My recent post about the alleged source code leaks affecting Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive made the rounds on Twitter and made someone very mad, so I got hate DMs.

No more Angry Whoppers for you, mister!

…Look, I only said I got hate DMs, not that I got interesting or particularly effective hate DMs! Weak troll is weak, I know.

A lot of people online claim they “hate furries”, but almost none of them quite understand how prolific our community is, let alone how important we are to the Internet. As Stormi the Folf puts it…

I guarantee you the internet would collapse in a most horrific manner if all the furries in the world got Thano's snapped.



They *run* the internet in more ways than most people realize — 🦊Stormi the Folf🐺@StuckAtHomeCon2020 (@StormiFolf) April 23, 2020 Stormi is the Potato of Knowledge and Floof

What Stormi’s alluding to is true, and that’s a tale best told by an outsider to our community.

Telecommunications as a whole, which also encompasses The Internet, is in a constant state of failure and just in time fixes and functionally all modern communication would collapse if about 50 people, most of which are furries, decided to turn their pager off for a day. https://t.co/k1UqOv5kpd — Ẑ͚͔͍̻̤̟ä̶̼̗̟͔́̿̾̓n̬͙̫̿͑͊̈̚d̡̰̭̞͖̟̖̟ͬ̚ê̺͖̂ͩ̀̉ͣrͪ̓ (@mmsword) November 28, 2019 Their follow-up tweet that elaborates on furry involvement is here.

So I’d like take the time to explain why nobody should ever underestimate the ingenuity or positivity of the furry community.

The Furry Fandom Has Saved Lives

This is just one of many anecdotes. You can find many more here.

Although the furry fandom is widely misunderstood, it’s difficult to overstate how many lives have been saved and enriched by our community.

I wanted to share this touching moment. @Reo_Grayfox was telling me his story, and said those lines while staring straight into his fursuit's eyes. Hearing personal stories like this makes you appreciate the vastly diverse reasons why the furry fandom is essential to so many. pic.twitter.com/fD09Wmv6mf — Joaquin Baldwin (@joabaldwin) January 22, 2018

Furries Provide Much-Needed Comfort to Others

In 2016, refugees from the civil war in Syria ended up in a hotel in Canada. This would have been an utterly remarkable fact if it wasn’t the same hotel and weekend as the local furry convention, Vancoufur.

This isn’t an isolated incident either. Our community is well-known for kindness and generosity in spades.

What’s there to hate?

The Furry Fandom is Collectively Pretty Bad-Ass

Art by RueMaw.

No, not like that.

The fandom is bad-ass in as many ways as the fandom is incredibly diverse.

Image source and backstory of this meme: Dogpatch Press

90s furries built the Internet pic.twitter.com/Gicxme2HkT — SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) April 30, 2019 SwiftOnSecurity knows the truth about more than just corn.

So one of my friends said furries pretty much run the US nuclear response communication networks. Just in case you're worried about Trump. — SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) November 12, 2016 Seriously.

Some of the Most Talented People You’ll Ever Meet Are Furries

eSports Champions:

Musicians:

Artists and costume makers: I could literally link to hundreds of artists here. Follow me on Twitter; I retweet a lot of cute stuff.

Pretty much everything you could aspire to be that isn’t also terrible, if you look hard enough, you’ll find furries in the leaderboards having a fun time with it all.

The only reason to hate furries is thinly-veiled homophobia, because only about 25% of furries are heterosexual.

Why So Curious?

If I’ve made you curious about our community, and now you want to learn more about us, I’ve got you.

Psychology Today: What’s the Deal with Furries?

Furry Fandom Documentary When?

Ash Coyote is releasing a documentary about our subculture soon, titled The Fandom. You can find out more about it on her YouTube channel.