Five geek social fallacies

[ProvincialTwit]

Within the constellation of allied hobbies and subcultures collectively known as geekdom, one finds many social groups bent under a crushing burden of dysfunction, social drama, and general interpersonal wack-ness. It is my opinion that many of these never-ending crises are sparked off by an assortment of pernicious social fallacies -- ideas about human interaction which spur their holders to do terrible and stupid things to themselves and to each other.

So begins an entertaining and interesting link recently seen on ElJay.  Although the page is quite old (4 years now), the ideas expressed still seem to ring very true, especially when applied to Viv's topic du jour.  There's a slight air of pretentiousness expressed by extraordinarily lengthy verbiage, which really seems to fit the topic at hand.

tl;dr version: Generic geek pretty much sums up furrydom without ever mentioning it.

[Freehaven]

T'was a good read.  I don't think I've ever had any of them, but then again, it's not like I have the social life necessary to put that to the test.

[sharki]

I have to agree that was really interesting.  Especially the one about how they can never be criticized because you don't criticize your friends.

[Kindrift]

And this is why furries aren't getting along with the rest of the Internet.  If the antisocial grease-palmed escapist monkies can't get along with people who are nearly exactly like them, how do they cope with a geek who's different to the tune of fabric ears and fake fur?  Since a few brittle and narrow nerds won't accept other subcultured brittle nerds everyone goes all polarized against the other faction.  Gives the individual somewhere to belong and someone to hate at the same time, I see how attractive that can be to someone without any better meaning to their life.

So furry can be a pathetically fractured little culture, from the larger groups in their art site fights Second Life sim-rivalries down to the little individuals who can't manage to peacefully share a single apartment.  I have seen all five of these in the local population, and that's really why the local community is split up multiple ways and irrevocably set against itself.  Not that I'm a great person.  YFYP down at the bottom has been my problem.  No, really?

[verix]

Haha. I used to suffer from #5 every so often, but that was probably because I had paranoia issues and thought everyone was talking about me behind my back.

[ProvincialTwit]

Late as I may be adding this comment (shush, I've been busy)...

One thing the author didn't explicitly mention is that the ideals of all-inclusiveness don't necessarily stop at the borders of the various geek subcultures.  Hence why you get things that 'feel' like they're being run by furries, like ElJay and, to a lesser extent, Wiki.  Since most of us here are so familiar with the particular oddities of furries, it's easy to see the traits and behaviors other geeky internet circles have in common.

I guess what I'm getting at here is, after reading this article, one could argue that furries are pretty much exactly like any other wide-spread geek subculture.

...Except they're not.  I daresay there is not another fandom, subculture, or internet community with quite as much drama, backstabbing, overreaction, and self-centered isolationism as furry.  You might see some LJ admin come to the aid of a furry in some attempt at geeky-freaky solidarity, but you'd never see the opposite.  I've been a part of D&D groups, animu groups, gamer groups; hell, I was part of the 'CompSci Club' in university.  The difference is that every single one of those groups had less drama and bullshit and was actually considerate of others.  Furry is the only place I've ever encountered such a mind-boggling isolationist us-versus-them attitude hidden just below the veneer of all-inclusiveness.

Also the whole animal fucking thing.  Which is why they deserve to be mocked.

[Breanainn]

Wow, truth. A good read.

1 Explains a HUGE amount about the furry image problem, since no matter how socially inept, unpleasant, unstable or at the more extreme end of the scale, possibly even dangerous a furry fan is, they always seem to be accepted (in the name of acceptance of all lifestyles/fetishes/personality disorders etc) seemingly without issue. You probably have to be convicted for raping babies before the fandom might actually think it's better off without you.
2 and to some extent 3 and 4 encourages isolation from everyone but the individual's own clique and again, explains a good deal about the fandom's defensive nature, ignoring or rejecting any and all kinds of critisicm aimed at it, from within or without (the fact that sites like this that attempt to view furry objectively are regarded by many furries as plain anti-furry is proof of this fallacy, ensuring that furry ctitisicm even by OTHER furries is invarioubly regarded negatively) with 3 and 4 ensuring a highly insular community, with members having disgarded any and all contrasting opinions or distractions to their lifestyle. Of course this doesn't quite explain furry, as furries rag on each other constantly, as has already been commented on in this thread. Furry only ever seem to unite when protecting itself from 'outsiders' whereupon it runs quick to defend even the most insane of it's members.

TL;DR The linked article is made of truth, but furries seem to be a special case.

[Freehaven]

FA user technicolor_pie produced nifty furry-centric comic versions of the whole list:

Fallacy #1: Ostracizers Are Evil
Fallacy #2: Friends Accept Me As I Am
Fallacy #3: Friendship Before All
Fallacy #4: Friendship Is Transitive
Fallacy #5: Friends Do Everything Together

[Kindrift]

FA user technicolor_pie produced nifty furry-centric comic versions of the whole list:

This is the best thing ever.  Almost as awesome as the truth that a thousand furries will see this and completely fail to apply it to their own relationships.