u wanna know a secret

ok so this thing a i think about a lot. is that like, there has never been a clear taxonomic definition of what a species is. all the bigger categories or clades or whatever work in theory cuz they're so big and, like, generalized^{(tho what a lot of people don't realize is that even those are always shifting around cuz it's so hard to figure them out without like, being an immortal being capable of observing and recording every interaction of every generation of living thing in the history of mother earth)}

^{but species? it's seems like such a simple thing, but deciding what makes something one species and something else another, sometimes even when we think they're barely related at all, is so fucking hard when you start getting that specific (hey did u know species and specific have the same root word). a lot of people have heard that the line is drawn at the point where two animals are unable to produce viable offspring, but this definition barely fucking works ever. i'm too lazy to look up a specific example but there are many cases of seperate species or even animals in different genera entirely are able to produce viable, fertile offspring. granted they're usually born sickly and die soon after, but even that has exceptions. we could try to do it by anatomy, but the same anatomy can evolve in completely unrelated organisms. we could try and use genes to track where the evolutionary trees branch, but they don't just branch off cleanly, they intertwine and recombine over and over!!!!!!}

^{and like, the big secret? the thing i think anyone who has ever thought hard about taxonomy has realized but usually keeps to themselves? taxonomy doesnt fuckign exist. genera don't exist, species don't exist, families and orders and supraorders don't exist. they're a convenient organization system created by humans (specifically humans of recent Western civilization, within the last few centuries) as a simplified means to understand the complicated evolutionary relationships between different organisms. a tiger is Panthera tigris and a lion is Panthera leo because we need a way to separate each as its own thing and understand the blood relations between the two. it's not like taxonomy is useless or all a lie per se, it's just not something that actually exists outside our own imaginings.}

^{and something to keep in mind is that science, as we know it, is a recent invention, one that, while actually pioneered by many, was initially massively dominated by Christian European Cishet Dudes, continued to be for centuries, and still mostly is now. and its fucking polluted with their biases and world views. the same way Christianity likes to put everything in these neat boxes of good/evil, us/them, male/female that don't exist at all, science was designed around everything fitting in its own tidy little cabinet to be categorized and displayed, even though that is not how reality works at all. it's not necessarily a horrible thing, it makes it easier to explain and understand, it's just this big misunderstanding that's been building up for the last couple hundred years}

^{anyways im like. rambling more than i intended to when i was having a shower and decided i was gonna make a big rambly blog post about something i vaguely allude to all the time. THE POINT IS. well there's two points, two big things im pretty sure are true to take from this.}

^{1. we're all the same thing.}

^{there are no nice clean borders between us and any other living thing on this rock. no matter how hard you try to set down those borders they will always break somewhere cuz they don't actually exist, and everything that is alive is really one big everchanging organism of many interlocking parts with no clear distinction where one part ends and the next begins, interacting with itself infinitely until the sun eats it. like, you know you're made of a billion trillion little tiny organisms all constantly growing and dying and being replaced that make up the entity that is you, right? that's earth's biosphere. even if you try to make boundaries between things that are alive and things that aren't you start getting fucked up by shit like viruses that we struggle to define this way!!!!!!! we're all the same thing!!!!!!!! we're the stars in the sky and the superheated gases below the seas and the fossilized extremophiles on mars cuz no matter where you try and put your dumb line in the sand something will break it}

^{2. we're all different.}

^{there is no broader category we belong to. human is a general term for all the funny bipedal naked monkeys running around but none of those monkeys are the same, each and every one is a unique entity with its own thoughts and experiences and genes and beliefs and desires and etc. etc. etc. etc., and it isn't just humans that are like this. every elephant, every badger, every blade of grass, every fucking skin cell on every fucking person is in the middle of its own unique Thing that'll never ever repeat exactly the same again cuz everything is always changing all the time. EVERYTHING IS UNIQUE.}

^{i have no conclusion to make from these points this isnt a fucking essay at least not by any college standards. with this kinda shit i'd rather you make your own conclusions cuz i can only speak for my UNIQUE EXPERIENCES (hehe) and you may have a different meaning than me. i don't fucking know shit i dont have a degree and im typing almost entirely from train of thought. make up ur own mind.}

^{ok thats it i think byebye}

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Mandy

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