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Free speech and why it matters to the furry fandom

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What is free speech?

Of the many rights which are available to us, none is as important as free speech. However, a combination of factors including the high-profile activities of the alt-right in the US, resurgence of right-wing parties across Europe, emergence of various special interest and rights groups and the ease and speed at which news, ideas and, especially, outrage can spread over the internet have led some to question its necessity.

The most concerning statements that I've seen in the furry fandom have been those saying that certain people should not be allowed to speak and should be banned from websites and conventions for holding their views and the idea that it is okay to assault people who hold certain views. In the light of this, I feel it is necessary to explain what free speech is and isn't, why it is important and try to highlight some of the ways in which it directly impacts the furry fandom.

I will start with the Wikipedia article on free speech which describes it thus:

Freedom of speech is the right to articulate one's opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship, or societal sanction.

Further down in the article it breaks freedom of speech into three discrete aspects.

1. the right to seek information and ideas;
2. the right to receive information and ideas;
3. the right to impart information and ideas

In some cases these will be limited due to laws regarding privacy or similar rules but such cases will not be considered here as those limitations generally do not affect free speech in the way that it applies to the furry fandom vis-à-vis the expression of alt-right ideas.

As can be seen with the definition above, this right is not only meant to limit government interference with the free flow of ideas and opinions although it is often and wrongly interpreted that way. For example within the furry fandom we see freedom of speech misunderstood by Dogpatch Press who tweeted about free speech.

Or even really smart people, like at XKCD, who put out this misguided cartoon about free speech.

free_speech.png

Comics such as that fail to distinguish between free speech, which is a universal human right, and the first amendment, which is specifically limited to government interference but also only applies to the US. While many furry sites are hosted in the US and fall under US law, that does not apply to all of them and country-specific law is of limited use when discussing the broader implications of free speech for an international community such as the furry fandom.

Furthermore although government interference in free speech is something to guard against so are the chilling effects of societal sanctions. In fact, in his 1859 work On Liberty, which is the major work defining and defending free speech, John Stuart Mill expressed great concern about the threat to free speech from society as well as from government.

Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development, and, if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own.

When furs like @fluffigator say:

One has to wonder how they conceive of free speech. The point of free speech is to provide protection from consequences in the interest of expanding ideas and opinions available for public consumption. If you decouple free speech from whether or not there are consequences— well, down that path madness lies. I would contend that a country where the consequences of criticising the government are imprisonment or execution does not have free speech in any meaningful way. And whether the consequences of free speech are dealt out by government or by society at large is irrelevant if the effects are the same.

Having said that, I will also acknowledge that there are some consequences which can occur despite free speech. If you exercise your free speech then there may be societal consequences such as lowering people's opinion of you and perhaps limiting future opportunities. However, such consequences should not be as a result of society trying to punish that person for their speech, excepting in cases where such speech were to violate specific rules of a particular site, to use an example most relevant for the furry fandom.

Such consequences could likely only occur after the fact and should be relevant to that case. For example, banning a white supremacist from using a dating site is just wrong and misguided if he did not violate their terms of service. As an administrator on a furry forum, I can say that we do not punish users for what they do off the forum; although such information may be valuable when deciding on the severity of a punishment or assessing the probability of them re-offending. It is also incorrect to pre-emptively ban furs from attending a furry convention a la Furrydelphia. This is essentially the equivalent of arresting someone because you think they might rob your shop.

These issues gain importance because, while in the past many artists and writers had their own small websites, the furry fandom today is concentrated primarily on a small number of much larger websites. While many artists do maintain profiles on several different sites, many others are only available on one. This raises the further complication that when a large website takes a decision to ban a user they can severely restrict that user's ability to interact with the furry community. This is perhaps an issue which has not been given as much attention as it would deserve and parallels with the real world suggest that it is something which administrations of larger websites should spend time ruminating on. Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that convicted sex offenders could not be barred from joining social media sites even if those sites contained children. Part of the reasoning was that many politicians use social media and that people "structure their civil community life" around social media sites. This is perhaps even more true for the furry fandom and would suggests that self-moderation policies, such as those promoted by Inkbunny, are the best course of action.

Why do we need free speech?

We should all now understand what I mean when I say free speech but the question then becomes "why do we need it?" Or, more specifically given the current issues dominating the American political landscape and which are driving the issues, "why should we allow the alt-right or Nazis free speech?" The necessity of free speech falls broadly main reasons; the theoretical benefit that is gained from a diversity of opinions and the practical benefit of protecting our own future right to free speech.

These days we live in a pluralistic and multicultural society made up of people from different countries, cultures, religions and more. The fact is that these groups differ in what they believe and value and, at times, these beliefs will conflict with one another. Obviously, we consider our own beliefs to be true; if not we would not hold those beliefs. But this is a subjective position and it is very difficult to say which beliefs and world views are objectively correct and indeed it may be impossible. If people follow different philosophies based on different values it may not be clear why one thing should be valued over another. If it were clear then presumably everyone would follow the same philosophy. As we can not be sure who is objectively correct, we cannot justify giving preferential treatment to one group, hence the need for all people to have an opportunity to present their own case and try to convince society that their way is best.

Even if one view were demonstrably better than another, when there is no challenge to that view, the reasons that people hold that view will be lost and it will become dogma rather than a reasoned position. By allowing different thoughts and opinions, we ensure that those views will be challenged and people have to continually reflect on what they believe and why they believe it. It is not enough to say that all races are equal. You need to understand why all races are equal and you need to be able to articulate that. Shutting down opposing speech does not inspire confidence; it looks as though either the censor does not know why the opposing view is wrong or it suggests that they doubt that their own arguments are convincing. And, if their own arguments are not convincing, then perhaps whatever belief they hold is not true and should be revised.

On the more practical side, we need to protect the right of free speech even for those detested views as this is necessary to protect our own right to free speech. Free speech is usually under fire by those who seek to suppress others to secure their own position. This is misguided as it cannot be guaranteed that your own views will always be the ones that are favoured. With time, society and laws change and, if you found yourself the holder of a minority view which was despised by the rest of society yet which you held to be true, you would no doubt want protection to say your part.

Global warming and climate change is of concern around the globe and is supported by an overwhelming scientific consensus. We need to be able to discuss this issue in order to try and mitigate its effects. In the US, this has been made more difficult under the Trump administration which has banned the use of those terms. Luckily this does not affect the entirety of the country but it should be cause for concern. Without the ability to talk about a topic, we make it far more difficult to find solutions to those problems and to affect social change. One of the achievements of the US that liberals, and the vast majority of the furry fandom, would have celebrated was the eventual legalisation of gay marriage throughout the US two years ago. This represents a major shift in society's opinion of what is and is not acceptable. Such a shift would've been much more difficult, if not impossible, without free speech if promotion of gay marriage had been deemed illegal as it is in Russia or if the terms had been banned as for climate change.

Now one might object and say that even if it were the case that we need dissenting opinions to further understand our own position or that we should protect speech that we disagree with, the Nazis are spreading hate speech and there we must draw the line. Indeed, many countries do, wrongly, draw a line at hate speech. However hate speech is not clear cut, it is subjective. What is, to one person, an expression of hatred is, to another, just a plain statement of fact.

Let us take homosexuality as one example. Much homophobia, as with many prejudices including the anti-Semitism that is distinctive about Nazism, is motivated by religion. If one were to say, "god hates gays" or "gays will burn in hell" that would be considered hate speech by some. To others, this is totally correct, depending on your religious beliefs. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, a piece meant to summarise the beliefs which every Catholic holds is clear that homosexuality is "contrary to the natural law," "do[es] not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity" and "[u]nder no circumstances can [it] be approved." Is merely stating your religious beliefs hate speech? Probably but we should not prevent people from stating their religious beliefs if it does not directly harm someone.

Furthermore there is an interesting phenomenon that hate speech only applies to speech that the person describing it as hate speech disapproves of. Seldom do we hear people complaining about hate speech directed at various criminals, in fact it is more likely that we will see such speech being hailed. Even in the conversations around Nazis and hate speech, there is no shortage of people directing hate in that direction. Whether that hate is deserved or not will again depend on your belief system and is the problematic aspect of forbidding hate speech.

There is a particularly good lecture by Christopher Hitchens on free speech that he gave at the University of Toronto in 2006. You can read the full transcript here but I will also provide the video itself as he is an excellent speaker and it is 20 minutes that is well worth of your attention. On the topic of hate speech and censorship, this the question that he posed for the audience and which is relevant now when reflecting on the situation in the US and our response to it.

Bear in mind, ladies and gentlemen, that every time you violate or propose to violate the free speech of someone else, in potencia, you’re making a rod for own back. Because the other question raised by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes is simply this: who’s going to decide?

To whom do you award the right to decide which speech is harmful or who is the harmful speaker? Or determine in advance what are the harmful consequences going to be, that we know enough about in advance to prevent? To whom would you give this job? To whom are you going to award the job of being the censor?

Think carefully because it will not be easy to change in the future and once you provide allow the justification that ideas you dislike can be banned then the question who has the power becomes very important. Maybe you are happy to see Nazi's speech being shut down, possibly you were also happy when Australia denied a visa to an anti-vaxer and maybe you didn't even care when the UK police arrested a man for burning a poppy. But you probably do care about the Russian law against gay propaganda, the fact that Saudi princes who are critical of the regime tend to disappear or the fact that Indonesia only recognises six official religions. But those are different countries; at least if you were living in the United States you could be sure that you would never have a president who might support racial bigotry or act out of spite.

Restrictions on free speech

At this point one might get the idea that there are no restrictions at all on free speech. There are. Some of these restrictions will be created by people through agreements – like non-disclosure agreements, terms of services and so forth – and others will come on into being due to privacy or other legal obligations but these are generally limited and specific to certain situations. The restrictions I will talk about here are more general; they are cases where, in principle, free speech does not apply and are generally where, to my mind, the actions themselves would serve to undermine free speech.

Violence

Free speech does not protect incitement to violence. The second principle at Oxford University's Free Speech Debate project, currently supported by 81% of voters, states:

We neither make threats of violence nor accept violent intimidation.

Violence and the use of force to shut down discussion or to force one's view on others is completely antithetical to the concept of free speech and we should find any promotion of it incredibly troubling. People then say that Nazi speech should not be protected because they believe that violence against certain groups is acceptable or even should be encouraged. However, the restriction on violence is toward incitement to violence or the risk of imminent violence, not to arguing that violence is acceptable in certain cases.

For example, in the majority of developed countries there is no death penalty for crimes. There are groups within such countries who believe that the death penalty should be reinstated. Free speech protects such a view just the same as it would protect a Nazi arguing that certain groups are valid targets of violence but such protection does not equal endorsement. Free speech would not protect people promoting the death penalty if they encourage vigilante justice as this is a direct incitement to violence.

This is of particular importance because many otherwise reasonable people, both in the furry fandom and beyond, think that violence against facism, often in the guise of the loosely grouped Antifa movement, is acceptable. It is not and that promotion of violence against non-violent speech, even racist and fascistic violent speech, is making it harder to fight against the alt-right for two reasons.

Firstly, the violence against fascists is not going to convince anyone that the alt-right is wrong. Now I can agree that one side has a much nicer end goal than the other but if you look at the alt-right and you look at Antifa, you just see violence. And I don't think you can say that the ends justify the means. We are talking about the kind of world we want to create and if we're going to abandon our principles to create it, then what the hell are we fighting for? And if Antifa is not abandoning their principles, if they truly believe that violence is an acceptable way of promoting their ideas, then I must stand opposed to them. Two sections from Give me the good news, a famous South African song from the 80's seem applicable here to whoever is considering violence.

You can't use guns to build a nation
A bullet never was creation
/…/
You can't use force to sell a promise
Dictatorship was never honest

I am certainly not the only one to have realised this and those that support Antifa's tactics would be well-advised to realise it before making the situation worse. I know people will argue that you can't reason with the alt-right and that is probably true for the leaders but who you do need to reason with and convince are those that are closer to the political middle who will currently be pushed away from the left by Antifa. This is recognised by some journalists, philosophers and academics, with Noam Chomsky calling Antifa a "major gift to the right." The Daily Show also points out the way that Antifa is going to drive more and more people away from their cause if they continue with their current tactics.

Second, the use of violence, whether equivalent or not, is now explicitly stating that violence is acceptable against those with whom you disagree. When you eschew violence, it is easy to condemn it from the alt-right. When you fail to condemn punching Nazis and actively support the use of force in political debates you set yourself up for trouble. If it's acceptable for one side to use violence then it must be acceptable for the other side to use violence. This is not a situation that we should create; we must oppose all violence, no matter who it is by.

This really brings us back to the point of who makes decisions. From an individual's perspective, their view is correct but other people are viewing the situation from different perspectives and acting accordingly. If you now say it is acceptable to use violence to suppress the free speech of those with whom you disagree, are you prepared to accept the consequences? It hasn't even been three years since the majority of the world stood up to protest the murder of 12 people affiliated with the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo! Once you open the door to violence to fulfill political ends, you can't easily close it again. And you won't be able to dictate which causes may use violence to promote their ends.

Deliberate falsehoods

Free speech does not protect deliberate falsehoods or lies. Free speech is there to allow the exchange of ideas and deliberately putting out incorrect information undermines the goal of those discussion. It is very important for the falsehood to be deliberate though. This is partially due to the possibility of having many different but valid views of the same thing, depending on what you value and how you weigh different types of evidence (although that does not mean that there are not incorrect views) but also because a falsehood due to ignorance is not the same as a malicious falsehood.

This shouldn't be controversial, no one says that a child lied when they give the wrong answer on a test. The child simply did not know and gave what they believed to be correct with no bad faith. Answers can even change as we learn more about the world. This also illustrates one problem with shutting down discussions. If we view those with detestable views the same way as we view the child, we can recognise that, just as banning the child from answering or kicking them out of the class, the only way to get a better answer is through engagement and education.

A further complication is that we do not always view lying to people as wrong. Some people think it is good to lie to children about the existence of Father Christmas or Santa Claus and it is necessary to lie to prepare a surprise party. In those cases you could maintain that there is no malicious intent so those lies are acceptable but that would still leave the door open for the classic "doing the wrong thing for the right reasons" paternalism. I am not going to try and follow those thoughts to a conclusion at this point but merely reiterate that as long as there is no deliberate deception, even speech which is objectively wrong at that point in time would still be protected as free speech.

Harassment

Free speech does not protect harassment. It provides the freedom to discuss ideas but harassment is not about discussion, it is about targeting an individual and making their life unbearable. But we also shouldn't confuse saying things which upset certain people with harassment. It is possible to ignore, move away from, or block people that are saying things that upset one but harassment would include people trying to circumvent such blocks.

The public vs private sphere

Finally, our attention must fall on the question of public vs private arenas. Free speech applies to the public arena and within private spaces it is perfectly legitimate for the owner of said space to add their own restrictions, provided those restrictions do not contravene the law. The majority of furry activities happen within such private spaces; whether it be on various furry websites or at conventions.

Sometimes these restrictions are due to legal reasons in the country of hosting or ownership; for example in October 2016 SoFurry changed its AUP to forbid Nazi symbolism in any context for legal reasons. Sometimes the restrictions are for more pragmatic reasons, such as when Fur Affinity banned cub work in 2010 over funding concerns. Others are due to the nature of the website itself; furry sites are not the place to post all your football fan art unless your team is made of furry players. While people can debate the logic or relevance of those decisions, no one is denying that the sites are within their rights to restrict content for whatever reason.

However, as was mentioned before, online social media is essentially the modern day public space. This is even more the case for the furry fandom which is predominantly online. There are no public spaces online in the same sense that there are public spaces offline but there are spaces where groups of furs can come together. Essentially there is a blurring of public and private which necessitates that any decisions made, even in the private space of furry websites, which impacts on the pseudo-public nature of those spaces needs to be given the appropriate amount of thought.

This essentially mixed space where a private site stands in for a public space means that more restrictions are possible there but also that people who do not normally have to consider wider implications of their actions now need to view a bigger picture. And this comes to the fore with the aforementioned content bans and the calls to remove furs that support the alt-right. While such actions may have the effect of creating less friction on that site they also split the furry community, reduce the diversity and tolerance that is one of the best aspects of the furry community and create echo chambers which limit societal change.

There is some evidence that, outside of the furry community, this might already be happening. Slate reported about alt-right attempts to "build their own internet." The furry fandom had small scale segregation when cub artists migrated from Fur Affinity to Inkbunny but many still maintained a presence on both sites. But, without contact, we have no way to convince people that our way is better. The alt-right will be able to flourish and recruit others with no dissenting voices to challenge them at any point. Some have said that you cannot convince Nazis through reason and this may be true but you can convince those that the Nazis might otherwise convince and many people get pulled into white supremacist and alt-right thinking due to feeling excluded. Actively excluding people is not going to help but contact and communication with them will. This is one of the things that Daryle Jenkins does and we see the same message in Angela King's story, a woman who was a white supremacist until prison forced her to live with other races and she fell in love with a black woman. Without exposure to different people and different ideas there can be no change.

The idea of redemption arcs is a large part of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic franchise, particularly from season 5 where Starlight Glimmer, the main villain all season, is finally convinced that she is wrong and, over the next two seasons, whose forgiveness and redemption we watch. Similar ideas come with Trixie who appears in an antagonistic role twice, needing to be given new chances before she is, mostly, reformed and later becomes Starlight's friend. Since almost 1/4 of furries identify as bronies it only seems natural that we take those messages and actually put them into practice.

Why free speech is particularly important for the furry fandom

I have already brought up several examples where I think we can learn something from the intersection of free speech and the furry fandom but I think we can go further. The furry fandom is a primarily online community and it is a community that is built around ideas, fantasies, art and literature. It is a community to whom free speech is particularly important and it has been since the beginning.

In 1978, between the first publication of the APA Vootie and the NorEasCon II World Science Fiction convention where Steve Gallacci's submission of an Erma Felna painting started the discussions that would lead to the modern furry fandom, we had the publication of Omaha The Cat Dancer. This was an erotic anthropomorphic comic, still sold at furry conventions today, which, along with several other comics, caused one comic book store owner to be charged with distributing obscenity. This directly lead to the formation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to protect the First Amendment rights of those involved with comic books. From the start, the furry fandom has been involved in matters of free speech.

The controversial subject of cub art also faces legal issues in various parts of the world and, while many are not doubt pleased about that, that fantasy images are subject to such restrictions should have the furry fandom concerned about furry art in general. The idea of obscenity is not only limited to cub and some people would find furries' tolerance of many diverse sexualities and sexual acts to be problematic. This can, and has affected furries financially. Paypal has been known to freeze accounts that are used for commissioning yiff which leads to uncertainty in the fandom. This is not just a furry problem but it's a general issue that payment processors do not like adult material regardless of whether it is legal or not and which we should oppose.

Those issues revolve around adult material but even the non-adult material is not always appreciated and furs are not always treated well online. This should remind that when we talk about suppressing the speech of others that furries are also a likely target and many of the things that we don't bat an eyelid towards would be considered very strange and perhaps perverse to outsiders. But the major strength of the furry community is its acceptance and tolerance. Those are the values that society needs and needs to promote and the furry fandom must make the choices which give us the opportunity to do so. If we are not in contact with those who disagree and do not speak with those that disagree then we have no chance of changing their minds and building a better society.

Closing Words

Free speech is not the easy path but it is the right path. It doesn't mean that we just let bad ideas spread unopposed but we oppose them in a way that will protect us as well. Follow the advice of Carol Christ, chancellor of UC Berkley where the free speech movement in the 60's began.

Nonetheless, defending the right of free speech for those whose ideas we find offensive is not easy. It often conflicts with the values we hold as a community — tolerance, inclusion, reason and diversity. Some constitutionally protected speech attacks the very identity of particular groups of individuals in ways that are deeply hurtful. However, the right response is not the heckler’s veto, or what some call platform denial. Call toxic speech out for what it is, don’t shout it down, for in shouting it down, you collude in the narrative that universities are not open to all speech. Respond to hate speech with more speech.

We should be thankful that we have leaders like her and organisations like the American Civil Liberties Union who will defend the free speech rights of every person and every perspective. Because, as legal director David Cole explains:

If we defended speech only when we agreed with it, on what ground would we ask others to tolerate speech they oppose?

As furries, we should have learnt about the political use of fear from Zootopia. To quote mayor Bellweather, “Fear always works.” We must do better. We can not give in to fear of the alt-right and make rash decisions that impede our liberty. President Bush used fear after 9/11 to increase surveillance and introduce the Patriot Act to the US which reduced the rights of American and foreign citizens and remains law twelve years after it was supposed to expire. And, to remain with the theme of Nazism and fear, Hitler used the fear and confusion of the Reichstag fire to enact emergency provisions and take complete control of government from 1933 to 1945.

We know what happened in the past, we know that we have limits and we do not know who will write the laws of the future. We need to think clearly, logically and dispassionately. Free speech is the only human right which allows the discussion and formation of others and the progress of society. We should not throw it away lightly in fear of a vocal minority and abandon the principles which we believe in.

Comments

Your rating: None Average: 2.5 (6 votes)

Noam Chomsky calling Antifa a "major gift to the right."

To be fair to Noam here, the reason he called it a major gift to the right wasn't because he was indicating it would expand their influence. He was more along the lines of thought that the right is simply BETTER at the whole violence thing. In essence, if the left goes violent then the right is far more prepared to use those tools of social interaction than the meeker left it.

"When confrontation shifts to the arena of violence, it's the toughest and most brutal who win – and we know who that is. That's quite apart from the opportunity costs – the loss of the opportunity for education, organising, and serious and constructive activism."

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There is certainly that side but I don't think that was the gift part. I think the gift part is, like Trevor Noah says, that they are damaging their own cause and violence will serve to push more people away from joining them than it will bring in to help them.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Noam Chomsky also said Khmer Rouge atrocities in Cambodia were just CIA propaganda aimed at smearing a noble regime.

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"And whether the consequences of free speech are dealt out by government or by society at large is irrelevant if the effects are the same.

Having said that, I will also acknowledge that there are some consequences which can occur despite free speech. If you exercise your free speech then there may be societal consequences such as lowering people's opinion of you and perhaps limiting future opportunities. However, such consequences should not be as a result of society trying to punish that person for their speech, excepting in cases where such speech were to violate specific rules of a particular site, to use an example most relevant for the furry fandom."

No no no no no no.

What you are advocating here is completely unrealistic and unworkable. I cannot imagine a world in which a member of the neo Nazis could sue his employer for them firing him after he declared that all Jews were subhuman and threw up a Nazi salute in the middle of his job site, but what you are advocating for would make that a reality. You are looking for a fantasy world ideal of Freedom of Speech. It just doesn't work like that in the real world. There is a very good reason that the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only applies to government action. Under your position, economic boycotts of businesses that engage in hate speech would be banned. You are advocating for a very specific type of "freedom." You want freedom FROM speech, not freedom of speech. Freedom from speech is a type of freedom where anyone can say what they want and can actively prevent others from reacting to it in any manner that displeases them. It is freedom from criticism and freedom from, as you correctly put it, "consequences." That is a corrupted version of freedom of speech that will never be accepted in modern society.

Freedom of speech means you get to say whatever you want without the government imposing a penalty, with some limitations. You have NO protection against the opinion or actions of non-governmental individuals under "freedom of speech."

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'Freedom of speech means you get to say whatever you want without the government imposing a penalty, with some limitations. You have NO protection against the opinion or actions of non-governmental individuals under "freedom of speech."'

Well yeah but punching people is still off limits, wouldn't you think?

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Punching people is off limits under the criminal code. Punching someone will get you arrested for assault and battery. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech.

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...It does when there are members of the left using said type of intimidation to silence free speech. Hence Trevor Noah and GreenReaper calling them out.

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As I said, the criminal code handles that. That is why we have a criminal code. If you punch someone without it being (a) consented or (b) under an accepted definition of self defense, you will be arrested, charged and prosecuted for assault and battery (unless the victim didn't see the punch coming, then it might just be battery). There is no point in conflating the criminal code and the 1st amendment. One has nothing to do with the other.

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But you see there are people out there incapable of understanding the complexity of the law like you do, such as Yvette Felarca for instance.

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I don't know, worrying about "freedom of speech" on a site that still lets Ike the Dragon the Nazi comment feels like much ado about nothing.

A shitty group was emboldened by a bad president who was only elected because of a quirk of the electoral system. They said, "hey, it's our time now," most everyone else said, "no, no it isn't". That's how it works.

Of course, the problem with fascism and violence is that violence is promised by fascism. It's about "forcible oppression of opposition." That's, like, a defining tenet of the belief system. If someone says "I'm a Nazi" they are saying "I'm going to get violent if you disagree with me." If someone says they're "anti-fascist", that means they are saying "I'm going to get violent if you get violent."

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We using knives or guns? How about gunblades? Really go all Final Fantasy. It'll be fun!

I'm not worried about Flayrah. I'm worried about some of the attitudes in the furry fandom.

If it just worked that way, that'd be fine.

And there's the problem. This violence is not all about self defense. Several furs are expressing the view that it's acceptable to initiate the violence.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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It's the myth of the "non-violent revolution." We worship and point to non-violent protesters like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and say "look, they got the job done without hitting anyone over the head" while ignoring the fact that they got to be non-violent figureheads on the backs of hundreds of thousands of acts of violence by other people on their side.

But that's why I'm a centrist, not a leftist (or rightist); I don't want a revolution because revolutions are violent. My sympathies will lie with leftist violent revolutionaries, and I'll certainly gain major satisfaction from watching Richard Spencer get punched in the face, but I'm not going to join them. Major change to a "system" (whether the U.S. government, society or furry fandom or whatever) can only occur one of two ways; quickly, via violent revolution, or slowly, by working with the system.

I've seen Tweets claiming centrists don't think the world can get better, but that's not the truth; I'm saying the world can improve, but I'm not willing to risk violent insurrection to get there. I'm just going to slowly grind it out, and trusting in the system to do its job. I live in a democracy; that means I'm going to get outvoted sometimes. It's not in my best interests to overthrow the government every time that happens.

So, yes, Trump is president, and that fucking sucks balls, but, hey, look, he can't get anything goddamned accomplished, because the system is working. For fuck's sake, his trans ban is getting stonewalled by those liberal hippies at the fucking Pentagon.

But anyway, my original point was, if a furry convention wants to ban fascists, well, they are, by their own admission, violent.

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You not really giving me much to argue with there. :/

“But here's some advice, boy. Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions.”
― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

--Desmond Tutu.

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But that would imply that these people (antifa) are capable of actually sticking to their principles. They've shown time and time again that they're more than happy to be the first offenders.

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No. Nazis and Furry Raiders aren't people.

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If he were doing that at his job site then he could certainly be fired because there will be certain actions which your work does not tolerate. However, he should not be fired for doing those things outside of work as long as they do not affect the quality of his work and he continues to follow the requirements of his workplace.

People are still free to react to speech in whichever way they want, provided that does not violate the law or infringe on the speaker's liberty. Economic boycotts by a single person would not be banned as you are free to shop wherever you want and can make that choice for whatever reason you want. A large scale boycott campaign could be seen to be harmful to a business although whether a business needs to be protected from harm in the same way as a person does would be a different debate.

However, your idea that free speech has no protection from societal consequences is not fully thought through. If society is free to create consequences as long as its not government doing it then it should be free to ostracise people who think differently. That would make it acceptable to discriminate against those who promote equal rights for gays or atheists or blacks because it's not the government doing it. But we surely all agree that that sort of discrimination is bad even if it's not the government doing it.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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"However, your idea that free speech has no protection from societal consequences is not fully thought through. If society is free to create consequences as long as its not government doing it then it should be free to ostracise people who think differently. That would make it acceptable to discriminate against those who promote equal rights for gays or atheists or blacks because it's not the government doing it. But we surely all agree that that sort of discrimination is bad even if it's not the government doing it."

My idea that free speech has no protection from societal consequences is reality. That is how our system works, and it is the only realistic way for our system to work. The only alternative would be to enforce some kind of limitation on criticism of other people's speech.

Example #1

(1) Neo Nazi A goosesteps around town wearing an SS uniform and swastikas, shouts at everyone who sees him that Jews are subhuman. Throws up Nazi salutes at every opportunity.

(2) WacDonalds realizes that Neo Nazi A is a manager of their restaurant, which employs and serves Jews, as well as various other minorities.

(3) WacDonalds fires Neo Nazi A because he is a Nazi.

(4) Neo Nazi A sues WacDonalds and wins millions of dollars, forces them to re-hire him as manager.

(5) Jewish people stop going to WacDonalds and organize protests and boycotts.

(6) WacDonalds sues Jewish people for boycotting them and wins millions of dollars, forces them to continue purchasing WacDonalds.

No bueno.

Example #2

(1) KKK member suddenly decides he will henceforth walk around town in a full Klan regalia, including hood, and carrying burning crosses through black neighborhoods.

(2) People who used to be friends with KKK member realize how bad he is and decide they don't want to have anything to do with him anymore. He is no longer invited to parties and social gatherings.

(3) KKK member sues his former friends for refusing to allow him to join their parties and social gatherings, wins millions of dollars from them and forces them to re-invite him to their gatherings.

(4) Friend A now has no choice but to allow KKK member to attend gatherings at his house, under compulsion from government authorities. One night KKK member is seen walking out of Friend A's house wearing full klan regalia and shouting "Death to Blacks!" This is witnessed by Executive Z, a potential client to Friend A's widget producing company who is black.

(5) Executive Z tells Friend A he doesn't want to buy widgets from him now, because he saw KKK member walking out of his house shouting "death to blacks."

(6) Friend A sues Executive Z, wins millions of dollars and forces Executive Z to buy his widgets.

I could come up with countless similar examples. This is why free speech protection is limited to government actions, aside from obvious moral reasons. Enforcement of free speech means lawsuits, monetary damages and injunctions. It is practical to enforce against the government. It is not practical to use that kind of enforcement against citizens.

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Short answer: Those examples are completely ridiculous and are not what I said. In fact the first one is in contradiction to what I said in previous reply and as for the second, you can't sue people for not being your friends. -.-

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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How else is your vision for freedom of speech going to be enforced? You are putting forth a new rule for society assuming that there will be no enforcement mechanism?

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Not really any new rules. You can already be friends with whoever you like. The closest to a new rule is basically an anti-discrimination saying that someone can't be fired for something that has nothing to do with their job. Your private life and beliefs are no business of your employer.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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So what you are advocating then is to create a new "protected class" under U.S. law that includes opinions. You just don't understand the ramifications of doing that.

This actually harkens back to what we discussed in a different comment section. If you recall, I mentioned that, since the Civil Rights era, the U.S. government has asserted itself to prevent discrimination in "public accommodations" which generally refers to any publicly accessible business. This is why you can't put up a "Whites Only" or "Blacks Only" sign in your shop. In making these laws, the government created (and the courts have enforced) a collection of terms that is referred to as "protected classes." There are a number of these classes dealing with highly specific issues, but the major ones that are mostly referred to are:

race

gender

"color"

religion

national origin

Among the protected classes, all except one are tied to qualities that are to some extent immutable or inherent to a person's being. The only one that isn't is religion, and that is likely considered a protected class due to the Constitution's general devotion to religious freedom. Although religion is not technically inherent to one's being, our leaders have more or less accepted the idea that it is extremely close to that, so it is considered as a protected class.

You are advocating that "opinion" be added to those classes. This would impact employment and so many other areas in ways that you are not imagining. One of the big problems is that "opinion" is not something that is easily identified. Thus any case dealing with that as a protected class would involve intense ambiguities which would make every judge's job a nightmare. Also, because opinion is something that is extremely fleeting, it would be virtually impossible to have any kind of consistency. Countless loopholes would be created. One day someone is a Nazi. The next day they have committed themselves to the teachings of Ghandi. The next day they are a Nazi again. There is no way to control or anticipate this. Like I said, dealing with this when it is government action is plausible because the government is generally a singular body with specific rules by which it operates and generally speaks with one voice (depending on the department). This is not plausible with hundreds of millions of individuals and businesses, all of which have different ideas and ways of operating.

Also, anti-discrimination laws impact numerous areas outside of employment. Like I said before, it would also affect how businesses could interact with their customers. Under current law, a business owner can restrict speech within their store. A restaurant owner could, for example, declare that there will be no weekly Nazi meetings in his restaurant. However, if Nazi beliefs suddenly become part of a protected class, Nazis can sue a restaurant for not allowing them to gather there. Suddenly, Nazis and every other hate group are legitimized throughout society under threat of law.

You think things are much more simple than they actually are. You are advocating for societal changes without considering the legalities and the ripple effects. That is a recipe for disaster.

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I'm just not seeing the problems you are. Even when you point them out, they seem to be so artificial and going a different interpretation to what I'm saying, like your one about opinions changing. I don't see why that matters because no matter what opinion a person holds it is irrelevant to them doing their job. There is a constant "are they doing their job?" If yes, then their opinion is irrelevant. If no, then they could be fired because they aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing. Do you really think a business should have a say in their employees lives outside of work? I certainly don't.

As for the other one, yes, you shouldn't be kicking people out if they are not causing a disturbance for others. If people are going to have a meeting that is not disruptive then that should be fine. I guess it depends what you mean by legitimised but I don't see why allowing someone to have a meeting says anything about agreeing with the group. The reverse is then whether you think it's okay for a restaurant to declare that there can be no gay meetings in the restaurant.

Edit: I'm not talking about US law. I am talking in general. If there is a right way of doing things then everyone should be doing it. And the right way to me is to maximise the freedom of every person to do as they will as long as it is not harming or infringing on the rights of others.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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"I'm just not seeing the problems you are."

That's pretty much your entire problem in a nutshell, yeah.

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U.S. law is most friendly toward freedom of speech already so it makes sense to talk about U.S. law.

As far as why it matters if opinions change, that's because no laws are absolute. The law will have to have accommodations for certain scenarios, one of which you already alluded to. For example, if someone is a Nazi and has several Jewish subordinates. Well one day he might believe that no Jews shall ever be promoted and the next day he might believe that Jews can be promoted. Then the next day he may believe that no Jews shall be promoted again. You can't anticipate that in a way that the law could realistically handle.

You say that no one should be removed from a restaurant as long as they aren't being "disruptive." Well answer this, who decides the meaning of "disruptive?" You have just created another loophole.

And guess what, under current U.S. federal law it is possible for a restaurant to declare no gay meetings, because sexual orientation is not yet recognized as a protected class. It is ironic to me that you are (unknowingly I'm sure) advocating for increased rights for bigots before advocating for increased rights for gays. But this is just another one of the problems with your position.

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If he is showing a trend of Jews not being promoted then that would be a sign of discrimination which can be acted upon. If he's changing his mind but Jews are still being promoted (and not demoted when his mind changes) then it all averages out.

I'm not sure disruptive is that controversial of a term. If it's creating a disturbance that is ruining the experience for others. That is due to their actions and not their beliefs.

I am totally aware that the US doesn't protect against discrimination on sexual orientation. I'm not sure why you say advocating for increased rights for bigots before gays since I have spent many years talking about how gays should not be discriminated against. And I'm not even talking about increased rights for a particular group. My point is that all groups should have equal protection and the government should not favour any particular group.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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If he is not promoting Jews he can always come up with various excuses why. These people are very clever. It is much more practical for a business to say he's an admitted Nazi and Jews aren't being promoted, therefore he's the problem, rather than having to waste countless resources trying to prove what is in his mind at any particular moment and then hire lawyers to defend themselves when he sues for "discrimination against Nazi."

And yes, any term used in legal disputes is crucial if it is not specifically defined and if there is subjectivity. Subjectivity leads to litigation unless there is a specific person who is the ultimate decider. You are saying that a restaurant owner should not be the ultimate decider of whether Nazis gathering in his business is a disturbance. You want to give the Nazis the ability to contest that in court. That is a problem.

As for the last point, I just find it weird to see people ranting about how bigot's rights aren't protected enough when there are still many marginalized groups who are still suffering government sanctioned discrimination.

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"As for the last point, I just find it weird to see people ranting about how bigot's rights aren't protected enough when there are still many marginalized groups who are still suffering government sanctioned discrimination."

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Most people who do this do so because they have lots of lofty, high-minded ideals in their heads while having little to no real world experience as a minority. Or, they only care about their particular ingroup while being entirely ignorant of the experiences of the various outgroups they're unknowingly siding against.

That or they're just straight up racist.

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Of course, if he's not an admitted Nazi then he can still not promote Jews and still come up with various excuses if someone thought there was something strange so the situation would be the same. Without people hiding their opinions, Jews could decide whether to work there or not while knowing all the information.

Businesses can already kick people out for being disruptive so there is no new ambiguity introduced in my situation.

I think the last point just shows that you aren't understanding what I'm trying to do. This is not about protecting bigots, it's about protecting everyone. Yes, there are some groups that governments discriminate against but you can address more than one issue at a time. You don't have to choose between, should we help Syrian refugees and should we help Texan hurricane victims. Both need help and you can help both at once.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Sounds like you need to check this comic out
https://www.cbr.com/captain-americas-stance-on-violence-in-response-to-hate-speech/

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I submit, therefore, that the rest of us must really return to the old and " priggish " habit of sending such people to Coventry. And I am not quite convinced that we need to be prigs in doing so. The charge brought against us—Cleon himself will do it very well, possibly next week—will be that in cold-shouldering a man for his vices we are claiming to be better than he. This sounds very dreadful: but I wonder whether it may not be a turnip ghost?

If I meet a friend in the street who is drunk and pilot him home, I do, by the mere act of piloting him, imply that I am sober. If you press it this implies the claim that I am, for that one moment and in that one respect, " better " than he. Mince it as you will, the mere brute fact is that I can walk straight and he can't. I am not saying in the least that I am in general a better man. Or again, in a lawsuit. I say I am in the right and the other man is in the wrong. I claim that particular superiority over him. It is really quite off the point to remind me that he has qualities of courage, good-temper, unselfish- ness and the like. It may well be so. I never denied it. But the question was about the title to a field or the damage done by ,a cow.

Now it seems to me that we can (and should) blackball Cleon at every club and avoid his society and boycott his paper without in the least claiming any general superiority to him. We know perfectly well that he may be in the last resort a better man than we. We do not know by what stages he became the thing he is, nor how hard he may have struggled to be something better. Perhaps a bad heredity . . . unpopularity at school . . complexes .. . a disgraceful record from the last war but one still nagging him on wakeful nights . . . a disastrous marriage. Who knows? Perhaps strong and sincere political convictions first bred intense desire that his side should prevail, and this first taught him to lie for what seemed a good cause and then, little by little, lying became his profession. God knows, we are not saying that we, placed as Cleon, would have done better. But for the moment, however it came about—and let us sing non nobis loud enough to lift the roof—we are not profes- sional liars and he is. We may have a hundred vices from which he is free. But on one particular matter we are, if you insist, " better " than he.

And that one thing which he does and we do not do is poisoning the whole nation. To prevent the poisoning is an urgent necessity. It cannot be prevented by the law : partly because we do not wish the laws to have too much power over freedom of speech, and partly, perhaps, for another reason. The only safe way of silencing Cleon is by discrediting him. What cannot be done—and indeed ought not to be done—by law, can be done by public opinion. A "sanitary cordon" can be drawn round Cleon. If no one but Cleon's like read his paper, much leas meet him on terms of social intercourse, his trade will soon be reduced to harmless proportions.

C.S. Lewis, After Priggery - What?

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Anyway, remember when GreenReaper wrote an article on like, health insurance or something, and gave really intangible reasons that it's TOTALLY furry related, and nobody bought it? I'm getting déjà vu

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Yup

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You literally retweeted Dogpatch Press on the same issues.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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...Yeah, on my personal Twitter, not a furry news and reviews website.
Edit: Actually I don't think I've reblogged any of the Dogpatch Press tweets here except maybe the comic that Patch didn't make anyway

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Except what you retweeted was about how this stuff is relevant to the furry community.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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I don't know which retweets you're talking about, but it doesn't matter, because this article isn't relevant to this website regardless of whether I find something important enough to share on my personal social media.

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Sure. And I guess there weren't at least four Flayrah articles on the alt-right and furry that all generated a huge amount of discussion and argument? Doesn't the term "furry raiders" ring a bell at least?

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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I didn't think Lamar's article on MUCKs belonged here either (and said as much) but at least it was blessedly short. Lol.

The other articles on Raiders and Alt Furry I can think of all belong here, even the ones I think were done poorly.

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The notes and summaries I made before starting were 800 words. I can say I did not expect it to get this long. One the plus side, maybe I now have the longest article on Flayrah. :) Also, no one forced you to read this.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Good defense, "don't like don't read"

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No one forced me to read it, but my better judgment compelled me to skim.

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To be fair, there was at least one section that did cover furry fandom and censorship directly, and a second section about public versus private sphere does indicate that private and public is becoming a bit muddied as private organizations fight over public spaces of engagement on the internet: particularly true in the furry fandom.

Now is it fair to expect furry communities to somehow 'exercise' the demons out of people instead of simply not dealing with them or just removing them from the space? Probably not. We are not experts on extremists and how to defuse them. Our government is supposed to be helping us with these things, but unfortunately recently in the US our leaders are inflaming them more than helping to defuse them. So it forces the feeling of needing vigilantism, even if the Nazis aren't as much of a threat in a republic of 50 governments after a recession than in a war torn country that is half the size of Texas after a depression.

The fact that the two parties are equal in scope and both seem to be ready to enact their second amendment rights should the other go to far shows that while Nazism may not take over, they may instead just try and push the US into a second civil war, because that's the most damage they can hope to cause. And it is possible that Russia (and their Manchurian Candidate) has that goal in mind as well. Or us fighting North Korea. They just want us fighting for some reason. Probably so they can start doing whatever military acts they have in mind with smoke screened impunity.

These things don't have to do much with the fandom for sure. Unfortunately if they do get bad enough, they certainly would distract from hobbies and enjoyment one once had in life.

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You started it.

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Sure but that's a specific event happening to a specific furry group/website. I didn't even offer my opinion on the situation.

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I'll just leave this here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

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That explains what we're seeing in Europe with Islam.

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Make an account so I can blacklist all your comments

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Go back to McDonalds. Look, I'll even give you my Maid Marian and Judy plushies. Yes, I actually have some! You can pretend you're on a date with them. It's tres haram!

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If anything you're the one who needs to go back to McDonald's. Maybe get the fish sandwich as I can see you very clearly need some brain food.

If punching a white nationalist makes you a hero, then I can only imagine what that makes a Muslim puncher by your very own logic.

Islam has killed more people than white nationalism. That's not to say that I feel the need to support either, though.

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But the difference here is that white nationalists tend to be Christian, so you're not saying he going out and punching Christians. Where if someone said you should go out an punch ISIS, they're not saying go out and punch all Muslims.

There are extremist Buddhists for crying out loud. If it's okay to wage war on an entire religion because one person or in more cases of a subgroup are violent pricks, then we'd be abolishing all religions.

But then there are violent secular's too, so even that wouldn't solve the issue.

And unfortunately the violent want to get others caught up in the fervor of violent, so they are more than happy when people target a larger organization for the violent acts they do. It's usually why they fly their flags when doing it.

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A religion is a set of beliefs AND principles. It just so happens that many Islamist principles are fascistic by their very nature. And don't pretend that I have no evidence of this, as every country it's come into contact with has had a change in rates of terrorism or a complete change of government.

Funny that when someone brings up radical Islam you have to bring up that every other religion has bad people in it and that there's utterly no difference. I mean, Westboro and Anders Breivik? They've killed more people than ISIS.

Which begs the question, if you really have the moral high ground, why does your side have a boner for defending domestic terror groups that do nothing but cause these violent neo nazis to act more violent? It's not like they've accomplished anything else.

Face it: Antifa is the whitest terrorist organization since the Klan.

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You're assuming I have a side in this, while it makes it easier for you, it doesn't make it accurate.
Modern Christianity is much tamer as a whole, sure. But there was a time it was pretty radicalized as well. It was called the Inquisition. There was also the Protestants v Catholic fights which were also quite bloody. In my mind the Muslims are in that phase of their religion. They, like other religions will deradicalize over time to more proportional in time. Just gotta get past the rambunctious teenage years.

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And yet despite all this time it's been in the same stage without much evolution except in weapons. Right.

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I did try the McFish once but it reminded me of your mom's pussy so I had to spit it out :3

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That comment was so stupid it made me think of Mike Brown. Congratulations.

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I don't know who Mike Brown is and honestly don't give a fuck. Your own comments are so stupid I can't be arsed to give more than half an effort anymore. Maybe when you smarten up I'll try harder with you.

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Says the guy who never had an argument to begin with and had to resort to your mom jokes.

And it would be nice to see you try harder, I'll give you that, but that would require you having the ability to in the first place.

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I did give an effort in the beginning, but it didn't take too long for it to become obvious you're one of those people that's oblivious to the very idea they could lose, let alone admit when they're losing. Which is why you got people now asking you to make an account just so they can auto-block your comments. And before that I was secretly hoping if I made an account I'd be able to do that regardless of whether or not you did...

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When the opposition is trying to say that I have terrible taste for liking fictional characters who aren't Mary Sues or shut me down because I point out what's been obviously happening halfway across the world for some time now you can't fault me for thinking I'm not going to lose.

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They fault you for talking about how, in your imagination, fictional characters would totally fuck your brains out, in the same conversation where you're calling yourself a "pure blooded alpha male", calling us a bunch of faggy girly men and being a racist bitch. Your self unawareness in all of this is why you lose more than anything.

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I'd actually say that those two arguments coincide with one another because they're both two strains of the same thought: one further accentuating the other.

The reason I bring up why Judy would date me is not only because I am a confident alpha but because she would share my same views as demonstrated by the movie. She would also believe in only two genders and would condemn groups such as Black Losers Matter.

It's about how you people are the only obstacles you have, constantly holding yourselves back because you can't embrace the truth like I have and be real men.

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What the fuck do you mean, "you people".

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Men such as yourself and others who were debating me on that alt furry thread.

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1) Reuken spends thousands of words saying we should debate alt-right.
2) Critics state they are not interested in debate.
3) Alt-right commenter confirms they believe the concept of debate and discourse is not in their interest.

At least that is settled.

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Wow, this guy was really debating whether Judy would sleep with him? This is really the rock bottom level of furry discourse.

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I'm just saying it's funny that Zootopia's fandom did not understand the message like did.

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You guys can IP ban right?

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Probably but they just don't wanna bother. I think they see how overzealous, arbitrary moderation practices have reduced forums to a dead medium over time and don't want to go the same route. Increasing numbers of news sites have done away with comments sections altogether because they just don't want to deal with the shit anymore. The ones that keep them seem to accept they you gotta take the bad with the good.

Also who drew your avatar. I need more buff things to add to my collection.

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Comments make sense if you read our About page (especially if you remember alt.fan.furry).
When you want to hear the community's voice, the original story is only the start of the discussion.

Obviously, not everyone uses that well. Like newsgroups, we have features to ignore certain posters, and our comment karma system helps later readers by filtering out the noise.

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I don't think you can be banned from here.

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I love when sites don't have clear, solid policies that hinge on nothing more than the whims of individual staff members.

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Hey, at least we're not Fur Affinity

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Shouldn't it be quotingmungo.com at this point?

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That might not be entirely a bad thing. I can think of worse people to be in charge. In fact, I'd venture to say that most people would be worse choices for that particular position.

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When you can only say she's only good compared to most alternatives, that's not exactly saying much.

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I guess English understatement doesn't quite come across so well in text. :-)

quoting_mungo has been a Fur Affinity administrator since early 2013. I know how stressful that job can be, because I've been in the same role at Inkbunny. And we're adult-only; I don't envy her dealing with teens in her area (code of conduct violations).

The job involves dealing with people - often highly-argumentative people. If you can handle that for four years, it bodes well for your ability to level up, should the opportunity present itself.

None of this should be considered an endorsement of FA policy. Obviously, I disagree with lots of it, but that's largely irrelevant; most of their policy choices are rational given the site's circumstances.

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My bad. I forget you're British sometimes. I shouldn't because I cherry-pick Britishisms for my own use when it's convenient, or usually because I think it sounds funnier than what I'd normally say.

My main beef with quoting mungo is that she shuts down any discussion that comes even close to being controversial on the forums. In which case why bother having a fucking forum? My same issue with SoFurry's staff, at least the one's I know of.

Actually you could probably answer this. Why doesn't Inkbunny have a forum? Let me guess, because they're a massive waste of time and effort for literally everyone involved?

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Pretty much. We'd rather spend time (and have our members spend time) on other members' journals and submissions. There are better places to discuss matters of the day, designed for and having tools for that purpose – like here.

From a technical perspective it's another whole site to manage. Time aside, off-the-shelf forum software has a history of being subject to attacks of all kinds.

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I like how the only guy who can actually answer "can someone get banned on this site?" has absolutely no interest in answering the question.

(mwalimu once threatened to ban me, but I think he was bluffing.)

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It certainly must be an absolute last resort thing at the least considering I've told people to get fucked, fuck right off, and that their mom's pussy is vaguely reminiscent of a McDonald's fish burger.

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There have been a few times I had to put on my moderator hat and remind people to please act civil or else... I honestly don't remember who they were and if you say you were one of them I'll take your word for it. If I had to ban someone who was an active and usually well-behaved member of the community, it very likely would have only been temporary.

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I've had fun pwning you gentlemen but seeing as I already won one thread, I don't see a need to win another.

So long guys. Thanks for having me on and letting me speak my mind. Sorry you won't be able to enjoy me much longer but the time we've had together's been great so I wouldn't want to spoil that.

Have a nice life.

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Oh fuck off, you'll just pull the same shit under a new name and it'll be obvious.

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Related: https://extranewsfeed.com/tolerance-is-not-a-moral-precept-1af7007d6376

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It raises some good points but misses the mark on others because someone can think one group of people should die but as long as they don't act on it then that can be tolerated (although it should be argued against).

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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they don't act on it then that can be tolerated

I disagree. If they think it, and openly admit to thinking it, then it's just as bad.

again, there's no real difference between "jews will not replace us" "blood and soil" and WWII Germany.

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You think white supremacists saying blacks should die is just as bad as them killing blacks? Surely the one where they're actually killing people is much, much worse?

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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They say things because they are actually planning to do them. There is no such thing as passive/peaceful white supremacy.

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Siron hit on the head.

White Supremacy is white supremacy, Rakuen. It doesn't matter if you say "i think all n***ers should be dead and the jews are evil and should die" or if you go out and actually kill them. you are still a white supremacist. and are still bad.

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(Sorry if this was in there, you have a lot of information that isn't necessary for someone to get the point so I didn't read all of it) Yes, yes freedom of speech, in most cases does mean freedom from consequences. BUT, if you "free speech" your way into having someone commit suicide, then, most likely, you're going to jail. That's not free of consequences.

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Readers should be aware of Rakuen's very peculiar interest in this topic. Possibly illegal, depending on jurisdiction. (ctl-F "cub") Of course, you might even be impressed by the devotion to his peculiar position, enough to get himself kicked off of furry sites for supporting illegal activity. Full disclosure is always important for bias.

And always remember to label things IANAL up front, kids!

Even without the necessary labels, at least he makes it easy to detect bullshit by being wrong from the very first sentence. What is the first thing in "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness"? It's the thing taken away by genocide, and as 2cross2affliction mentioned, "violence is promised by fascism." There's also "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", the second thing doesn't coexist with belief in some races being lesser than others.

1 star for this very poorly written non-furry article.

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I once got banned from FA for being vitriolic in my anti-cub sentiment. I shouldn't have been. But I also shouldn't have blindly assumed anyone who defends cub is doing anything illegal/wrong, or that they are a pedophile. Because if your interest doesn't extend beyond cub art, that is to say, anthros, you're really not. It's not that much different than how some people are slightly turned on by male anthros but are otherwise completely straight IRL. Sexuality is incredibly nuanced like that.

I don't exactly like the guy but given how arbitrary and full of shit most furry sites are (or rather, their staff), the fact he was banned from one or even many doesn't exactly sway my opinion one way or the other. Might help to provide some actual examples.

As it stands, I can't tell if this is just an ad hominid attack (my term I just made up because I come from a highly educated university, do not fucking steal!) based on something you speculate about the author or if you're trying to tie two otherwise unrelated beliefs of his together.

So far, what I get from him is that he's incredibly naive, but wants what he thinks is the right thing for the ultimate benefit of all. If he's just the kind of person to defend cub enthusiasts/artists out of a "freedom of expression above all else" mentality - which, BTW, was ostensibly FurAffinity's own stance at one point, so much that it was their motto, something I seem to be the only person left alive who remembers that - that alone doesn't mean he himself is into it.

So if you got real dirt on somebody, spill it. Otherwise it looks like baseless accusations that are personally motivated. Which I'm actually all for, but make it obvious by calling him a doody head or something.

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Nevermind cellphone made it hard to read anon labels

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Don't worry, you didn't miss much.

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Nonono you don't get it. Cub art is just the tip of the iceberg for Rakuen. He was banned from FA for cheering for legalizing actual rape of kids. Ask him. He has some elaborate multi part journal about it he posts all over the place. He'll try to do some circular bullshit first to handwave the actual rape part away, but keep going and you'll eventually get around to him saying yes he wants that, of course only in theory what if it was legal, which is no different than asking for legalizing because absolutely nobody wants that but pedos.

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Let me get this straight. You want me to basically Google child rape to help your point that you're trying to make. No. I might be paranoid but I don't put it past the Canadian government and/or law enforcement to be secretly spying on people's internet usage in their never ending quest to scrape the bottom of the barrel for whatever criminals they can create.

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> ask him

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That's not what he was discussing the legalization of and it doesn't make you look good to try distorting it like that.

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That's more or less what I suspected. From what I've seen of him so far my guess is he was in favor of some place legalizing child marriage which, while I don't agree with it, it's not the same thing. But since you seem to know, go ahead, fill me in on what that whole fiasco was about.

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It was about legalization of already-existing child pornography due to his belief (based on honestly weak evidence) that doing so reduces instances of child sexual abuse.

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Even if it did, that wouldn't justify its creation. But I'm talking about real child porn here, not art and writing which frankly is only illegal where it is because the law needs to create more criminals out of a desperate need to do something about those pesky declining crime rates. That's a big part of why I stopped being so violently anti-cub. Because I realized it's just an easy way to vie for social capital and win virtue signal points without actually having to lift a finger to prevent real child abuse or to prevent the creation of real child porn.

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Less due to my belief than due to some evidence that made it at least worth considering such a situation.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Worth considering if you are literally a pedo. This is straight out of the "rights for children and their sexuality" pedo playbook. Anyone concerned about child welfare focuses on actual children, not porn of them.

How funny that your tastes in cub art coincide so closely with this. Clearly there's no conflict of interest in posing as concerned about reducing abuse.

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* and people into cub art don't typically hide behind saying it's just RP while advocating for the real thing. You make babyfurs look good in comparison to the nasty behavior that gets you banned from other sites.

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Again, dude, put up or shut up. Links. Doxx. You know.

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Ask him yourself, he's right here, there's nothing stopping you. Ask what he thinks about legalizing child porn so you can watch it and find out how creepy it is right in front of your face.

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Fine, I'll bite, even though I doubt he'll even respond. So, Rakuen, what exactly is this shit all about?

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So Patch finally got to you? (I'm like 95% sure it's Patch. No one else even cares about that old thread) Equivamp gave a pretty concise and accurate summary so I can expand a bit but there's not really much to add.

There was a study from the University of Hawaii which looked at sexual offences against children in the Czech Republic during some government issues where child porn was legal for a couple years. What they saw was that child sexual abuse decreased over that period while other crimes remained constant. That finding was similar to what had been seen in other countries, raising the possibility that the availability of child porn decreased the number of sexual offences committed against children.

My thread just took the question from another person's blog that if we want to minimise the number of children who are victims of sexual abuse then its possible that legalising child porn which has already been produced could lead to a reduction in child abuse cases.

That's why its strange that, if it were true, he would be saying "anyone concerned about child welfare focuses on actual children" while completely rejecting even contemplating an idea which has some evidence of helping actual children. I think others have also suggested similar ideas with computer generated imagery so there is no child harmed at any point but it should still lead to a reduction in actual cases of child abuse.

Contrary to what he says, I never suggested (or even talked about) legalisation of any sort of rape. I'm very much against non-fictional rape. I also never promoted or endorsed child porn. I don't even think I said I was in favour of this suggestion!

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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They can't handle the truth! molesting kids stops child molesting

If there was a childporn.com for all paedophilia needs there's no way it could possibly result in an increase in demand

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Hang on dude, I'm just checking my pockets looking for a fuck.

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o.0 Why ask if you don't care?

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Eh, I kinda cared at the time. Not so much now. That's life. But frankly your argument is retarded. One, there could be any number of other, completely unrelated reasons for a dip in child molestation cases for that brief period. And two, if that was your kid, you wouldn't want the moments of their exploitation and humiliation to be immortalized and, if anything, made even more valuable to these deviants by being legally sanctioned. See, that is the kind of shit that makes otherwise good, reasonable people say "fuck the law since it never protected my and mine when we needed it most" and decide to take matters into their own hands. And under those circumstances, it becomes an awful lot harder to blame them.

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What if it was an orphan that got murdered, and nobody is around to care any more. Then anyone who has a problem with it is just incapable of rational discussion

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I want some of what you're on
in suppository form

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Sorry but you are wrong. Free speech does not mean consequence free speech

Speech is an action and people are free to respond to that action how they choose to (within the means of what is legal mind you)
For example they may say they disagree with your idea, like I am now which is a form of free speech. What if the majority of society disagrees with you, aren't they allowed to voice their opinion too? How many can use their freedom of speech before you consider it "societal" vs individuals expressing their opinion? Once that point is crossed though aren't you removing peoples individual right to free speech against something because the fear of societal sanctions (which includes simply speaking out against it)

Another example of how people may exercise free speech is they may choose to boycott a store whose owner has said or did something they don't like. Boycotts are a form of free speech... but if somebody is boycotting your store because of what you said then isn't that societal sanctions for what the person said? Yet if you say that it is illegal to boycott somebody you are placing a restriction on people's freedom of speech.

Which is why there has to be consequences to what you say/do. Not from the government, but from other members of society. Whether that is society at large, or a group like furries. Because if there isn't then you are stiffing other people's freedoms (including their freedom of speech)

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I hope you're ready to face the consequences then.

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If you're the same Draug from SoFurry forums you should quit that shit. This is where it's at.

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This is not a problem that just surfaced with the election of a new president. This is something western, specifically American, society has been dragging since the late 80's. What we're living thru right now is the apex of said problem, and it's probable its resolution will be horrific.

The problem here is political correctness, and the paradoxical hypocrisy of the left.

Before anyone calls me a "nazi" (and anyone who does so deserves to be called a "commie" by the same retarded rethoric), let me state that I don't trust or believe in any kind of racial supremacy.

But I can understand where the so-called "white supremacy" movement is carrying its strenght from. It's a social rebellion against decades of forced assimilation between cultures, decades of being pinned against each other. Decades of political correctness, of an artificial implementation of social progress while disdaining the organic process of it as too slow, or too permissive.

The rethoric of "staying quiet helps the opressor" proves this mindset, even though it is not defined who the opressor is, and it is not pointed out that staying away from polar opposites is not apathy, but rather a willful and constant effort to not succumb to a horde and lose all traits of individual conscience to it.

This is inevitable. There is no marching back. The far right is pushing back after so many years of indoctrination by the far left, just as the left pushed back after years of indoctrination by the right. We're all riding, again, the climax of a situation that began decades ago.

And if we're lucky, maybe this time western society can break this circle. Articles like this gives me some hope we could achieve liberalism in our lifetime, not the cruddy progressivism or stagnant conservativism currently embraced by the left and right, respectively.

Then again, that's hoping a little too much. I hope you're all ready to pay the consequences of your free speech, as many here state their ideological enemies should, because the consequences of your ideologies are coming back at you. Back at all of us.

"Expecting a troubleless life just because you're a "good" person is like expecting the bull to not crush you because you're a vegetarian."

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Yea, see this type of apocalyptic crazy talk is not going to be won over by mere intellectual discourse. This person is too far gone.

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I hope you're not referring to me as "too far gone". I have yet to state there's nazis dressed in SS uniforms in McDonald's who will sue their friends for not inviting them to parties.

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Yes, I'm speaking of you. When someone gets to the point that they are talking about end times, they just aren't coming back from that. No one can reel you back from a vision of the end of days.

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Where is he literally saying it's the apocalypse? Besides, someone isn't inherently crazy just for believing in such a thing as "the end of days". Plenty of perfectly reasonable people think there's no way to realistically expect humanity, and ultimately the entire world won't end at some point. If you think about it, the end of days began the day time itself began.

You wanna reject dude for something, go for the obvious. The guy stops just short of saying today's white supremacists are lashing out at their "oppressors", the minorities and "cultural marxists".

Same rhetoric just worded slightly different.

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Yea I was being a little sarcastic there, but he seems to be implying that there is some impending clash or climactic event that is about to happen.

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Also, given that Perri likes to talk about such things, I am assuming this Anon is her.

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"White supremacists lashing out at their opressors" is just as insane as believing that "Everything is oppressive".

Yet you'll find the later has a far bigger campsite than the former. How odd, this reductio ad absurdum thing is.

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Oh, sorry you picked that up from my writing, must be an unconscious thing in your head. It is not the end of times; if anything, what I wrote speaks of a cycle that is doomed to repeat itself over and over. Right now is this, but then it'll be another thing.

My current concerns for a possible downfall of modern society involve a Sino-American war, a new space race, and rampant development of AI. Not social struggles, we have those every 40 or 50 years.

What I mean about consequences is that we will be all swept in this inevitable change. And as evolution goes, either you change, or your whole chemical structure does - into compost. Again, happens every lifetime or so.

And this will not be the change you want. It is the one you're struggling against. Maybe that's why you talk about an end of times = you'd much rather face the end than face change.

And yet it moves.

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You write like me on drugs. Well, more drugs anyway.

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I'm glad you finally call out that stupid XKCD comic. The "Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences" is far to convenient an excuse if you're the one going out of your way to dispense said "consequences".

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Of course, the ones that dispense and approve of said consequences hide behind masks. I wonder why, eh.

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CrusaderCat likes it when a kinky priest dispenses "consequences"

http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18626103/

I heard you quit being a Christian? Why? You make it look oddly hot lol.

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I looked at the page of the artist who drew that, and the first shout on his page is from Perri fucking Rhoades looking to "get to know" him.

This shit's like a ratking sometimes.

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I guess Confurvatards is a small world. I've always found it ironic how they have some of the most bizarre kinks in the entire fandom though.

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Good read.

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This argument is a logical shambles. An appeal to "free speech absolutism" as a means of (via some sort of Darwinism) eliminating weak ideas and promoting strong ones, followed by a rejection of society's ability to ACTUALLY ENACT that Darwinism on demonstrably failed ideas (like fascism) via ostracism or censure, followed by a number of mysterious and ill-defined "common sense" caveats that, via a street magician's - or perhaps a con artist's - dexterity, miraculously dodge including ANY of the author's particular pet peeves.

Author,
How is it, when you make exceptions to freedom of speech, that "God Hates Fags" is protected but "harassment" (a category of speech you fail to define) is not? Does holding an event in my town to protest my existence not constitute harassment? Why wouldn't it?

How is it, when you make exceptions to freedom of speech, that "antifa violence" is prohibited because of a chilling effect on free speech, but nationalists showing up armed to events, saying "when we are empowered we will enact a genocide and eradicate you" is not? Are weapons only considered to have this effect when held by individuals you specifically detest?

I would hope that we can agree on the following: Any of these circumstances, when applied to an individual, would be obvious common sense violence and harassment, and would be considered to impede that individual's rights (including their right to free speech). For example, If your town allowed a "Fuck you Kyle and Becky" rally at which people held weapons and chanted "kill Kyle and Becky" and "Kyle and Becky caused all our problems" this would rightly be considered a threat to, and harassment of, Kyle and Becky.

Why does this simple, plain, and obvious truth vanish into vapor if I change it to "anyone whose name begins with K or B" or "anyone who is gay" or any other group? There are two reasons, and if you truly believe in free speech, you'll reflect on them-- but I wager that you won't.

First, you do not take a threat to a group very seriously, as you believe the more general threat is obviously unreasonable, a joke or an exaggeration. "Nobody REALLY hates all gays the way someone could hate Kyle." or "Hatred for gays shouldn't be taken personally, as if someone said they hated you specifically. You, the target of harassment and violence, must endure it."

Second, you do not take the members of the aggrieved group seriously, as you believe they are playing the victim for the special right to censure their ideological opponents. You're equating this to people who favor ranch dressing making it a legal offense to say "ranch dressing is not the best," rather than a demand for treating open and blatant threats and harassment as such.

You could consider why you so readily turn, by sleight-of-hand, the direct threat of bodily harm and suspension of personal rights into an "ideological" opposition or matter of opinion only when it concerns groups you specifically lack sympathy for. I believe, upon the slightest reflection, you would find your devoutly-held free-speech absolutism is a masturbatory exercise in performative pragmatism, and that in truth you simply wish opponents you have found personally annoying would be silenced and accept that silence graciously, while enveloping in sacred legal protection all of the causes you'd like to defend out of your misguided intellectual onanism... or perhaps out of your sympathy for the positions themselves.

Fuck that, dumbass. I ain't buying it.

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"I want my team to win! They hold ideals that I agree with! The other team are degenerates/fascists, look at how violent they are! They obviously started the violence, so my team is justified to step down on their level, we're just defending ourselves!

Also, our ideals are pure and are key to the greater good of mankind! They object to my existence, if we let them express themselves, they will soon be holding torches and pitchforks and will kill me! Here, let me list a bunch of red herring and slippery slope arguments to distract myself from the fact I'm the very thing I believe to fight against!

Oh, no way this is another ruse of the elites to drag society into fighting themselves! Those filthy marxists/nazis really don't have a place in our society! They have to go and their very existence is a threat to mine! Fuck free speech, that is an absolutist excercise of democratic oppression! Kill them all! Then give me freedom. I deserve it."

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Well, okay. A very interesting thing about this comment is that since sarcasm is mixed in throughout, but inconsistently, it's not clear who's the intended target of the parody. This really isn't an effective way to communicate things unfortunately!

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"How is it, when you make exceptions to freedom of speech, that "God Hates Fags" is protected but "harassment" (a category of speech you fail to define) is not? Does holding an event in my town to protest my existence not constitute harassment? Why wouldn't it?"

Harassment links to Wikipedia for an overview. Holding a march or protest is not harassment, which I would say generally has speech targetting an individual or group (a protest or march is generally directed to everyone), is repetitive over time and continues despite attempts to stop it, either requests to be left alone or blocking a user and such.

"How is it, when you make exceptions to freedom of speech, that "antifa violence" is prohibited because of a chilling effect on free speech, but nationalists showing up armed to events, saying "when we are empowered we will enact a genocide and eradicate you" is not? Are weapons only considered to have this effect when held by individuals you specifically detest?"

When did I say that was okay? I have expressed concern at people taking weapons to protest because it seems a bit strange to arm yourself for a peaceful protest. See here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/1226219

"First, you do not take a threat to a group very seriously, as you believe the more general threat is obviously unreasonable, a joke or an exaggeration. "Nobody REALLY hates all gays the way someone could hate Kyle." or "Hatred for gays shouldn't be taken personally, as if someone said they hated you specifically. You, the target of harassment and violence, must endure it.""

I never said that. I merely contrasted it with imminent danger.

"Second, you do not take the members of the aggrieved group seriously, as you believe they are playing the victim for the special right to censure their ideological opponents. You're equating this to people who favor ranch dressing making it a legal offense to say "ranch dressing is not the best," rather than a demand for treating open and blatant threats and harassment as such."

Again, I did not say I did not take any group seriously. My point was that in an ideological conflict, both sides see themself as the victim and without an objective standard we cannot favour any particular speech.

"You could consider why you so readily turn, by sleight-of-hand, the direct threat of bodily harm and suspension of personal rights into an "ideological" opposition or matter of opinion only when it concerns groups you specifically lack sympathy for. I believe, upon the slightest reflection, you would find your devoutly-held free-speech absolutism is a masturbatory exercise in performative pragmatism, and that in truth you simply wish opponents you have found personally annoying would be silenced and accept that silence graciously, while enveloping in sacred legal protection all of the causes you'd like to defend out of your misguided intellectual onanism... or perhaps out of your sympathy for the positions themselves."

It must be really incredible sleight of hand since most of this defends the rights of groups that I am not sympathetic to at all. Also, my whole point was not silencing groups because the majority disagreed with them. None of this was aimed to protect any specific group or view but to create a framework which applies equally to everyone.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Lol internet "free speech"

Tucker Carlson on private companies making their own choices: "I don't know why the government is sitting back and letting them do this"

https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/905234027287805952

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I don't think it comes as a huge shock to a lot of people that conservatards are only market fundamentalists when it works in their favor. Suddenly, people like Tucker think the internet should be regulated "like a public utility", when I thought they didn't even want those regulated by anything but the whims of "the market" - aka their private owners. They want business to replace government, that is, become government, because they think it will somehow reward them above all others. Now they're finally starting to get what they want only to realize they don't really want what they thought they wanted.

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Ironic how two of the biggest pedophilia supporters are comments on this article.

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It's a well written article. But how does it apply to Furry Fandom? Can I see described real-life furry scenarios where your written principles apply, how to apply them?

Would you say forbidding public political or religious statements in a convention is censorship? A furry convention is not the time nor place to hold up political / religious imagery. Nazi swastikas, or confederate flags, or democrat donkeys, qualify as such.

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It sounds like censorship to me, yeah. I mean, whether it's something they want to do is ultimately up to the con, but you can't get away from the definition by saying "this isn't censorship, it's just saying what isn't acceptable here."

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Then I'm in favor of censorship in some cases.

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Well, FA's new rule, well-intentioned as it may be, certainly seems like it would be an example of how this would apply.

It depends what you're counting as political messages, right? Eurofurence 23 opened with a video that was all about celebrating gay rights. Pretty cool video but was that political? Should they not have done that?

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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FA is a piece of garbage rule-wise, and technically-wise. Its administration is moronic. It only succeeds for content and amount of users. Should morons censor free speech? The question there, is, should morons be in charge of FA?

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Celebrating gay rights is generally an ethical stance, not a political stance, unless done so by a political party. Celebrating the right as a gay person to marry, have kids, feel safe, those transcend political views. But if you're telling me, the EF should allow for KKK flags just as much as Rainbow flags, because of freedom of speech, then my answer is no. Cleary they should not. From a utilitarian standpoint, well-being, happiness, safety, are more important than freedom of speech. KKK flags is a risk to the social well-being of con-goers that can be entirely avoided with minimal loss.

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From a utilitarian stand point the minority are screwed.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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They'll just have to compartmentalize their thoughs & behaviors, like everyone does. You don't dress in fursuit when you go to work. You don't wear KKK flags when you visit a furry convention. It's simply being civilized.

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This seems like an article that took a long time to write. Well done.

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This is just a political post, nothing really to do with cartoon animals.

Well, I'll be...

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It's not about the characters, it's about the fandom. You might have seen this sort of thing has been the focus of multiple pieces on Flayrah and elsewhere and some conventions and sites are making statements about these topics.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Holy shit, Rakuen posted something I can actually agree with. I expect Flayrah to chime in on the sun becoming as black as sackcloth and the moon as red as blood. The last convention in the history of the fandom is definitely newsworthy, especially when Jesus is the guest of honor.

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You're trying way to hard, guy.

You need to tone it down, because I literally have no idea what you're saying. Even if you're just sarcastically trolling, and I have no idea what you're saying because you're not actually saying anything, that's a lot of ground to cover for no reason.

"Holy shit, Rakuen posted something I can actually agree with."

Okay, end of comment, got it.

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It's basically another way of saying "this must be a sign of the apocalypse". I figure you of all people would get the reference. If not, well that's just too pissing bad now innit?

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Using clever word manipulation, you can tie any topic to anything.

Well, I'll be...

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And this is why it's important.

http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/New-Milford-councilman-resigns-after-furo...

Now what you're going to see is a bunch of people who were not in support of free speech and who said it only applies to government and that social consequences are what you should expect coming out to tell us that in this case everything they previously said doesn't apply because suddenly it's someone they agree with.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Well, you damn sure won't be able to count me among them. And there's a lot of furries that would say this guy was just asking for it. Politics, even local politics, is fucking war. You use literally everything you can against not just opponents from other parties, but competitors within your party. And if you don't, frankly, you ought to be playing a different game. At the very least, even people who are otherwise sympathetic will largely think he's a damn fool for not doing a better job at keeping his online life private. Usually, it takes a lot more work (and in some cases just dumb/bad luck) to ruin someone's career like this. There's people who get away with terrible things who do a far better job of covering their tracks. For example, Jared Fogle never would've been busted if it weren't for one of his friends being investigated, and Jared's major blunder was appointing that person to a position in the charity he founded.

There's furries who have to be more cautious (or even downright paranoid) for fear of losing their job flipping burgers just because of who they are in their private life and what they do online. If the law, and more importantly the market is against them by design, somehow I doubt they're going to be all that sympathetic to someone much more privileged blowing their chance at the kind of life some of them would kill for because he forgot how the world actually fucking works.

LGBT people still face rampant discrimination and even violence which large parts of society rationalizes by calling it a "lifestyle choice". Well, being a furry pretty much is a lifestyle choice. One that a lot of people leave behind the minute they enter the working world for reasons that the article you linked demonstrates perfectly. And it's highly unlikely that even being a furry with a grocery list of fetishes will get him assaulted or killed.

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HERPADERP clearly there is zero difference between

- private expression of sexuality for consenting adults

- hate speech that incites murder with a mission to split classes of people apart and conquer them, aided by bad faith use of civil rights to penetrate and destroy the civil institutions that protect those rights.

Hmmm yes how could society ever consider one to be worthy of protection and the other to fairly earn civil consequences. It's not like we fought a fucking world war to put one of them in the trash can forever and ever. We need to resuscitate it to make everyone more free herpaderpaderpaderp

Real Lawyer (tm) Boozy Badger told me your shit is whack, Rakuen :)

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I know one day "my friend, the little nazi" will be as cute and PG as "my friend, the little pirate". Maybe give it a couple of hundred years?

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I don't know if the two can be proper equivalents - going out to see and even to a small extent piracy was romantasized even in it's timeframe. Nazism, not so much.

We're still within living memory and I'm of a group that's extra sensitive to Nazism, so it could be you've a point that my biases lead me to disagree with, but we're more likely to see gangs, the mafia, and drug dealers romanticized before Nazis.

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Well, being a kangaroo who wears a suit who is half Italian, if there is any group I'd be accused of being it's a mob

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Take your point, you filthy animal, and wallow in your victory.

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A prison was once described as a "cesspool of awful and inhumane acts", this is also an adequate description of this comment section...

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Anybody coming back to this article after net neutrality was repealed?

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I do argue though that hate speech shouldn't be free speech. It doesn't serve anything and due to several reasons, it could be compared to other speech not being free speech. It's already proven that certain speech encouraged suicide, and other bad things.
Even if hate speech shouldn't be interfered with the government, I at least strongly suggest websites and non-internet public areas to adopt a rule against hate speech.
There is also speech that gets overly hated that a good point could just get hidden or create negative effects that lacks any control.

Though the general public opinion, criticism thing, and website agreements is not that new I think. However, I do think "free speech" is not just a legal US thing that should be respected. It should be morally respected too in some way, though in a depending way.
For example, someone makes a good interesting point on a website and the speech itself was legal, then a website bans you for it because "They hate it.". It's true that it doesn't exactly violate rights because after all, it's their site. It's nearly impossible to say they did something "morally wrong". They can ban you for probably any reason, just like how a house owner can ban a guest for a silly reason. Not sure if banning based off race for example is legal though.
But in a respectful practice, I can argue it's pretty stupid and exposes a mindset that the person doesn't allow both sides of some debate. If I get banned from a website because I tried to call out an unfair point, then I believe the website should be exposed for not respecting "free" speech in another sense. My rights are not exactly violated per se, but still.

There is also hypocrisy. Someone acts like they respect free speech, as in the ability to comment on other people's profiles for example. Yet, the person uses his free speech directly saying someone's freedom of speech expression is "wrong" and worse, may publicly humiliate someone for something like some fictional pairing that's allowed. In such practice, this person isn't respecting the speech of another person's expression that's allowed. That alone could be morally wrong in the mindset.

I've seen arguments about this free speech thing before, I think there was a word for the less legal protection thing, but forgot what it's called.
Anyway, yes, free speech is important, but so is the ability to post good points in places that legally reserves the right to delete such points. If a website doesn't allow an interesting point, and/or that people give the illusion that EVERY disagreement to certain arguments is "rude" and that we must not violate that subjective rudeness, then that's just damaging something important. I know that sounded specific, because it is. *sigh*

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Diamond Man, you found the one regular on this site who might be down with your "you know, maybe we're a bit hard on child pornography" viewpoint and decided to disagree with his article.

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Oh please... If given the opportunity, you'd amend the Constitution so that any negative review or hypothetical revisions of Alpha & Omega would be grounds for life imprisonment or public execution (while adding a caveat that such sentences WOULDN'T be cruel and unusual punishment).

And yes, there IS hypocrisy. You go around saying that revenge is NEVER right, then you'll go and make public declarations about how someone is worse than a pedophile if they called you a bad name. Even MORE hypocritical (and outright laughable) is how dragging people through the dirt is always your knee-jerk reaction to anyone saying anything remotely negative about you, and you'll lump them into the ever-growing pile of the "Special Hate Agenda" against you... then you'll profess how acting out on your emotions is just wrong. lol

RE: "fictional pairing" - Nobody was attacking anybody for creating a "fictional pairing". They were objecting to the idea of RUNT GETTING HIS AUNT LILY PREGNANT. Sure, the writer of that infamous fanfic is free to write whatever subject matter he wants, but at the same time, the readers are free to call it squicky if they regard it as such. Don't like it? Too bad. That's what happens in the world of free speech. Grow a thicker skin and stop crying "bigot!" or "SJW!" just because someone said something you don't like.

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Never said. No need to start anything with me.

The only time I might call someone worse than a child sexual abuser (not the same as pedophile, BTW, but I assume you meant that?) are a depending thing.
If you believe in revenge or some other thing by believing in the death penalty, or life imprisonment, then you're worse than someone who wants to rape children. If you discriminate someone's entire life, than that's worse or just as bad as molestation. If you said "Alpha and Omega sucks" then that's probably far less serious than all forms of child sexual abuse. XD
And in all this, I have this feeling that I know who you are and it starts with an S, but anyway, how am I hypocritical?

No, it's an attack. You're attacking the person for freedom of expression that's safe.
You make a public humiliation or force your opinion against such pairing, you're more like a SJW, or some cyberbully. Period.
Yeah, they can have "free" speech, maybe, not sure if it's hate speech and it may depend, but don't forget people are allowed to also use their free speech to call that idiot out for complaining about such fictional work.

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"If you said "Alpha and Omega sucks" then that's probably far less serious than all forms of child sexual abuse. "
....PROBABLY. Saying "Alpha and Omega sucks" is PROBABLY far less serious than all forms of child sexual abuse...

For the love of God, get some help.

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I don't need help for saying that. If you're that baby adult drawing picture person for example, I suggest you getting help. For anyone out there who doesn't know that one person, this person stalks me probably every day, updates, imitated me once. DeviantArt banned the person, and so did Furaffinity maybe, and this person still tries to stalk me.

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Okay, this just got weird. That last paragraph took a turn.

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It's just some person who probably took part into harassment a while back. The fictional pairing is some fictional story someone made up. I defended it because it's victimless, and I was showing some people were harassing the person.

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I mean, you've managed to drag an Alpha & Omega fandom (?!?) slapfight over incest porn (!?!) here.

WOW.

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Does that even matter? Are you trying to pick a fight with me...? And hell, incest in real life could even be consensual between adults which is another moral argument, but I'm gonna put that out of this comment for now, don't want to expand anything.
As I stated, I had my own opinion there, saw some f***ed up behavior that was probably objectively bad, and called it out.

Also I don't even feel part of that general fandom anymore, don't even get me started.

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Oh, that's good, let's defend incest now.

I am shocked, shocked, to find out nobody likes you in the Alpha & Omega "fandom" either!

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Oh, so you wish people should rot in prison for consensual types of close relationships now? Not fucking surprise since this stupid rotten place depends on popular opinion and nothing new outside in general.
Note: I'm talking about certain incest. Adults consenting without interfering anyone else and isn't threatening to.

God this place is generally shit. No wonder some furries LEFT this place.

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I found his article on Flayrah based on this and uh...it seems like that's most of his internet history. Even his complaints about this site said we suck at reviews because someone thought Alpha and Omega's animation sucks.

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For your information, I think my article was partly complaining how part of the review stifled creativity when such review was partly complaining about it's designs, and it was probably the only thing I remembered. It doesn't matter when I'm a fan or not, I can see how unfair that was.

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So are all reviews that aren't glowing puff pieces "stifling creativity"? It's not unfair to point out in a review when you didn't like something, when something isn't up to industry standards, when it fails to meet expectations, or when it lacks artistic merit. Be honest with yourself about your opposition to it, because it's really annoying.

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When you decide that something that had effort alone is flawed, and that effort alone is something that can be enjoyed and exist for what it is, then that stifles creativity.

You can still dislike and respect it at the same time. I'm no fan of what fursona you have, but at least I'm not saying it's "flawed".

If we changed the designs of the characters from that movie, I won't see the same characters I've enjoyed. It's ruined, and turned into something it's not.

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...Yeah, and if you changed the designs other people like Rakuen might see characters they can enjoy. But I guess if even other peoples' reviews aren't about you, that's ruinous. Lol!

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Ohhhh... So you are basically saying ALL furry films such because if we changed all of them into humans, it's better because some can enjoy it?
Hey don't look at me, that's the same logic I think.

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suck*

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...Dude...I...no. Why do I bother? You don't understand logic or how it works.

Listen, it is absolutely not "stifling creativity" to critique something, even if the conclusion of that critique is that something was done poorly, or even that it's bad. At amateur levels, it's someone giving their own opinion as part of the audience for that piece of media. At professional levels, it's a breakdown of the media's elements based on years of experience and understanding of the basics of the medium. Saying that's "stifling" creativity is like saying pointing out a spelling mistake is stifling the novelist. Critique is a pruning process without which "creativity" strangles and dies.

But none of this matters to you, it's obvious from your comments about my fursona to me and Pokemon to Rakuen are just emotional personal attacks (fursonal attacks?) because of your bizarre overattachment to characters from an unambitious movie based on long-debunked myths about wold behavior featuring characters that look almost entirely unlike the creatures they're supposed to represent.

Why do you keep logging out and logging back in? Are you abusing the rating system by voting twice, or something?

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I think he might be five starring himself preemptively now.

Or maybe he actually found a friend. Good for him, if so, but ... I know where I'm putting my money.

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If it means to get my comment unfolded from assholes trying to 1-star me out of hate, then I could care less.

Oh and anyone 1-staring this comment agrees that my comment is awesome.

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It's not a critique to decide that the creator's effort and work is all "bad" because it's not your kind of thing.
You're supposed to HELP the creator with the fictional work, not the opposite! And as long if it's safe and legal. XD
If I WANTED my wolf characters to look like that, and wanted more and more people to find and enjoy it, then it would be unfair and stifling to agree that I must never do this so the wrong audience can enjoy that instead. What about my targeted audience?
Which is when I compared that logic to my "ALL furry films" example.
Hell, even if it's possible to have both to enjoy, that's a bad sign because art is subjective, and trying to appeal to everyone will only limit creativity.

No, I was trying to use your fursona and Pokemon because it's exactly the same logic. That's why I said it I think.

Also, if my comment seems double, my bad. I ask for the other comment to be deleted if there is another comment similar.

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You're mistaking a "review" for a "critique", Diamond Man.

A review is for the use of the readers of the review, to help them decide whether or not they should spend their time and money on a product. It's a form of journalism, where the reviewer is reporting his or her reaction to a product, as honestly as possible, in order to allow his or her readers to gauge whether or not they want to try the product. So, Rakuen reported that he didn't like the move in general, and the character designs in particular. There was nothing wrong with that. As you point out, art is subjective, but Rakuen (or any other reviewer) only has his own subjective take with which to share; the review is a form of writing that allows, and in fact, requires him to share his own unique take.

He was not "critiquing" the movie, which is for the creator, and is designed to help them create a better product next time. Rakuen's review, like most of the reviews of movies on Flayrah, will never be read by the creators of Alpha & Omega, so even setting aside your claim that critiques should never get negative as they "stifle creativity" (which is at best dubious), I really, really doubt he hurt the feelings of the makers of the movie and they're not going to make any more movies ever.

Now, there is a difference between our movie reviews and our book reviews, in that most of the creators of furry books are aware of us and our reviewers should in turn be aware of their feelings. Though, the challenge here is not to never be negative; a review is still more for the readers of the review than the creator of a work. It's just try to be a bit more nice about it, so as not to, as you say, "stifle creativity".

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I was responding to the person who said "critique".

Maybe, but it might be different for some. It still doesn't change that the person argued that designs were "flawed" in a way. If it was like a "if this is your kind of thing, go for it!" then that might make sense, but the person used words in an attempt to criticize it too.
You can be subjective and not like a design, but if you argued your subjective as a form of argument, people can criticize that back.

I still say it stifles creativity because some people might think it's true. It gives the feel "Uhh, I want to make this, but sadly some people think it's "bad"...".
To tell people that some creativity is bad, is basically stifling creativity to the culture itself. Of course, the creator is the creator, but it's still an argument over the creator's work.

You can of course be negative in a review but also be fair about it if it's possible.
Objective: A picture of wolf people in "our world physics" style. "That wolf is floating, wolf should be on the ground.
Unfair: A picture of wolf people in "our world physics" style. "That wolf should be a human.".

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But it is true, Diamond Man. Rakuen believes the designs in Alpha & Omega are flawed; he stated this personal truth. It would have been dishonest (or "untrue") for him to say anything else.

Reviews are not meant to be objective. That's not their function. That's why we label them with "opinion" tags. Seeing as how you've repeatedly stated your "opinions" are "more true" than a variety of people's without a trace of irony or other form of self-awareness, I don't think you're quite capable of grasping this point.

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If that's true, they shouldn't of use opinion as a form of argument. Where I come from, people have to be fair in a review for it to be fair.

Perhaps I could just make a review about Zootopia and say it's a giant flawed movie because I hate it and it would be fine then? Even if Rotten Tomatoes actually added my review to the review critic score?

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You're making another common mistake about reviews; they aren't arguments, Diamond Man.

Reviews (and review aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes) are tools that consumers can use to help them decide whether or not they want to see a movie in theaters/wait until it hits Netflix/RedBox/Pirate Bay/whatever/skip completely/etc./etc., in addition to their own knowledge of their own tastes. That's all; a review is not an argument that a movie is bad or good. A review is a statement of opinion on who might want to watch a movie, and who might not want to. If the movie is good enough, that answer might be "everybody", while if it's bad, it might be "nobody." Usually, it's somewhere in between.

So, yes, it would be perfectly fine if you decided to give Zootopia a negative review as long as you were honest and accurately reported your feelings and genuinely did not like it (I'm not sure what your actual feelings are on Zootopia, however). In fact, I personally edited and published at least one negative review of Zootopia as well as two more that fall somewhere on the scale of "mixed positive" to "mixed negative". I disagree with the review, but who cares? That doesn't make it a bad review (or Zootopia a good movie). The reviewer honestly put forth an accurate report of their opinion (at the time); that's all you can ask for from a review.

Oh and anyone 1-staring this comment means they disagreed with my comment. Big whoop.

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"I'm not sure what your actual feelings are on Zootopia"
He's heard too many good things about Zootopia coming from people who bad-mouthed Alpha & Omega, so he's decided that anyone who enjoyed it is a "rabid fan" who ruins the experience for everyone. lmao

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No, I think he just saw my avatar and thought I would be hurt by the idea of someone not liking what I like (it's also a Doctor Who avatar, Diamond Man, and hoo, boy, if I was worried about people not liking what I like!); likewise, he's attacking Pokemon because he literally knows nothing about Rakuen Growlithe other than the fact he has a Pokemon icon/screenname combo (and once negatively reviewed Alpha & Omega). He's not even really attacking those things; he's asking "Well, wouldn't it hurt your feelings if I said mean things about things you like?"

To which the only response is "not really, no."

Which is the point I'm trying to get him to reach, and which I don't think he is literally capable of reaching (but the struggle is the glory!) is that a negative review of something he likes should not be construed as a personal attack, or even an attack, period.

On the other hand, going on a review's comments section and telling the reviewer he is wrong is a personal attack.

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"On the other hand, going on a review's comments section and telling the reviewer he is wrong is a personal attack."

Bullshit! If I said that someone's design that isn't mine is "flawed", I can say that's wrong. If I had to say what is a personal attack in this case, that would be the reviewer.

What could be a personal attack for example is to say the person is wrong to personally dislike it... But that's not what this is. That's very different. If that's the case with that one review, the person could of said something like this: "It's not my kind of design, but I respect it for others that likes it!".

And remember, when some people review, they try to argue points which is far different than saying "it's not my kind of thing.". Don't try to claim it's "personal attacks" whenever someone wants to criticize it.

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"If I had to say what is a personal attack in this case, that would be the reviewer."
I mean the reviewer's points that was claiming the designs were flaws. At least it could be.

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If a review contained an argument, there is an argument in a review. "These designs are poor" is an argument. It's nonsense to say "Nope, it's still just a "not for certain people" thing.

What if I don't need to be honest?

Many reviews and people treat a lot of things in review as "criticism" and I could of swear some people on here are already doing that.
If you claim the designs suck, some people are probably going to disagree with it and send the criticism to it saying it's wrong. Get over it!

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Yes, people will absolutely disagree with a review. He even...just said he disagreed with a review. That doesn't make the review bad, or wrong, or stifling, or ruinous.

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The arguments in such review can be argued as bad, wrong, stifling, and/or ruinous.

But it's perfectly fine to not like the designs alone.
It's the moment someone attempts to criticize and then say something like that.
As for "review": it can mean other things 2cross2affliction is claiming otherwise I think.

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Yes, I'm using it in the Pauline Kael* example definition (to give an opinion about something).

What if I don't need to be honest?

I mean, wow. Umm, because lying is bad? Are you saying lying is something you need to do? Because that would make you both a. a bad person, and b. ironically, a bad liar (Jesus, you don't tell people you're being dishonest at the outset!).

But setting aside your complete lack of understanding of really basic morality, I mean, you're the one complaining about all the drama and wondering why we all are starting fights and then you just straight up told us you're the one arguing with our articles. Rakuen didn't write the review to piss you off; it had nothing to do with you.

If you're going to complain that Rakuen's review was wrong about Alpha & Omega, we're going to complain that you're wrong about the review. Why don't you get over that? See where "get over it!" arguments get you? An endless loop. One of your complaints about Flayrah is that we're always fighting; Jesus Christ, we just had the most boring as fuck January possible because we were all happily getting along with each other until you showed up. Look at the fucking comment sideboard! Since you showed up, the amount of comments have increased exponentially! Because you won't stop arguing with us!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but we're actually not argumentative fucks! YOU ARE! Perhaps you could make the argument that we're enthusiastic participants once the ball gets rolling, but holy hell, you don't start nothing, Diamond Man, there won't be nothing!

*Kael is an ironic example, though, 'cause she was actually a notably argumentative critic.

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I just checked; the closest thing to an argument on the front page is some minor disagreements about dealing with the possibility of card fraud from the ATMs at Midwest Furfest, and that went to a breathtaking *checks card* 24 comments!

There is literally an article about a child pornography case from the last month, which is always a touchy subject, ... which nobody got in a fight in the comments.

Let's see, top ten lists (always good for a disagreement, or even just a snipe about whether it's even appropriate for Flayrah), multiple awards announcements (no partisans sniping for their picks or complaining about previous years picks), hell, there's even a fairly frank discussion about religion on the front page that ... nobody got angry in. Even the top article is getting multiple five star votes for what I'm assuming is it's evenhanded treatment of a divisive issue in the fandom (fursuits and their exorbitant prices).

It's not like we weren't covering controversial topics in that boring last couple of months; we very much were.

But nobody got into a good ol' fashioned Internet slapfight until you showed up. I'm going to have to spell this out for you, but the guy picking fights here is you.

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You know what? I don't think you quite understand what a review is. And dishonest the same as lying? Really?
Besides, lying isn't right or wrong, it's just lying. But however, you can actually make an argument outside of your bias and put it into a review. Are you gonna say that's "lying" too?

No, it was fine until people like you picked fights with me because I spread a different thought about a movie, and a taboo subject... You even purposely brought the drama on here, not only on that certain porn subject, but even on Alpha and Omega. It's YOUR fault that the drama continues, and so is that Pokemon fan.
That person insulted, you pick fights with me, and so on. You were only happy because nobody questioned some of the flaws Flayrah has.

________________
Other comment...

No, everything was fine until you and some other people acted immature in front of me whenever someone wanted to kindly debate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3qjfQieg2w

Anyone who 1-stars this comment has agreed that my comment is awesome.

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I don't know why you would say that you don't "need" to be honest, then expect people to engage you in good faith, play by your disjointed, heterogenous rules of debate, accept at face value the extraordinary bizarro-world claims you make, and remain cordial and acquiescing no matter how many times you lash out with bitter snipes or abuse of our rating and spam-filter systems.

I also don't know why, despite you repeatedly saying that this website makes you feel afraid, or that we make you look bad, and that you're clearly not having a good time, you continue to give this site the oxygen of your time, effort, and attention. You're overcomplicating your life and subjecting yourself to unnecessary stress for no gain. Even ignoring how the users here might feel if you left (presumably a collective sigh of relief), it's probably in your best interest if you left here--or at least, stopped engaging in arguments that only serve to upset you. Have some compassion on yourself, man.

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@Equivamp
I only marked one comment as spam, because maybe that could of counted as spam.

Sometimes I get some faith, and/or maybe I just really have to criticize a lot of things. Plus certain comments I've been getting were showing more exposure to how terrifying this website is for different people... I'm now a victim of this Zootopia fan bringing more drama in, a victim of this Growlithe fan insulting me as a writer and as a furry myself, I'm a victim of another one insulting me, and now I'm a victim of that hole thing you did.

@2cross2affliction
I'm the one lacking knowledge?
You seem to act like a review means "Hey, some people isn't going to like this movie." and nothing else... when I've research that is so not the case. Honest/Dishonest? I think I know what it means... I just didn't know to you, it was the same as lying. After all, you are the one that said disagreeing with a reviewer was a "personal attack" in a way and quite honestly that is outrageous to say. O_O

Please, for once, can't you just admit that you could be wrong about something? Hell, I even do that sometimes I think.

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I only marked one comment as spam, because maybe that could of counted as spam.

No, it doesn't. It would have been spam if I were sending the same message repeatedly in a short amount of time, or if my message was a copy-pasted advertisement. It was neither of those things. It just hurt your feelings, and all you do is act based on your emotions.

Sometimes I get some faith

What on Earth does this mean?

and/or maybe I just really have to criticize a lot of things.

I'm willing to bet there is nobody sitting next to your computer, keeping you held hostage there for days with a gun next to your head forcing you to post messages here that just so happen to match your opinions, argument style, and manner of speech on the very subjects you can't stop doing this about all over the Internet for years now.

Maybe you feel like you have to, that you can't stop, but that's pathological and just a further argument to have some self-compassion.

Plus certain comments I've been getting were showing more exposure to how terrifying this website is for different people

What, in the comments section of the website itself? Lmao?

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Whatever. I just looked up the meaning "spam" and it might apply to that hole picture you did.

Faith that maybe some people listen.

Because I'm a person who is one of those guys who believes in change and wants to send a bunch of criticism, that's just what I do sometimes I think.

Oh my... god..., what it's REALLY called is a personality, not a fucking "pathological" thing. Jesus you're probably saying that because you really hate me right now or can't stand it whenever someone like me criticizes.

Yes, the comments... and maybe a tiny bit of articles. Comments though are a big part of this website.

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If not being able to control yourself is part of your "personality", it's still unhealthy. Go do something gainful or actually fulfilling--and not just fulfillment of the relief you feel when you feed your compulsion to reply. I don't hate you, you're just annoying and cluttering up one of the better websites I visit.

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You don't have a right to tell me that what I like leading me to what I like to do is "unhealthy".

Maybe your use of commenting on this site is unhealthy then?

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What? I don't have a right to say something? Isn't this article about free speech?

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I probably meant in another sense. Your argument is wrong, and it's stupid to say I'm "obsessed" just because you don't respect someone who's different than you maybe.

And too, you're also commenting a lot being "obsessed" with this website.

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Diamond Man, I literally went to school and took classes to learn how to write reviews. I have literally won awards from real journalists for reviews I have written.

I know what a fucking review is.

You can't even write a fucking sentence half the time; so I don't care how many fucking Wikipedia articles you read and totally misunderstood every fucking word of because you don't understand words, Diamond Man.

Jesus fuck, you want me to admit I'm wrong sometimes? You brought up that post I made where I apologized multiple times to you; what do you think an apology is? Oh, right, you don't know what an apology is BECAUSE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WORDS and you're about to say something incredibly stupid about what you think an apology is, and I'm going to cut you off right there, because watching you shit all over the English language is breaking my heart.

You don't know what the word "criticism" means. You don't know what the word "review" means. You don't know what the word "bias" means. You don't know what the word "critique" means. You don't know what the word "honesty" means. You don't know what the word "apology" means. You don't know what the word "debate" means.

This is not a debate! This is me slowly and carefully explaining to an idiot how things in the real world work, then said idiot stomping his feet and screaming "no, you're wrong!" followed by a another scream of "holy shit, what I'm saying right now is SO FUCKING STUPID!"

Jesus, fuck, Diamond Man, you've brought people with you who are fighting you! The anonymous commenters in this thread are not Flayrah posters, Diamond Man. They're following you! Like buzzards, they're following the stench of an easy Internet argument, and you've led them here!

You don't have the high moral ground, you DON'T KNOW what the "high moral ground" is to begin with. You're a fucking monster! You start fights, you scream and insult anyone who disagrees with you, and you think you're offering some sort of constructive criticism!

That's the worst part, Diamond Man.

YOUR. CRITICISM. IS. DOODOO!

You have nothing to offer to this conversation except a literal headache for those of us who try and deal with you.

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This is the problem with Diamond Man; he's like intellectual crack, man! On one hand, the things he says are so stupid you don't even have to be smart to intellectually slam dunk on him ("What if I don't need to be honest?" HOLY FUCKING SHIT, GUYS, I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE HE SAID THAT) so you get to feel superior on a technical level, but he also both defends such laughably easy to hate positions ("Like, I know child porn is bad, but, what if it was okay, at the same time, too?") with such jaw-droppingly blatant hypocrisy ("Stop one starring me! *frantically mashes one-star button*) that you also get that "righteous outrage" high going.

It's really hard to quit him, you guys.

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"It's really hard to quit him, you guys."
The important thing is that regardless of whether or not you put a dent in that wolf-lusting, child-abuse-excusing skull of his, the world knows that you are NOT OKAY with his crap. You can sleep at night with a clear conscience because at least you TRIED.

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What the fuck you think pal, you're an idiot yourself. I know what a lot of things are, you don't. I don't know what that journalist did, but trust me, give me fucking proof that you're right.

YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT.

You're the fucking monster, you're a victim blamer, you fucking hate criticism, and you fucking start fights, don't fucking DARE pretend your opinions are facts. You are fucking TERRIBLE at giving criticism.

I fucking hope this fucking shit site gets written by ED.

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Fuck it, I can just request a few popular people on DeviantArt to give show how much shit this site is.

Your rating: None Average: 3 (3 votes)

You might find this useful: a study on lifestyle modification for the treatment of depression.

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Thanks for helping me prove a point I think.

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"Thanks for helping me prove a point I think."
Again... you THINK he proved your point... You don't KNOW that he proved your point... Yes, CLEARLY you're the authority on debating. lmao

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I'm going to reply with further stuff but a little more calm... and then after I'm going to rate my comment five stars so it can't be hidden, at least for a while.

Note: Quoting may overwrite HTML edit and my response may be in bold.

"Diamond Man, I literally went to school and took classes to learn how to write reviews. I have literally won awards from real journalists for reviews I have written."
Public schools isn't perfect, and neither are journalists.

"You can't even write a fucking sentence half the time; so I don't care how many fucking Wikipedia articles you read and totally misunderstood every fucking word of because you don't understand words, Diamond Man."
What "Wikipedia" articles? I totally understood the dictionary, you don't... you just dictate that a review must be like this or that, or it's it's "bad", and yet you say people can't disagree with it or it's a "attack" or some other shit.
Where I came from, lot's of reviewers make arguments, people debate them all the fucking time. And don't even get me started with gaming.

"Oh, right, you don't know what an apology is BECAUSE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WORDS and you're about to say something incredibly stupid about what you think an apology is, and I'm going to cut you off right there, because watching you shit all over the English language is breaking my heart."
I know what it is, but I never seen you clearly admit you could be wrong. If you did, then my fucking bad.

"You don't know what the word "criticism" means."
Yes, I do.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criticizing
And here is "fault":
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fault
A failure at trying something = fault. Saying "Your art is not my kind of thing so it's bad" is not criticism.

"You don't know what the word "review" means."
Clearly showing there CAN FUCKING BE DIFFERENT TYPES OF REVIEWS.
"You don't know what the word "bias" means."
BIAS
"You don't know what the word "critique" means."
A report that discusses a situation or certain other things and offers a judgement... it's similar to criticism.
"You don't know what the word "honesty" means."
Expressing yourself based off your actual personality, rather than hiding it. But you don't need to always do this. I will say an art style is not flawed even if I hate it... because that is also a form of honesty, my beliefs about what is fair or not.
"You don't know what the word "apology" means."
Regretting some mistake... like why are you even bothering claiming something like that? I know what it means. But many things I do on here are not mistakes.
"You don't know what the word "debate" means."
Arguing in some way.

"Jesus, fuck, Diamond Man, you've brought people with you who are fighting you! The anonymous commenters in this thread are not Flayrah posters, Diamond Man. They're following you! Like buzzards, they're following the stench of an easy Internet argument, and you've led them here!"
Victim blaming huh? Don't fucking act like I told them to come here. Also I think there was just one person.

"You start fights"
I'm not the one who went into this board because I had a thought about free speech and fucking started dragging that certain porn subject in, and I'm not the one who fucking insulted a writer twice. You're the one that started it, and so did some other members. Get over that.
"you scream and insult anyone who disagrees with you,"
Said the one who's screaming and swearing and complaining about me whenever I disagree.
"and you think you're offering some sort of constructive criticism!"
Because I am. You're just whining your head off because you are fucking offended. The fact that I gave out a dictionary proving some points and getting kinda censored for it shows how much this website failed to take any constructive criticism I think.

"You have nothing to offer to this conversation except a literal headache for those of us who try and deal with you."
Of course, because many people like you who is part of this site refuse to fucking change and listen to criticism likely.

1-staring this won't fucking change anything. Also and even though I don't depend on popularity, a lot of people find my stuff interesting because they are MORE OPEN MINDED.
Flayrah is nothing but a FUCKING GENERALLY ONE-SIDED SITE THAT GOES FOR THE WORST.
I won't expect my comment perfect, not sure if there are some legit mistakes or not.

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"Don't fucking act like I told them to come here."
Actually... yes you did. Why ELSE would you write THIS little beauty?
https://another-realm.deviantart.com/journal/Flayrah-is-a-huge-joke-727941679

Oh, you made ANOTHER ONE too. What's the matter? Not enough of a reaction to the first one, and you're feeling lonely? lol
https://another-realm.deviantart.com/journal/Ooooook-729674948

"1-staring this won't fucking change anything."
It certainly won't change your REACTION to it... lmao

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Did I say this or similar? "Hey, certain haters, go there and comment shit about me!".

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/ask

Your rating: None Average: 3.7 (3 votes)

Here's another link you might find useful: a neuroscientist and computational linguist with a PhD in linguistics discussing the practical limitations of lexicography and the dictionaries it results in.

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I depend on the literally act of asking maybe. Anything could cause the effects of people going, but that's not the same as asking maybe.
If I had to agree, then I'm not the only one that "asked".

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"I depend on the literally act of asking maybe" is not a coherent sentence. Is this how you speak out loud?

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I say "maybe" just to be safe.
I was reminded of something else and wanted to be safe.

But to say that SOMEHOW I asked them to comment, is like saying you guys did that too, and considering I'm a person who naturally respond... so are you asking me to?

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Actually, what I'm coherently, explicitly asking you to do, is go away 'til you calm down.

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...Yes. That's precisely what you did. When you piss off a bunch of people for calling them monsters because they have such outlandish opinions like "creating/having child pornography is bad", then you point to ANOTHER website where you go around saying the same thing, naturally people are going to be curious about what you're talking about. And lo and behold, here you are. Same shtick, different site. Clearly you were feeling like you weren't getting enough attention, so you decided to say "Hey! Look what I did over here!" Given your lengthy history of trying to make as many enemies as possible, MAYBE you should stop trying to show people how "monstrous" these OTHER people are acting towards you, that way MAYBE they'll stop agreeing with them.

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You don't get it I think. It's still a choice, especially since commenting and talking shit about me is a choice too.

Don't act like you can't take responsibility assuming you're the same person that tried starting something with me on this site.

And what about me anyway? I'm a person who may naturally respond.

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"You don't get it I think."
No, I DON'T get it. It's an unfortunate combination of you not knowing how to form a coherent sentence 99% of the time, you blinding yourself to common sense and self-awareness, and your baffling continuation to humiliate yourself.

"And what about me anyway? I'm a person who may naturally respond."
I suppose that's meant to absolve you of any and all responsibility of how YOU are free to start/continue shit here and elsewhere, right? WE'RE the ones who are supposed to accept responsibility for our actions, but you're completely innocent, huh?

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Prove your point then. I don't think I need to show that it's clearly your own fault (if you are that same person) that you went here and chose to comment crap about me. I didn't ask you to do that. Get over it.

I was making a point to expose hypocrisy, and also I'm not starting shit on here. I just stated my calm thoughts and criticism, and assholes are acting like it's forbidden.
It's really hard to listen to you considering you're part of some group that's filled with trolls, cyberbullies, and worse.

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"Prove your point then."
Everyone ELSE can see my point just fine. Again, the one weak link link in this entire equation... is you.

"I was making a point to expose hypocrisy... and assholes are acting like it's forbidden."
Yeah, because "pointing out hypocrisy" ALWAYS works in your favor, doesn't it? It's impossible for anyone to take your "pointing out hypocrisy" seriously when you're so quick to call anyone an asshole just for DISAGREEING with you. People aren't treating it like it's forbidden, they're hopping up and down trying to drive it through your impenetrable skull that you can't whine about people attacking you, while you're going out of your way to attack THEM. HELLO???

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It's just ... the lack of your knowledge is breathtaking. This is really simple stuff. You're trying ... oh my god ... debate us about journalistic ethics, and yet you don't even know what honesty is.

It's like trying to teach someone the alphabet, and they keep getting stuck on "alpha". And I don't mean the Greek word for "A", I mean, I say "we're going to learn the alpha ..." and then you interrupt me because the noises coming out of my mouth frighten you.

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I can't believe I'm saying this, but we're actually not argumentative fucks! YOU ARE!

It takes two to tango.

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Yup, me.
https://www.flayrah.com/3654/review-alpha-and-omega
It was just an awful, uninspired movie.

Then Diamond Man made a bunch of reviews of the other Alpha and Omega movies saying they were all masterpieces or something. The best part was some opinion piece about the whole series which he then deleted. That was sad because it was hilarious. I think we coined the term Diamondmanism in the comments.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Of all the movies to die in a ditch over, I give you: Alpha & Omega.

This is the way the world ends: the best lack conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity.

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More like a furry who was inspired to make the article because I found some flaws in such review. It's a fact that calling out designs only limit creativity.

But seeing you act like this shows how much of a failure this site is, honestly. "Hey, he made an article because of some Alpha and Omega thing, so his thoughts are crap now. LOLZ XD" is what I'm seeing.

Pokemon has flawed designs then.

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I would LOVE to see you at a critique in any college level art class. Your head would LITERALLY EXPLODE at everyone "calling out designs". lol

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No, it's called being concern with something that stifles creativity.
Stifling creativity is worse than nothing.

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I can see it all now...

One student points out how it looks like Humphrey actually has an anatomically correct mandible, but Kate looks like her mouth is just a flap of skin with teeth and a tongue attached to it... Another questions why the pups have such heavy bags under their eyes, making them look sleep-deprived or strung out... Someone has the gall to say that some of the wolves having such stylish haircuts looks WEIRD when so many other wolves don't have them...

And there YOU are, quivering with rage over how this precious world is being DESTROYED in front of your very eyes, too blind to see that all these people are doing is suggesting a little thing called "consistency". lol

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As I said, if you change the design style to something it's NOT, you ruin the characters.

Lots of animated movies often have different designs for characters all the time.
Call that out? Then expect criticism exposing how much creativity to want to destroy, and expect criticism calling out how someone like you don't understand how animating and designing works.
Changing all the character designs the same not only ruins the characters, but they all look more generic and less unique in the visual direction.

Changing designs don't make it better.
If I had to agree, then all Zootopia character designs are flawed and should change.

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"if you change the design style to something it's NOT, you ruin the characters."
How very depressing that these characters are ruined if you have the audacity to make them look more polished and appealing.

And yeah, keep blocking criticism by saying that "If THIS is a flaw, then this other more critically acclaimed movie is flawed too!!!" That's objective and totally NOT emotional. lol

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More appealing for certain people is the correct way of saying it.

Your garbage isn't criticism, it's just you treating your subjective more important and over the artist. You are doing nothing but proving my point.
Oh and 1 staring my comment doesn't change anything.

Your rating: None Average: 3.7 (3 votes)

Anything you say, sweetie....

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No, calling out designs does not limit creativity. First, if a creator disagrees with a review/comment or whatever they can just ignore it and do what they want. And if they reflect on the comment and end up agreeing then they will change up the designs which is good for creativity. Also there will always be people that love and hate any creation.

I did not say anything about your thoughts in general being crap. The only thing I mentioned was your response involving Alpha & Omega because you have an unhealthy obsession with it and responding to anything that is even slightly critical about it.

Yeah, pokemon does. Other than a basic game design which has received only cosmetic updates in 20 years, I've often criticised the design of the newer pokemon. There are bad old pokemon designs too but I think on average the old designs were better. What's your point?

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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It's the idea of your views that stifle it on your own. You are declaring it to be flawed regardless of what the creator is thinking. You are not aware of goal of the designs, yet you act like it doesn't matter then dictate that it's "flawed". It's your general idea in the public that stifles it. It tries to tell other furries and not that it's bad to have this and that. Plus you seem to argue that your subjective opinion is "superior" when it's not.

I don't have an "unhealthy" obsession. If I agreed, then you have one too for being a furry with creatures that I don't even know counts as furry.

Of course. Lots of Nostalgia fans will complain about the new designs.
But I could lower my example to just the older generation.

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Also it wasn't even just you, maybe. Like there was multiple people at a time.

But anyway, you insulted me, and why bother taking you seriously since you're all up high in your own head all of a sudden?

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"As I stated, I had my own opinion there, saw some f***ed up behavior that was probably objectively bad, and called it out."
But God forbid that anyone ELSE have their opinion, see some f***ed up behavior that was bad, and call THAT out.

Of course anyone with any kind of critical thinking skills can see the hypocrisy in that from a mile away, but begging the question "Can't YOU see it?" is a useless exercise. You're completely hopeless, as you'll go on demonstrating with every post you make. Have fun alienating everyone you come across and dying alone while dreaming of horny, magical space-wolf-gods to take you away from this bigoted planet.

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Too bad for you, it can be argued that fiction may not be f***ed up. Yet, regardless I don't think it excuses harassment.

Yet, can you argue how it's "useless" and can you argue why you think I'm "hypocritical"?
I don't agree all opinions need respect, never said that. Harassment was f***ed up because it's morally wrong.
I'll have fun. Being a human was a mistake, after all. :) Your insult are making wanting to not be a human and not be part of this planet even more.

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Also I guess you're offended by my speech and 1-stared it no matter what I say and would 5-star anyone acting like a dick because after all, you hate me. Special hate agenda, I'm sure.

For anyone out there who doesn't know what that is...
https://another-realm.deviantart.com/journal/The-Special-Hate-Agenda-What-is-it-...

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"Also I guess you're offended by my speech and 1-stared it no matter what I say"
And I suppose it's just a coincidence that every comment opposing what you have to say just HAPPENS to be similarly rated? Yeah, way to take the high road....

No, I 1-star your comments because seeing you lose your shit over is it too damn funny to pass up. lol

By all means, direct MORE people to your insane ramblings about the Special Hate Agenda (TM). Let them see more of your paranoia, and how tolerant you are of commenters who have the audacity to perform the heinous crime of disagreeing with you. (The scandal!!!) Let them see for themselves how in your perfect world, name-calling is a federal offense, while child-molestation is perfectly alright as long as the rapist says "I'm sorry". Keep digging that hole deeper and deeper and inviting MORE people into the Special Hate Agenda (TM), where membership is guaranteed with the simple utterance of "I hold a position contrary to yours".

Go on. You know you're gonna.

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Because your comments are causing drama, and supports harassment of something outside this site. Anyone who 1-stared me for being against harassment, is a sad person. Same when they see that I'm defending a certain taboo (consensual adult incest) because they are offended by it.

Well, you 1-staring my comment for that reason is also another example of a problem. It shows more of how useless this rating system is.

It really depends what they are disagreeing. It also depends how. Stop using "disagreement" or "opinions" as if they are special tickets.
Though, it's funny that you use Trademark as some kind of insult, because honestly, it't not even an insult. It's a real agenda as proven in the past... so I don't see why the heck you are freaking out about it.

Let me ask you, why aren't you telling me who you are? Are you that person who makes every adult look like toddlers or not? That person is looks to be already proud of what you're doing in the past currently, and expose it to the public, so why not admit it if you are that person? It's like it doesn't matter to me.

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Something can be 100% consensual and still be illegal: if 2 guys agree to an old-style duel with flintlock pistols or fencing swords, and one of them gets wounded or killed, the other guy is still guilty even if both of them unambiguously agreed to the duel.

And while it's true that (incestuous) sex shouldn't result in wounding, there is the *emotional* damage of incest to take into account, as well as the harm visited on future generations by inbreeding.

Your rating: None Average: 2 (4 votes)

I'm not saying it's legal because it's consensual.

Fear is not a valid answer to your argument, that's like saying we should ban ALL sex because of some future fear and emotional unsure.

If I knew there were two people having sex that was incest, and it was consensual, I would keep that consensual thing alone a secret because it's the right thing to do. It is morally wrong to throw those type of people in prison I think.
Besides, you can also avoid having babies even though I don't believe in governments controlling that.

If you still want to keep it illegal, then you're wanting two consenting happy people to be hurt by imprisonment. Well, I don't believe in retribution since it's hypocritical, but it's that you want them to suffer, if true, since they are happy and consenting alone because of some taboo relationship but with reasons you said.

Now if someone did something that does hurt or does something that threats to, then I myself would have a problem with that part.

Your rating: None Average: 4 (4 votes)

As long as you are providing the venue you wish to use for your speech or it's a public space, have at. Othwewise, those providing the place get to set the rules as they wish. This includes blog sites, conventions, publications, etc. If a particular group's idea of 'free speech' has the potential to cause disruption of a convention or if their presence might do so, I'm all for the 'right' of the convention to disinvite them from attending. This is regardless of whatever their particulalar ideas are. The ability of the people running the event to run an event that is enjoyable for their members takes priority and if you don't understand that, I suggest you start your own convention and set different rules. Good luck.

Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (4 votes)

Hooray, Diamond Man FTW, taking the Flayrah Least Valuable Poster prize like an unholy lovechild of Perri and Acton. You get the odious personality and unhinged gushing, with the mental gear grinding and illiteracy too. A great moment for furry drama. popcorm.gif

Your rating: None Average: 2.3 (4 votes)

Drama here wouldn't existed if certain people didn't create fights, and insulted whenever like me dares to criticize on this site. Let's see now, there are at least 5 people who is behaving like shit. Even that part pokemon fan who insulted me as a writer, and insulted me for being inspired by what I like.

I think Flayrah used to be a little better, but now it's worse.

Oh and anyone 1-staring this comment means they found my comment awesome.

Your rating: None Average: 3 (2 votes)

"Oh and anyone 1-staring this comment means they found my comment awesome."
My god, you're desperate...

1-star for being so pathetic that you fail every time to recognize that the common denominator in every bit of drama you encounter where there wasn't drama before is YOU.

Your rating: None Average: 1.7 (6 votes)

Sounds like someone is a little upset by what is probably criticism.
I didn't do anything wrong on here despite some possible claims that MIGHT be wrong somewhere.
It is very clear that the Zootopia fan and that crazy Pokemon fan has started drama and makes the furry community look like crap.

Oh and anyone 1-staring this comment means they found my comment awesome.

Your rating: None Average: 2.5 (4 votes)

"Sounds like someone is a little upset by what is probably criticism."
Said the manchild who loses his mind every time a negative review of Alpha & Omega is released....

Oh and anyone 1-starring this comment means they found my comment awesome... because since I'm someone who doesn't believe that popularity matters, this forum's rating system means EVERYTHING to me, and I need everyone to agree with me!!! I'M RIGHT, DAMN IT!!!!

Your rating: None Average: 2 (5 votes)

"Said the manchild who loses his mind every time a negative review of Alpha & Omega is released...."
Some of the things I freak out over is a unfair claim like "designs are flawed". Use that as an argument, expect people to criticize that...
It's funny how you claim I "lose my mind" when what I'm sending is criticism... showing you can't take criticism. :)

Low ratings can hide comments, and it can serve a delusional that makes some people think my criticism is bad, which may even lead to problems depending what I say.

Your rating: None Average: 2 (2 votes)

"It's funny how you claim I "lose my mind" when what I'm sending is criticism... showing you can't take criticism. :)"
Bitch, please... you are NO ONE to tell people that they can't take criticism. I count FOUR TIMES you tried to make yourself feel better with that stupid "1-star = YOU THINK MY COMMENT IS AWESOME!!!" crap.

"it can serve a delusional that makes some people think my criticism is bad"
And if that was your primary concern against the rating system all the time, maybe that would MEAN something. But no. All you were doing was trying to delude yourself so that a 1-star rating is actually a GOOD thing, or at least try to dissuade people from rating you so low. Sorry. Most people are smarter than that.
You're also worried about people thinking your criticism is bad? All that anyone has to do to think your criticism is bad is to READ IT. They don't need any help from a rating system. lol

Your rating: None Average: 2 (1 vote)

About that review stuff again, more people need to take a look at this:
https://wwwarea.deviantart.com/art/They-are-Just-Like-us-558780452
https://wwwarea.deviantart.com/art/An-Opinion-What-s-That-490752949
http://scottberkun.com/essays/35-how-to-give-and-receive-criticism/

One of the reasons why I send this is probably because these places get a lot more attention than this scary place.

Especially since many people who attempt at giving reviews are attempting to give criticism and "this design is flawed" is an argument, not a "Not for you." claim.

Your rating: None

"What if I don't need to be honest?"
Kinda shoots whatever argument you're trying to make right in the foot. LMFAO

Your rating: None Average: 2 (4 votes)

Wrong comment, but some may say that "I respect the designs even though I don't like it." could be a "dishonest" thing... when in reality, people are allowed to send critiques in reviews. The less bias you are, the better.

Your rating: None Average: 3 (2 votes)

You STILL SAID "What if I don't need to be honest?" How is anyone supposed to believe anything you say when you just outright admitted that you're perfectly fine with LYING to people?

"some may say that "I respect the designs even though I don't like it." could be a "dishonest" thing..."
...I... What are..?... I don'....
Okay, let me see if I follow this correctly....
You are so grossly offended by someone saying "I don't care for the designs in Alpha & Omega" that you'll do everything in your power to get them to RETRACT such a statement... but you're PERFECTLY FINE with them saying that they RESPECT the designs, even when armed with the knowledge that they're LYING about it, just to appease you.

Is THAT what you want people to say? "I think Alpha & Omega is a great movie, but I'm actually lying about that"?

Your rating: None Average: 2 (2 votes)

Saying the designs are good for what it is, while I'm not into a design for example is not lying. Dislike =/= good and bad.

There is a very big difference between saying "I don't care for the designs" than "the designs are flawed".
Respecting the designs would be more fair, and it's not a lie to respect something that isn't your thing.

My example: "I think Alpha and Omega is a great movie for what it's trying to be, even if it's not my kind of thing." That's not lying, that's just putting your subjective aside and making an less bias argument.

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (5 votes)

Let me try that.

I think Alpha and Omega is a bad movie even for what it was trying to be.

Did I get it right?

Allow me to take a page out of Aaron Burr's book and offer you some free advice. Everyone knows critics and reviews are subjective. That's how it's meant to be. I'm perfectly happy to say "I don't like this but its done well" when that is the case. In fact, I've advocated that that's the way ratings on furry sites should be done. The simple fact is that Alpha and Omega is not good. Not everything that's made is good.

Here's another surprising thing; movies are made by teams. There are writers, directors, animators, producers, actors and more all of whom have more or less input and you can end up with a movie that no one involved actually likes because the mix of ideas was bad or the studio pushed for something against the director's wishes. I'm not saying that's what happened here but it might remind you that not everything that's produced is good even according to its creators.

Instead of getting upset that other people have different opinions just learn to use reviews better. If someone says a movie sucked they probably also said why (at least in a good review). Then you can judge if that will likely matter to you or not. Do you know why there are so many movie critics employed? Because they have different tastes. Find a critic who shares your views and then you will get reviews which are more relevant to you.

Even if there are no reviewers that agree with you, here's another bit of truth. Entertainment is subjective and quality doesn't always match with entertainment. Look at the last Hobbit movie. We all know the team and cast is amazing but the movie was awful. But you will also find that everyone has a critically hated or just bad movie that they love. There's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is becoming obsessed with that movie and trying to force everyone to have the same opinion as you while not understanding anything about how reviews actually work.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

Your rating: None Average: 3.3 (4 votes)

The only way to argue that A&O is bad for what it's trying to be, is if it failed to aim for its purpose. Maybe in general at least.

And did you just said your subjective was "fact"?
If "criticism" Is all subjective, then "criticism" is useless as a label. Why do we need criticism if it's all subjective and why is it "bad" to deny criticism if it's all subjective then?
All I see in your theory is that "criticism" is nothing but a special word jerks use to treat their subjective more important.

This is mainly why I argue that there IS such thing as being fair. For something to be a fair critique, is to see a failure of the aim of a creation of a legal and safe fictional work, and pointing out what FAILED on what was trying to do with such works.
Lots of people make debates I'm critic stuff a lot and I agree there should be a fair review. If all critics are meant to be subjective at all times, then we have a major problem and had it for a lot of years.

Also aren't you the one who argued that "criticism" Is important?

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (6 votes)

"I don't like the character designs" is subjective.
"The story is completely unoriginal with several elements lifted directly from more successful movies" is fact.

If I like the movie, that is subjective.
Whether it is or is not a good movie is closer to a fact and is based on several things, such as the overall opinion, whether it serves its purpose as a movie, how technically accomplished it is and what new elements it brings.

Zootopia is an excellent movie. It doesn't add much new to anything though. We've seen buddy cops, we've seen betrayals, we've seen anthro worlds. But! It does them so well that it doesn't matter. Everything it does was done nearly perfectly.

Of course critics need to be fair. If I'm watching a student presentation or something like Bitter Lake, I am not holding it to the same standards as Zootopia or LOTR. But I'm also sure everyone reviewing on this site does that.

So what is the value of subjective criticism then? Plenty! Though it depends exactly what kind.

If I'm rehearsing a presentation and get criticism from the my coworkers then I can use that to improve what I am presenting and how I explain things. And if I don't agree, I ignore it. It's especially useful because different people have different perspectives and knowledge and what is obvious to one might not be obvious to another. All that is done with test screenings before movies are released to the public.

If I'm reviewing here, my main purpose is to inform other people about a movie or book so that they know what its about and if its worth spending their money and time on. So out of the hundreds of movies that are available they can say "Rakuen liked this movie and I've shared his opinion in the past so I will probably also like this movie" instead of getting something that they might hate.

There are other aspects, like trying to use something as a springboard for wider discussion. Go read any of Christopher Hitchens' reviews for an example of that. However, that's a more advanced topic.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

Your rating: None Average: 2.4 (5 votes)

Yes, that is subjective.
""The story is completely unoriginal with several elements lifted directly from more successful movies" is fact. "
Not it's not. Do you even know what "originality" is? If it was "completely unoriginal" then you're basically saying "every movie is unoriginal" because every movie uses something. And deciding that it's "bad" because of your length of what original is, ALSO subjective too.

"Zootopia is an excellent movie. It doesn't add much new to anything though. We've seen buddy cops, we've seen betrayals, we've seen anthro worlds. But! It does them so well that it doesn't matter. Everything it does was done nearly perfectly."
That's still your opinion. Not a fact.

Honestly, you basically proved my justice into why I argued your article.
You said the designs are "poor" like it really is when it's not your art. Saying it's "poor" is not the same as saying "It's not my thing.".
And now you're basically saying your opinion on story is "fact" when by definition, you're still being subjective.
Art is subjective, what is "original or not" is, which hell, you even admit Zootopia is also less original, but then you basically said that it doesn't matter because you liked it anyway (subjective?).

As you said, critics need to be fair... and that's what I'm arguing that the article you made were unfair. I have a right to say it wrong, and I can see many errors in your article, even something in there sounds like an ignorance to how designing unique characters work in the visual section.
Sadly, SOME people act like I'm not allowed to disagree with your article.
Even you insult me as a writer, yourself.

Your rating: None Average: 4 (3 votes)

"Sadly, SOME people act like I'm not allowed to disagree with your article."
Meanwhile, YOU insist that other people aren't allowed to dislike what they dislike, and any dislike for this movie needs to be rectified. For all your crying about free speech, and oppression, and everything ELSE you like complaining about, you're INCREDIBLY INTOLERANT about other peoples' free speech.

(and here comes the argument about how a negative Alpha & Omega review is nothing but hate speech, or a demonstration of one's stupidity...)

"Even you insult me as a writer, yourself."
You've provided very little reason for anyone to COMPLIMENT you as a writer.

Your rating: None Average: 2.3 (3 votes)

They are allowed to dislike. Big difference.
This person is clearly treating his/her own dislike as if it's a "fact" or some bullshit. This is partly why certain points in such review deserved criticism.

Skipping.

The person claimed I have a problem being inspired to make my own reviews, and claimed I'm "obsessed" with me being a furry. That was just a fucking insult.

Your behavior, that behavior, 2cross2affliction's behavior, and some other behavior are proving that this website refuses to take criticism and refuse to learn anything.

Your rating: None Average: 3.7 (3 votes)

"They are allowed to dislike."
They're just not allowed to SAY so, that's what you're getting at.

"This person is clearly treating his/her own dislike as if it's a "fact" or some bullshit."
Nobody NEEDS to say that their review is expressing their own unique viewpoint, because most people are smart enough to know that that's always the case. If you made a review saying Alpha & Omega is the greatest thing since the invention of cinema, EVERYONE would know that's your opinion. You wouldn't need to constantly repeat that what you're expressing is YOUR opinion. We KNOW. We GET IT.

"That was just a fucking insult."
What goes around comes around, Mr. You-Didn't-Like-This-Movie-So-You-Clearly-Have-No-Idea-What-You're-Talking-About.

"Your behavior, that behavior, 2cross2affliction's behavior, and some other behavior are proving that this website refuses to take criticism and refuse to learn anything."
Yep. You got it. You're the only sane person in a world full of lunatics.

Your rating: None Average: 1.3 (3 votes)

"I am not a fan of the designs" =/= "The designs are flawed and my point I said now is criticism, it's important, please listen to it."

I was saying that the person literally said that the movie being "completely unoriginal" was a "fact" when that's clearly not the case. Originality is about combining things into something new, even if it's more generally familiar. Alpha and Omega is like every other movie in terms of making something new as a whole. To say it's "completely unoriginal" is not only an opinion, but it's wrong.

Don't get it but me disagreeing with a certain argument in that Alpha and Omega review isn't a personal attack. No matter what that Zootopia fan tells you.

Honestly, it almost feels like that here.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (3 votes)

"I was saying that the person literally said that the movie being "completely unoriginal" was a "fact" when that's clearly not the case."
Since you don't believe that originality exists anyway, YES. To call Alpha & Omega "completely unoriginal" IS a fact.

"Don't get it but me disagreeing with a certain argument in that Alpha and Omega review isn't a personal attack. No matter what that Zootopia fan tells you."
Zootopia fans never told anyone that. YOU told people that.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (2 votes)

Then ALL movies are completely original.
But if something like Zootopia is original, then the same must be said for Alpha and Omega because it still combines a lot of things and with maybe even more new ideas into something new.
There can't be a separate definition.

Nope, that's not true exactly. The evidence is around here something.