FA+
Shop
Dragoneer has passed away
a year ago
"First rule of magic: Always be the smartest furry in the room."
As those who have been regulars here on Furaffinity have found, Sean P. "Dragoneer" Piche has passed away of complications from lung surgery to address extremely drastic lesions and nodules in the lungs. Though he had been suffering from high fever and chronic coughs over the past four months prior to medical intervention, the sudden deterioration caught us all by surprise and we as a community are still in shock from what has transpired.
On July 23, he returned after an absence of a couple of years to report that he was undergoing medical treatment for his illness. He was told that the facility had never seen a case as serious as his and that he had to go to the ER immediately, upon which the CT scan revealed the growths in his lungs. The following week, he met with a specialist that, according to Dragoneer, thinks they've narrowed it to massive infection or very acute Stage 4 lung cancer. He was to go into surgery two days later to extract and remove samples of the growths, anticipating that in 5-7 business days they would know what it was, with full recovery HOPEFULLY within the next few months.
Unfortunately, Dragoneer never got the chance.
Furaffinity was a pivotal platform for my lifestyle as a furry and has been for almost 15 years to the day (August 9, the day after the 10th FNAF anniversary), supplementing and now supplanting my original small step for a man on deviantART, which has since become more hostile over the years. I connected with some of my closest compatriots here and the site has always been a welcoming one, with much less drama than other, similar sites. The strict anti-AI stance they hold, along with the herculean effort to take back the site from imvu and become independent, have earned my respect, and these would not have been possible without him. I did not know him personally, but I know some who did. I've also suffered similar losses before, so I know how it feels. From one Sean to another, you will be missed dearly.
That said, I want to note a rather disturbing trend that I have been observing regarding the reactions, some of which use extremely concerning language. There has been much discussion concerning the healthcare that Dragoneer received, and an increasingly prevalent sentiment is that the healthcare system is directly responsible for Dragoneer's death. This has some extremely disturbing potential ramifications. The last few years have made it evident that words, particularly polarizing and aggressive language, have tremendous power, and with a userbase of at least 1.6 million, I am genuinely afraid that there will be some users, the less stable kind with nothing to lose, to jump off the edge altogether and retaliate in Dragoneer's name against an institution they perceive as having murdered him.
The parallels between this kind of rhetoric and that which was utilized by the pro-life movement cannot be ignored, and with the wide diversity of the userbase, I fear that this will not be the end of the suffering. We as a community are already marginalized, seen as "weird" by the wider population and treated accordingly at minimum. To succumb to our dark desires would have a catastrophic effect on the reputation of the furry community as a whole and will have wide-ranging consequences for years or even generations to come.
We haven't forgotten the impact that SiegedSec and Nullbulge had on their respective targets. While some might argue that in those scenarios the recipients had it coming, the personal nature of this grievance changes the threat profile entirely. It is not entirely unlikely that credible plans to compromise the proprietary information of these healthcare providers are already being made, and it is entirely possible that these bad actors could easily inflict harm that could affect millions more in the ensuing information breach of sensitive information, whether it be medical, financial, personal, and so forth.
We as a community have a moral imperative to exercise restraint and stamp out any potential for escalation of these grievances into something that has irreversible effects on those who had nothing to do with this tragedy. I would also urge the brave workers in the healthcare field, the boots on the ground nurses, doctors, and other such staff who put in countless hours to serve our country, to stay safe. They aren't the ones complicit in Dragoneer's passing. They are just as much victims of the system as he was. The grief and anger at Dragoneer's passing could lead some to unreasonable and misguided responses to their suffering, lashing out and hurting those who don't deserve it.
The temptation to do the wrong thing and hurt others in turn in Neer's name is a powerful one, but inflicting the same kind of suffering upon innocent parties is not who we are. We shouldn't just treat him as a martyr. We should focus our energies to meaningful if disruptive change. However defective the current US healthcare system is, let's not turn our grief and anger against them in a way that disregards collateral damage. Instead, let us be the change we want to see. Perhaps this will be the wakeup call that will spur our community to truly tip the scales and work towards systemic change. We cannot let that rage consume us, let alone allow more families to grieve their own losses on our account. We should direct thar energy to reform and for the benefit of everybody.
The scars of loss never truly go away, we just become used to them. No one else needs to suffer as we are now.
No one deserves to die scared and confused as Dragoneer was, ESPECIALLY not in his name.
On July 23, he returned after an absence of a couple of years to report that he was undergoing medical treatment for his illness. He was told that the facility had never seen a case as serious as his and that he had to go to the ER immediately, upon which the CT scan revealed the growths in his lungs. The following week, he met with a specialist that, according to Dragoneer, thinks they've narrowed it to massive infection or very acute Stage 4 lung cancer. He was to go into surgery two days later to extract and remove samples of the growths, anticipating that in 5-7 business days they would know what it was, with full recovery HOPEFULLY within the next few months.
Unfortunately, Dragoneer never got the chance.
Furaffinity was a pivotal platform for my lifestyle as a furry and has been for almost 15 years to the day (August 9, the day after the 10th FNAF anniversary), supplementing and now supplanting my original small step for a man on deviantART, which has since become more hostile over the years. I connected with some of my closest compatriots here and the site has always been a welcoming one, with much less drama than other, similar sites. The strict anti-AI stance they hold, along with the herculean effort to take back the site from imvu and become independent, have earned my respect, and these would not have been possible without him. I did not know him personally, but I know some who did. I've also suffered similar losses before, so I know how it feels. From one Sean to another, you will be missed dearly.
That said, I want to note a rather disturbing trend that I have been observing regarding the reactions, some of which use extremely concerning language. There has been much discussion concerning the healthcare that Dragoneer received, and an increasingly prevalent sentiment is that the healthcare system is directly responsible for Dragoneer's death. This has some extremely disturbing potential ramifications. The last few years have made it evident that words, particularly polarizing and aggressive language, have tremendous power, and with a userbase of at least 1.6 million, I am genuinely afraid that there will be some users, the less stable kind with nothing to lose, to jump off the edge altogether and retaliate in Dragoneer's name against an institution they perceive as having murdered him.
The parallels between this kind of rhetoric and that which was utilized by the pro-life movement cannot be ignored, and with the wide diversity of the userbase, I fear that this will not be the end of the suffering. We as a community are already marginalized, seen as "weird" by the wider population and treated accordingly at minimum. To succumb to our dark desires would have a catastrophic effect on the reputation of the furry community as a whole and will have wide-ranging consequences for years or even generations to come.
We haven't forgotten the impact that SiegedSec and Nullbulge had on their respective targets. While some might argue that in those scenarios the recipients had it coming, the personal nature of this grievance changes the threat profile entirely. It is not entirely unlikely that credible plans to compromise the proprietary information of these healthcare providers are already being made, and it is entirely possible that these bad actors could easily inflict harm that could affect millions more in the ensuing information breach of sensitive information, whether it be medical, financial, personal, and so forth.
We as a community have a moral imperative to exercise restraint and stamp out any potential for escalation of these grievances into something that has irreversible effects on those who had nothing to do with this tragedy. I would also urge the brave workers in the healthcare field, the boots on the ground nurses, doctors, and other such staff who put in countless hours to serve our country, to stay safe. They aren't the ones complicit in Dragoneer's passing. They are just as much victims of the system as he was. The grief and anger at Dragoneer's passing could lead some to unreasonable and misguided responses to their suffering, lashing out and hurting those who don't deserve it.
The temptation to do the wrong thing and hurt others in turn in Neer's name is a powerful one, but inflicting the same kind of suffering upon innocent parties is not who we are. We shouldn't just treat him as a martyr. We should focus our energies to meaningful if disruptive change. However defective the current US healthcare system is, let's not turn our grief and anger against them in a way that disregards collateral damage. Instead, let us be the change we want to see. Perhaps this will be the wakeup call that will spur our community to truly tip the scales and work towards systemic change. We cannot let that rage consume us, let alone allow more families to grieve their own losses on our account. We should direct thar energy to reform and for the benefit of everybody.
The scars of loss never truly go away, we just become used to them. No one else needs to suffer as we are now.
No one deserves to die scared and confused as Dragoneer was, ESPECIALLY not in his name.
I am also very infuriated to hear about the reactions to his death. Reactions that I myself actually agreed with until you made the point that they were just attacking the symptoms rather than the cause, and enough of such opinions could turn what should be a safe and open community into radicals fighting for the right reasons in the worst possible way.
Can you imagine having to explain to your kid why daddy's not coming home from work, knowing that it would absolutely twist the knife to admit that he lost his life as payback for someone you don't even know? Can you imagine getting cut down in the office without knowing why, while hearing someone scream a name you've never heard of?
I'm prolife but never of the nevers would give back to others, doesn't matter their ideology.
I'm sure I would help him.
In health and hunger the ideology has heretic face, but the solidarity with others moves mountains.
Rest in peace Dragoneer, my prayings are with you, and thanks for everything you did.