As with any hobby, most furries are normal people just like anyone you'll meet at work/school or going to/from work/school or anywhere. Then there is the small percent that are hard core fans and have taken what for most is a hobby and perverted it (sometimes in an all to literal sense).

As is with so many other things in life, the few that take it too far tend to be the loudest. The silent majority are often forced into silence by the loud majority for fear that people will label them as being in the same class as the minority that have perverted it.

One unfortunate side effect of the internet and the relative anonymity that some sites grant their users is people are able to engage in activities (even if only on a virtual level) that they would never even consider doing in real life. An example of this is trolls of message boards that say things to people they’d never say to them in person. I think a lot of the stereotypes associated with furries are because of this.

This is true.

I think it goes even further than that. The perversion of the image of furry caused by the hardcore fans has caused even the quiet majority to begin to distrust and fear being seen by the not-furry world, especially given the attention the media has put on the hardcore minority. What results is a schism between the furry world and the not-furry world, based on mutual distrust and fear. This schism is something I've experienced firsthand, trying to build up a social network in furry and balance it with my original not-furry social network.

I myself am just a casual hobbyist - I write modern dragon-themed prog rock songs and put them online. But just from a theoretical point of view, I think it is possible to be a hardcore fan and still have a good mind and heart about it. I don't believe self-centeredness is in the nature of being a hardcore fan.

I suspect that whenever the hardcore fan becomes a problem, it's due to the fact that their motivation is selfish attention-seeking. People are trying to find ways to get attention, and they take advantage of net anonymity to create shock-value art and start drama to get people to react to them. The problem is not so much that they're hardcore fans, but rather that they're selfish pricks. And like what I think you're saying, that's simply a reality about people in general that can't be helped, furry or not.

That's another basic principle about the internet I've noticed. Take hipsters as another example: people on the internet tend to talk as though there's something intrinsically bad about being a hipster. But the fact of the matter is, you can still like underground music, grow crazy beards, and ride around on a fixie and still be a decent person. The problem is not so much that certain people are hipsters, but rather that certain hipsters use the status of being a hipster to treat non-hipsters as "inferior" to them and have a condescending attitude toward other people. The problem is the attitude, not the label.

In fact, just from lurking out of curiosity I've found quite a few individuals who would be classified under the "hardcore" label, but rather than simply being selfish pricks their passion for furry arises from a very deep emotional or spiritual or artistic kind of connection to animal expression. I think this crowd is the one that ends up being the hardest hit by the more selfish hardcore fans, because even within the furry community they get attacked for sins they didn't even commit. And here, there's another schism of distrust and fear one level down, contained within the furry community, between hobbyist and lifestylist.

It's quite a shame, I think, because of the kinds of furries I've come across so far I've begun to admire the lifestylist the most, for taking furry and doing something truly paradigm-shifting with it. As much as I hate trolls and dramatists as much as the next sane furry, I also can't help but think it would be such a waste to have furry be completely tamed down to just being a hobby. To do so would make furry like the New York "concentration camp" that Andre talks about in the film I linked. That danger is just as real as the rabid extreme of furry, I think. More real, even.

The reason a counterculture (like the hippies, punks, beatniks, goths, emos, etc.) exists in the first place is because there's something deficient or harmful in the "normal" culture that needs to be reacted against. I quite sincerely believe that the fact that furry even exists says something important about the not-furry world, particularly about how anthropocentric Western culture has been, and how damaging that amount of concentrated anthropocentrism has been on us spiritually. A counterculture is a pain reaction, and for quite a few people, furry counts as one.

On another note about furry. I dont really contribute much to the community. Though im thinking of giving out an flp and sending it to furry musicians for them to give to anyone practicing on the novation launchpad (since thats what i made it to be used with). I just think most of the time being a furry isnt always about giving to the community. but more so just participating in it. (however you like to participate.) Now i honestly do consider myself a furry and not a hardcore one either. but its just an interest to me. To me a furry is anyone who shows an interest in the anthrophomorphic community. And at the same time anytime anyone asks me to describe what beng a furry is i say "I'm one of the LAST PEOPLE you would want to represent a group of people". Just because im a dick alot of the time and i dont wanna give the furry fandom a bad name. I dont want anyone else suffer because i like to fuck around all the time. you know what im saying? Theres a point usually where your gonna decide how you want to be known in the community and what impact you wanna make. To me i was like "im just gonna be me and do whatever and i dont want to really IMPACT the furry fandom because, well like i said before i dont want to be a representative in the furry community. One of the reasons i call myself a musician in general and not just a furry musician.

More power to you, sir. Basically it all boils down to being a good person and having the right attitude about what you do. Emotions are contagious, after all. :)

And yeah sure, go for it.

emotions are contagious? what do you mean by that?

Make other people happy, and it'll make you a happy person as a result. People will look up to you, and want to be your friends and be around you.

Give other people negative emotions, and it'll bring negative emotions back to you. People will be annoyed at you, and find justification for insulting you and bringing you down.

What goes around comes around. ^w^

ahh wasnt sure what you meant. yep what goes around comes around.