cross-posted from: https://pawb.social/post/48874

Here are some interesting takes on how Puritanism has harmed lgbtq+ spaces online and the internet in general.

Just found this post and had to share since it rings extremely true, at least with my perception of young furries on twitter, especially when they found out I have a feral 'sona.

Fortunately I deleted twitter.

  • dog@yiffit.net
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    1 year ago

    i have such conflicted and strong feelings about this. as a mod of several furry telegram chats i have had to experience this “anti” affinity with some very outspoken members and, recently, some younger members who are just over the +18 line.

    safe spaces and protecting minors are obviously paramount. on the other side, where adults only congregate, i think people need to understand that every group chat, every discord server, every lemmy instance, etc. is going to be a shared space. this shared space has admins or the original group who set the expectations and what’s okay. these may be people who have different ideals, values, and moral points of view from you. if you’re outnumbered in your opinion, you can’t just create some power to change everyone’s opinion on something. that’s no different than real life where you can’t kick someone out of their own house because you don’t agree with them. imo, this is related back to the core of the article: entitled visitors and onlookers really ruin otherwise safe spaces because they feel entitled to shout their dissenting opinion in an otherwise mellow and agreeable space. and that is really awful sometimes.

    edit: i felt like i should add that i am very supportive of civil, respectful disagreement and discourse. my examples were more towards a situation where, for instance, a subject otherwise agreed upon by the group would cause one member to cry out that they should all be banned or removed from the space. this extremism really hurts productive conversations. it’s not impossible for a group of people to be completely wrong and out of touch on a subject, but malicious and hateful dissention doesn’t solve anything. it only makes abraisions in an otherwise, usually, calm space

    • Wander@yiffit.netOPM
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      1 year ago

      I find that this problem isn’t as prevalent on well moderated telegram and discord spaces. Where it thrives and it often gets to toxic levels is Twitter because no one can tell them “hey, calm down or I’ll temporarily ban you”. They often just shout relentlessly.

      I remember seeing a minor telling a furry that his dog fursona had “zoophilic teeth”, because it was a dog fursona with canine teeth instead of human teeth.

      Opinions like “if you watch yiff with characters who’ve got anatomically correct genitalia you’re an animal abuser”. These things are super common on Twitter and there’s no one who can stop them like on discord or telegram and they keep getting worse and worse.

      • dog@yiffit.net
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        1 year ago

        i think these are good examples of extremism that not only cut off the voice of the person on the other end, but crudely cut this person down to an accusation. there is no respect here, no discourse here, and only a moltov cocktail towards someone who, for all intents and purposes, is 99% of the time not doing what is accused. it’s such a tough topic, imo, because when there is enough evidence that someone is harming someone or animals then, of course, i would hope that they are reported appropriately so that no one or no living thing is harmed or harmed any longer. what’s just as harmful are these huge leaps from imagination to reality like “zoophilic teeth”. i’m sure the shouter didn’t bother to explain, or respectfully bring up their concern. the words are meant to scathe. and that, to your point, is how it starts to damage safe spaces and fandoms.

        • Wander@yiffit.netOPM
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, exactly. Things get bad when civility is thrown out of the window in favor of accusations.