Yeah, I was on that slide for a bit, probably around that age as well. Luckily I was too socially awkward to ever bother anyone with it, just kept to myself and watched that garbage.

Wanna know the slightly embarrassing thing that made me reevaluate? One of the channels I watched, which up to this point had almost exclusively made anti-feminist videos, suddenly made a video bashing furries in the same way. I wasn’t a furry, but I had friends who were and it’s usually a very friendly space for a harmless hobby. So I thought, “this is stupid, why would he make a video bashing these people who aren’t harming anyone?” and then it clicked. Took a break from that space and never went back.

So, thanks furries

[–] Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

For me, I always considered myself egalitarian, but what happened is I bought into their talking points that SJWs and feminists were actually just misandrists seeking special treatment. I don't think I was truly in danger of becoming a hateful bigot or voting for hateful bigots, but I certainly carried some of their talking points.

What snapped me out of it was one day watching one of these chuds do a video where they took like a politics or social values quiz of some sort, and I saw they didn't truly believe in equality. It was that that made me realize, "Wait, these guys actually believe some things I fundamentally disagree with." Basically they showed their power level.

So thanks, random misogynistic youtuber for showing me your true colors.

Like you with the furries, it goes to show that all it really takes is one moment of what they're saying not matching up with what you know to be true.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honestly, this is a huge mistake on their part. The right's been testing anti-furry messaging, complete with breathless misinformation (litter boxes in the bathrooms, anyone?), and I don't think that it's going well because it never seems to stick around for long. Furryism is popular enough that most working age adults and teens know someone who's a furry or are one themselves, and they, like most folks, are generally nice people who just want to be left in peace. By contrast, I don't think most folks know or know that they know a trans person, so it's easier to sell fearmongering bullshit with regards to them.

[–] themelm@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

I doubt most people know an open furry. But there's always been antifurry hate since they're kinda weird and niche and you can always try and link them to bestiality but just like now its always just been a thinly veiled wedge to start hating on gay and trans people and really anyone different. I think a lot more people understand intellectually someone who was born male but identifies as a woman than the whole fursona thing. Honestly antifurry rhetoric seems like an easy predictor to all kinds of minority hate. Love the litter box in the bathroom one have to tell people that's obviously stupid all the time.

[–] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

They're not gonna give up because they viciously hate furries (for the most part, there are some fucking weird Nazi furs and i will never understand that) but yeah, that message just doesn't resonate with people who live in the real world.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's interesting to look at cultural values now versus the past and wonder what the future will be like and what we (as in folks in the present) will be embarrassed about or scolded for. I definitely think Furries are one. (Edit: hating Furries I mean.)

So many people think it is about beastiality. Sure, some Furries have fetishes related to being in fur suits and sure I bet there exists at least one Furry who is into beastiality but that's not the norm at all. I think because people don't know people who are Furries they either find out about them through fear mongering lies or they hear about the few times that actually bad Furries do something and assume it's the norm.

I fully expect my descendants to be embarrassed to bring their robot friends around me when I'm old because I'll say something like "I used to be a programmer" and they'll be like "you can't say stuff like that, they take it as you saying you want to control them" and I'll just be confused and apologetic.