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Apathy = Negative-Trolling?
15 years ago
General
A month and a half ago, I started watching a group on LJ that details the more juicy bits of "teh furry DRAMMA". It was all fun and slightly lol-worthy when I first joined, laughing at examples of people who really don't know any better and REALLY make a mess of things in their own lives.
I'm not laughing anymore.
Why I even still pay attention to that group today is a mystery to me. There are some SERIOUS head-cases who need to be locked up or medicated or...well, I won't go as far as mentioning the third thing, but it's getting more and more difficult to not say it every day. In a way, I feel even more torn about the fandom than I did when I first started watching the LJ group.
As a boy, my parents always stressed to me, "Choose your battles." In other words, there are issues that come up in life when you have to know just how much you can take on. Don't do enough when you make that decision, you'll be ostracized by some people. Take too much of a stand one way or the other, you'll be ostracized (if not also arrested and/or killed). But apparently, there is a third group that is looked upon with similar revulsion. That group of people watch the events happen from a distance, choosing to not get involved at all. Apparently, this kind of "apathy" is just as toxic as trolling - if not worse.
So I ask you...because I'm completely screwed on this question: Is apathy on certain issues worse than action? Am I being a bad furry by choosing not to involve myself in the business of another when the only things I know about it are in the form of words being thrown from afar?
And if that's the case, do I even belong in the furry fandom?
(I know, none of this is making any sense. It's late, I'm drowsy and my mind is twisted in knots over issues that I feel I should never have any involvement in yet can't resist the temptation to indulge. Maybe in the morning I'll feel more clear-headed about things...
...but any input you can provide will also help.
I'm not laughing anymore.
Why I even still pay attention to that group today is a mystery to me. There are some SERIOUS head-cases who need to be locked up or medicated or...well, I won't go as far as mentioning the third thing, but it's getting more and more difficult to not say it every day. In a way, I feel even more torn about the fandom than I did when I first started watching the LJ group.
As a boy, my parents always stressed to me, "Choose your battles." In other words, there are issues that come up in life when you have to know just how much you can take on. Don't do enough when you make that decision, you'll be ostracized by some people. Take too much of a stand one way or the other, you'll be ostracized (if not also arrested and/or killed). But apparently, there is a third group that is looked upon with similar revulsion. That group of people watch the events happen from a distance, choosing to not get involved at all. Apparently, this kind of "apathy" is just as toxic as trolling - if not worse.
So I ask you...because I'm completely screwed on this question: Is apathy on certain issues worse than action? Am I being a bad furry by choosing not to involve myself in the business of another when the only things I know about it are in the form of words being thrown from afar?
And if that's the case, do I even belong in the furry fandom?
(I know, none of this is making any sense. It's late, I'm drowsy and my mind is twisted in knots over issues that I feel I should never have any involvement in yet can't resist the temptation to indulge. Maybe in the morning I'll feel more clear-headed about things...
...but any input you can provide will also help.
Apathy is not caring to get involved and yes, I agree its just as toxic, and ultimately, bad for you and others, but this is in everyday real life. You cannot and must not get bent out of shape for something from a medium like the net to make you think its apathy in a bad way.
I cannot know the person on the other end, and sometimes, its easy to mistake what they say as something totally wrong in their thinking. Not having a in your face direct conversation, we miss clues and subtle hints in their expressions, tone, inflections, facial movements, etc. Us as humans instinctually can tell a lot from this, but online, that is stripped, so we can only decide what we suspect they meant by trying to fit our own memories of something similar - and the rub here is we are going by what we know, not what they know and mean by how they express.
With that said, furry is how you feel about it and feel you fit. No one can tell you you are or are not, along with how "deep" you are as a furry.
Its a title we can take and cherish or its just hobby - and neither answer, nor anything in between, is incorrect.