Are we losing the battle for tolerance?

[Pillar]

Anyhow, it is easy to think that things are ONLY getting hard for zoos.

After all, you are a zoo. You are more aware of your own problems, as a zoo.

Most likely, you are not as aware of other people's problems as you are of zoo problems.

That does not mean that they don't have them.

Society has become paranoid and repressive.

We are not the only people it's pissing off.

In case you have not noticed, there is an arms race in Portland, Oregon. The violence is escalating, there.

That kind of behavior should not surprise anybody that is really historically literate.

A repressive society is a paranoid society, and a paranoid society is a violent society.

It sounds trite, but repression is violence, and liberation is peace.

An arms race? Is there an article highlighting this?

 

[SigmaTheZeta]

An arms race? Is there an article highlighting this?

'Arms race': How the Portland shooting shows protesters on the right and the left are bringing guns

Experts say guns are showing up at demonstrations by protesters from both sides, creating a dangerous situation.

www.usatoday.com

As a matter of fact, there is. The Portland protests have reached such an extreme level of violence that weapons are entering the picture.

However, I think that the reason why we have so much tension in the air is directly related to how sexually repressed our country has become. People have become uptight, and when people become uptight, they become violent.

 

[SigmaTheZeta]

People always say it sounds crazy, but it's true. Sexual liberation can bring peace to society.

Repression always fans the flames of paranoia.

 

[Zethin]

Anyhow, it is easy to think that things are ONLY getting hard for zoos.

After all, you are a zoo. You are more aware of your own problems, as a zoo.

Most likely, you are not as aware of other people's problems as you are of zoo problems.

That does not mean that they don't have them.

Society has become paranoid and repressive.

We are not the only people it's pissing off.

In case you have not noticed, there is an arms race in Portland, Oregon. The violence is escalating, there.

That kind of behavior should not surprise anybody that is really historically literate.

A repressive society is a paranoid society, and a paranoid society is a violent society.

It sounds trite, but repression is violence, and liberation is peace.

Honestly a good thing to point out. I think I've become hyper aware of zoo issues because I have a level of prominence within the furry fandom and have seen how hard recently people inside of it have attempted to "out" zoo's or chase them out. Its definitely caused me to purge many a telegram conversation

 

[Pillar]

Honestly a good thing to point out. I think I've become hyper aware of zoo issues because I have a level of prominence within the furry fandom and have seen how hard recently people inside of it have attempted to "out" zoo's or chase them out. Its definitely caused me to purge many a telegram conversation

There are people still trying to do that? Do they really have nothing better to do than to make someone else's life miserable? WTF?

 

[puppyboy88]

There are people still trying to do that? Do they really have nothing better to do than to make someone else's life miserable? WTF?

What a bunch or jerks.

 

[dermaptera]

Honestly a good thing to point out. I think I've become hyper aware of zoo issues because I have a level of prominence within the furry fandom and have seen how hard recently people inside of it have attempted to "out" zoo's or chase them out. Its definitely caused me to purge many a telegram conversation

Honestly, it is wild....

My main twitter feed was full of zoo callout posts, and on my zoo twitter, well.... of course any zoos having convos there are being watched constantly by antis. I’m like.... some of these people love anatomically correct furry porn or “feral” but get upset when people are interested in the real deal? Some people have nothing better to do than demonize people and try to ruin their lives, both online and irl.

 

[SigmaTheZeta]

Honestly a good thing to point out. I think I've become hyper aware of zoo issues because I have a level of prominence within the furry fandom and have seen how hard recently people inside of it have attempted to "out" zoo's or chase them out. Its definitely caused me to purge many a telegram conversation

It is not just furry that is going insane, right now. Furries have always been prone to dramatics, and entire regional communities in the fandom have disintegrated to ashes based on the Burned Furs mentality. I think that furries are ultimately going to suffer from the anti-zoo hysteria that's been going on. All it's going to take is for the antis to take total dicatorial control over one convention and ban all feral material, and a lot of non-zoo feral artists are going to remember the famous poem:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

They might not recite the poem, but they'll start understanding that these witch-hunts are cancer. Cancer spreads.

 

[Zethin]

Furthermore, I think that us zoos should stop thinking that the sexual repression that is going on, today, is about us. We are one of many stakeholders that have been hurt by sexual repression, but everybody is suffering, right now, because we have produced a sexually repressed generation. It's not just us. I think we should stop thinking that it's just us. Our culture has become overbearingly cynical toward sexuality, and I think that this is demonstrably unhealthy.

I don't think that zoos alone are losing. I think that this sexually repressed age will ultimately hurt everybody.

I think that our problems are disproportionate, but just because the canary in the coal mine croaks first does not mean that everybody else is safe. When the canary croaks, it is time to change course. It is time to turn around and try going another way.

Our problems are the canary that should tell rational members of society that something has gone wrong. If we, one of the most patently harmless sexual minorities that exist, are being beaten down, then everybody should be worried.

And give the fucking canary CPR, so it will be there to be your scapegoat again in the future. If we were not there to get nailed to a cross every time society goes into reverse back into the Dark Ages, then someone else's neck would be on the chopping block.

The reason why you ought to take care of your minorities is to make sure someone else is there to be thrown into the volcano instead of you.

I feel like this is kind of a cynical take but I understand and agree with a lot of what you are trying to say. People over all have become more conservative about sexuality on average and when the average shifts the edges go flying

 

[Mike The Dog]

There are people still trying to do that? Do they really have nothing better to do than to make someone else's life miserable? WTF?

Mostly it's the angry 15-year-old gamer types. Still, that might be enough to scare everyone into participating in witch hunts.

 

[SigmaTheZeta]

I feel like this is kind of a cynical take but I understand and agree with a lot of what you are trying to say. People over all have become more conservative about sexuality on average and when the average shifts the edges go flying

It was a more jaded and dark take on the old poem,

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

If the speaker had not had the socialists and others there to get nailed to a cross first, then there would have been nobody but the speaker there to get nailed to the cross, so take care of all the minorities in society. The more of them there are, the less your odds of being first to get screwed.

Maybe, someday, enough of us will be standing up for each other that none of us will have to get beaten down at all.