen or so friends I can consult for their expertise on paganism, heathenry, witchcraft, or chaos magick. None of whom have ever tried to use the terms “chakra” and “sephirot” interchangeably, which suggests a deep misunderstanding of either tantra, kabbalah, or both. Lovely art though.
Oh, very good call out. I was not even thinking about the negative associations with muggle! Just straight up jumped, without thinking, at the chance to insult Rowling.
I was wondering why an obvious shitpost had so many downvotes. Looking at their profile, this is either a very commited shitposter or someone someone who is deadly serious (and honestly those two can be very difficult to tell apart)
I’m a magic-using weirdo and if someone in My coven said this shit, I would tell them to stop using the astral plane to stalk people. In fact, I once was in a situation like this! One of My more benign exes introjected Me and had been having an intimate relationship with the factive based on Me. I requested that they banish/euthanise the factive and expressed a lot of anger and disgust that they had kept this from Me and treated it like a “fun little secret”.
Happy to explain the terms at play here to any non-mages who are curious.
But like you know magic isn’t real right? I’m all for larping you do you, but you need psychiatric help if you think magic is real.
I think they’re serious looking through their history. Or a super commited shitposter. Hard to dinstinguish between the two.
Do you talk like this to all religious people or just pagans?
All religious people. When fighting with my dad who’s Christian I’ve referred to him as your magical sky Daddy.
Well, at least you’re consistently insufferable.
Because people believing in bullshit had been great for humanity right?
I’m a huge fantasy nerd I wish magic was real, but it’s not so believing it it is silly, and likely harmful as is belief in any religion.
Sure, but there’s a difference between being an atheist and being a douchebag. You’re doing the latter.
Rather be douchebag than a idiot who believes in magic.
I understand the context here, but if you genuinely wish, to have positive discussions with people, you should probably not call them “mundane”. People will assume you mean they are boring and dull.
Good advice, thank you. And this is why I hate JK Rowling. We had a perfectly good word for non-magic-users, and then she went and started a crusade to exterminate trans kids and we found out the books were super racist and ableist and bad. And now I’m not comfortable using her word, but I don’t have any good words for non-mages, so I’m using these other words that have other side effects I don’t intend. I wish I could say “muggle” in good conscience.
I’m a normal person who doesn’t think he can use magic because of talking to a chatbot too much
Yeah fuck Rowling, that piece of human garbage. It does leave a bad taste in your mouth, these days… The only English term I have figured out, that is usually understandable in the context, and triggers no negative connotations, is just “non-practicing”. Which then, is really inconvenient in form.
The thing is, even without Rowling ripping the mask off, muggle was always a fucked up term to use in this context because it’s literally describing a group of people who are treated as second class citizens on the basis of an immutable biological characteristic, a situation that is basically never interrogated throughout the books. The fundamental ideological divide between the villains and the heroes is basically “We should enslave or exterminate the muggles” vs “We should treat the muggles like unfortunate idiot children.” In retrospect, it wasn’t actually all that surprising that Rowling turned out to be a gender-essentialist (and I do say that as someone who used to be a fan).
Sidenote, this is why Witch Hat Atelier absolutely kicks the pants off of Harry Potter.
didn’t they just release an anime? how was that?
Genuinely incredible. Imagine if Studio Ghibli said “Fuck it, we’re doing TV now.” That’s the animation and directing quality in every episode.
I have legitimately loved almost every witch anime I’ve seen (I like
magicillusions Michael, my favorite quest for glory class was the wizard, go figure) I should convince the wife to watch thisI agree in the context of HP, and I also love Pointy Hat Studio.
But in this context, “muggles” are the people with the social power. Elsewhere in this thread, someone has said “you need psychiatric help if you think magic is real.” So sanism and stigma against mental illness are being used to enforce an ideology that denies the cultural experiences of magic users. Those are the actions of the privileged majority.
And our world is more like Pointy Hat than Harry Potter. Because anyone can learn magic. And unlike in Pointy Hat, it’s not a secret. Or at least, the secret isn’t being kept by us. It’s being kept by capitalists. If you want to be a mage, you can just learn magic. I’ll even teach you if you want. In fact, here’s a link to a spellbook you can read for free: https://usermanual.wiki/Document/PsychonautFieldManualSmall.49336827/view (disclaimer: Archtraitor Bluefluke is a good teacher but has problematic views on chakras and cultural appropriation. Please skip the chapter on chakras, it is a closed tradition. There are plenty of open spells you can learn).
So I don’t think “muggles” are being oppressed in our world, and I don’t think it’s possible for there to exist a meaningful slur against non-mages.
Here’s the thing; at no point did anyone suggest that real life “muggles” are some kind of oppressed class or that you were engaging in some bold new category of ‘-ism’ by using that term. You can use whatever word you want for “people who don’t do magic.” No one really gives a shit. But if your purpose in using that word was to entirely divorce of it’s original context as an oppressive term for a biologically distinct underclass… Why use the word? Why not just invent a completely new term instead? If it’s going to mean something almost entirely different, why carry over those associations?
Now, this is the point where the sane thing to do would be to say “Honestly, at the time when we co-opted the term we just hadn’t done the work of interrogating how messed up the original context was,” and I would completely respect that. Because as I have just stated, I was a fan of those books too. I also let a lot of stuff slide that I really shouldn’t have, and it wasn’t until later that I went back and re-examined the material and started to really piece together just how fucked up Rowling’s worldview is, even as expressed in the context of her children’s stories. So I’m just as guilty as anyone else is in that regard. None of this is a call-out, just a call for further examination.
Anyway, thank you for the offer of the primer, but if I want to learn more about spellcasting I have at least a dozen or so friends I can consult for their expertise on paganism, heathenry, witchcraft, or chaos magick. None of whom have ever tried to use the terms “chakra” and “sephirot” interchangeably, which suggests a deep misunderstanding of either tantra, kabbalah, or both. Lovely art though.
Honestly, at the time when we co-opted the term we just hadn’t done the work of interrogating how messed up the original context was
Not that I’m sane, of course!
Oh, very good call out. I was not even thinking about the negative associations with muggle! Just straight up jumped, without thinking, at the chance to insult Rowling.
I was wondering why an obvious shitpost had so many downvotes. Looking at their profile, this is either a very commited shitposter or someone someone who is deadly serious (and honestly those two can be very difficult to tell apart)
They are very seriously insane.
Deadly serious. Would you like to read My manifesto on how consensus reality is a social construct the bourgeiousie use to control the workers?
We lost another one to AI psychosis. This one thinks they can use magic…
I’ve been an occultist since 2020, long before ChatGPT