The Creation of the Term "Endogenic"

[lb_lee]

EDIT: I realized I never gave the definition of endogenic, and am so embarrassed!  An "endogenic multiple" is a system who sees their multiplicity as inborn, rather than coming from other sources. ^_^ Also, the Trash Can Collective told us their system name had changed and we've updated this post accordingly.

EDIT AGAIN: Trash Can Collective is now the Lunastus Collective and we've re-updated the post.

Hi everybody, it's Sneak again, and I am on a plural history Wiki roll! ^_^ Today I learned when and how the word "endogenic" got created! :D Coincidentally, it's also right around the same time as the first citation I can find for the urban legend of "'multiple' and 'system' are DID-only words and other plurals aren't allowed to use them"! Score!

Seeing how the "endogenic" term got created to try and be a completely separate form of language from all existing plural terminology at the time to avoid spurious claims of "cultural appropriation," only to then be claimed as cultural appropriation anyway, I think this helps prove just how bad-faith the original argument is.  DID plurals, we can do better!  We SHOULD do better!

Quick Details

Coined By: the Lunastus (FKA Trash Can Collective, Alnilam)
Date Coined: 2014, August 8
Location Used: tumblr

Circumstances of Creation
On August 7, 2014, the Lunastus Collective found themselves "being told that using those terms [multiple and multiple system] is appropriative of the DID community [...] Being told [natural multiplicity] can’t possibly be a thing, and it’s trivializing DID folks to say it happens" (2014, August 7). In their attempts to avoid spurious claims of cultural appropriation and come up with "words to use for 'multiplicity', without using the word 'multiplicity', 'plurality', or anything relating to that" they came up with "the -genesis words. And we kind of liked the looks of some words, once we took of the -esis part!" (ibid). The most successful of these terms was "endogenous," which later was changed to "endogenic."

Unfortunately for TLC, coming up with a completely separate terminology utterly seperate from the rest of the plural community didn't work. For instance, the Entropy System states, "I see the word 'endogenic' as equivalent to the confederate flag. [...] It still attaches them to a problematic past and encourages oppression of a minority group." (2018, May 13) (Note: this post is factually incorrect about the history of "endogenic" and the status of non-DID plurals within plural online communities. It is cited not as an accurate source on plural history, but a source on the kind of opinions that float around the term "endogenic.")

Citations

Entropy System [theentropywe]. (2018, May 13). do you support endogenic systems? [tumblr post]. Retrieved 2019/03/14 from https://theentropywe.tumblr.com/post/173859245866/do-you-support-endogenic-systems

the Lunastus Collective [not-your-fucking-pet]. (2014, August 7). Fellow plural people? [tumblr post]. Retrieved 2019/03/14 from http://not-your-fucking-pet.tumblr.com/post/94111819808/fellow-plural-people

the Lunastus Collective [not-your-fucking-pet]. (2014, August 8). Long ramble on terminology creation [tumblr post]. Retrieved 2019/03/14 from http://not-your-fucking-pet.tumblr.com/post/94222698873/long-ramble-on-terminology-creation

Comments

[ljwrites]

"I see the word 'endogenic' as equivalent to the confederate flag." Like what kind of trivializing bullshit o_O

[lb_lee]

I actually specifically picked that reference because that was one we were directed to as a source on endogenic history. I think that might've been part of what made me realize how badly we could use a cited, corroborated wiki of our history and stuff, because it is completely factually inaccurate and made me mad. >.<

First of all, there's a lot of presumptions bundled in to what Entropy are saying. They're equating the diagnosis of MPD/DID with trauma, and then equating both of those things to a culture that can be appropriated from! But none of those assertions are sourced or supported, because THEY'RE NOT TRUE!

Medical diagnoses are not set in stone, they're not always right, and a lot of the time, they're chosen not as identity markers but as whatever the insurance company will most likely accept. I find it SUPER-concerning when people are using such gooshy, wiggly diagnoses as not just identity markers, but also CULTURAL ones!

And to claim TRAUMA as your culture and identity just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen! If the core of your culture is suffering abuse and trauma, what happens if you move past it or leave it behind? What happens when that is no longer the sun around which your world revolves?

And also, non-trauma multiples or non-MPD/DID multiples (they aren't the exact same thing!) have been part of the online plural communities since 1994, that we're sure of! Rogan wrote a big post on it with all the citations!

I hate seeing people be mean to each other for such silly reasons!

--Sneak

[the_network]

They're also using the analogy to mean endogenics are the same as what, slave owners? The decedents of slave owners who wish for the "good old days"?

Everything you said is true and the analogy is gross and dangerous for so many many reasons and I don't know if Entropy ever apologized for it but I certainly hope they did or at least got called out

because not only are the situations not comparable at all but it's incredibly offensive to people who ARE hurt by the confederate flag and the people who fly it

Also as someone mentally/physically ill AND Jewish I'm really so tired of people trying to have these medical diagnoses handed down by unaffected professionals as cultural identities that can be appropriated from like.... I'm sorry you chose to do that and are now being hurt but I promise it's not the same! I promise!!

-Mew

[lithophiles]

I'm really so tired of people trying to have these medical diagnoses handed down by unaffected professionals as cultural identities that can be appropriated from

Yup. Disability culture is a thing, but just RECEIVING A DIAGNOSIS does not automatically make you part of disability culture. You have to, like, MEANINGFULLY PARTICIPATE in social interactions with other disabled people AND pay attention to the people who came before you and paved the way for what you have now. Suffering does not automatically make you part of some precious culture which can be "appropriated" from, either, contrary to what "anti-endo" people seemed to think. Suffering is not a culture! If anything, it's a human universal which cuts across all cultures, groups, and eras!

(Not venting at you, don't worry. Just venting at this... entire concept that crying appropriation gives you the moral high ground in any situation and absolves you from having to make a case that someone else's existence, beliefs, or identity are somehow offensive to you just by existing.)

-Istevia

[lb_lee]

Suffering is not a culture!

Miranda: Well said. Our culture shouldn't be mere deference to medical authority. Medical authority should NOT be the same as cultural authority.

[ex_not643]

That's one of our problems with Organised Disability Activism in general: that suffering itself is a culture, and that it's not acceptable to be proud of one's good traits, and that having a totalised view of yourself as a marginalised person is the right way to be a pious activist. Frankly, I think that's bullshit and reject that mentality rather violently. But then again I don't have much to do with organised social justice myself; there are other people in this system with more patience for it than me. I just vent about it elsewhere. :P

~L.

[lb_lee]

Bro, I'm an atheist. I don't got TIME for this Puritan original sin horseshit.

--Mori

[lb_lee]

Rogan: According to their tumblr, it looks like Entropy got infiltrated, doxxed, and trolled by at least one plural they considered a friend; the friend attempted suicide, and they both left tumblr. Apparently it was all claiming Entropy was a fake multi, so stay classy, plural community.

Sneak: I have no idea if they ever apologized, recanted, or changed their mind, but I hope they did. :( I don't think they deserved that kind of awful harassment, regardless. But the problem with the kind of circular logic of, "the only reason anyone could disagree with me on this stance is ableist" is that it feeds on itself. I hope they grow out of it over time.

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Rogan: According to their tumblr, it looks like Entropy got infiltrated, doxxed, and trolled by at least one plural they considered a friend; the friend attempted suicide, and they both left tumblr. Apparently it was all claiming Entropy was a fake multi, so stay classy, plural community.

Sneak: I have no idea if they ever apologized, recanted, or changed their mind, but I hope they did. :( I don't think they deserved that kind of awful harassment, regardless. But the problem with the kind of circular logic of, "the only reason anyone could disagree with me on this stance is ableist" is that it feeds on itself. I hope they grow out of it over time. <_<

<em>I'm really so tired of people trying to have these medical diagnoses handed down by unaffected professionals as cultural identities that can be appropriated from</em>

Mori: Same. Like, a disability, sure, that can be a culture... but it's the CONDITION, not the DIAGNOSIS. They're two separate things! I see Deaf culture, not sensorineural hearing loss culture constantly fighting with conductive hearing loss culture.

The DSM should not be our fucking Torah!

[dreamwriteremmy]

No. Entropy are still anti-endogenic(Feb 23 2019). -_- and yeah they were doxxed by someone. That status and related replies triggered a syscourse war on twitter over their "system pride day" event in February (which honestly still had some issues in the (S)RA-DID side of the DID community, even after the date got moved).

I think it's a pity given how popular they are in the vlogger community.

- Kevin

[lb_lee]

Sneak: Well, that's sad. :( All of it.

Rogan: omfg I am thanking all my lucky stars that I am GONE from this sector. Just the browsing that ensued from citing that one Entropy source led me down a rabbit hole of misery and despair, Jesus F. Christ. In my little corner, I was kinda able to forget all that.

I am never joining plural Twitter, Tumblr, or discord. NEVER.

I'll join system pride day when I feel there's actually something worth being proud of.

[ex_not643]

ARGH, we remember that! We're not really out on our singlet Twitter, but we do sometimes check the plural tags and saw the drama. We also tweeted about the problems with gatekeeping targeted at people like that. The anti-gatekeeping people came up with the hashtag #PluralGang, if I recall correctly.

~Lilly (also, hi! Erm, I am a member of Sylvans, formerly Plures. We need to add you& here!)

[lb_lee]

#pluralgang started due to an hbomberguy stream, where one of the folks involved came out plural! :D A local friend, (one of Holly's exes), ended up coming out to us as plural as a result.

They called the gatekeeping "pluscum" which I thought was funny, heehee!

--Sneak

[dreamwriteremmy]

Added you& feel free to add back :) - Kevin

[ex_not643]

The 'endogenic is like the Confederate Flag' thing is so fucking rubbish. There is no legitimate comparison between non-trauma plurality and people fighting to own human beings, including some of this vessel's ancestors. It's so fucking insulting! It's especially ridiculous when Dead Souls Society (formerly Alnilam) invented the term to ward off some of these debates.

~L.

[lb_lee]

Wait, Dead Souls Society is Alnilam? I guess we should correct the name...

I mean, at least it pretty clearly proves the entire argument of "linguistic siloing will solve all conflicts" is bad-faith and untrue.

--Sneak/Mori