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Acceptance and tolerance is a sword
2 years ago
General
One more day in my life.
And it can cut both ways.
I see the same arguments popping up again since it's Pride Month. People in the Furry Community trying to suggest Gay has no place in Furry. Forgetting of course the number of conventions created by the LGBTQ community. Then when people call them out on their intolerance they invoke the Paradox of Tolerance.
"You can't be intolerant of my opinion, or you are not really being very Tolerant are you?"
Except that is not how it works.
There are two sides of Furry.
The Furry Fandom
The Furry Community.
The Fandom is a collection of people who love, enjoy anthropomorphic ideas and concepts.
The Community however is different. It includes the Fandom, but is the world the Furry's made for themselves. The Conventions, the websites, the archives, the comic books, the novels, the furmeets... and so much more, built by Furries for Furries to enjoy.
However, this is the catch... The Community has Always been about acceptance. Your race, your gender, your sexuality... All of that is welcome and accepted. But your intolerance is not. No one ever said the community accepts EVERYTHING. The things the community does not accept is intolerance and bigotry.
You cannot be a part of the furry community in reality if you are sexist, racists, homophobic, anti-(Insert religion here)... Not because the Furry Community will kick you out, but because you were never a part of the community to begin with. The Furry Community doesn't have to reject racists, or homophobes... Those people are not a part of the furry community and never were.
They can be part of the Fan base, but not the community.
Think of it this way. You have a table with assorted fruit. Bananas, apples, pears, grapes... etc... And you start sorting that fruit. You take all the edible fruit and place it in one bowl and all the spoiled or inedible fruit is left on the table. The fruit is like the Fandom... All of it is fruit. But the fruit being sorted into the bowl is like the furry community. It includes so much variety and is edible and good.
That which is left behind doesn't qualify as part of that which is in the bowl.
This is a flawed analogy, I admit, because it shows someone sorting them... But in real life, the furry fandom sorts itself. Those who provide for the community, those who host events or organize conventions, those who volunteer, those who create art or literature, the makers and creators, they planners and organizers... all these people give something solid and positive to the community. Those who suit and buy and go to events also proved for the community.
But those who seek to cut out members of the community for being different... because they are gay... or trans, or black... they steal from the community. They erode and take without returning anything. They have no value to the community.
So they fail to qualify as even being in the community. Not because someone gate keeps... But because they were a "never-was". They were never a part of the furry community because they never provided the one thing required to be part of the community... Tolerance/Accceptance. They are not rejected or removed, they never actually became part of it in the first place.
This is the real Paradox of the furry Fandom. How so many FANS fail to join the furry COMMUNITY in the first place, but still wish to be included.
I've been a part of the Community since the 90's. I was there when anti-gay sentiment disguised itself as 'burned' and demanded adult content be removed 'for the children'. But they only focused on gay content. I was there when racists wanted to make it whites only. I was there when the ones who actually made the conventions and meet ups refused to abide by those flawed ideals. And instead allowed all types of furries to come in as long as they were accepting of the others.
Nothing has changed except the labels the intolerant use.
I see the same arguments popping up again since it's Pride Month. People in the Furry Community trying to suggest Gay has no place in Furry. Forgetting of course the number of conventions created by the LGBTQ community. Then when people call them out on their intolerance they invoke the Paradox of Tolerance.
"You can't be intolerant of my opinion, or you are not really being very Tolerant are you?"
Except that is not how it works.
There are two sides of Furry.
The Furry Fandom
The Furry Community.
The Fandom is a collection of people who love, enjoy anthropomorphic ideas and concepts.
The Community however is different. It includes the Fandom, but is the world the Furry's made for themselves. The Conventions, the websites, the archives, the comic books, the novels, the furmeets... and so much more, built by Furries for Furries to enjoy.
However, this is the catch... The Community has Always been about acceptance. Your race, your gender, your sexuality... All of that is welcome and accepted. But your intolerance is not. No one ever said the community accepts EVERYTHING. The things the community does not accept is intolerance and bigotry.
You cannot be a part of the furry community in reality if you are sexist, racists, homophobic, anti-(Insert religion here)... Not because the Furry Community will kick you out, but because you were never a part of the community to begin with. The Furry Community doesn't have to reject racists, or homophobes... Those people are not a part of the furry community and never were.
They can be part of the Fan base, but not the community.
Think of it this way. You have a table with assorted fruit. Bananas, apples, pears, grapes... etc... And you start sorting that fruit. You take all the edible fruit and place it in one bowl and all the spoiled or inedible fruit is left on the table. The fruit is like the Fandom... All of it is fruit. But the fruit being sorted into the bowl is like the furry community. It includes so much variety and is edible and good.
That which is left behind doesn't qualify as part of that which is in the bowl.
This is a flawed analogy, I admit, because it shows someone sorting them... But in real life, the furry fandom sorts itself. Those who provide for the community, those who host events or organize conventions, those who volunteer, those who create art or literature, the makers and creators, they planners and organizers... all these people give something solid and positive to the community. Those who suit and buy and go to events also proved for the community.
But those who seek to cut out members of the community for being different... because they are gay... or trans, or black... they steal from the community. They erode and take without returning anything. They have no value to the community.
So they fail to qualify as even being in the community. Not because someone gate keeps... But because they were a "never-was". They were never a part of the furry community because they never provided the one thing required to be part of the community... Tolerance/Accceptance. They are not rejected or removed, they never actually became part of it in the first place.
This is the real Paradox of the furry Fandom. How so many FANS fail to join the furry COMMUNITY in the first place, but still wish to be included.
I've been a part of the Community since the 90's. I was there when anti-gay sentiment disguised itself as 'burned' and demanded adult content be removed 'for the children'. But they only focused on gay content. I was there when racists wanted to make it whites only. I was there when the ones who actually made the conventions and meet ups refused to abide by those flawed ideals. And instead allowed all types of furries to come in as long as they were accepting of the others.
Nothing has changed except the labels the intolerant use.
TL;DR: Tolerance is a social contract, that does not require anyone to be tolerant of the intolerant. Once someone becomes intolerant, they have broken the social contract for tolerance.