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Furry Raiders and Colorado drama
9 years ago
General
So. I guess I just wanted to post a journal about the Furry Raiders bullshit that's been going down recently in Colorado, considering I am a local fur here and the entire situation is really annoying me.
Short version of the story: there is a neo-nazi wannabe named Foxler living locally here. Twenty minutes of googling can show you that he is not a very savory character. His FA is here:
starfoxacefox . You can see on his fursona ref a red armband that is purposefully reminiscent of the kind the Nazis used to wear, with the swastika replaced by a pawprint. There's also a photo of him in suit doing the Nazi salute circulating on twitter (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdEzJBjUsAA-gcO.jpg:large). I've also seen screenshots where Foxler admits to practicing zoophilia with his dogs (http://41.media.tumblr.com/8daf7fa1538088244df73577ba092092/tumblr_o5mrj1vMc51reod2ro2_400.png) and he apparently has an unsavory criminal history, altho' I won't go into detail unless I gather more firm evidence for it.
This dude, Foxler (Fox-[Hit]ler, get it?) founded a local group in CO called the Furry Raiders. If you look at their account (here:
furryraiders) You will see that it is listed as being 126 years old. I'll give you one guess as to what historical figure would be 126 years old if still alive today... (hint: it's Hitler...)
The Furry Raiders have hosted some completely innocent-looking events, like a private Zootopia screening. But their use of Nazi-esque imagery is getting them into hot water here in CO. Their armbands were banned from the Foxtrot meet (a 21+ furry nightclub thing). Foxler then created a belt with the exact same design, and when he was told not to wear that either, he tried to come back in with his armband again.
I'm not trying to spread rumors here--all of the stuff I'm saying has been documented somehow. If you check out twitter and google this Foxler guy... it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It just gets worse and worse.
The Furry Raiders claim that Foxler acts on his own, he's a core admin of their group but he doesn't speak for the group as a whole, etc. etc. However, the Furry Raiders have been asked on numerous occasions by many different people to do two simple things, and refuse to do either one:
1. Change the color of the armbands to literally any other color besides red.
2. Eject Foxler from their group for being a disruptive jerk at CO furry events and for his neo-nazi wannabe antics.
Yet. They continue to keep Foxler around and cover for him, and they refuse to change their armbands to look less Nazi-esque. Ergo, in my opinion, the entire group is tainted by their neo-nazi associations. And all they're doing is making us look bad.
I already wrote a sincere and professional letter to the staff of RMFC, asking them to please re-write their code of conduct to prevent attendees from wearing hateful symbols, or symbols reminiscent of such things. This would include things like Nazi imagery, confederate imagery, KKK imagery, Westboro imagery, and knockoffs that are very similar to such. Basically the iconography of any active or historical hate group would be treated with suspicion and disallowed in the public convention space. I suggested a warning for the first few infractions and then ejection from the con for repeated ones.
I think it would be good thing for anyone else worried about this kind of thing to write a similar letter to their local convention. And if you host a meet or any kind of furry gathering, you should make it explicit that anything that can reasonably be interpreted as hateful imagery should not be allowed. Unfortunately several meets in CO have had to go invite-only in order to prevent further mischief and disruption from this group. It's very obvious to me that they thrive on the drama that they cause. Honestly I don't recommend interacting with the group directly because they just eat up the attention. I think it's better for us to educate ourselves, and then create policies that prevent drama and attention whores from ruining things for everyone.
That's my kinda disjointed $0.02 on the matter. Feel free to comment and continue the conversation on this page if you have something to say.
Short version of the story: there is a neo-nazi wannabe named Foxler living locally here. Twenty minutes of googling can show you that he is not a very savory character. His FA is here:
starfoxacefox . You can see on his fursona ref a red armband that is purposefully reminiscent of the kind the Nazis used to wear, with the swastika replaced by a pawprint. There's also a photo of him in suit doing the Nazi salute circulating on twitter (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdEzJBjUsAA-gcO.jpg:large). I've also seen screenshots where Foxler admits to practicing zoophilia with his dogs (http://41.media.tumblr.com/8daf7fa1538088244df73577ba092092/tumblr_o5mrj1vMc51reod2ro2_400.png) and he apparently has an unsavory criminal history, altho' I won't go into detail unless I gather more firm evidence for it.This dude, Foxler (Fox-[Hit]ler, get it?) founded a local group in CO called the Furry Raiders. If you look at their account (here:
furryraiders) You will see that it is listed as being 126 years old. I'll give you one guess as to what historical figure would be 126 years old if still alive today... (hint: it's Hitler...)The Furry Raiders have hosted some completely innocent-looking events, like a private Zootopia screening. But their use of Nazi-esque imagery is getting them into hot water here in CO. Their armbands were banned from the Foxtrot meet (a 21+ furry nightclub thing). Foxler then created a belt with the exact same design, and when he was told not to wear that either, he tried to come back in with his armband again.
I'm not trying to spread rumors here--all of the stuff I'm saying has been documented somehow. If you check out twitter and google this Foxler guy... it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It just gets worse and worse.
The Furry Raiders claim that Foxler acts on his own, he's a core admin of their group but he doesn't speak for the group as a whole, etc. etc. However, the Furry Raiders have been asked on numerous occasions by many different people to do two simple things, and refuse to do either one:
1. Change the color of the armbands to literally any other color besides red.
2. Eject Foxler from their group for being a disruptive jerk at CO furry events and for his neo-nazi wannabe antics.
Yet. They continue to keep Foxler around and cover for him, and they refuse to change their armbands to look less Nazi-esque. Ergo, in my opinion, the entire group is tainted by their neo-nazi associations. And all they're doing is making us look bad.
I already wrote a sincere and professional letter to the staff of RMFC, asking them to please re-write their code of conduct to prevent attendees from wearing hateful symbols, or symbols reminiscent of such things. This would include things like Nazi imagery, confederate imagery, KKK imagery, Westboro imagery, and knockoffs that are very similar to such. Basically the iconography of any active or historical hate group would be treated with suspicion and disallowed in the public convention space. I suggested a warning for the first few infractions and then ejection from the con for repeated ones.
I think it would be good thing for anyone else worried about this kind of thing to write a similar letter to their local convention. And if you host a meet or any kind of furry gathering, you should make it explicit that anything that can reasonably be interpreted as hateful imagery should not be allowed. Unfortunately several meets in CO have had to go invite-only in order to prevent further mischief and disruption from this group. It's very obvious to me that they thrive on the drama that they cause. Honestly I don't recommend interacting with the group directly because they just eat up the attention. I think it's better for us to educate ourselves, and then create policies that prevent drama and attention whores from ruining things for everyone.
That's my kinda disjointed $0.02 on the matter. Feel free to comment and continue the conversation on this page if you have something to say.
Not saying this too condone their actuons, but a blanket ban like what you are suggesting may end up being the larger evil.
Look all i am saying is one needs to take care before we go outright banning expression no matter how vile it may be. The best way to beat these folk os in the marketplace of open ideas. Their views will either stand or fall.
Does something need to be done to curtail this sort of thing? Sure. Its just the precident this sort of thing that can set is where it is slippery is what im getting at.
Like, I'm definitely pro-free speech and that kind of thing. But I don't want to be hanging out at a furry con with a whole bunch of people wearing Nazi-inspired armbands ... and therefore be associated with that kind of thing. Reporters might show up... hotel staff might notice... what if people start asking, "wait a minute, are these freaks NAZIS too??" I don't want to be associated with that. nope nope nope.
So, I totally understand your concern, and I'd be the first one in line to complain and try and dial things back if the PC police go wild and start banning innocent things and going overboard. But I really just don't see that happening in this context!
This is kind of what I am most afraid of from this group--that they will scare off people like you, who seem like genuinely nice people, the kind of people that we want at our con!! If they scare away all the awesome folks who, like *normal* people, are skeeved out by Nazi imagery, then all will be left are the trolls and the drama queens/attention whores.
Please come down to Colorado anyway! Your art is awesome and us cool non-furry Nazi people are still here! We outnumber the weirdos I promise...
What with how staff are behaving about it it's not something I can ignore very easily- and honestly at this point I have more of a beef with how everything is being handled by them as opposed to the hategroup in attendance. I've loved the opportunity they offer to submit art for the conbook and badges and was going to shoot for making a conbook cover entry in their contest this year, but of course now I don't want to put in the effort. I'm really optimistic though that this will be the only 'off' year and next year things will be more or less back to normal.
I do fully intend to go to smaller events in CO like foxtrot or just driving down to visit friends. Ft. Collins is only 45 minutes away and Denver only 2 hours. So maybe I'll see you around!
People are slipping more and more into an "us vs. them" mindset, and that almost never ends well.
I think that Foxler should be handled with kid's gloves. It's probably just a matter of time before he does something really stupid and someone gets hurt. I say this because it seems as though that has happened in the past with him.