If I were to say I have a spirit animal (or totem if you will), would you call me a “culturally appropriating racist fuck”? Knowing you folks, you would. Maybe if you’re a smidgen more reasonable (by your own definition of what’s reasonable, of course), you’d wait to see if I’m a PoC first.

Well, I’m Hungarian. White as chalk on a bright day. Am I racist now? Don’t answer, I can already hear you scream “YES!”.

Let me tell you something about my culture, then. (Yes, that means you have to close your mouth for once in your lifetime and *gasp* realize that white people have cultures, too!)

I, as a Hungarian, am a descendant of the Huns, Scourge of God and all. If you know anything about world history, you might recognize them as the most fearsome raiders of Europe in the first millennium. And these people had very strong animistic (if you don’t understand the term, here you go: animism is the belief that everything in the world has a living spirit dwelling within it; think of the Finnish “spirit of the forest” myths, or Shinto for well-known, popular examples) beliefs.

Do you have any idea what a “vajákos” or “táltos” is? No, I didn’t think so. But just so you know, they’re pretty much our equivalent of shamans, with very similar rituals, too. And as for spirit animals worshipped by our ancestors, here’s a little fact: the words for “deer” and “wolf” in our language literally mean “antlered animal” and “tailed animal”, for they were considered too sacred to be referred to by their true names.

So the moment you try to cry about “cultural appropriation”, kindly shove your own foot down your goddamn throat, because even that will make you seem less retarded.