For those of you who haven’t heard, “furries” (or as a lot of us preferred to be called, “furs”) are a fandom/sub-culture/community of people into anthropomorphism — giving animals human characteristics and abilities. (I could go into great detail here describing how anthropomorphism is an instinct hard-wired into the human mind, dating back to cave paintings of animal/human hybrids and Egyptian animal-headed gods, to modern-day sports mascots and cartoon characters — but instead I’ll just suggest you buy my book Furry Nation to learn the whole story of who we are and where we came from.)
Like any group of outsiders (if John Lennon once sang “woman is the [n-word] of the world,” furs are sometimes looked at as the equivalent by sci-fi/comics/fantasy fans) there’s a great feeling of comradeship, compassion and mutual support within the furry community. (The percentage of furs who are LGBTQ is greater than in society as a whole.)
Which is why it was a major shock (to me at least) when I discovered Furry has its own extreme right-wing contingent, with groups like Alt-Furry and the Furry Raiders.
The Furry Raiders symbol (Sometimes worn as an armband)
“Dogpatch Press,” one of the community’s main news and reportage sites today published “Story of a Former Alt-Furry: Clouded by Clout,” describing how they use the outrage they provoke to depict themselves as victims and recruit more followers; an excerpt:
By convincing you that others hate you, and are always out to get you, they separate you from the world and trap you into a bubble...they are master manipulators, and nudge people who are vulnerable emotionally into doing the wrong thing. They convince you that they are your friends not because they like you specifically, but because everyone else -hates you-, and so they are the only friends you will ever make.
It’s an excellent piece of writing that examines how such groups (furry and non-furry alike) recruit followers and suggests how to reach out and communicate with people caught up in them as opposed to simply attacking them as “evil.” Definitely worth a read, in my humble (and furry) opinion.
