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# Queer'd Liberalism
- URL: https://framboisearchives.net/queerd-liberalism/
- Published: 2026-08-12T13:48:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T23:56:34.000Z
- Author: M. R. Framboise
- Tags: Articles

### Originally Published in The Starshine Essays; Aug. 9, 2026

## I. Preface

At the time of first writing, we were approaching the fifty-seventh  
anniversary of the 1969 rebellion at the Stonewall that--- at least in  
popular memory--- served as the launching-pad for the righteous and  
glorious struggle for the ability of Queer people (gender, sexual, and  
romantic minorities) to not only publicly live as themselves, but to  
also exercise their independence and shape their own destiny for better  
lives. At the same time as we approached such a jubilant occasion, we  
are living in a time of heightened struggle against Queer people's  
independence. In 2025 alone, twenty-nine American states passed over 120  
new laws meant to attack and curtail the rights of transgender Americans  
to live as themselves. Among these are laws that specifically attack  
transgender and Queer people along line of class distinction. If gender  
affirming care is unavailable in the area in which a working-class  
person lives; if the discussion of topics relating to our lives is  
prohibited, vast strata of the working-class are simply unable to "pack  
up and move" to a safer area--- as is often recommended by some as a  
weak bandage over the gash that has been inflicted upon the collective  
community of Queer people.

This being said, the violence perpetrated against Queer people in  
general and the Queer working-class in particular has been covered at  
great length, and arguably with superior analysis than we may be able to  
provide here. What must be discussed in the era of heightened struggle  
is that there exists an internal contradiction among the Queer masses to  
which little effort has gone into addressing. The psychologically  
poisoning and castrating ideologies of liberalism and puritanism have  
creeped their way into much of Queer space. Our goal here is not to  
attack those who carry these wrong ideas, but to engage in a "ruthless  
struggle" so as to weed out the backwards and dangerous ideas that  
permeate a vast swath of discourse surrounding Queer people. It may be  
argued that any such criticism of Queer discourse is but a bludgeon  
against our own and that to criticize these ideas merely provides aid to  
the enemy forces wishing to destroy us. However, as the great comrade,  
Mao Zedong once said,

**"To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a** 
**person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument** 
**because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a** 
**close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to** 
**touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as** 
**to keep on good terms \[...\] This is one type of liberalism."**\[1\]

When incorrect and backward views permeate the airwaves and the  
discursive spaces, it is our duty to maintain an upright and stead-fast  
character in struggling against them.

## II. All Ideas Are Stamped with the Brand of a Class

So, what are these backwards and incorrect views and attitudes being  
parroted, and what makes them so? The central issue is of the ideologies  
of puritanism and liberalism. In the discourse to which we pertain, it  
is manifest as a consumerist, sexually repressed, philistine, liberal,  
and fundamentally petit-bourgeois attitude that originates from the  
newly Queer young masses of the petit-bourgeoisie. The attitudes that  
breed so-called "cancellations" and treatise-length lists of attitudes  
(correct and otherwise) the subjects of whom should fiercely obey the  
warning of "Do Not Interact." The sex-negativity, scorn of creativity,  
and sophomoric obsession with media as if these are the principal (or  
indeed exclusive) struggles being waged: This is the attitude that we  
are faced with combatting here.

To again borrow from Mao Zedong, all ideas and "every kind of thinking"  
is "stamped with the brand of a class."\[2\] And the class branding of  
any type of thinking is a central component in determining its  
correctness. Put simply, ideas do not arise out of aether, nor do are  
they ever-present. Ideas are born from one's material standing in the  
world. Just as independence, creativity, and consciousness do not arise  
from vacuous space--- they must be struggled for and ardently  
supported--- neither are any perceptions, interpretations, or ideas.  
Given that ideas arise from practice and one's practice is principally  
informed by their class position, we must analyze these ideas from the  
class position from which they originate.

Stemming from the notion that Queer people exist in all manner of  
classes and take all manner of class stands (proletarian and reactionary  
alike), camps and styles of Queerness arise. The camps that are we  
centrally concerned with here are the liberal Queer of the philistine  
"Steven Universe" style, and the proletarian Queer of the "Ketamine"  
style. The specific objects mentioned in naming them, however, does not  
provide an ample description of these styles of Queerness.

The "Steven Universe" style is centrally defined by its relationships  
with media, the internet, a "respectable" politic, and sex-negativity.  
Being that they are principally concerned with the **image** of  
Queerness rather than the material basis. They could, in this vein, be  
considered Queer idealists. They are pre-occupied with "identity" and  
"representation" rather than the material standing of their community.  
The origins of this style--- as may be apparent--- originate from a  
strictly petit-bourgeois (and occasionally non-monopolistic bourgeois)  
space of existence.

The "Ketamine" style is centrally defined by the subject's place in  
their community. They are those who exist in physical (read: "offline")  
spaces, engage critically with their community, and their Queerness is,  
above all, material. Their Queerness is defined by the function of its  
existence in material reality rather than in self-prescribed identity.  
Their Queerness is production in a sense. The production of a certain  
type of self and community rather than simple proclamation. This style  
is centrally of a proletarian or lumpen-proletarian character and has  
long been the driving and near-universally progressive force in the  
struggle for Queer liberation. Whereas those of the "Stephen Universe"  
style are content in engaging with endless "discourse," controversy, and  
hypotheticals; those of this style engage materially and have a vested  
interest in struggle against the currently dominant bourgeois  
institutions which bind them. We cannot, it must be noted, exclusively  
define the "Ketamine" style of Queerness exclusively in its role as a  
negating factor opposed to the "Stephen Universe" style.  
"Ketamine"-styled Queer people are not exclusively an oppositional  
force. In fact, they are no anti-thesis at all. They are the original  
thesis that wildly predates the "Stephen Universe" style.

**Queerness** in its original form is of the proletarian, "Ketamine"  
style. The Queerness that was carved into the walls of nightclubs and  
bars; the Queerness that was scrawled across subway cars. That is the  
Queerness of this style. That is a proletarian Queerness. The Queerness  
that "vogued"\[3\] in ballrooms where mothers\[4\] tended to their  
adoptive children. As proletarian revolutionaries, this is the Queerness  
that we are principally concerned with exalting and liberating.

## III. The Lineage of the Stonewall Uprising

We would be dangerously remiss if we did not mention the radical,  
working-class, and immensely progressive history of our fore-mothers.  
The comrades who preceded us in the Queer liberation movement were  
largely of a working-class and nationally oppressed (Black, Chicana, and  
Puerto Rican) character. It would also be incorrect of us to proclaim  
that Queer people did not exist publicly until the uprising of 1969\. As  
Amanda Yee noted in an article for **Liberation News**:

**"Three years before the uprising at Stonewall, homeless queer and** 
**trans youth led an uprising at in 1966 in San Francisco. Compton's** 
**Cafeteria was an all-night diner in the Tenderloin district that was a** 
**refuge for homeless queer and trans people, who were shut out of stable** 
**housing by landlords and frequently targeted by police. In August of** 
**1966, a cop grabbed a trans woman sitting in the diner, and she threw** 
**coffee in his face, triggering an uprising where dozens of people fought** 
**with police and even set a police car on fire."**\[5\]

Furthermore, struggles for Queer liberation and against the false  
constraints of bourgeois society at large predate even the uprisings and  
cultural births and re-births of the 20th century. In the aftermath of  
the Second American Revolution,\[6\] William Dorsey Swann, the first  
"queen of drag," founded and lead the first Queer activist organization.  
As Channing Gerard Joseph wrote in **The Nation**:

**"\[B\]eginning in the 1880s, he not only became the first American** 
**activist to lead a queer resistance group; he also became, in the same** 
**decade, the first known person to dub himself a "queen of drag"---or,** 
**more familiarly, a drag queen."**\[7\]

From Swann's activism of the late 19th century, to Compton's Cafeteria  
in the 20th, through the ballroom culture and political struggles of  
the present day, the Queer movement, was, has been, and will continue to  
be led by the masses of working Queer people and must continue to  
reflect the class-stand with which it was originally forged.

Post-Stonewall, a number of organizations formed including the Gay  
Liberation Front (GLF) and the Street Transvestite Action  
Revolutionaries (STAR), the latter of whom were led by the great  
comrades, Sisters Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. STAR is  
particularly notable for their work with unhoused Queer youth, sex  
workers, and the Queer working-class and lumpen-proletariat\[8\] at  
large. It was these organizations that were at the forefront of not only  
advocating for the political rights of Queer people, but for materially  
providing for and improving the lives of our youth.

The question remains of how this historical context directly relates to  
the styles of Queerness with which we are concerned. In the period  
presently under discussion, the economic development of publicly Queer  
people had been substantially retarded by the bourgeois-patriarchal  
status-quo. This is to say that in many circumstances, the ability for  
publicly and proudly Queer people to matriculate into classes beyond the  
lumpen-proletariat and general working-class was profoundly hindered.  
Indeed, entry into the general working-class was itself a continuous  
challenge faced by all Queer people, for if one was privately Queer,  
their identity was always a risk for them that--- if revealed--- could  
dramatically limit their opportunities for employment, and if one was  
publicly Queer, their opportunities for employment were **ab ovo**  
reduced. Fundamentally, the criminalization and social-ostracization of  
Queerness largely separated (specifically publicly) Queer people from  
typical production by virtue of their Queerness. This is--- in part--- a  
reason for the ruthless, relentless, and glorious struggle for the  
rights of Queer people to engage in the productive process.

The retardation, suppression, and resultant lumpen-proletarianization of  
the Queer masses is itself what gave birth to the style of Queerness  
which we now identify as the "Ketamine" style. Queerness, being  
relegated to the underground, became underground itself and as such  
adopted the attitudes and character of the communities by whom they were  
surrounded. Illicit drugs, sex work, and homelessness were common place,  
as means of engaging with legal, heterosexual society were  
slim-to-nonexistent. The proliferation of illicit drugs is the component  
of this stage of Queer development that gives name to the "Ketamine"  
style; however, extra-legal and arguably anti-social activity is  
certainly not the **totality** of this style. In this style,  
self-organization, chosen family, and self-advocacy became of paramount  
importance. When bourgeois society has abandoned you, you must--- as  
Assata Shakur said--- "love and protect one another."

This stage continued into the 1980s and the AIDS crisis occurring  
therein. As the U. S. government stalled on the issue and then-President  
Ronald Reagan not even daring to mention the disease until  
1985,\[9\]\[10\] communities were left again to fend for themselves in the  
face of a disease that was and has continued to kill primarily Black,  
Latine, Queer, and working-class people. Self-organization by, for, and  
of affected communities was the only solution to prevent excess death as  
the diseased ravaged communities and killed our foremothers. Queer  
people volunteered to care for their friends and comrades as they  
watched others succumb to illness. All the while, the dominant  
bourgeois-society spread poisonous stigmas of "gay cancers" and  
"righteous punishment."

Those comrades that remain of this era and those who continue to stand  
in their lineage are undoubtedly of the proletarian "Ketamine" style of  
Queerness. These are the people who bind communities together as a cord  
stronger than one of titanium. They are those who continue to echo the  
legacy of the respected comrades Rivera and Johnson, and those are who  
carry forward the legacy of Queer liberation. Through every nightclub  
meeting, through every pose and vogue, through the maintenance of our  
culture and refusal of capitulation, these are the advanced fighters of  
Queer liberation who are firm and steadfast in advancing the independent  
character of the Queer masses.

## IV. The Assimilationist Turn

We previously examined--- through a historical-material lens--- the  
birth of what have referred to as proletarian or "Ketamine"-style  
Queerness. That being said, for a thorough analysis of the contradiction  
between the "Steven Universe" and "Ketamine" styles, we must also grant  
a historical-material analysis to the "Steven Universe" style. It was  
said previously that the "Ketamine" style is the original **thesis**,  
and that the "Steven Universe" style presents an outgrowth thereof. To  
say this is to say that "Steven Universe" Queerness may be defined in  
terms of its relations to and is existentially contingent upon the  
"Ketamine" style. At a fundamental level, the "Steven Universe" style is  
the crystallization of the development of Queer independence that would  
be unthinkable if not for the struggles waged by the original "Ketamine"  
style.

Previously, we noted that the Queer development has been substantially  
retarded by the oppression that Queer people have faced and continue to  
face by bourgeois-heterosexual society. The development which would have  
seen Queerness exist in all manner of class from the lumpen-proletariat  
through the highest echelons of monopoly capitalism was ruthlessly  
compressed into the lumpen-proletariat and the working-class. However,  
as a direct result of the struggles waged by our foremothers of the  
original style, the development of Queer people has accelerated and  
resulted in the presence of Queer people in all classes. As the  
struggles for Queer integration into wider society proved victorious,  
Queer people managed to enter classes which to them were previously  
forbidden. At present, Queer proletarians exist amongst a Queer  
petit-bourgeoisie, and indeed Queer capitalists. While still ultimately  
subordinate to heterosexual society, Queer people gained access to a  
newer degree of class mobility that--- with quite rapid pace--- launched  
them from a relatively backwards mass of people to a developed mass ripe  
for new forms of exploitation and co-optation by the forces of bourgeois  
capital.

Queer people became more publicly visible and as such, there became a  
new identity for whom the bourgeoisie could produce commodities. The  
assimilationist turn came principally with the advent of Queer people  
who could independently shape their own destiny and who--- often with  
capital--- "bought in" to the bourgeois heterosexual society that had  
long held them beneath its heel. Without the rabid criminalization and  
lumpen-proletarianization of the preceding centuries,\[11\] Queer people  
were able to engage more freely with the wider society. This  
development, however progressive historically, was a double-edged and  
dialectical sword. As a new petit-bourgeois strata of Queer people  
emerged, the ideas of assimilationism, respectability, and a  
fundamentally opportunist capitulation to capitalist/heterosexual  
society emerged. Campaigns that may have previously fought for the  
fundamental liberation of Queer and other oppressed peoples--- centered  
on the liberation of the working-class--- shifted to simple  
"acceptance," "tolerance," or "representation" of and for Queer people.

It is from this period--- the period lasting from the 1990s **pax** 
**Americana** to around the 2015-16 "pre-Trump" era--- that the ideas that  
would crystallize into assimilationist and "Stephen Universe" Queerness  
would emerge. This is not to say that the advancement of political,  
economic, and social rights for the Queer masses was not progressive in  
the historical sense. It was certainly progressive; it was progressive  
in the sense that the development of any community through  
historical-material stages is progressive. It was progressive in the  
sense that lives were materially improved. This being said, Marxism is  
not teleological and with as with any progressive current,  
contradictions will continue to emerge. The transition from slave  
society to feudalism was progressive. The transition from feudalism to  
capitalism was progressive. Through these progressive epochs, however,  
there will always been new problems to be rectified.

The assimilationist line that developed in this period, fundamentally  
evacuated Queerness of its class character and was principally focused  
on the new strata of petit-bourgeois Queer people and their interests.  
It focused on "respectability" and "representation" and fundamentally  
presenting Queerness as something congruent with bourgeois society. This  
is wrong. Put simply: it is wrong, because it neglects the material  
reality that Queer liberation **is** working-class liberation. If  
Queerness is entirely compatible with bourgeois-society, then it ceases  
to exist and distinct phenomena. Furthermore, it then distances itself  
from the liberatory movements that struggled and died for the  
development of the Queer masses to begin in the first place.

This period's emphasis on "identity" and assimilation into mainstream  
structures stripped the movement for Queer liberation of the very  
transgressive character that allowed for the development of Queer people  
as a stratum.

The focus on "identity" also has further philosophical errors, which  
will be addressed in forthcoming chapters. The most pressing issue is  
that the liberal sense of "identity" is inherently metaphysical and  
idealist. It claims "identity" as existing outside of oneself and yet  
simultaneously entirely within one's body-mind, rather than as a  
socially-constructed process built through one's community labor. As we  
continue to explore the infantile syndrome of liberal and "Stephen  
Universe"-style Queerness, we will return to the notions of  
ideal-metaphysical "identity" as opposed to material identity.

## V. Forged Online

Having analyzed the origins of the "Ketamine" style and broader Queer  
liberalism in great detail. We must now examine the particularly  
internet-centered character of the "Stephen Universe" style and the  
conditions of the specific areas of the internet from which it  
originates.

The liberalization of Queerness came as a direct result of the  
development of Queer society and the matriculation of publicly Queer  
people into various classes; however, this does not (at least  
exclusively) describe the formation of the "Stephen Universe" style.  
Unlike what may generally be considered liberal or assimilationist, the  
"Stephen Universe" style does not regard itself as such and still exists  
with full knowledge of--- and a certain degree of resistance to--- its  
marginalization. The "Stephen Universe" style is still "alternative" in  
the subcultural sense, while still lacking in the proletarian and  
rightly progressive character of the "Ketamine" style. The "Stephen  
Universe" style in this sense could be considered a backwards synthesis  
or an expression of the more general contradiction between proletarian  
and petit-bourgeois Queerness.

So, on the matter of the internet--- the internet has, through  
interest-based and engagement-rewarding algorithms, produced a level of  
alienation and atomization of subcultures and societies hitherto thought  
impossible. Social media platforms will one show a person what they  
choose to engage with and as such contains an immense propensity for the  
creation of "echo chambers" wherein little thought outside the bounds of  
the subculture may permeate. With each individual siloed into their  
insular subculture, the alienation first theorized by Marx and Engels---  
alienation of man from his labor--- takes on a new form. Man is  
alienated from his very sense of self.

Whereas we have decreed that personhood and identity are complex and---  
like any material processes--- constantly in motion, the atomization of  
individuality into labeled subcultures leaves one with precisely the  
"bound knot" of identities that the metaphysicist would declare they  
were to begin with. Interests, communities, and the general  
particularities of being are compressed into simple descriptors. This  
turbo-alienation or "atomization" is what has led to the formation of  
the "Stephen Universe" style of Queerness. If identity is a bound knot  
of interests compressed into a subcultural label or "aesthetic," and if  
its material basis--- in all meaningful sense--- is entirely obfuscated,  
then it becomes inevitable that one would conceptualize their identity  
from an idealist perspective. After all, in this space existence is  
defined not by the material processes from which life hath sprung forth,  
but from one's own self-identification on a page. A page--- it must be  
noted--- that may itself be entirely divorced from any notions of  
reality.

The internet, of course, is not an exclusively negative factor; however,  
the atomization resulting from the current stage of bourgeois social  
media must be noted for firm analysis. The "Stephen Universe" style's  
obsession with media, with optics, with presentation, and with  
"respectability" is the natural conclusion of a social structure that is  
based merely in the **ideas** of existence rather than existence itself.  
It is an expression of the abstraction of personhood which occurs in the  
social media space. This is, again, not to say that the internet has not  
had extraordinary wonders. The ability to nigh-instantaneously  
communicate with billions across the world is alone enough to say that  
the internet is a progressive structure. That being said, under a  
bourgeois-dominant system, a structure that is fundamentally progressive  
may be distorted and perverted. The goal of the internet is not to  
connect individuals to each other, nor is its goal to fulfill any other  
social function. At a fundamental level, it is another vehicle by which  
a small handful of corporations and billionaires may increase their  
profits and enrich themselves.

To summarize, it is the atomization of communities, the flattening of  
identity, and the abstraction of personality which gives to the "Stephen  
Universe" style its backward character. If one is only fed their  
present, comfortable, petit-bourgeois, and consumerist existence--- if  
that is all one knows, then the possibility of material community  
becomes terrifying. Those of the "Stephen Universe" style are not  
backwards through moral failing, they are simply the other men in  
Plato's cave.\[12\]

## VI. Portrait of Stephen Universe-Style Queerism

At this point, we have touched on elements of "Stephen Universe" -style  
Queerness and the origins, history, and material foundations in the  
development of Queer society; however, we have neglected to paint a  
complete and detailed portrait of the styles of Queerness whom we are  
referencing. The principal question remains: **Who is the "Stephen** 
**Universe" Queer?**

The "Stephen Universe" style of Queerness "synthesizes"\[13\] the  
assimilationist and pseudo-"respectable" tendencies of the liberal,  
petit-bourgeois Queer with a thin coating of progressivism or  
"alternative" -ism. It is not progressive or liberatory in the sense  
that it has material effect on the standing of Queer people in wider  
society so much as it **refers** to itself as "progressive" or  
"alternative" in the sense that it is superficially opposed to Queer  
oppression and dominationism at large. However, despite this superficial  
opposition, the "Stephen Universe" style is entirely compatible **with**  
the aforementioned oppression and constitutes no significant resistant  
force to such oppression.

Engagement--- however uncritical and undialectical--- with media is a  
central feature of this style. To the "Stephen Universe" the roles of  
"fandom" spaces, cultural consumption, and "representation" are vastly  
overstated to the extent of constituting a totality of the meaning of  
Queerness. Queerness--- in their view--- is not a material process with  
material standing. It is an **idea**; it is an **identity** that one  
ascribes to themself rather than it being ascribed to them through  
engagement with a given community.

Relating to their perspective of Queerness as a self-prescribed identity  
that exists beyond the material, the "Stephen Universe" style is unique  
in its role as a distractive force that engages in endless "discourse"  
and what could be sophomorically described as a superficial "theory"  
that does not, in any way, contain any elements of practice. It is from  
this realm--- from the domain of "Stephen Universe" -style Queerness---  
that unhelpful and long- answered questions such as the "validity"\[14\]  
of lesbians using masculine pronouns and the presence of sexual "kinks"  
at Queer events and during Pride arise. From the perspective of the  
"Ketamine" style, these questions have been thoroughly answered and  
explored by their foremothers; however, this unveils another critical  
distinction between the "Stephen Universe" and "Ketamine" styles. The  
"Stephen Universe" style, born through the atomizing character of the  
bourgeois internet, is obfuscated from its lineage. Of course, this  
cannot simply be blamed on the internet.

Queer history has long been suppressed and erased going back millennia.  
The suppression of this history serves a purpose which is precisely its  
effect. Atomized Queer people are divorced from their  
(lumpen)proletarian history and revolutionary character of struggle.  
This goal aligns closely with wider bourgeois society. If a significant  
mass of people is alienated from their long history of struggle, then  
they will know not where even to "begin" in the process of struggling  
against the oppressions that continue to exist.

Also worth noting in a rigorous portrait of the "Stephen Universe" style  
is the youth of those who take on the style. While not exclusively  
composed of adolescents, the "Stephen Universe" style of Queerness  
frequently takes on a sophomoric simultaneously self-infantilizing and  
self-aggrandizing attitude that is a common feature of adolescence. The  
retort that one is "literally neurodivergent and a minor"\[15\] is the  
most salient example of the "Stephen Universe" style. Atomized Queer  
teenagers from whom their history has been obfuscated are likely to find  
solace on an internet that may initially appear friendly to them. We  
must admit that, however idealist it may be, it would be erroneous of us  
to deny the benefits conferred by access to a space in which one may  
dissociate themself from their present conditions.

The conditions of Queer adolescents--- particularly those with mental  
illnesses or other neurodivergences--- are exceptionally hostile in  
general society and internet algorithms (and the corporations by whom  
they are controlled) take advantage of this. It is under these  
circumstances that certain Queer adolescents may be siloed off into  
their insular media-centric communities and adopt the "Stephen Universe"  
style. The importance of these communities to them (and their importance  
in these communities) becomes the basis of their identity rather than  
their material standing in reality. They are effectively the Lost Boys  
in Neverland who are terrified of aging. The drama that exists within  
their subcultures becomes the totality of struggle, and the maintenance  
of these subcultures becomes primary of the struggle for liberation in  
material reality.

We must lastly acknowledge the puritanism and negativity towards sex  
that is abundant in the "Stephen Universe" style. On its face, Queer'd  
puritanism appears different than the "Christian purity culture" that is  
ever-dominant in the United States. However, it is effectively the same  
phenomenon painted in new varnish. To define our terms, the  
**puritanism** to which we are referring is generally characterized by  
the repudiation of the particularly sexually counter-cultural character  
of the "Ketamine" style. To provide an example, consider a sexual  
proclivity that is generally considered "deviant" like "Puppy  
Play."\[16\] Those of the "Stephen Universe" style have repeatedly  
expressed desires to exorcise the community from all manner of Queer  
discourse and Queer representation. They mindlessly parrot the refrain  
that sexual expression should remain behind closed doors and out of  
common consciousness. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that "Pups"  
have been engaging publicly (with a degree of obvious decency) with  
Queer culture and Queer community for longer than the vast majority of  
those of the "Stephen Universe" style have been on this Earth. In fact,  
longer than their mothers and grandmothers have been on this Earth.  
Their argument comes with the alleged justification that it is "poor  
optics" and inhibits the ability of "normal" Queer people to engage in  
bourgeois-heterosexual society. Put simply, it is a liberal  
respectability politic wrapped in the "sheep's clothing" of liberation.  
Furthermore, this emphasis on "optics" and general assimilationism is  
often accompanied by a repudiation of the sexual in general and a moral  
denunciation of the sexually "deviant" in particular.

To summarize, the "Stephen Universe" style of Queer person is one  
alienated and atomized. She is divorced from her history, and she  
retains the puritanical and assimilationist backwardness of the society  
that reared her. In forthcoming chapters, we will paint a similarly  
analytical portrait of the "Ketamine" style and elucidate how to  
struggle against petit-bourgeois ideals of the "Stephen Universe" style.

## VII. Portrait of Ketamine Queerism

Having explored the nature and character of the "Stephen Universe" style  
at great length. We must now take a moment to examine the same for the  
"Ketamine" style.

Whereas, we have described the "Stephen Universe" style as "entirely  
compatible" with existing structures of oppression, no such backwardness  
is true of the "Ketamine" style. The "Ketamine" style, having been  
forged in the fires of lumpen/proletarianization, is fundamentally  
**incompatible** with the systems of oppression which have led to its  
creation. The "Ketamine" style is diametrically and fundamentally  
opposed to the institutions of oppression from which it was born.

A principal aspect of the "Ketamine" style worth examining is their  
relationship with **physical** communities and a general non-engagement  
with the internet subcultures deemed so dominant in the "Stephen  
Universe" style. Whereas, the "Stephen Universe" style was forged on  
Tumblr pages and through various atomized subcultures of the internet,  
the "Ketamine" style was birthed from and typically still found in,  
bars, nightclubs, and almost exclusively adult, and **material**  
communities. Not only are these communities **material**\--- as in  
actually existing in reality--- but they are by-and-large working-class  
and adult communities wherein the progressive character of the  
working-class may show itself. They are third-spaces outside the view of  
the ire of capital.

Now we would be remiss if we failed to address the potentially  
anti-social or otherwise societally unacceptable facets of the  
"Ketamine" style. The "Ketamine" style may contain--- but need not be  
exclusively defined by--- drug use, unsafe sexual practices, and/or  
crime; however, we must recall that all of these are an active  
by-product of the oppression that many of the style face. They are still  
oppressed both by virtue of being working-class or lumpen-proletariat,  
and still are oppressed by virtue of being Queer people. It would be an  
error of significant order if we were to simply **moralize** these  
facets of the "Ketamine" style through the metaphysical lens of  
bourgeois society. All of those so-called "anti-social" or  
"unacceptable" aspects of the style are a direct material result of the  
continued (lumpen-)proletarianization of the Queer masses. Further to  
the point above, Queer people are wildly overrepresented in populations  
of unhoused people (particularly unhoused youth), populations engaged in  
sex work, and populations experiencing addiction or other mental health  
challenges.

All of this being said, it is still not the "Stephen Universe" style of  
Queer person who is engaged in struggles for the liberation of Queer  
people from all forms of oppression--- including those which result in  
the displeasures above. The Queer people who perform every form of  
community-building service from distributing "DIY" hormone replacement  
therapy (HRT) to carrying overdose-reversing medication and drug-testing  
kits are undoubtedly and nigh-universally of the "Ketamine" style.

## VIII. Combat Discourse; Against the Puritanical Line

At this point, we have repeatedly approached the quality of the  
"Stephen Universe" style that has them endlessly preoccupied with  
presentation, "optics," and so-called "discourse." And in  
referencing the childlike bickering that they call discourse, we must  
make a clear and present distinction between genuine inquiry and  
productive ideological struggle and their ceaseless quarrels. Whereas  
productive inquiry or ideological struggle is conducted on the basis of  
genuine action and moving forward, "Stephen Universe"-esque discourse  
insists that the principal mode of struggle is through simple debate on  
matters of what Queer people are "allowed" where, how "valid"  
certain people are, or how palatable we are to the  
bourgeois-cishet-supremacist society that has a vested interest in  
preventing our liberation.

In combatting this line, however, we cannot deny its assertions on their  
face. We must be rigorous and thorough in our understanding of this  
position and the reasons for which it is politically backwards.

Notably, this "discourse" is largely concerned with instruments of  
popular perception--- primarily being mass media and the presence of  
certain people (often of the "Ketamine" style) in certain spaces. The  
"issue" that our friends of the "Stephen Universe" style identify is  
that there is a type of Queer person that the oppressive society will  
accept and one that it will not. They claim that to suppress those whom  
society will not accept would be a progressive force in the struggle for  
Queer liberation. The principal error here being that this society will  
not **genuinely** accept any form of Queer person unless acted upon by a  
force of transgressive popular power. To say this another way, we cannot  
be saved from an oppressive system by appealing to the structures and  
attitudes of that same system. This is what has produced the  
liberal-assimilationist line that we have already seen has not played  
out in our favor.

Let us investigate this more thoroughly with a case-study. Every June,  
those of the "Stephen Universe" style make a consistent effort to  
rehash the question of whether or not kink-based communities should be  
allowed at or incorporated into pride events. Their line tends to fall  
into the following points: (1) kink communities are inherently sexual  
and deviant and thereby should not be included on those grounds alone,  
(2) even if kink communities are not inherently anti-social, they  
project a negative image on to many Queer people and thereby should not  
be included for "optical" purposes, and (3) because of the previous  
reasons, these communities should be excluded from Queer/pride spaces on  
the grounds that their inclusion would give the bigoted right-flank a  
new cudgel with which to beat us.

On the first point, it is worth pointing out that when this argument is  
made, there is a seldom any material analysis being done of whatever  
behavior or community to which they are objecting. Put simply, "Stephen  
Universe"-style discourse does not provide any meaningful reason or  
justification as to **why** certain communities are degenerate. When  
arguments against this claim are made, it would seem that such  
arguments, at their core, can be reduced to "it makes me feel icky" or  
"it's abnormal." Beyond the flagrant metaphysical error of ascribing  
an ontological "badness" to a thing without understanding its  
conditions, formation, or purpose; it is worth noting that these  
arguments are completely devoid of any reference to a particular harm  
that is caused by whatever community or behavior they are describing.  
Ironically, this seems to be the same bourgeois-heterosexual "purity  
culture" that we have--- and indeed many of the "Stephen Universe"  
style would--- critique at length. Kink, non-standard pronoun usage, and  
other such atypicalities are said to be deviant simply because they are.  
The born-again evangelical could (and indeed does) make the same  
non-arguments about all Queer people.

Now on the subject of "optics," I suppose that the question here  
depends on several factors: in who's eyes do we want to be viewed  
positively and as acceptable, and what benefit is gained through being  
optically pleasant? Those of the "Stephen Universe" style tend to lack  
an answer to both. They would argue that we want to be viewed as  
positive to all people--- and while a noble ideal, it is simply  
incompatible with the fact that we will always have an enemy. There will  
always be a force that would prefer the subjugation of Queer people  
rather than our liberation, and it is not worth wasting our precious and  
finite time trying to win over these hostile forces. On the matter of  
how we benefit from positive optics, it certainly depends on any given  
situation, but a dogmatic application of optical pleasantries would not  
only leave behind a significant subset of Queer people--- particularly  
those of the "Ketamine" style--- but it would be yet another force  
pulling us in the direction of assimilationism. If our acceptance is  
conditional, then it can certainly disposed of if conveinient.

The third epithet that those of the "Stephen Universe" style may hurl  
towards socially transgressive or heterodox communities is the claim  
that regardless of the truthfulness of the material or optical harm  
supposedly caused by such communities, our enemies will certainly assert  
them as truth. Furthermore, they claim that the enemies of Queer  
liberation would simply utilize the inclusion of these heterodoxies as a  
weapon with which they may continue to villify, oppress, and repress the  
totality of the Queer masses. "We musn't hand them a new cudgel with  
which to beat us," they will proclaim. This assertion has a number of  
problems--- all of whom can be summarized in a simple question, "why  
should we negotiate with terrorists?" It would be absurd to proclaim  
that our enemies would cease their unrelenting attacks based simply on  
us moving toward their position. Those backwards fighters for  
bourgeois-heterosexual society already view Queerness with a  
nigh-inexhaustable contempt. To them, Queer existence is transgressive  
enough in and of itself. If we were to move even a single centimeter in  
their direction, they would find a new vehicle through which to launder  
their attacks. There are no solutions are to be found in capitulation to  
abject hatred and oppression--- the solution is to abolish such concepts  
all together!

Taken generally, the "Stephen Universe"-style discourse is simply  
another expression of that style's compulsive drive towards  
"acceptance" in mainstream bourgeois society. It cannot be truthfully  
said that any material harm is caused by kink or any other such  
"transgressive" community, and it is equally incorrect to claim that  
the right-flank would simply relent in the face of our capitulation. We  
are not playing a game of "optics" or "acceptance;" we are playing  
the game of **liberation**, and that sits comfortably in the domain of  
the "Ketamine" against the palatable "Stephen Universe."

## IX. Conclusions

It is at this point that we must transition from simple identification  
of and ideological confrontation with the "Stephen Universe" style  
into the mode of action. We could interpret this sphere from dawn until  
dusk, but the point of the matter is to change it. So the question  
remains, **What is to be done?**. We have firmly established the  
"Stephen Universe" style as existing at the intersection of liberal  
co-optation, internet-fueled atomization, and the general immaturities  
of youth, and all three of these frustrations may be effectively  
combatted through the **integration** of those of the "Stephen  
Universe" style into practical political work. Certainly they cannot  
yet lead, but they are not entirely backwards in the sense of being  
unworthy of our time and discussion. Many of this style accurately  
identify that they face structural oppression on a number of axes. They  
may even identify capitalism as the culprit of this oppression, and it  
would be a grave error to simply deny them the means to advance  
politically and shape their destiny on the grounds of their more liberal  
style. In fact, it is practical political work--- contact with reality,  
if you will--- that would serve as the transformative engine driving  
them away from the "Stephen Universe" style and into a more advanced

All of the axes on which Queer people of the "Stephen Universe" style  
lay fundamentally disconnect them from the material realities and  
struggles of wider life. Liberal co-optation poisons their minds with  
the notion that those of the "Ketamine" style are "unclean" or  
otherwise unscrupulous. Internet atomization pulls them apart from one  
another and silos each individual into a personalized "echo chamber"  
that becomes more difficult to leave as time goes on; and youth itself  
is defined by a lack of practical experience in the world. The common  
thread of all of these shortcomings is a disconnect between the  
"Stephen Universe" style and material struggle. The method, then, for  
effectively combatting this style is to incorporate those "Stephen  
Universe"-esque fighters who approach political advancement into  
practical work. To paraphrase the great comrade, Mao Zedong: if they  
would like to know the taste of the pear, than they must participate in  
the act of changing it by eating it. We wish for those of the "Stephen  
Universe" style to truly know advancement, they must participate in the  
act of changing the world. The "dead-end" nature of their ceaseless  
"discourse" and optics-driven capitulation will become self-evident to  
them. Furthermore, the successful tactics of practically building up  
political work with a proletarian stand will too become self-evident.

This purpose of this text was never to issue a dogmatic condemnation but  
to ideologically struggle against a backwards stand that has been taken  
up by a noticible portion of Queer people. These people are not "lost  
causes;" they simply require thorough engagement with practical  
reality. In a quest to unite all who can be united, we must have a  
concrete processes to identify problematic tendencies among people who  
may otherwise be allies. The "Stephen Universe" style is not a fixed  
permanent essence; it is a natural result of the conditions that many  
Queer youth face in the present times. And because it is a natural  
result of existing conditions, it can be combatted by changing those  
conditions. To borrow from an internet maxim, the solution to the  
"Stephen Universe" problem is to make them touch grass.

---

1. Mao, Zedong. "Combat Liberalism." In Selected Works of Mao  
Tse-tung, Vol. 2\. Marxists Internet Archive. Accessed June 18, 2026\. ↩︎
2. Mao, Zedong. "On Practice: On the Relation Between Knowledge and  
Practice, Between Knowing and Doing." In Selected Works of Mao  
Tse-tung, Vol. 1\. Marxists Internet Archive. Accessed June 18, 2026\. ↩︎
3. "Voguing" is a style of dance that was created by Black and Latine  
working-class Queer people in the 20th century as a part of the  
wider "ballroom" culture among them. This culture was and is home to  
chosen families, joy in the face of immense oppression. (National  
Museum of African American History & Culture, "A Brief History of  
Voguing") ↩︎
4. The leaders of the various "ballroom houses" were frequently trans  
women referred to as "mothers." (Wikipedia, "Ball culture") ↩︎
5. Yee, Amanda. "53 years ago: Queer liberation's roots were  
socialist, working class and anti-imperialist." Liberation News,  
December 26, 2023\. ↩︎
6. Comrade Harry Haywood's term for the American Civil War and  
Reconstruction era (c. 1861-1877) ↩︎
7. Joseph, Channing Gerard. "The First Drag Queen Was a Former  
Slave." The Nation, January 31, 2020\. ↩︎
8. We will address the "lumpen-proletarian question" later on, but  
for our purposes we effectively mean sex workers who general--- and  
particularly in the context of Queer liberation movements--- make up  
a "revolutionary stratum of the lumpen-proletariat." ↩︎
9. Kirchick, James. Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay  
Washington. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2022\. ↩︎
10. This was 4 years after the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)  
reported the beginning of the outbreak in 1981, and after 5,000  
people had already died in the United States. ↩︎
11. Homosexuality was 'de jure' legalized for the whole of the United  
States in 2003\. ↩︎
12. We are referencing the allegory of the men in the cave from  
Plato's Republic. Having spent all their lives in the cave, the men  
are terrified of the outside world. When its existence is revealed  
to them, and they execute the person who first revealed it. ↩︎
13. In the sense of eclectically combining backwardness and  
advancement, and more specifically in the sense of a post-hoc  
"mashing" of liberal Queer-isms with the veneer of  
"alternative"-ness and progressivism. ↩︎
14. The centrality of "validity" in online and "Stephen  
Universe"-style discourse is another common feature. We will not  
address it in detail here, but put simply the idea that "validity"  
in one's identity supersedes the need for liberation is another  
expression of the idealism present in this style. ↩︎
15. A retort that has been overused and exaggerated to the point of  
ironic usage by the present. ↩︎
16. Also known as Puppy and Handler (PAH), this "kink" involves  
erotic roleplay as a dog or other domesticated animal. We cannot  
address the entirety of it here, and it mostly serves as a  
placeholder for any consensual (between adults), non-conventional  
sexual behavior. ↩︎