I guess my main reaction is... these are not serious people. They live in a fantasy world, have become obsessed with it, and it bleeds into real world interaction with real, violent consequences.
And the fantasy I’m talking about is not really the furry identities, but this obsession with and overinflation of the idea that they are all main characters in a serious political struggle of epic import. They are fighting real, actual Nazis. They are planning La Transgenres Resistance against jackbooted government transphobes. Every narcissistic, paranoid, neurotic act up to and including physical violence is justified by the critical importance of their titanic struggle, and every personal conflict is twisted until the players are either heroes or villains within The Discourse.
It’s a weird blend of narcissism and a defense mechanism against a lack of more serious purpose - if I’m just a hard to deal with person who sucks at relationships, I’m pathetic, but if I can be an Oppressed Freedom Fighter whose personal struggles are a front in the great culture battle, and whose shitty boyfriends are not just jerks but The Enemy, well then I Matter.
It’s probably not a coincidence that people who create and sometimes live in (at least online) “fursonas” are more prone to this sort of unseriousness, but I certainly don’t think it’s causal. There are plenty of non furries with exactly the same pathology, so I think that makes this story very much worth pursuing.
What you described sounds a lot like Jan 6. Everyone seemed to think they were on a grand quest and as the main character among thousands of other main characters, they thought they were all the good guys trying to right a monumental wrong.
Probably true at a minimum for the ProudBoy types and assorted other true believers. Although, at least a presidential election really is an event of great import and not, like, whether some rando’s ex is a crypto-Nazi.
This seems entirely unsupported by any actual evidence about the nature of these people's involvement with furry-dom. I have no doubt, because You're Never Weird On The Internet, that there are a handful of truly unbalanced people involved, but the vast majority of participants in even the oddest of Internet Things are normal people with normal lives who spend a couple hours a week thinking about it.
(Also, furries aren't transgender, and whatever weird obsession you have with trans people should really be left out of this discussion, for everyone's sake.)
I literally said “the fantasy I’m talking about is not the furry identities” and “there are plenty of non-furries with exactly the same pathology”, in other words I think the furry part of this is spectacle but ultimately this is a problem of the Too Online rather than furries per se.
Furries are not necessarily trans, but of the main characters in this tale there are at least two transwomen and a nonbinary furry (Serah, EDIT: Silverbeak, and Pawfoot), “deadnaming” was listed a one of the crimes being punished, and Skaard makes a point of noting “trans rights are human rights” among the standard progressive positions he presumably planned to defend with his anti-authoritarian Proud Boy and alt-right furry forum lurking. That’s plenty of fodder for a single line on my part without any “obsession with trans people”. It’s literally part of the story already!
I really appreciate this, Trace. Yeah, it's really niche; but the Nazi-punching mania took over my social circles pre-pandemic for a while, and while it turned out to be yet another stupid "progressive" fad, it really messed with my understanding of some of the people I know. I'm not a furry, but this was all over the place, and still is in some non-furry Internet subcultures and among some people.
It's not exclusively men who fantasize about this kind of violence - plenty of my friends who longed to deck a brownshirt in a quiet residential neighborhood in Seattle were women, taking self-defense classes in the desperate hope someone evil would appear and let them be the superhero who defended "the community." But I was most... disturbed, honestly, by the obsessive violent rhetoric among men I knew. These were nerds across the board, guys whose inability to fit in with everyday casual machismo culture had been socially defining for a lot of them in the past. And now they had an outlet - a language of constant threats of violence, a group to share their fantasies of being the big tough man with. A few of them turned Internet-cop, constantly scouring their hobbyist Facebook groups and Discord servers for Nazis, code at that point for "Trump voter," to harass.
These were not "internet autists." These were people with normal jobs, mainstream geeky hobbies, spouses and close families, and lots of IRL friends. They've all abandoned this now, thank God, but I sometimes wonder - and never ask - how much of that time they remember and what they think of how they behaved then. None of them ever punched, or got within punching distance of, a perceived Nazi, it goes without saying; probably some of them only participated secretly knowing that they would never have to make good on any threat. Are they embarrassed? I don't know. But I'm still afraid they'd have Silverbeak and Dogpatch and co.'s justifications ready to go. And I still wonder, if any of them had ended up in a similar situation as the beach barbecue, whether they would have behaved like the assailant did. Probably not... but I can't forget that they actively aspired to that.
Men are generally pretty violent and society does a real good job reining it in. Excuses like (punch a nazi) this are bad because they appeal to men’s worst instincts.
In the unrelated case of the Will Smith slap at the Academy Awards. Not exactly the same thing, but it still shocked me how many people supported violence because of a joke at an awards show where those kind of jokes are a tradition. I believe more women than men thought the slap was justified because of how mean Chris Rock's joke was. Certainly some progressive voices were raised in support of the slap. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11833995/Woke-writer-insists-Chris-Rock-DESERVED-slapped-Smith-Oscars.html
Interesting. There's a lot of talk in the comments suggesting this is about Furries, but I think I've seen similar (though obviously much less dramatic) situations in other communities. If I was trying to define it, I'd say it's the difference between personal and political justification/reasoning.
There's been a lot of talk for a long time about the personal being political and one related phenomenon is that 'I don't like you, please stay away from me' feels a lot less acceptable than 'you are problematic/evil, go to hell!'
Not liking someone is a matter of taste and invites discussion/debate and is, in the end, as much about you as about them (and opens you up to all sorts of armchair psychologizing, do you not like them because they're racist, or because you're racist, because they're anti-fa, or you're anti-fa?) but 'you're a commie/nazi' really doesn't, so it's a safe way to avoid that.
I used to be in a Discord server where one of my first disagreements with the hivemind was over this issue. I pointed out that I didn't trust randos to be the ones to play judge jury and executioner, to which I was told they haven't killed anybody (yet). I probably should have taken that as a sign to get out sooner rather than later.
This was as far away from a furry beach fight as one can get, but some of the Discourse (TM) in the wake of the Will Smith Oscar Slap made me feel like I was taking crazy pills. To me, it was obvious that physically striking someone was wrong, regardless of how offensive they were being. But there were people actually arguing that it was justified because Chris Rock mocked a "disabled Black woman" (alopecia being the disability). This was the same contingent that call words "violence" and call out "harm" in all kinds of situations. But when it came to actual violence, apparently that didn't count. I went full Constanza "you know, we're living in a society" that week.
That discourse felt weird to me. I guess its the way of things, but online discussion seemed to be a fight between people who thought Chris Rock deserved to get slapped and people who thought the slap was the worst thing ever and a sign of societal decay. And I just thought that slapping people is obviously bad, you shouldn't do it. But also that someone slapping you because you insulted their wife is... not THAT big a deal. Chris Rock wasn't hurt and mostly seemed mildly amused by the whole thing. I feel like we should be able to say that violence isn't okay but also admit that one man slapping another man for perceived insults is just not that big of a deal.
And probably the overreactors were responding to the downplayers who were responding to the overreactors and on and on until The Discourse Singularity.
Oh yeah, wasn't there some ER doctor tweeting that it could have been really bad because Chris Rock could have fallen backwards and hit his head? Lunacy. It seems like a common thread throughout a lot of these stories is that we could all stand to have fewer opinions on other people's interpersonal conflicts.
Wow, hard to pick a side when all dramatis personae are delusional mental cases who spend way too much time online, like adjudicating a squabble between the voices in the head of a schizophrenic.
But in reality world this sure looks like an assault.
> Despite the meetup being voluntary, masked, and outdoors, two other admins from the area, a nonbinary furry who goes by Scout Pawfoot and a trans woman who goes by Silverbeak (herself a longtime friend of Teskine), pulled the two into a chat group with other local meetup admins to press them to cancel their meetup. According to Renn, people in the group claimed they would be murdering people by hosting it, and called Renn and Skaard Nazis.
If you don't think it's safe to attend an event, then wouldn't the rathional response be to simply "not go?" Perhaps state the concern for safety on the forum if you're really concerned? And that's it!
This sounds insane.
I also have a problem with calling people Nazis -- even dispicable people -- who aren't Nazis. "Nazi" should mean a specific things. Israelis who are under constant existential threat from their neighbors don't call them Nazis. (I spend about 4 months/year in Israel and have never heard the word Nazi used to refer to anyone other than the Germans and perhaps a few modern European and American groups who directly borrow their doctrines and symbology.)
Why do people feel the need stop events that they don't want to attend? I wouldn't go to a furry meet because I'm not a furry, but I don't care if people who are furries want to get together and do whatever it is that they do.
If I feel an event is unsafe... I don't go. I may warn a friend away from something, but random (adult) strangers it's up to them. You want to swim through the Everglades in Lady Gaga's meat suit? Not my problem. During the first wave of Covid, you want to go around a hospital shaking hands and hugging people (looking at you BoJo) - fine. Just don't be all surprised Pikachu when it goes tits up. I think we could use a bit more chlorine in the gene pool.
There absolutely is a societal interest in preventing or deterring other people from doing dumb shit when it comes to trying to contain the spread of a contagious disease. "This event was safe" is a valid observation; "you shouldn't care about people holding unsafe events, just don't go" is not.
I’m not very online, but this was a moving piece. Thank you Trace for taking so much time to do the investigative work and thoughtful analysis that this article required.
Easy for something like this to be written off by most as weirdos being weirdos, but the themes and tendencies of this behavior are all too human and universal across all groups regardless of where they’re from.
I wish more people could approach conflict in general with the mindset Trace expressed in his writing, and that we could avoid dehumanizing behavior across the board for the betterment of everyone.
I actually think someone who went largely unscathed from all of this is probably (in my mind) the most responsible for it: Serah.
They and this Skaard fellow had a contentious break up. After this happens, this Serah character goes on the warpath to impugn Skaard and spread false rumors about them.
Doing what they can to gain sympathy and ostracize their ex boyfriend, Skaard, from the group.
As far as I can tell, all roads lead to that.
So really, this whole story is a tale as old as time.
Hell hath no fury like a Furry Trans Woman scorned.
I've been worried about this trend for a while, which I've mostly seen among young people but can believe cuts across many ages. Ironically, I've come to call some of these people "fascist youth" in my mind (but not out loud) because that is what they remind me of. Either that or Maoists. The neat trick where you call anyone with whom you disagree politically a "Nazi" or "TERF" (as you pointed out) and have now removed them to a level where you can physically harm or kill them with impunity is being reproduced across a varied array of activist groups. It scares me.
The recent story about Oxfam creating a caricature of JK Rowling in a short animation reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against Jews was a chilling example.
I find the trend to dehumanise those you disagree with horrifying. If they aren't human because of their (perceived) Nazism, then we can punch them or hurt or kill them. I wish we could move towards having actual discussions about issues instead of name-calling. People can be absolute assholes, but that doesn't make them a Nazi. Even if they are an actual Nazi, civilians shouldn't be punching them - turn them into the police or the authorities and let them have a fair trail.
Dehumanising is what the Nazis did to the Jews. They saw Jewish people as less then human, so it was justified to treat them horribly and kill them.
“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.” ― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight
I've never seen more proof of terminal Internet autism. How many words is this masterpiece on "Nazifurs" and one incident at some random beach that not one soul would've cared about if not for some degenerates dressed in suits.
How hot was it? Even Mx Purrzog said "imagine the smell"
‘Despite the meetup being voluntary, masked, and outdoors, two other admins from the area, a nonbinary furry who goes by Scout Pawfoot and a trans woman who goes by Silverbeak [...] pulled the two into a chat group with other local meetup admins to press them to cancel their meetup.’
‘Their falling-out was ugly and deeply personal in both directions, with Serah (herself a trans woman) furious that Skaard “deadnamed” Silverbeak [...] Serah would go on to become the most visible source for the Nazi allegations against Renn and Skaard after the beach confrontation’
These stunning and brave folx deserve our eternal gratitude for outing those despicable Nazis.
I read a good online essay on the subject of punching Nazis which I can't now find, I feel like it was a Scott Alexander one or at least a similar style, but if it is I would have expected to find it. Ring a bell for anyone else? Was definitely from the sort of source I would expect BARpers to read.
It basically points out the obvious flaws in the smug, 'well Indiana Jones did it, how do you think WW2 was won' attitude. The Allies didn't just punch the Nazis, they shot them, and bombed their homes and cities and those of their allies, and potentially unaligned neighbours and families in the context of total war. If the idea of that doesn't appeal, then one has to accept that there is a difference.
Also, even before the takeover in 1933, there were those who opposed the Nazis with street violence, in particular the Communists, and that generally went very poorly and was used to drum up sympathy.
The closest Scott Alexander essay I can think of off the top of my head is "In Favor of Niceness, Community, and Civilization," but I don't think that's the one you're thinking of. It's a strong influence on me, though.
A lot of violent acts stem from extraordinarily petty roots - think of virtually every bar fight ever. These people should be required to sit down with one of the few remaining WWII vets and explain to them, in great detail, just what makes their social enemies Nazis.
Thanks for the reporting, Trace.
I guess my main reaction is... these are not serious people. They live in a fantasy world, have become obsessed with it, and it bleeds into real world interaction with real, violent consequences.
And the fantasy I’m talking about is not really the furry identities, but this obsession with and overinflation of the idea that they are all main characters in a serious political struggle of epic import. They are fighting real, actual Nazis. They are planning La Transgenres Resistance against jackbooted government transphobes. Every narcissistic, paranoid, neurotic act up to and including physical violence is justified by the critical importance of their titanic struggle, and every personal conflict is twisted until the players are either heroes or villains within The Discourse.
It’s a weird blend of narcissism and a defense mechanism against a lack of more serious purpose - if I’m just a hard to deal with person who sucks at relationships, I’m pathetic, but if I can be an Oppressed Freedom Fighter whose personal struggles are a front in the great culture battle, and whose shitty boyfriends are not just jerks but The Enemy, well then I Matter.
It’s probably not a coincidence that people who create and sometimes live in (at least online) “fursonas” are more prone to this sort of unseriousness, but I certainly don’t think it’s causal. There are plenty of non furries with exactly the same pathology, so I think that makes this story very much worth pursuing.
What you described sounds a lot like Jan 6. Everyone seemed to think they were on a grand quest and as the main character among thousands of other main characters, they thought they were all the good guys trying to right a monumental wrong.
Probably true at a minimum for the ProudBoy types and assorted other true believers. Although, at least a presidential election really is an event of great import and not, like, whether some rando’s ex is a crypto-Nazi.
This seems entirely unsupported by any actual evidence about the nature of these people's involvement with furry-dom. I have no doubt, because You're Never Weird On The Internet, that there are a handful of truly unbalanced people involved, but the vast majority of participants in even the oddest of Internet Things are normal people with normal lives who spend a couple hours a week thinking about it.
(Also, furries aren't transgender, and whatever weird obsession you have with trans people should really be left out of this discussion, for everyone's sake.)
I literally said “the fantasy I’m talking about is not the furry identities” and “there are plenty of non-furries with exactly the same pathology”, in other words I think the furry part of this is spectacle but ultimately this is a problem of the Too Online rather than furries per se.
Furries are not necessarily trans, but of the main characters in this tale there are at least two transwomen and a nonbinary furry (Serah, EDIT: Silverbeak, and Pawfoot), “deadnaming” was listed a one of the crimes being punished, and Skaard makes a point of noting “trans rights are human rights” among the standard progressive positions he presumably planned to defend with his anti-authoritarian Proud Boy and alt-right furry forum lurking. That’s plenty of fodder for a single line on my part without any “obsession with trans people”. It’s literally part of the story already!
This is low effort. Do 👏 better 👏
I actually found that once the author revealed that several of the main combatants were trans this story made a whole lot more sense.
I really appreciate this, Trace. Yeah, it's really niche; but the Nazi-punching mania took over my social circles pre-pandemic for a while, and while it turned out to be yet another stupid "progressive" fad, it really messed with my understanding of some of the people I know. I'm not a furry, but this was all over the place, and still is in some non-furry Internet subcultures and among some people.
It's not exclusively men who fantasize about this kind of violence - plenty of my friends who longed to deck a brownshirt in a quiet residential neighborhood in Seattle were women, taking self-defense classes in the desperate hope someone evil would appear and let them be the superhero who defended "the community." But I was most... disturbed, honestly, by the obsessive violent rhetoric among men I knew. These were nerds across the board, guys whose inability to fit in with everyday casual machismo culture had been socially defining for a lot of them in the past. And now they had an outlet - a language of constant threats of violence, a group to share their fantasies of being the big tough man with. A few of them turned Internet-cop, constantly scouring their hobbyist Facebook groups and Discord servers for Nazis, code at that point for "Trump voter," to harass.
These were not "internet autists." These were people with normal jobs, mainstream geeky hobbies, spouses and close families, and lots of IRL friends. They've all abandoned this now, thank God, but I sometimes wonder - and never ask - how much of that time they remember and what they think of how they behaved then. None of them ever punched, or got within punching distance of, a perceived Nazi, it goes without saying; probably some of them only participated secretly knowing that they would never have to make good on any threat. Are they embarrassed? I don't know. But I'm still afraid they'd have Silverbeak and Dogpatch and co.'s justifications ready to go. And I still wonder, if any of them had ended up in a similar situation as the beach barbecue, whether they would have behaved like the assailant did. Probably not... but I can't forget that they actively aspired to that.
Men are generally pretty violent and society does a real good job reining it in. Excuses like (punch a nazi) this are bad because they appeal to men’s worst instincts.
In the unrelated case of the Will Smith slap at the Academy Awards. Not exactly the same thing, but it still shocked me how many people supported violence because of a joke at an awards show where those kind of jokes are a tradition. I believe more women than men thought the slap was justified because of how mean Chris Rock's joke was. Certainly some progressive voices were raised in support of the slap. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11833995/Woke-writer-insists-Chris-Rock-DESERVED-slapped-Smith-Oscars.html
I went to a microbrewery a couple years ago for a work happy hour and the bartender was wearing a "punch a Nazi" t-shirt.
Like, I'm just here to drink beer and suck up to management.
I swear to the IPU, I will never patronize a business where an employee or owner wears a shirt calling for political violence!
I HOPE that I would tell the person why I was declining to offer them my patronage, and then would leave immediately.
Interesting. There's a lot of talk in the comments suggesting this is about Furries, but I think I've seen similar (though obviously much less dramatic) situations in other communities. If I was trying to define it, I'd say it's the difference between personal and political justification/reasoning.
There's been a lot of talk for a long time about the personal being political and one related phenomenon is that 'I don't like you, please stay away from me' feels a lot less acceptable than 'you are problematic/evil, go to hell!'
Not liking someone is a matter of taste and invites discussion/debate and is, in the end, as much about you as about them (and opens you up to all sorts of armchair psychologizing, do you not like them because they're racist, or because you're racist, because they're anti-fa, or you're anti-fa?) but 'you're a commie/nazi' really doesn't, so it's a safe way to avoid that.
I used to be in a Discord server where one of my first disagreements with the hivemind was over this issue. I pointed out that I didn't trust randos to be the ones to play judge jury and executioner, to which I was told they haven't killed anybody (yet). I probably should have taken that as a sign to get out sooner rather than later.
This was as far away from a furry beach fight as one can get, but some of the Discourse (TM) in the wake of the Will Smith Oscar Slap made me feel like I was taking crazy pills. To me, it was obvious that physically striking someone was wrong, regardless of how offensive they were being. But there were people actually arguing that it was justified because Chris Rock mocked a "disabled Black woman" (alopecia being the disability). This was the same contingent that call words "violence" and call out "harm" in all kinds of situations. But when it came to actual violence, apparently that didn't count. I went full Constanza "you know, we're living in a society" that week.
Disability, OMFG
I saw someone claiming that Jada had a "deadly disease" and Chris Rock deserved any violence inflicted upon him. Argh.
That discourse felt weird to me. I guess its the way of things, but online discussion seemed to be a fight between people who thought Chris Rock deserved to get slapped and people who thought the slap was the worst thing ever and a sign of societal decay. And I just thought that slapping people is obviously bad, you shouldn't do it. But also that someone slapping you because you insulted their wife is... not THAT big a deal. Chris Rock wasn't hurt and mostly seemed mildly amused by the whole thing. I feel like we should be able to say that violence isn't okay but also admit that one man slapping another man for perceived insults is just not that big of a deal.
To me it was shameful and embarrassing for Will Smith, but certainly not the crime of the century. Some were overreacting and others were downplaying.
And probably the overreactors were responding to the downplayers who were responding to the overreactors and on and on until The Discourse Singularity.
Indeed
Oh yeah, wasn't there some ER doctor tweeting that it could have been really bad because Chris Rock could have fallen backwards and hit his head? Lunacy. It seems like a common thread throughout a lot of these stories is that we could all stand to have fewer opinions on other people's interpersonal conflicts.
Not slapping someone in front of millions of viewers would be a good way to avoid having too many people comment on one's business.
Wow, hard to pick a side when all dramatis personae are delusional mental cases who spend way too much time online, like adjudicating a squabble between the voices in the head of a schizophrenic.
But in reality world this sure looks like an assault.
I got lost right here:
> Despite the meetup being voluntary, masked, and outdoors, two other admins from the area, a nonbinary furry who goes by Scout Pawfoot and a trans woman who goes by Silverbeak (herself a longtime friend of Teskine), pulled the two into a chat group with other local meetup admins to press them to cancel their meetup. According to Renn, people in the group claimed they would be murdering people by hosting it, and called Renn and Skaard Nazis.
If you don't think it's safe to attend an event, then wouldn't the rathional response be to simply "not go?" Perhaps state the concern for safety on the forum if you're really concerned? And that's it!
This sounds insane.
I also have a problem with calling people Nazis -- even dispicable people -- who aren't Nazis. "Nazi" should mean a specific things. Israelis who are under constant existential threat from their neighbors don't call them Nazis. (I spend about 4 months/year in Israel and have never heard the word Nazi used to refer to anyone other than the Germans and perhaps a few modern European and American groups who directly borrow their doctrines and symbology.)
Why do people feel the need stop events that they don't want to attend? I wouldn't go to a furry meet because I'm not a furry, but I don't care if people who are furries want to get together and do whatever it is that they do.
If I feel an event is unsafe... I don't go. I may warn a friend away from something, but random (adult) strangers it's up to them. You want to swim through the Everglades in Lady Gaga's meat suit? Not my problem. During the first wave of Covid, you want to go around a hospital shaking hands and hugging people (looking at you BoJo) - fine. Just don't be all surprised Pikachu when it goes tits up. I think we could use a bit more chlorine in the gene pool.
There absolutely is a societal interest in preventing or deterring other people from doing dumb shit when it comes to trying to contain the spread of a contagious disease. "This event was safe" is a valid observation; "you shouldn't care about people holding unsafe events, just don't go" is not.
I’m not very online, but this was a moving piece. Thank you Trace for taking so much time to do the investigative work and thoughtful analysis that this article required.
Easy for something like this to be written off by most as weirdos being weirdos, but the themes and tendencies of this behavior are all too human and universal across all groups regardless of where they’re from.
I wish more people could approach conflict in general with the mindset Trace expressed in his writing, and that we could avoid dehumanizing behavior across the board for the betterment of everyone.
Regardless of who did what, the entire community seems like it has a high prevalence of neurotics.
You're a national treasure Trace
If ever an episode deserved an editorial companion, it is this one!
Great article.
I actually think someone who went largely unscathed from all of this is probably (in my mind) the most responsible for it: Serah.
They and this Skaard fellow had a contentious break up. After this happens, this Serah character goes on the warpath to impugn Skaard and spread false rumors about them.
Doing what they can to gain sympathy and ostracize their ex boyfriend, Skaard, from the group.
As far as I can tell, all roads lead to that.
So really, this whole story is a tale as old as time.
Hell hath no fury like a Furry Trans Woman scorned.
I've been worried about this trend for a while, which I've mostly seen among young people but can believe cuts across many ages. Ironically, I've come to call some of these people "fascist youth" in my mind (but not out loud) because that is what they remind me of. Either that or Maoists. The neat trick where you call anyone with whom you disagree politically a "Nazi" or "TERF" (as you pointed out) and have now removed them to a level where you can physically harm or kill them with impunity is being reproduced across a varied array of activist groups. It scares me.
The recent story about Oxfam creating a caricature of JK Rowling in a short animation reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against Jews was a chilling example.
I find the trend to dehumanise those you disagree with horrifying. If they aren't human because of their (perceived) Nazism, then we can punch them or hurt or kill them. I wish we could move towards having actual discussions about issues instead of name-calling. People can be absolute assholes, but that doesn't make them a Nazi. Even if they are an actual Nazi, civilians shouldn't be punching them - turn them into the police or the authorities and let them have a fair trail.
Dehumanising is what the Nazis did to the Jews. They saw Jewish people as less then human, so it was justified to treat them horribly and kill them.
“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.” ― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight
Well said
I've never seen more proof of terminal Internet autism. How many words is this masterpiece on "Nazifurs" and one incident at some random beach that not one soul would've cared about if not for some degenerates dressed in suits.
How hot was it? Even Mx Purrzog said "imagine the smell"
‘Despite the meetup being voluntary, masked, and outdoors, two other admins from the area, a nonbinary furry who goes by Scout Pawfoot and a trans woman who goes by Silverbeak [...] pulled the two into a chat group with other local meetup admins to press them to cancel their meetup.’
‘Their falling-out was ugly and deeply personal in both directions, with Serah (herself a trans woman) furious that Skaard “deadnamed” Silverbeak [...] Serah would go on to become the most visible source for the Nazi allegations against Renn and Skaard after the beach confrontation’
These stunning and brave folx deserve our eternal gratitude for outing those despicable Nazis.
I read a good online essay on the subject of punching Nazis which I can't now find, I feel like it was a Scott Alexander one or at least a similar style, but if it is I would have expected to find it. Ring a bell for anyone else? Was definitely from the sort of source I would expect BARpers to read.
It basically points out the obvious flaws in the smug, 'well Indiana Jones did it, how do you think WW2 was won' attitude. The Allies didn't just punch the Nazis, they shot them, and bombed their homes and cities and those of their allies, and potentially unaligned neighbours and families in the context of total war. If the idea of that doesn't appeal, then one has to accept that there is a difference.
Also, even before the takeover in 1933, there were those who opposed the Nazis with street violence, in particular the Communists, and that generally went very poorly and was used to drum up sympathy.
The closest Scott Alexander essay I can think of off the top of my head is "In Favor of Niceness, Community, and Civilization," but I don't think that's the one you're thinking of. It's a strong influence on me, though.
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/02/23/in-favor-of-niceness-community-and-civilization/
A lot of violent acts stem from extraordinarily petty roots - think of virtually every bar fight ever. These people should be required to sit down with one of the few remaining WWII vets and explain to them, in great detail, just what makes their social enemies Nazis.
Don’t do that to the poor vets. They have suffered enough.