Furball at Huntington Beach

Altercation leads to hype and biased and inaccurate reporting.

Once again furries in the news for the wrong reason. At a meet up in a “private area” of Huntington beach a group of furries were having fun until a person started filming them. The furries attend demanded the person filming to stop; the person refused and a fursuiter with a megaphone escalated things by blasting the person were recording the went further by hitting the person videoing the event over the head with the megaphone.

The altercation became The Whack Heard Around the World.

The media, both professional and amateur click bait hacks went out of their mind with taglines like “Furries beat up and hit neo-Nazi and pedophile with megaphone on the beach’, “

Voyeur mauled by FURRIES after he is caught filming their fetish group in Huntington Beach”.

Even Dogpatch press jumped in the fray hears a little snippet:

“Those are archive links to deny traffic for stories of conjecture and regurgitated, third-hand info. They do not care about accuracy because they have agendas. It’s implied that there was an “attack” on a random man for simply recording the group (but in fact, there were years of provocation by inside members causing a problem). Some of them wedge in malicious bias by mocking pronouns, using “fetish” innuendo, and for no sane reason, comparing furries to “street thugs” who do retail looting. There have even been beware in furry groups about right-wing news trying to get inside. To help debunk the fake news, Dogpatch Press can provide direct info with cooperation from people involved.”

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An open letter to anonymous 15-year-old

Whan Papa bear offers bad advice.

Recently   the administer of the Greaymuzzle group and advice columnist posted a letter to his advice column from a 15year old called They Hate Us for Being Free:

“Hi Papabear,

I’ve been seeing a lot of furry hate recently on the internet, and to be honest, I am tired of people hating on us, thinking that we are all zoophiles or thermals [I think he means therians, or maybe feral], and to see that even though we hate them (zoophiles/therians) as well, people still don’t see that! I feel like the fandom is dying, and you know what? We should destroy the furry community to make a new community like it, except with thermals or zoophiles, and to not have inappropriate things like murrsuits. It should be child friendly!

Do you think we should recreate the furry fandom and have a set of rules with it? To keep everyone more safe and to stop furry hate all together?

Anonymous (age 15)”

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Furry has LGBTQ, but not all Furry is LGBTQ

There is a tread in the Furry Fandom of gender identity activists stuffing their political ideology with good helping of intersectionality into a hollowed out fursuit and declaring their ideology as the defining expression for the entire Furry Fandom, even to say furry is a subset of Queer as in LGBTQ.

Now let me throw a flag on this play: Sweeping Generalization Fallacy, ten-yard penalty. Yes, there is LGBTQ element in furry fandom, so there are heterosexual, Christian, liberal, conservative, etc. elements in the fandom, but no one group can declare themselves the one defining authority in the furry fandom and appoint themselves at the gate keeper of the fandom.

My response to the activist is you are part of the fandom you are not the owner of the furry fandom.    Furries are fans of anthropomorphic animals in art, literature, and fursuiting; one’s race, religion, politics, sexual identity is irrelevant when one is a talking animal. It is why in the past many of us furs got along by concentration on furry culture despite our ideological beliefs. The Furry fandom belongs to all and is not just entity for an activist to shove their ideology into the fandom. It is not my fandom; it is our fandom.

Tilt Longtail’s Announcement: He is Right

Why I agree and will limit my Furcon attendance.

Some time ago I watched Tilt Longtail’s announcement that he will no longer attend furry conventions. I will leave a link to the video below.

I do agree with him on two points Furcons have become expensive and boring.  When I go to any fan convention, I go because I want to learn something new or have a new experience; something I cannot do at home. I do not go to conventions just to hang out.  I have a big problem with Furcons for lack of content. My local Anime and Science Fiction convention has approximately three times more content and panel space than the largest furry conventions like Athrocon or Midwest Fur Fest. I do attend my local furcon or thought of Anthro NW because I have a fallout with my local furcon. For me as further I must travel to a furry convention, the higher personal investment in a fur con, and less return for dollars spent. As a highly introverted person I room alone. Anime Expo, Dragoncon, and World Science Fiction Convention offer a bigger return for me. I can only see visiting a small fur con as part of a longer vacation.