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Denver furry convention canceled: Unpaid taxes, neo-Nazism, and sex offender
- Thread starter nynt9
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HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Yeah, I've cultivated tons of friends from the the open road that consider themselves Furries even though they don't own fursuits or partake in Yiff parties.
I was actually supposed to be there, had a room and everything, until my grandparents sprung a surprise trip for me to an NFL football game and I had to cancel.
I was literally driving home from the football game with my dad when I heard about it on NPR. Was difficult not freaking out trying to reach a bunch of my friends who were there while I was in the middle of nowhere interstate road.
Oppo
Member
Thanks for these.
I'm most of the way through the Vanity Fair article (up to "A Skritch Session") and it seems... pretty even-handed, to me? I mean there's very little editorializing, it's almost straight reportage, quotes and observation.
That Galen dude is a piece of work for sure, but that's sort of on him, isn't it?
It's straight reporting of a very selected group of people that don't represent the rest of the fandom. It's like picking ten of the most extreme otakus in the anime fandom and saying, "Yes, this is what every other person who has ever watched an anime is like."
Oppo
Member
c'mon.
the joke would be about the furher. I mean, it's right there.
I see. Well yes, selection is editorial. But I will say from my pov, as an outsider, it seems pretty fair, even a touch sympathetic.. not malicious.IMGF said:
Like, bits like this, reveal empathy, to me:
Vanity Fair said:
Not so bad?
mattwhite924
Member
If they did that with my fandom then they'd report that we're all happy and enjoy everything. ;____;
Lord of Castamere
Member
I don't understand how you can love Nazis. Hitler would have spit on furries, or euthanized them for mental issues. Hitler was not your friend. Fuck Hitler. Fuck Neo Nazis.
Furries can be cool people though. Good artists.
Furries can be cool people though. Good artists.
The allure of white supremacy seeps through everything, including a fursuit.
Yeah, I can see that angle, but the angle that literally everyone else took while reading this bit and the article as a whole is, "This is clearly just about sex when you really look at it." You can be empathetic about a group that you think exists solely for sex and still perpetuate the incorrect notion that everything about the fandom is about sex.
"I can't see your black skin when you're wearing that wolf costume."
I'll still never forget the confederate-loving douche fursuit who looked at me some type of way when I took my head off and revealed my blackness.
Wulfric
Member
It's been a while since I read the Vanity Fair article in full, but I actually thought that part was pretty sweet. Their reactions are not very far off from most soldiers I would imagine. Sure, it's strange as hell, but not harmful.
:O
mattwhite924
Member
Sadly it really can show up anywhere. Several years ago when I was more into the MLP thing I started seeing it pop up with the fandom there, especially among the local group. I ended up dissociating because of it.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Snowybreak
Member
Ok, what is that GIF from.
Lord of Castamere
Member
Underrated film.
Death to Smoochy
Oppo
Member
terribly underrated
NoblesseOblige
Banned
First time I heard of furries was MTV's Sex2K episode 'Plushies and Furries' in 2002. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.
Link here (probably NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3NQ7D24Pqw&list=PL97F2FAAB14F15878
edit: Apparently Sex2K and true life are the same thing.
Muskieratboi
Member
This whole thing is what let me know about the concentrated crazy that is the Sovcit Movement. It's hilarious! It's like they think National Treasure was a Documentary or something 
Is my comment really that bad? Someone who dresses up in Nazi fursuit sounds like a pretty damn downtrodden, bottom of the barrel dorkwad. Taking essentially children's imagery and mixing it with their ego driven misanthrope bullshit. It's significantly worse than those dudes who wore matrix trenchcoats and hung out at the knife/sword store at the mall.
Regular furries I could care less about, they are fun.
Armageddon
Neo Member
Reading the discussion that's been going on between Nerfgun and Nepenthe got me thinking.
Could a reason why people view fursuits as stranger than cosplay (even though they're pretty much the same thing) be because fursuits seem to be mostly OC stuff as opposed to cosplay where it would mainly be characters that aren't? Does that change in source material also lead to the confluence with otherkins?
In other words, if fursuits were mainly based off of non-OC characters do you think people would still have the same reaction? I guess though that would literally make it cosplay, so this is probably a silly thought.
Could a reason why people view fursuits as stranger than cosplay (even though they're pretty much the same thing) be because fursuits seem to be mostly OC stuff as opposed to cosplay where it would mainly be characters that aren't? Does that change in source material also lead to the confluence with otherkins?
In other words, if fursuits were mainly based off of non-OC characters do you think people would still have the same reaction? I guess though that would literally make it cosplay, so this is probably a silly thought.
I think there's an aspect of "I identify with this" to fursuits that people don't associate with cosplayers. Cosplayers are clearly just wearing the costume as a tribute to a character they like, whereas the perception around furries is that it's almost like an alter ego for them.
That, and all the sex stuff that people generally associate with furries.
Red Arremer
Member
I think part of why nazi furries have become a thing are the uniform fetishists. Nazi uniforms to this date have been considered to be really good looking - designed by Hugo Boss after all!
The whole "men in uniform" thing is a very common kink, and with slick uniforms such as WW2 Germany's, it comes as no surprise that they are quite popular among uniform fetishists. They always struggle to differentiate themselves from Nazis, because there's no easy way of explaining that they like to jingle their dingle to Nazi uniforms, although they do not condone the ideology tied to it.
And since the furry fandom is very open about sexuality and does not inherently outcast just about any kink, uniform fetishism is no different. And I assume this is one of those cases where one thing led to another - this case, the actual Nazis thinking they can openly portray themselves as Nazis because of the people who jack off to animal people wearing uniforms.
This also comes in combination with an ignorance of history especially among non-Central European and younger people in general (including furries).
I came in during the late 90s, so I got the tail end of that era. Though the situation was a lot different here in Europe than in the US I imagine.
Here the fandom was extremely tiny, and most of the people involved were university students or had a job involving computers. The community back then was extremely tightly knit, and everyone basically knew everyone, even if their nicknames were something like straight up "Fox" or stuff.
Though the fact there was so few people meant meeting regularly was nigh impossible.
I've been to several anime and game cons, and there's no shortage of people who cosplay their own characters or characters that are from such an obscure anime/game that they may as well be considered OCs since just about nobody would recognize them.
There's also of course the problem that a high quality fursuit costs a small fortune, and people would rather invest into their own characters, the one they created and use to represent themselves online, than those of others. That said, I've seen plenty of Rocket Raccoons, Nick Wildes and what have you as well.
Only two reactions from me:
There are some people in this world that really get off on being hated. I imagine Foxler Thundersmasher" or whatever his name is one of these people. He had a warm, welcoming community that would accept him for almost anything that he was, and then he decided to ruin it by making his fursona as vile as possible.
Second: man, Sov Cits are really crazy. Is it just me or has there been an uptick in them recently? I feel like I never heard of this stuff until maybe half a year ago or so, and now I'm hearing of them rather frequently.
There are some people in this world that really get off on being hated. I imagine Foxler Thundersmasher" or whatever his name is one of these people. He had a warm, welcoming community that would accept him for almost anything that he was, and then he decided to ruin it by making his fursona as vile as possible.
Second: man, Sov Cits are really crazy. Is it just me or has there been an uptick in them recently? I feel like I never heard of this stuff until maybe half a year ago or so, and now I'm hearing of them rather frequently.
Trump's inaguration
A Link to the Past
Banned
They will be blamed because they decided to come into a thread and talk about something they didn't know - and not just "Asking questions" or trying to get an idea of what everything is all about, but rather to give their uninformed opinion. I don't put furries on the level of trans people in this respect, but is it okay for someone to say something offensive out of ignorance there? There is a lot of ignorance about trans people, but does that excuse not only the inappropriate use of certain pronouns or the belief that pro-trans bathroom laws open up risks to women and children? Or can it be that showing your ass in a thread like this is your responsibility?
You also bring up "you too can be poked fun at," but no one has ever made the claim that it's not okay to poke fun at furries. Timedog's been doing it in this thread, and it's okay because it doesn't feel malicious or straight up insulting, which many posts "poking fun" at furries does.
The problem with wanting equal right to mock a type of person is that we're asking for that to happen before those people are treated with equal levels of respect in society. We're asking what Simon Belmont referred to as the lowest rung of geekdom to, in addition to being treated lower than everyone, be mocked all the same, and to greater severity than many geekdoms, who only get mocked as much as they do because they are so populous and well-known.
Simon Belmont
Banned
Hey guys. Earlier in this thread I made a stupid comment. It was insensitive of me and I feel like an ass. I don't really have any motivation for this post other than just to say that I've been following the replies in this thread and I've learned a lot about furry culture that I didn't know. Again, I was being an ass and I just want to say that it was super rude of me and I'm going to use this as an embiggening experience.
Professor Beef
Banned
This thread has certainly changed my opinions on furries ever so slightly. Seeing drive by posters shitting on people giving reasonable explanations is embarrassing by proxy.
I still think furries are kinda weird (it'll prolly take a while to change that), but as long as nobody is being hurt who am I to judge? And why should they care about what I think, for that matter?
I still think furries are kinda weird (it'll prolly take a while to change that), but as long as nobody is being hurt who am I to judge? And why should they care about what I think, for that matter?
lvl99 Pixel
Member
do they ever do cons where the nightmare costumes aren't everywhere? would be fun to check out the arts and such. Anime/Comic conventions ive enjoyed but those costumes you can generally see the persons face o_o
Armageddon
Neo Member
Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. People make those assumptions with fursuits where as they don't with cosplay. At least, that's what it seems like.
Fair enough. I've been to a couple of cons myself, but I've never really payed all that much attention to cosplayers. Mostly just saw the ones that were in front of me or passed by while I was waiting in a line or something. Most of the ones I remember seeing were from the popular series at the time along with a couple more obscure ones here and there.
Your point about the cost of the fursuit is interesting though. It definitely makes sense.
Red Arremer
Member
It's pretty much impossible to go to a furry convention without fursuits at this point, at least if you're looking to go into an art show or visit an artists' alley, since those are only at bigger conventions and that goes hand in hand with fursuits, just like cosplay does with anime/comic cons.
There's smaller meetings that happen at like a bar or restaurant where sometimes artists attend and bring their sketchbooks, but that's not really what you want either I assume.
There's fursuit specific events at most cons (fursuit parade, various contests), and usually the fursuiters pour into those, so you could go visit the art stuff during those events, but it'll be pretty much impossible to not run into any costumes whatsoever.
I felt it pretty easy to avoid them though.
Oh yeah, the ones you recognize definitely are the ones you notice the most. I specifically remember one OC cosplay entering a contest once because that entry came right before the one of a friend of mine who attended it, and she wasn't the only one who had an OC either.
I also watched the cosplay contest at Blizzcon and while almost all of them did a character, some of them did OC-y variations of them (like a fanmade design of Hanzo I think it was, and what have you).
Wulfric
Member
Well thanks for listening guys. We're not trying to deflect or ignore some of the issues the community faces, but it can be hard to talk about when you're getting shit on right out the gate.
My personal opinion is that we are tolerant to a fault, to the extent of allowing hateful individuals into our events and creating tensions that sometimes reach the ears of mainstream media outlets. It's also foolish to think individuals aren't hooking up behind closed doors, that's just a fact of life at any mass cultural gathering. But there is more to it than that. Furry is like a stew of a lot of different fandoms; sci-fi, renaissance fair people, cosplayers, and artists who love animals. You can go to the exact same convention as someone else and have a completely different experience. It's all about the panels you attend and which bar you go to when the night begins.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
There was that lawyer who investigated through this and eventually gained a badger fursona, so hilarious.
Though it is funny people thinking furries operated as a single thought-mind. It's like people forget there are furries who ARE against this shit and in fact are mostly responsible for the furry-nazism being shooed out.
...and here I am gonna correct you breh because of your hyperbole
that was me and I linked an NSFW because I remember other people doing that from other threads that simply put NSFW, also it wasn't hardcore porn - literally just two nude pics
Then again after reading up I remember you being so easily offended on seeing muscular men as avatars so it is hilarious, possibly more of a personal attack but who am I to judge.
Though it is funny people thinking furries operated as a single thought-mind. It's like people forget there are furries who ARE against this shit and in fact are mostly responsible for the furry-nazism being shooed out.
...and here I am gonna correct you breh because of your hyperbole
that was me and I linked an NSFW because I remember other people doing that from other threads that simply put NSFW, also it wasn't hardcore porn - literally just two nude pics
Then again after reading up I remember you being so easily offended on seeing muscular men as avatars so it is hilarious, possibly more of a personal attack but who am I to judge.
lvl99 Pixel
Member
In retrospect it was a really dumb question. Its already very hard to relate to this particular genre of fantasy art when so much of it seems either like strange commission requests or for people who are sexually attracted to men.
Bought the Zootopia art book though
Antifa is how the group is called though, I know members and they call themselves that.
Maybe they could explain more about what the acronym means? I don't know how they are described normally in the US.
PdotMichael
Banned
What?
Wulfric
Member
In retrospect it was a really dumb question. Its already very hard to relate to this particular genre of fantasy art when so much of it seems either like strange commission requests or for people who are sexually attracted to men.
Bought the Zootopia art book though
That a great book actually. Too bad they cut out so many characters.
I admit it is hard to find art that isn't someone's personal character or X-rated sometimes. The fandom is kinda scattered between Twitter, Tumblr, and Furaffinity. There's not really a good solution besides slogging through art until you find someone whose style you really like.
the thing you like is literally his deathly phobic trauma. try and have some sensitivity.
Interspecies sexual attraction to Hitler.
That might be my favorite moment in the entire series.
Conor_Fool
Banned
LOL. You linked two separate pictures of Kass, one in color and one in black and white. One was simply a "naked" picture (which by your standards is a cartoon animal with a massive dick), and the other was Kass ejaculating.
That's not okay, and for the love of god don't keep trying to rationalize it.
That is indeed the best Ren and Stimpy moment of all time, hahahaha
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Right, forgive my memory, but again one is just a nude pic (also massive? nah - you don't know what massive dick is let me tell you), the second one isn't some sort weird sex kink (I mean since when is that considered hardcore).
Not rationalizing, just making sure you're not going off the rocks with hyperbole. I know now it's not good to link that works despite warnings, in spite of other people doing it before.
Well at least you're not a driveby poster like I assumed.
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