I received an email today from well-known Australian Second Life resident Wolfie Rankin, with some fascinating thoughts on sexuality, furries and the issue of griefing. His views in full below – the only alterations are changes to spelling and capitalisation:
“Some interesting things have come to light during a discussion with a friend who’s an Officer at a large Furry Sim.
It turns out that a lot of griefers, including those in well known griefing groups, are Furries themselves.
This will sound strange, but here’s how it works.
Furry #1 has a bad fallout with his Gay lover on Secondlife, So rather than taking it on the chin, decides to seek revenge… returns to SL as an Alt, loads up with weapons, and griefs. He may target his former lover or grief the entire sim where they hung out.
Or another scenario is that he asks someone in a griefing group to do it for him.
How do we know for certain?
Well it turned out that quite a few from that certain SL griefing group also had accounts on a well known furry art page and had used similar names to the ones on that art page.
Once this information came to light, quite a few from this well known griefing group suddenly left it.
I’m not putting Furries down, as you know, I’m one myself… However, it’s well known that some Furries are also huge “Drama Queens” who whine a lot and cause the rest of us to grind our teeth. They’d be the best candidates for this kind of thing.
Also, I’m not saying that griefing groups are entirely made up of furries, that’s not true.
It’s very clear now, that many who go griefing and target potential gay areas of SL, have personal sexual issues… For instance, a young lad who’s having feelings, but can’t cope with the idea that he might be gay, might takes it out on others who he either thinks are gay, or are openly gay.
In other words, he’s trying to assert his heterosexuality by targeting anything even loosely considered to be “gay”
Saying that it’s done for “Lulz” is simply a thin veil hiding larger problems, when you spend hours in the day griefing SL and then making a video of it for YouTube, there’s definately something not quite right.
People who are secure in their sexuality would never worry if the bloke up the road is gay or bi or whatever”.
It’s an interesting take and there’s no doubt those sexually conflicted may adopt aggressive measures to assert one viewpoint. One of the key opportunities and challenges that virtual worlds offer is exploration of social issues like sexual identity. What are your thoughts on the issue – is the viewpoint above a valid one?
You spend hours in the day standing around in SL and then writing about it in a blog, there’s definately something not quite right.
You spend hours in the day looking at cartoon animal porn and then try to shove it in everyone’s face over the internet, there’s definately something not quite right.
See where this “omg you make fun of me therefore you must be pathetic” logic goes? The same goes for you projecting your furry fetish onto those that make fun of you, there’s definately something not quite right.
Also I’m the only one commenting, lol.
You spend hours in the day standing around in SL and then writing about it in a blog, there’s definately something not quite right.
You spend hours in the day looking at cartoon animal porn and then try to shove it in everyone’s face over the internet, there’s definately something not quite right.
See where this “omg you make fun of me therefore you must be pathetic” logic goes? The same goes for you projecting your furry fetish onto those that make fun of you, there’s definately something not quite right.
Also I’m the only one commenting, lol.
You troll the internet looking for places to write your hate… that’s not quite right.
I spend hours in the day using the internet for e-mail, stumble, secondlife, youtube and many other places… I do a lot of work for people in Secondlife. plus I have a house to run… not much time for porn.
BTW: don’t you have any interest in sex? maybe you were neutered, with any luck.
Yiffing means sex… humans can yiff, and furries can have sex, don’t you get any?
Not many make fun of me, Furries are liked a heck of a lot by a lot of people, funny how you’re obviously not?
Are you jealous?
Wolfie!
You troll the internet looking for places to write your hate… that’s not quite right.
I spend hours in the day using the internet for e-mail, stumble, secondlife, youtube and many other places… I do a lot of work for people in Secondlife. plus I have a house to run… not much time for porn.
BTW: don’t you have any interest in sex? maybe you were neutered, with any luck.
Yiffing means sex… humans can yiff, and furries can have sex, don’t you get any?
Not many make fun of me, Furries are liked a heck of a lot by a lot of people, funny how you’re obviously not?
Are you jealous?
Wolfie!
Well from my standpoint most of the Griefers target sims that are clearly labled Furry. rarely have I seen human dominated sims get griefed badly.
so the shoving it in your face debate is less stable when you think of it this way.
Well from my standpoint most of the Griefers target sims that are clearly labled Furry. rarely have I seen human dominated sims get griefed badly.
so the shoving it in your face debate is less stable when you think of it this way.
Hmm.. Wolfie has a point, and a valid one.
Folks who target what they perceive as “gay” in some aspect or another on the internet and in virtual worlds tend to be the same folks who do so in real life.
The difference is, many of these blokes (and shielas,.. tho I don;t know the actual percentage) would never dream of behaving that way in real life, but, with the “anonymity” provided by the internet, happily do so online.
Now, truths (to make some truisms):
There are many “role players” in life, from furry to scaly to vampire to werewolf (and more. Oh, and, despite the “spiritual” descriptions and “my soul is ” felings tacked on, technically, they are roles).
A percentage less than 100% of these are gay (from those I know with hetero relationships and otherwise the percentage is about 20%).
There are those with fears or suppressed same sex attractions who are angered by this and will attack those they feel are “gay”.
There are those who have been conditioned by religeon or culture to hate all those with such “alernate sexuality”.
There are those with psychopathic tendencies who simply hate and wish to attack and chose “gay” as a culturally acceptable target.
Folks with limited intellects tend to lump whole swaths of folks with similar leanings or characteristics together and see any furry/scaly/other as being like all other furry/scaly/other, so one gay furry, to these cretins, means all are gay.
There is some spew that says that furry/scaly/other hate being human (gee, wonder what kind of behavior by their fellow humans would make them want to hate being human ?). This may be true for some. For others, it’s a way of stepping away from the usual and breaking free of human nebishness. To ecome something more, and be free (other humans get drunk or take drugs to achieve this. Wonder which is worse).
Hmm.. Wolfie has a point, and a valid one.
Folks who target what they perceive as “gay” in some aspect or another on the internet and in virtual worlds tend to be the same folks who do so in real life.
The difference is, many of these blokes (and shielas,.. tho I don;t know the actual percentage) would never dream of behaving that way in real life, but, with the “anonymity” provided by the internet, happily do so online.
Now, truths (to make some truisms):
There are many “role players” in life, from furry to scaly to vampire to werewolf (and more. Oh, and, despite the “spiritual” descriptions and “my soul is ” felings tacked on, technically, they are roles).
A percentage less than 100% of these are gay (from those I know with hetero relationships and otherwise the percentage is about 20%).
There are those with fears or suppressed same sex attractions who are angered by this and will attack those they feel are “gay”.
There are those who have been conditioned by religeon or culture to hate all those with such “alernate sexuality”.
There are those with psychopathic tendencies who simply hate and wish to attack and chose “gay” as a culturally acceptable target.
Folks with limited intellects tend to lump whole swaths of folks with similar leanings or characteristics together and see any furry/scaly/other as being like all other furry/scaly/other, so one gay furry, to these cretins, means all are gay.
There is some spew that says that furry/scaly/other hate being human (gee, wonder what kind of behavior by their fellow humans would make them want to hate being human ?). This may be true for some. For others, it’s a way of stepping away from the usual and breaking free of human nebishness. To ecome something more, and be free (other humans get drunk or take drugs to achieve this. Wonder which is worse).
I admit I am a griefer and I run a griefer support site, but I’m against those who do it to target people of certain sexualities or ethnicities…
I do it as I have a problem with Linden Labs
Niall, it’s not the best way to deal with probs.
SL gets my friends and I down at times, sometimes it’s about people in-world rather than “the system”.
I reckon people do listen if you have a valid point, but they can’t just jump up and fix it right now… there’s so many bugs to deal with.
Try a different strategy, you might find that someone will listen and do something about it… you’d be helping all of us that way, we’d be grateful you tried.
Writing about problems here might be a good start.
Wolfie!
Griefing may have its place the same as demonstrations and such in RL; however, some people take it to extremes. That being said, I am a furry, I’ve been all over second life (or about as much as I could in the month or so that I’ve been on) and have not encountered very many griefers. The only griefer I have ever had dealings with wasn’t even griefing anyone – we were in a weapons aloud sandbox and he politely asked me if he could test a weapon which he designed primarily to cause a severe amount of lag. I don’t see it as a problem because I’ve almost never seen or heard of griefing on a large scale. Now I am not denying that it happens, but I am not here bunching a few sporadic instances of pissed off furrs and hate mongers with true griefers.
As for those insecure people and the hate mongers, to be honest with you, how many of them are still in school? They little more than high school bullies using middle school tactics. In other words, “F* ’em, who cares?” The religious haters are, by definition, hypocrites. As a Christian, yes I have been taught that homosexuality is wrong, but you must remember that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” This means that, gay or straight, everyone is on a level playing field and the holy-roller “better than thou” preacher wannabe should take a good ling look at himself. I cain’t speek for all religions, but the Christian way of dealing with this sort of thing does not involve the hate speech and actions that are attributed to Christianity. It is one of love and tolerance, a lead by example philosophy, Jesus himself never condemned anyone. This you can plainly see in Matthew where he saved a prostitute from stoning, the accepted law of the day, after driving off the priests he looked up at her and asked “woman, where are your accusers? Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” Did he preach hellfire and brimstone? No, did he target her because she was a little loos with her sexual practices? No. anyone who professes to be a Christian should follow His example, not one of hate.
Griefing may have its place the same as demonstrations and such in RL; however, some people take it to extremes. That being said, I am a furry, I’ve been all over second life (or about as much as I could in the month or so that I’ve been on) and have not encountered very many griefers. The only griefer I have ever had dealings with wasn’t even griefing anyone – we were in a weapons aloud sandbox and he politely asked me if he could test a weapon which he designed primarily to cause a severe amount of lag. I don’t see it as a problem because I’ve almost never seen or heard of griefing on a large scale. Now I am not denying that it happens, but I am not here bunching a few sporadic instances of pissed off furrs and hate mongers with true griefers.
As for those insecure people and the hate mongers, to be honest with you, how many of them are still in school? They little more than high school bullies using middle school tactics. In other words, “F* ’em, who cares?” The religious haters are, by definition, hypocrites. As a Christian, yes I have been taught that homosexuality is wrong, but you must remember that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” This means that, gay or straight, everyone is on a level playing field and the holy-roller “better than thou” preacher wannabe should take a good ling look at himself. I cain’t speek for all religions, but the Christian way of dealing with this sort of thing does not involve the hate speech and actions that are attributed to Christianity. It is one of love and tolerance, a lead by example philosophy, Jesus himself never condemned anyone. This you can plainly see in Matthew where he saved a prostitute from stoning, the accepted law of the day, after driving off the priests he looked up at her and asked “woman, where are your accusers? Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” Did he preach hellfire and brimstone? No, did he target her because she was a little loos with her sexual practices? No. anyone who professes to be a Christian should follow His example, not one of hate.
I think for the most part you have it right, the mentality is certainly that of typical school bullies. as a protest though, it doesn’t work as quite often there’s no word from anyone who does the griefing, and the thing gets shut off quickly anyway, especially if you have your own private Vermus. 😉
I wonder if griefers are giving up? maybe they see there’s no point, there isn’t.
A forum is a better place to raise issues, if there’s a problem.
Wolfie!
What is Vermus?
What is Vermus?
He’s one of our more dedicated admins on ABC Island.
He’s a Fox, most of the time.
Wolfie!