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Last Word
14 years ago
General
The furry fandom is something people come to in order to find acceptance. Each of you can acknowlege this as fact, I know, because it is the same story from everyone I talk to, and it is the logical reason for the existence of the fandom.
But if you come to the fandom, and fail to accept others, you are ruining the experience for everyone. This is because you came to the fandom to receive acceptance, but are unwilling to give it. The fandom is made up of others like you. If you fail to accept, how do you expect others to accept?
And those simpled-minded out there, including my critics, would step in and say that I have that problem too, because I cannot accept every furry and everything furries do. But this is simplicity in its most harmful form. You see, you are only supposed to accept people for neutral or positive characteristics - when considering how those characteristics affect society, or the fandom. It is one thing to accept that someone is, say, a babyfur. It is another to accept that someone is a pedophile. A babyfur does not harm society. A pedophile, who rapes a child, does affect society. And accepting someone who libels or slanders someone, is not the same as accepting someone who has a different opinion.
Acceptance then, isn't on or off. For the fandom to exist to benefit all who participate, each participant must accept others, but not accept their detrimental actions. If we fail to do this, we shape the fandom. By not accepting what we should, and by accepting what is harmful to the fandom things like trolling, pedophilia, favoritism, personal attacks, and that good ol' boy network crap; we allow the fandom to die, to turn into, well, what it has become. If instead, we accepted that people can be and think differently as long as they are not harming the fandom, then the fandom will be a peaceful, productive and accepting place for all who wish to benefit from it, rather than simply drain it for their own benefit.
And my critics attack me for pointing out that they are in fact draining the fandom. The only valid point my critics have is that I am not making the fandom pleasant for them. They attack my efforts to improve the fandom, and they attack me for revealing those persons and acts which harm the fandom. The really screwy thing is that these people's efforts are so obviously detrimental to the fandom - at least they are to a person who can think for him or her self; yet many furries jump on the "bash Rex" bandwagon, simply because they find it entertaining, never realizing that they are publicly revealing themselves to be lazy-brained or egoists; pawns for those who drain the fandom, or those who actually actively harm the fandom.
Despite this, despite how logical and plain it is to see; most furries do not see these people for what they are. Perhaps they confuse what they should and should not accept, and believe they should tolerate attacks against an individual, and fail to recognize that the attacks are in defense of their ability to harm the fandom. After all, Smash's only reason for going after me is because I prevented Siege from victimizing more disabled furries. And look at the issues with the three conventions: Antheria's beef was they were trying to hide things and got upset that I found them - an amateur journalist discovered something before the mainstream media could, and I was attacked for trying to help them; Midwest Furfest, the convention that took down my flyers at AC because they didn't like my convention name - accusing me of infringement even while supporting Rocky Mountain FurCon, which was actually infringing on a trademark (FUrCon is trademarked by Further COnfusion) - and they attack me by daring to say I have less knowledge of and experiece with wolf recovery than an organization rumored to whore out wolves for sex; and now FurFright, who attacked me for simply trying to get in touch with them. Attacked, defamed, and prevented from helping save wolves and America itself, simply because I tried to do something good.
It is my hope that this will educate some. But I seriously doubt it will have any effect. You people simply don't know what it means to think for yourselves anymore. You lack critical thinking skills, and most importantly, you lack indepdence of thought. You are nothing more than zombies, to use a term you can actually understand. Or to use a more appropriate (for me) metaphor; you are all still plugged into the Matrix. Sadly, I can't help you because you don't even care to know what the Matrix is.
But if you come to the fandom, and fail to accept others, you are ruining the experience for everyone. This is because you came to the fandom to receive acceptance, but are unwilling to give it. The fandom is made up of others like you. If you fail to accept, how do you expect others to accept?
And those simpled-minded out there, including my critics, would step in and say that I have that problem too, because I cannot accept every furry and everything furries do. But this is simplicity in its most harmful form. You see, you are only supposed to accept people for neutral or positive characteristics - when considering how those characteristics affect society, or the fandom. It is one thing to accept that someone is, say, a babyfur. It is another to accept that someone is a pedophile. A babyfur does not harm society. A pedophile, who rapes a child, does affect society. And accepting someone who libels or slanders someone, is not the same as accepting someone who has a different opinion.
Acceptance then, isn't on or off. For the fandom to exist to benefit all who participate, each participant must accept others, but not accept their detrimental actions. If we fail to do this, we shape the fandom. By not accepting what we should, and by accepting what is harmful to the fandom things like trolling, pedophilia, favoritism, personal attacks, and that good ol' boy network crap; we allow the fandom to die, to turn into, well, what it has become. If instead, we accepted that people can be and think differently as long as they are not harming the fandom, then the fandom will be a peaceful, productive and accepting place for all who wish to benefit from it, rather than simply drain it for their own benefit.
And my critics attack me for pointing out that they are in fact draining the fandom. The only valid point my critics have is that I am not making the fandom pleasant for them. They attack my efforts to improve the fandom, and they attack me for revealing those persons and acts which harm the fandom. The really screwy thing is that these people's efforts are so obviously detrimental to the fandom - at least they are to a person who can think for him or her self; yet many furries jump on the "bash Rex" bandwagon, simply because they find it entertaining, never realizing that they are publicly revealing themselves to be lazy-brained or egoists; pawns for those who drain the fandom, or those who actually actively harm the fandom.
Despite this, despite how logical and plain it is to see; most furries do not see these people for what they are. Perhaps they confuse what they should and should not accept, and believe they should tolerate attacks against an individual, and fail to recognize that the attacks are in defense of their ability to harm the fandom. After all, Smash's only reason for going after me is because I prevented Siege from victimizing more disabled furries. And look at the issues with the three conventions: Antheria's beef was they were trying to hide things and got upset that I found them - an amateur journalist discovered something before the mainstream media could, and I was attacked for trying to help them; Midwest Furfest, the convention that took down my flyers at AC because they didn't like my convention name - accusing me of infringement even while supporting Rocky Mountain FurCon, which was actually infringing on a trademark (FUrCon is trademarked by Further COnfusion) - and they attack me by daring to say I have less knowledge of and experiece with wolf recovery than an organization rumored to whore out wolves for sex; and now FurFright, who attacked me for simply trying to get in touch with them. Attacked, defamed, and prevented from helping save wolves and America itself, simply because I tried to do something good.
It is my hope that this will educate some. But I seriously doubt it will have any effect. You people simply don't know what it means to think for yourselves anymore. You lack critical thinking skills, and most importantly, you lack indepdence of thought. You are nothing more than zombies, to use a term you can actually understand. Or to use a more appropriate (for me) metaphor; you are all still plugged into the Matrix. Sadly, I can't help you because you don't even care to know what the Matrix is.
The fandom as a whole needs help for sure. Drama rises over the simplest things and people have been judgmental over minor things when they should be looking at themselves for even worse problems.
As the bible says in Luke 6:42 :
"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye."
And on the wolf recovery: I find wolves to be a symbol of Nobility, honor, friendship, team work, and trust, people 'exploiting' them or hunting them are ignorant and uncaring and do not realize the impact that hurting the wolves will have. Wolves were taken off the endangered species list too early.
I do NOT want to be a part of a fandom that drives its members to suicide. That's American society, and I don't want to part of that either.