Not hating on therians or anything, but I find the way many of them conceptualize shifting to be quite interesting? Not how they would like it to be, but how they think it works and why they believe nobody is a shifter:

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• If shifting is real you’re shifting into a complete genetic copy of a real animal, complete with it’s DNA and so they could do a blood test to identify you (how would you even get animal DNA inside you and how that would aid shifting, I do not know)

• If shifting is real you’d need more energy than you can accumulate because you’re essentially creating a new form (altering something already pre-existing does not take as much energy as creating a new body)

• Real shifters exist, but they’re deep in the jungles somewhere in some hidden tribe (if shifting exists why would the technique be limited to the select few hidden in tribes?)

• Shifting after the veil falls (I guess everyone automatically gets a new form whether they want one or not? RIP therians who were enjoying their human lives)

• Shifting, if it exists, is a skill anybody can use and learn (hence the immediate jump to question shifters; many want to learn how to do it and won’t take ‘it’s genetic’ for an answer)

• Shifting is so painful that anybody who’s ever done it has died from pain alone (that’s not how pain works. A damaged body can kill you, but you can be in extreme pain indefinitely and not die, which is why conditions like chronic pain exist)

• If shifters existed they’d be killed on-sight by the government, citizens and experimented on (I really don’t think they understand how the government works, or that shifters essentially look and behave like regular people. Plus would a non-shifter believe it if someone came complaining to them about a person who transformed into an animal?)

• If shifters existed someone would have shown themselves for money or fame (most shifting does not occur as easily as one would think for this to take place)

• If shifters existed otherkin and therians would know about it (considering it has nothing to do with theriotypes and most of the community purges those who claim a physical shift from their forums and spaces, I doubt they’d get the chance)

 

These explanations have different popularities among different therians and otherkin, although some even from the get-go seem questionable. Why is “animal DNA” even a thing they’re expecting for a shift to occur? Why do they expect shifting to transfer over to theriotypes and kintypes? Why would the veil have that much of an impact on how those who identify as non-physically nonhuman look?

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But, I think sometimes they view it in a very limited way just because they’re hoping if a transformation does ever occur to them, it’s something like the above, or they’re listening to younger shifters or roleplayers. If they’re listening to more fluffy sources of course they’ll get the idea that all shifters are hiding from the government or that we all feel we’re able to defy the laws of physics. Misinformation can cause a lot of problems. 

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They definitely have interesting views on how shifting would play out, however. I can’t agree with any of them, but they’re interesting.