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Why Do People Hate Furries?

Xege Kheiru, Writer, Furry

22 March 2022

Why Do People Hate Furries?

It’s a difficult question to answer, and I think the reason for this is because there is no set answer. Furries are antagonized time and time again in mainstream media. To explore why people hate furries so much, we must first establish what a furry is. This is briefly explained in our “How to make a fursona” article but it deserves further coverage.

What Is A Furry?

WebMD defines furries as “people who have an interest in anthropomorphic animals, or animals with human qualities”, it then goes on to explain “many furries create their own animal character, known as a fursona, which functions as their avatar within furry communities.” While this is definitely paraphrasing, there is a crucial point that can be taken from this: furries are people. They are literally someone with a hobby, just like any other person, and that hobby happens to be imagining themselves as an animal with human characteristics. The average furry isn’t parading around begging for the attention of others. More often than not, being a furry is a lot more intimate than you think and if you’re uncomfortable with someone talking about it for whatever reason, it’s pretty likely they’ll be more than happy to stop. However this is a catch 22. Furries only keep their hobby so secret because of their distaste in mainstream media, but mainstream media antagonizes people who are open about their furry interests. Hating furries is a whole hypocritical mess of do’s and don’ts so hopefully we can either help you understand why furries are hated so much, or even better, become a little bit more accepting of furry culture.

Furry Porn

There seems to be a huge misconception that all furries are these freaks who spend 18 hours a day drawing furry porn. While some furries may do this, hating furries for this is weird for two reasons.

 

1. This is a textbook case of hating a whole community of people for the behavior of a minority of people. If you’re weirded out by people who draw furry porn, cool, nobody is forcing you to speak to them, but to completely alienate the entire furry fandom because you don’t want to speak to specific people is ridiculous. In fact, there are explicitly SFW furry communities which make the publishing of any NSFW furry content a bannable offense. Furry porn is almost a subculture within the furry fandom that not all furries themselves are on board with. You can find plenty of SFW furry art on hundreds of sites, forums, discord servers, reddit threads etc, yet there still seems to be some stigma surrounding drawing furry porn.Also, since when was drawing porn a reason to hate a whole community of people? League of Legends, one of the biggest games in the world for the good part of a decade, has one of the biggest hentai galleries of any game in the world (probably closely followed by Overwatch). The site lolhentai.net, which is completely free to access by the way, has tens of thousands of images of your favorite League character in every sex position you could imagine, and this is excluding things like: exclusive patreons, pornhub, hentaihaven and an almost endless list of other sites. Better yet, visit the site rule34.xxx which is literally the rule that “if it exists, there is porn of it” and type in any beloved cartoon, game, movie, any piece of entertainment you wish and watch as hundreds of pictures of your childhood getting railed. With this in mind, why would anyone hate furries because people draw furry porn? It’s not a phenomenon exclusive to the furry fandom

 

2. Okay, let’s say you just want to hate the small subcommunity who draw the furry porn, yet again, why? Some of these people are literally freelance artists just trying to put food on their table, why are they villains all of a sudden because of it? It’s a similar stigma to the one that surrounds people who make money from Onlyfans. People seem to see sex work and similarly drawing porn, in any context, as a dishonorable or shameful way of making money.In the case of furry porn, or any hentai for that matter, most often, these people are making money from a commission based service (like our own), they don’t control what they are asked to draw, they just accept the money and draw what is asked of them. It’s no secret that people like hentai, so why put the people who draw it down?

Blatant Homophobia

If you don’t already know by now, the furry fandom is extremely pro-LGBTQ+ and most communities will have a large LGBTQ+ population (look at our list of top 5 furry discord servers if you don’t believe us). The fandom’s close affiliation with the LGBTQ+ community also draws a lot of hate towards the furry community because “it’s kinda gay”. It’s situations like this where the issue seems to stem deeper than a hatred for furries and more a deep-rooted hatred for the LGBTQ+ community.

For the people who take issue with “furries being gay”, this is:

1. A major generalization of the furry community
2. An issue with the LGBTQ+ community, not furries

However, in most cases, if someone is homophobic, there is a good chance they also hate the furry community.

Misunderstanding Roleplaying 

Before we dive into this, let’s clarify what furry roleplay typically consists of.

Furry Roleplay in a Nutshell: roleplaying refers to two or more people taking on the roles of different characters in an imaginary situation acting out the behaviors of said characters. Confused? No? Good. They’ll usually use dialogue and “act things out” in italics to create a little performance. There are different kinds of roleplay and yes some of them are a little bit more NSFW than others, but long story short roleplaying is just acting like a different person in an imaginary scenario with other people. For a more thorough explanation read this.

It is usually done for entertainment purposes only and a lot of people outside of the community don’t seem to understand this. You may see furries greet each other with a “woof” or an “awooo” and this is just another way of saying hello. The same way, you might choose a path of wizarding in your favorite RPG and carry out your wizard-like behaviors in the game, furry roleplaying is the exact same concept. Do you wish you were actually a wizard, facing the threat of death everyday at the hands of the forces of evil? No, probably not. Nor does a furry wish they were actually a wolf roaming the wilderness, foraging for food. It is purely for the entertainment of pretending to be someone or something else. This is a case of different strokes for different folks, and some folks just happen to enjoy furry roleplaying.

While we’re at it, let’s also address the elephant in the room: NSFW furry roleplay. NSFW roleplay usually involves two or more furries, having sex or doing something sexual with one another. At the end of the day, it’s still roleplay, just a little bit more of an acquired taste. Everyone has their kinks and fetishes and we shouldn’t be shaming people for them. The average person’s search history is probably worse than some of the things that furries say to one another in these roleplays. Sure, this is less for entertainment and a bit more for “sexual satisfaction” let’s say, but it’s all in the spirit of good fun anyway.

Fursuits / Furry Conventions

Fursuiting is likely one of the first things that comes to mind when the average person thinks of furries despite it being one of the less common hobbies in the furry fandom. It seems to irk the general public, more specifically when they are worn in public. Videos like this attempt to antagonize furries by making their meetups look like a freakshow. Yeah, at times it can be funny and the circumstance of furries is pretty unusual. However, we’re completely accepting of cosplaying at events like Comic-Con, the media has not yet seemed to come around on fursuits due to some weird stigma. Just like cosplaying, furries put on fursuits for fun. It’s an opportunity to show off their fursona, some of them even home-made, and meet other furries like themselves. Check out our article on “What Happened to RainFurrest” for a more in-depth example of why furry conventions don’t always paint furries in the best light.

Yes, I’m sure that most furries have a level of self-awareness and realize that their hobby isn’t the most “normal” one in the world but that is part of the problem. People don’t seem to understand that wearing and / or making these fursuits is a hobby, just like any other. It’s already quite hard for furries to find a safe space to discuss and pursue their hobby, so what’s even worse is the pressure to have “normal” interests and hobbies by mainstream media. For some reason it’s really cool to hate furries right now in some weird, ironic way, so it’s easy for people to hate them for fursuiting. This leads nicely into the next point

 

Hating Furries Ironically

I originally found this point under a Quora post and it was too true to not include. They put it better than I could and that is that “furries are the internet’s punching bag”. The “ironic” hate for furries is what slowly leads to a genuine hatred for them. The joke ends up shifting from “haha let’s laugh at the funny animal people” to “these people are gross they want to bang animals lmao”. This is typically followed by the usual “oh but I’m just joking, you can’t take a joke?” and this is how the vicious cycle of hating furries begins. Believe it or not, people don’t like being relentlessly made fun of by the internet for their hobbies, then, when attempting to stand up for themselves, being called “snowflakes” or “pansies” because they “can’t take a joke”. Then, once the people making jokes about furries fall into the furry-hating echo chamber of the internet, it becomes a textbook case of repetition breeds truth and these jokes start slowly becoming less of a joke and more a genuine issue with furries.

Furry Factionalism?!

Okay, now this one is going to sound wild, but there is factionalism within the furry fandom. Furries aren’t just hated by people who aren’t furries, furries get hate from within the community by other furries. There are rival furry communities and sub-communities and this manifests itself into bickering, twitter wars and generally hurt feelings. From an outsider perspective it can look petty, and in all fairness, it usually is, but more importantly, it alienates the furry fandom more than it already is. It’s bad enough that the community receives copious amounts of hate from most people, ironic or not, but hatred for the community within the community itself is not too hard to find either.

This isn’t to say that the furry community is super toxic. It’s not. For the most part, the furry fandom is super welcoming, but things like stolen art, gatekeeping and varying opinions on what is and isn’t acceptable when it comes to furry porn, can lead to rivaling communities.

Furry Social Skills

Furries, for the most part, are seen as weird or even crazy to the average person. They’re outcast. So, their ability to socialize is often stunted by the fact that they find comfort in furry communities that are accepting of them. Because of this, they end up in an echo chamber of sorts, making it extremely hard for them to communicate their thoughts and feelings to non-furries in fear that they might be seen as even weirder. This leads to a bit of a furry paradox in which non-furries think that they are weird anyway because of their social awkwardness and inability to express their feelings.

Of course it is not entirely the fault of the furries as they are just people who don’t fit in, but it certainly doesn’t help what people think of the furry fandom.

 

The post Why Do People Hate Furries? appeared first on Fursonafy.

Right before the release of the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie next month, IDW Publishing have gathered together some fan-favorite comic book stories of Sonic and his pal Tails the double-bushy fox in a new compilation, Sonic & Tails: Best Buds Forever. “Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles ‘Tails’ Prower. Best friends through thick and thin, they’ve always got each other’s backs. Celebrate the terrific twosome with these three high-speed, high-flying tales full of action and adrenaline. First, Dr. Eggman is missing, but his rogue robots are still running amok, and only Sonic can stop them. But he can’t do it without Tails! Then, the best buds are trying to take a break, but something stinks. Looks like baddies can have best friends too! And finally, Tails and Sonic explore an abandoned Dr. Eggman base, but they’re not alone! Can they trust the intruder? No worries. If thirty years of friendship has proven anything, it’s that they’ll be fine as long as they’ve got each other!” Available now in trade paperback.

image c. 2022 IDW Publishing

Papabear,

I'm curious to know if there are any furry publications that have multiple stories/art shown on a regular basis. I have a story I want to include for them but my research has been frustrating.

Rif Foxworthy

* * *

Dear Rif,

Back in the 1980s, '90s, and into the 2000s, there used to be a lot more options for furry writers to submit their stories in publications. There were several APAs, followed by BBS's and online archives where furry authors regularly submitted their stories. Today, many of those (FurRag, AnthroArchives, YiffStar, VCL, the Raccoon's Bookshelf, and most APAs with the noted exception of the quarterly Rowrbrazzle) are either gone or nearly inactive. The last death blow for the ones that were still limping around in recent years was probably COVID-19 (Raccoon's Bookshelf, for example, died somewhere around 2019 or 2020).

Furry writers these days seem to post stories on FurAffinity and SoFurry. These sites, of course, don't pay for your stories, but if you just wish to share your fiction, that's the way to go.

Since furry periodicals are rather a dead end these days (although you might wish to approach the publishers at Rowrbrazzle and give them a shot), the best solution for short fiction authors is to submit your work for publication in an anthology. The number of publishers even here is shrinking lately (for example, Bad Dog Books was swallowed up by FurPlanet Productions ten years ago), but there are still some out there, including FurPlanet, Sofawolf Press, and Thurston Howl Publications.

One last option: self-publishing. This could involve just setting up a personal website and putting your stories on it, or you can create an ebook quite easily these days.

I'm not certain exactly why furry short fiction seems to be languishing a bit these days. I fear one cause might be that Fred Patten's death has extinguished a voice that was our best promoter of furry fiction. We could really use one or more furries to pick up that banner and start waving it again, not just for the sake of the authors but also for furry readers.

Good luck to you, Rif.

Papabear

Does China Know What Furry Is? + More Feat. Yuho and Leola [FABP E20] This episode officially marks our second time interviewing Chinese furs. Introducing Leola and Yuho! Yuho is a collie and has been in the fandom since 2018. And Leola is a snow leopard and has been in the fandom since 2017. We feel that China is a country that not very many of us in the West know about, so let’s take the paws of our tour guides and see the country together! Timestamps: 00:00 Section 1: Introduction 00:00 Podcast intro 01:25 Guest introduction 04:00 Section 2: Yuho and plushie making 06:00 Is there a market for plushies in the Chinese furry fandom? 07:00 Do you plan on making fursuits? 10:03 What’s the best plushie/figurine that you’ve made? 12:06 What does your family think about your plushie making? 14:37 Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 16:40 Section 3: Comparing and Contrasting Fandoms 17:02 Do Chinese people know what furry is? 19:21 How did your parents react to you being a furry? 21:15 How hard is it to tell your parents? 23:31 Do you feel like Chinese furs are separated from the rest of the fandom? 27:28 How does Chinese culture affect how you behave or act as a furry? 30:44 Is the Chinese furry fandom more influenced by the West or Japan? 34:00 What are Chinese furry conventions like? 36:23 What conventions do you want to go outside of China? 39:24 Social media shoutout 41:14 Podcast outro Social Media: Official FABP Twitter: https://twitter.com/foxandburger Matcha Fox: https://twitter.com/foxnakh https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK9x... Burger: https://twitter.com/L1ghtningRunner http://www.youtube.com/c/LightningRunner Yuho: https://twitter.com/YuhoAsh Telegram @YuhoAsh Leola: https://twitter.com/Leola_rua Footage Credit: https://founterior.com/japanese-minim... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Furry-Fox-Ma... https://twitter.com/cj86Hua https://twitter.com/mochiri_work https://twitter.com/YuhoAsh https://twitter.com/dradrara https://www.deviantart.com/illumnious... https://www.thetraveltrunk.net/new-ch... https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworl... https://twitter.com/furrychina/media https://www.businessinsider.co.za/sam... https://skittlemonkeys.weebly.com/ani... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qkeT... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZsQK... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qkeT... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pQZG... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqBvY... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o0fk... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGRqu... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k-In... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVCXd... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecVGK... Other pictures and video provided by Yuho, Leola, Pixabay, and hosts' personal footage. Intro/Outro Music: Aioli by Andrew Langdon. ---- The Fox and Burger Podcast is one segment of our production house, Fox and Burger Productions. The podcast’s goal is twofold: 1, to know more about the Asian furry fandom; and 2, compare and contrast the Asian fandom with the Western one. If you have a guest that you would like to interview, please PM us! We will also take questions for our guests, so don’t miss this opportunity to know some amazing furs.

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

Moobarkfluff!  Bearly and Taebyn are at it again. What maddness will ensue this week. We learn all about ants. Gay movies are discussed. We visit with Portland Fur Cheetaro and talk about his volunteer work at the Oregon Zoo, his coming out as furry, and his life as a cheetah.  Bearly reads the Ferdinand the Bull story, and we play some trivia. Join us once again and be our fluffy friends. Moobarkfluff!

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You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting S2E47 - Special Guest Cheetaro, Ants, Storytime, Awards, Furries in the News

Animation World Network let us know: Dreamworks Animation have announced a new upcoming CGI animated TV series, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. And wouldn’t you know it, this new series features the return of none other than Jack Black as the voice of Po the panda. He’s been chatting about it on his socials. Here’s what Dreamworks says: “In the new series, when a mysterious pair of weasels set their sights on a collection of four powerful weapons, Po must leave his home to embark on a globe-trotting quest for redemption and justice that finds him partnered up with a no-nonsense English knight named Wandering Blade. Together, these two mismatched warriors set out on an epic adventure to find the magical weapons first and save the world from destruction — and they may even learn a thing or two from each other along the way.” No word yet from Dreamworks on a release date, but stay tooned.

image cl 2022 Dreamworks Animation

Stray Dogs was a hit comic in 2021. Its creators — writer Tony Fleecs and artist Trish Forstner — describe it as “Lady & The Tramp meets Silence of the Lambs“. Toward the end of the year they released a special two-issue miniseries spinoff called Stray Dogs — Dog Days. “A series of vicious short stories howling straight out of the pages of Stray Dogs, 2021’s surprise cartoon/horror smash hit! In Dog Days, each stray will get their moment to shine — questions will be answered, mysteries will be solved, and old wounds will be torn open.” It’s still available at your local comic book dealer, from Image.

image c. 2022 Image Comics

总统的“送行”：新加坡总统府警卫关闭道路让水獭通过

中文：大熊座奖发布2021提名者——兽视国际1台总编：他们应得更多关注

中文：“支持NFT”的DJ将来到FWA?

Planning to go to Texas Furry Fiesta, or TFF? Go for it – they are holding in-person this year! But there are some things to take note of. To enter the furcon, you need to show documents proving you are vaccinated, or tested negative for COVID-19. But on Mar 8, TFF clarified your COVID test […]

Furry fandom’s Ursa Major awards honor the best, most loved anthropomorphic creations of the past year (2021.) Vote now to help the community choose their favorite movies, art, books, news magazines, and more. You can vote until March 31.

Voting for the 2021 Ursa Major Awards is now open! Go to https://t.co/W6cIErOJfu to log in with your key from the 2021 nominations or request a key if you don't have one yet. pic.twitter.com/GFW690yxKv

— Ursa Major Awards (@UrsaMajorAwards) March 1, 2022

The nominations in 14 categories have links to the content here, and you can also find it linked on their Twitter feed.

If you like seeing this collected and open for community feedback, share it on your personal feeds and tell your friends to vote!

This year’s nominees are…

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• Luca (Directed by Enrico Casarosa)
• My Little Pony: A New Generation (Directed by Robert Cullen and Jose Ucha)
• Raya and the Last Dragon (Directed by Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada, Paul Briggs and John Ripa)
• Sing 2 (Directed by Garth Jennings)
• Wish Dragon (Directed by Chris Appelhans)

Best Dramatic Short Work
One-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• Fossils (Directed by Piti Yindee)
• Fuelled (Directed by Michelle Hao and Fawn Chan)
• Katrina the Fuzzy Princess (Directed by Charles Brubaker)
• Nobody Does It Better, a musical interlude by Princess Katre from the comic strip Carry On (Video production by Frank Berhring, artwork and concept by K. Garrison)
• The Mandrake (Directed by Quincy Baltes)

Best Dramatic Series
TV or YouTube series videos.

• Beastars, Season 2 (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi)
• Centaurworld (Created by Megan Nicole Dong)
• Chikn Nuggit (by Chikn Nuggit)
• Helluva Boss (Created by Vivienne Medrano) Mature Audiences.
• Odd Taxi (Directed by Mugi Kinoshita)

Best Novel
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

• Interesting Times, by George Cole and N.C. Shapero. (Jarlidium Press)
• Starwhal in Flight (The Entangled Universe, Book 3), by Mary E. Lowd. (Aethon Books)
• The Bee’s Waltz: A Labyrinth of Souls Novel, by Mary E. Lowd. (Shadow Spinners Press)
• The Captain’s Oath, by Rick Griffin. (Self-published)
• The Entropy Fountain (The Entangled Universe, Book 2), by Mary E. Lowd. (Aethon Books)

Best Short Fiction
Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short written works.

• “Crystal Fusion”, by Mary E. Lowd (in The Voice of Dog)
• “Dance of Wood and Grace”, by Marie Croke (in Zooscape)
• “The Arsenal of Obsolescence”, by Mary E. Lowd (in The Voice of Dog)
• “Too Cuddly”, by Mary E. Lowd (in Daily Science Fiction)
• “Where Have All The Mousies Gone”, by Mary E. Lowd (in Daily Science Fiction)

Best Other Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.

• Awoo!: Volume 1, by A.C. Stuart. (Fenris Publishing, comic strip collection)
• Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory, by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer, illustrated by Benjamin Dewey, lettering by Nate Piekos. (Dark Horse, trade paperback collection)
• Difursity Vol. 2, edited by Weasel. (Thurston Howl Publications, short story/article collection)
• Sam Digger: Beaver Detective, by Ian Madison Keller. (Rainbow Dog Press, anthology)
• Shark Week: An Ocean Anthology, edited by Ian Madison Keller. (Rainbow Dog Press, anthology)

Best Non-Fiction Work
Includes documentaries, opinion pieces, and news articles.

• Furry Fiction Is Everywhere: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Anthropomorphic Characters, by Ian Madison Keller & Mary E. Lowd. (Rainbow Dog Books, writing guide)
• How Furries Are Making Virtual Reality Worth Visiting, by Matt Baume. (Input, article)
• The otter who became an accidental VTuber star, by Patricia Hernandez. (Polygon, article)
• The Zoo Files, by Toad McKinley. (Youtube, video)
• This furry scientist won’t let Twitter’s COVID pessimists kill her vibe, by Chris Stokel-Walker. (Input, article)

Best Graphic Story
Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.

• 24/7, by Hladilnik. (Twitter)
• Blades of Furry, by Deya Muniz and Emily Erdos. (Webtoons)
• Found Retake, by Toddlergirl. (Fur Affinity)
• Isla Aukate, by Foxena. (Overlordcomic)
• Shine, by Babystar. (Fur Affinity) Adult material.

Best Comic Strip
Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.

• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg. (Internet)
• Foxes in Love, by @foxes_in_love. (Twitter)
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley. (Internet)
• Friends You Are Stuck With, by Gabe Bold. (Internet)
• The Whiteboard, by Doc N. (Internet)

Best Magazine
Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

• #ohmurr!, edited by Izzy Torres, aka Weasel. (Internet) Mature Audiences.
• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat. (Internet)
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon. (Internet)
• InFurNation,, edited by Rod O’Riley. (Internet)
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (Internet)

Best Published Illustration
Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.

• Caraid, “Beginnings”. (Furaffinity)
• Caraid, “Ruxa, Patient Professor”. (Magic the Gathering – Strixhaven: School of Mages Commander set, Artstation)
• Kathy Garrison Kellogg, “A World Of Our Own”. (Crosstime Cafe)
• Lofi, “Oh, Well”. (Furaffinity)
• Nomax, “Brothers”. (Twitter)

Best Game
Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

• Death’s Door. (Developer: Acid Nerve. Publisher: Devolver Digital)
• Deltarune: Chapter 2. (Developer & Publisher: Toby Fox)
• Doodle Champion Island Games. (Developer & Publisher: Google)
• F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch. (Developer: TiGames. Publisher: Bilibili)
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. (Developer & Publisher: Insomniac Games)

Best Website
Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

• e621, Furry art. (Contains 18+ content)
• Fur Affinity, Furry art and stories. (Contains 18+ content)
• Fuzznet Music, World’s biggest furry-centered professional music distribution collective.
• Wikifur, Furry wiki.
• Zootopia News Network, All things Zootopia.

Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)

• Armored Lizardman – maker: Treasure Court; owner, wearer: xinghejieZLS.
• Bash the Piñata – maker: Kemonokapi; owner, wearer: @TransformARTive / @BashThePinata.
• Fifel – makers: feathersOkapi and ZettaNova; owner, wearer: GlacierClear.
• Rocket Raccoon (Endgame Version) – maker, owner, wearer: Akela Taka.

Volunteers run the Ursa Major Awards. Please support them so they can make this possible.

Since 2001, these awards have been run with long hours of unpaid work. The volunteers would appreciate any support you can give to defray costs for a website, making and mailing awards, and more.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

It’s wonderful how straightforward manga titles can be. Witness: I Am A Cat Barista, written and illustrated by Hiro Maijima. “For some people, the daily grind of city life is exhausting. Yet somewhere between the busy streets there’s a mysterious cat café that can only be found by weary souls. What’s on the menu? A delicious drink, specially brewed for each customer…by a cat barista!” Sign us up! Two volumes (for now) are available from Penguin Random House.

image c. 2022 Penguin Random House

Warning: Contains many impressions and accents by Hedgie throughout... Did we wait until Pi(e) Day to upload this? Might have done, but it is a Monday, so it totally counts. Another highlight from the 1000th Episode of TigerTails Radio, and this time it's the game of Russian Roulette. Not played since Season 2, this game requires 2 contestants and 1 stooge. Each contestant picks a "chamber" from the "gun" (in this case foam pies numbered 1 to 6) and then throws the pie into the stooge's face. If their chamber is blank, they survive. If it goes bang, then a punishment of all the remaining pies awaits them. Echo and RapidoFroggy face off, as TK takes the role of stooge (for once). 6 pies to be thrown, but who will get them? Watch and find out. Thumbnail/Title Card artwork by Zodd: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/zodd95/ Chapters: 00:00 - Intro and History. 08:28 - Meet the Contestants. 10:39 - The Game Begins. 13:00 - Pie 1. 16:08 - Pie 2. 20:29 - Pie 3. 22:58 - Pie 4. 26:30 - Pie 5. 32:48 - Pie 6 and Ending.

Hey all, welcome to my next broadcast highlighting recent events from furry conventions across the world. RAMCon https://www.therealramcon.org/ Furnal Equinox https://furnalequinox.com/ Furry Fiesta https://2022.furryfiesta.org/ FursonaCon https://fursonacon.com/ Megaplex https://twitter.com/MegaplexCon/status/1502064268698689538?s=20&t=DkGHp6UFpmv-3WdANT_6sA Anthro New England https://twitter.com/Anthro_NE/status/1499821558667399172?s=20&t=DkGHp6UFpmv-3WdANT_6sA FurTheMore https://twitter.com/FurtheMore/status/1501320445248909321?s=20&t=DkGHp6UFpmv-3WdANT_6sA Gateway Furmeet https://twitter.com/GatewayFurMeet/status/1503134886886002688?s=20&t=DkGHp6UFpmv-3WdANT_6sA IndyFurCon https://twitter.com/IndyFurCon/status/1502773952686575619?s=20&t=DkGHp6UFpmv-3WdANT_6sA Blue Ridge Furfare https://twitter.com/CarolinaFurfare/status/1503167754823774210?s=20&t=DkGHp6UFpmv-3WdANT_6sA If you like the work I do please like/follow/share to support the channel I'm on multiple platforms https://twitter.com/GrovelHusky https://www.twitch.tv/grovelhusky https://t.me/grovelreports Subscribe to show support https://www.youtube.com/c/GrovelHusky/?sub_confirmation=1 Grovel Reports Studio made by Kydek https://twitter.com/FluffyKydek Banners used in the channel were made by Slushi https://twitter.com/Slushi3Brushi3?s=09 Music created for Grovel Husky by Whooshagg https://whooshagg.com/ Grovel Reports - The Convention Numbers #furryfandom #furryconvention #furry

This week is a lot of old dogs barking at clouds. Fakemon, games, anger issues, story narratives, and oh jeez Furry Fiesta is next week. Aaaaaaaa~

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Episode 514 - Shartle

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This episode is intended for mature audiences as adult subject matter and language is used throughout. Listener Discretion is strongly advised, and probably shouldn't be listened to by anyone!

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Moobarkfluff everyone, this bonus podcast features Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Ticktock, Misha B. Barkin', and Bearly's close friend (normy) Brenden.  We take shots and discuss random items.  Join us for just about two hours of very strange things.  Be advised there is adult topics and adult foul language!  But we have a great time!

Taebyn did NOT participate in this recording other than to pre-record some comments and instructions.  

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We haven’t discussed it much, but since its creation in 2019 the “2.5D” animated series Odo has racked up more than one nomination for the Annie Awards. Here’s what Animation World Network said about it recently: “Odo, in which a diminutive, but determined, young owl demonstrates that there’s nothing you can’t do if you set your mind to it. Intended for kids aged three to five, Odo is a Polish-Northern Irish co-production that was designed and animated in the Letko studio in Warsaw. The series, which had its US premiere in December 2021 on HBO Max’s Cartoonito, has already won the hearts of young viewers in 151 countries… In the leafy playground of Forest Camp for Young Birds – whose diverse population of feathered creatures includes silly chickens, cheeky toucans, harmonious canaries, and a vain peacock, all under the loving and watchful supervision of Camp Leader, a supremely capable and good-natured eagle – Odo, with the help of his best friend Doodle (a thoughtful little bird of unknown species) positively tackles every challenge, no matter how big.”

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Listener Discretion Advised. This weeks podcast touches on adult situations and discussions. 

Moobarkfluff!  Taebyn is out this week so Pup Kains sits in the co-host chair. We discuss the Star Trek Universe, We talk about normal things and then get into an adult discussion about the Puppy community and Pup play. This discussion is intended for a mature audience so be advised.  Of course we pepper the pod with jokes. So join us for an hour of fun and excitement! Moobarkfluff!

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Bearly Furcasting S2E46 - Guest cohost Pup Kains, Star Trek Talk, Puppy Play, Jokes and Fun

NEW AND IMPROVED guest post with update at bottom!

Here’s a community access guest post with anonymity to protect sources. New readers will benefit from background in the Altfurry tag, which documents a loose fringe of pests who include terrorists like Portland mass shooter Benjamin Smith. The guest author says: “they’re a nasty bunch… this is a great way to get all this info out. There’s so much information most furries don’t know or have context for. I appreciate that you’re willing to go up against these people.” It’s hosted with opinions belonging to the guest. – Editor 

(PART 1 / 2) – Notable names and their ties and tells.

This report is meant to shed light on a particular strain of furry fascist that is far more ideological and militant than Altfurry ever was, with most people involved orbiting Reagan Lodge, a die-hard fascist and furry artist who has been in the fandom for 2 decades but was not exposed until 2020. The common pattern between all of them is an obsession for drawing furries and military imagery, often themed around historical conflicts and authoritarian regimes. (Their obscure ideologies/dogwhistles get a look in the second half.)

Reagan Lodge AKA Sulacoyote

The Kevin Bacon of the twitter far-right. Reagan Lodge, aka Sulacoyote, has been in the furry fandom for years, drawing art of furries in Nazi uniforms or the armor from Jin-Roh (an anime beloved by online Nazis). He somehow got quite the following despite drawing like this; (red labeled by editor.)

These were titled “Aryan Vixen” and “Jewlacoyote“. (Are we really surprised a guy who drew this was a Nazi?)

However, for most of his time in furry and the indie comics scenes, Lodge kept up a veneer of at the most being just a rightwinger, until he was exposed as having been a die-hard race-war Nazi the whole time. He had been a user on Ironmarch (the founding site of Atomwaffen, National Action, and other violent Nazi terrorist groups), who idolized mass murderer Anders Brevik no less. The full information is detailed in his entry on the Iron March Dossiers blog here – it should be worth noting that Lodge was introduced to Ironmarch by another Nazi furry, Kacen, who is covered later;

• Meet Reagan Lodge: Former Marine, Fascist Illustrator, and Member of Neo-Nazi Iron March Forums. February 1, 2020 (archive)

In response to this, Lodge publicly apologized and claimed to be a reformed man, thanking his conversion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity for “saving” him…

… But really he had just adopted a new uniform, moving to a slightly different group of far-right reactionaries, most of which is organized around the far right/reactionary podcast The Perfume Nationalist. Lodge was a guest on the show – to talk about Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH, no less. Jack Mason, the host of Perfume Nationalist, was also a guest on another reactionary podcast along with disgraced musician Ariel Pink (who’d been present at the January 6th insurrection). There’s connections here between Lodge and Perfume Nationalist with Red Scare and a league of other reactionary/”post left” types, as well as the assorted other twitter-dwelling far-rightists such as LogoDaedulus, Pyeerk, Lofirepublican and Zero HP Lovecraft. Reagan Lodge is also a friend of far right artist Doug Tennapel (creator of Earthworm Jim) who has been vocal about his hatred of the LGBT community among other things.

• The Perfume Nationalist: Xinagears Genesis Edengelion Episode LXXVI w/ Reagan Lodge. Jul 21, 2020 (archive)

I should note also that Orthodox Christianity has a long history of being associated with anti-semitism and reactionary politics, which is touched on below in the section about Orthodox Converts. The book The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Holocaust by Ion Popa is an important read on the matter if anyone is interested. A lot of Eastern Orthodox followers will claim that they don’t stand for fascism and that “the nazis targeted us” but this is a blatant lie – rather it seems more that in Romania the sympathies were more with local reactionary movements, such as the vicious Iron Guard which is covered in detail below – but also this article notices the increasing surge of far-rightists becoming Orthodox Christians:

• Slate: “A Unique Death Cult” How the Romanian Iron Guard blended nationalistic violence with Christian martyrdom to spread a singularly morbid fascist movement. Feb 21, 2017

Orthodox Iron Guard fascists were so brutal that the Nazis balked at the way they operated – of course the nazis were doing the same or worse, but with a veneer of order and civility. During the pogrom of 1941 the Iron Guard slaughtered and tortured jews with wild abandon and hung their bodies from meat hooks.

• Haaretz: This Day in Jewish History | 1941: A Sadistic 3-day Pogrom Starts in Romania. Jan 21, 2016

Regarding the connection between Lodge, Eastern Orthodox, and Iron March – the members of Iron March openly idolized the fascist Iron Guard. Matthew Heimbach of the “Traditionalist Worker Party” was an Iron March member and official fascist leader involved there with notable terrorists while organizing Unite The Right, the 2017 torchlit fascist rally in Charlottesville. Heimbach is Eastern Orthodox. He was in the American church until he was excommunicated after beating a protester at a hate rally with an Orthodox wooden cross, but he found a new Romanian group. From here, you can see why “converting” to Eastern Orthodox was an appealing move for ex-Iron March members after they got busted.

• Balkan Insight: Charlottesville Nationalist Leader Inspired by Romanian Fascism Aug 15, 2017

Reagan Lodge’s “reform” now looks like nothing more than slight rebranding when you do a quick scroll through his subsequent twitter likes. It reveals an assortment of reactionary material – including anti-vaxx sentiments, support of the fascist Trucker Convoy in Ottowa, shilling for cryptocurrency and NFTs, anti-communist sentiment, and likes of other tweets by far right and reactionary accounts – Amanda Millius, Filthy Armenian, Perfume Nationalist, Jack Posobeic.

If you look at the types of people interacting with Lodge as well (who he actively replies to and follows) you will also find lots of reactionary sentiments.

Pyotr Wrangel was an anti-bolshevik imperialist Russian general. This publishing company, Mystery Grove, publishes out-of-print, far-right military works including another by an anti-communist pro-Franco soldier from Spain, and the company account was banned from Twitter.

Lodge’s Facebook is no exception – plenty of far-right sympathies being laid bare for all to see, such as him being proud of the infamous Jordan Peterson sharing his artwork.

The more you dig, the more you’ll find. Lodge doesn’t make his connections deeply obvious from his tweets alone, but if you pay attention to who he interacts with, what he likes, his interests etc, there’s a lot of dogwhistles the average person may overlook. He doesn’t say “the quiet part out loud” so to speak, something he has been doing for a decade – but is very friendly with those who are more brazen about saying it.

Fascism isn’t just swastikas and MAGA hats, a lot of nationalist and reactionary thought is operating under different symbols and flags; for one, Lodge would draw art on his FurAffinity and Tumblr of such obscure fascist and nationalist figures as:

• Ernst Junger (A more ‘obscure’ German fascist, one of the many far-right conservatives who were part of the forces that snowballed into Nazism)
• Yukio Mishima (the infamous reactionary Japanese writer, who has became increasingly more beloved in fascist circles online)
• Baron Ungern von Sternberg (Russian anti-communist, antisemitic leader in the Russian Civil War, a religious warlord who was famed for his brutality)
• Marcus Garvey (anti-socialist black nationalist who collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan no less – he is idolized by fascists for his ‘Africa for the Africans’ idea to take all African-Americans away to another country, more or less turning the USA fully white)
• And even art of the ‘Remove Kebab’ soldier celebrating the Bosnian genocide.

Some of Lodge’s fanart, left to right: Ernst Junger, Yukio Mishima, Baron Ungern von Sternberg / (Our red label)

Jean-Luc Sabourin AKA Whaleoilfurry, WhaleOil1/WhaleOil2, Cettus4, NSFWmeezer

WhaleOil is a Canadian furry artist who draws a lot of military artwork that resembles the videogame concept artist Viktor Antonov’s work. He is friendly with/active in Reagan Lodge’s circle – noticeably, he linked up with Lodge AFTER the latter’s exposure as a Nazi. Like Lodge, Sabourin attempts to hide his fascist sympathies as more ‘neutral’ but he was a bit sloppier about it… actually, much sloppier. For one, he’s posted openly in the past about admiring the Nazis on his still abandoned Curiouscat – (with two-facedness to call broad groups “swine” while claiming to be for “the people”… which color?)

“World building” from WhaleOil

Some of this was discussed on twitter previously, here in this thread. More with samples of his work is easy to search.

There’s WhaleOil and a friend drawn in the style of Boogaloo Boys in a Hawaiian shirt. It should be noted that Hawaiian/tiki aesthetics were also seen at Charlottesville. Revival of the tiki aesthetic was popularized in the 90’s by nazi musician and “rape advocate” Boyd Rice, which connects it to far right movements in the present day.

Hawaiian shirts and tiki aesthetic is usually innocuous by itself; but when mingled with militarism and other dogwhistles, it points to far-right sympathies.

There was fallout between him and another military history furry, whose name we’ll skip to focus on the main stuff. They went on record saying that WhaleOil isn’t just interested in history or being ironic about reactionary thinking. These tweets have since been deleted.

Above is WhaleOil’s Youtube channel in his real name, showing subscriptions to Pewdiepie and a fascist parody he uploaded of a Gilette Ad about masculinity, making it feature Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists.

Sabourin’s current new obsession, with all that talk of ‘productivity’, seems to be Henry Ford – presumably because Ford was a raging anti-semite, who distributed fascist tracts such as The International Jew, and was a die-hard admirer of Hitler whose company even assisted the Nazis in WWII, as well as giving military support to Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War in the form of tanks.

Sabourin’s history in furry as a community is much shorter than Lodge’s, but his fascism obsession runs deep judging by his youtube – with even his older tumblr account, ‘thatotherwhaleoil’ (now since deleted) having art of foxes dressed as fascist blackshirts. And, well, there’s this ‘delightful’ art he did turning the Christchurch shooter into a furry. (He’s not the first fascist to do that.)

Link to callout post (Our red label)

Marko Milankhov (?) AKA Mawkvult, Askymzbuki, Eastern Crow
https://twitter.com/MAWKVLT
https://askymzbuki.tumblr.com/

This Sabourin/Lodge orbiter was exposed in the Iron March leaks under the name “Eastern Crow”. He’s an Eastern Orthodox convert living in Serbia, has went through several usernames and previous accounts (previous ones including ‘SinningCrow’ which are now deleted), and is very, very eager to publicly harass and threaten to dox people – his technique of ‘doxxing’ people is to send them money on Paypal under fake names. It should be worth noting that the anti-fascists who run the Ironmarch leaks/dossiers blog, know his real name which admittedly could be possibly misremembered here.

What distinguished Marko a bit from Sabourin and Lodge is that he never stops posting – this guy’s account is a stream of right-wing messaging – Marko seems to be a bit of a rising star in the ‘military history’ furry art scene, judging by all the commissions he has done that resemble Lodge’s artstyle. His constant account hopping could be evasion of being monitored. You could perhaps contact the people behind the Ironmarch Dossiers blog for more confirmation.

Other orbiters of note:

This section is improved with trimming lesser details to honor the wonderful feedback of all our caring readers, and although it may not be the ideal response, to spare anyone who had changed or been misjudged. We’ll briefly mention some art and backgrounds that were seen.

Country demographics of the Lodge/Sabourin scene made an interesting, although anecdotal note; Eastern Europe was as common as Central/South America. Although the region is home to many allies, like other places, it had reactionary politics in its history:

• Ardent fascist movements such as Mexico’s Goldshirts, Chile’s National Socialist Movement, and Brazil’s Integralists,
• Fascist-aligned strongmen such as Argentina’s Juan Peron (also admired by fascists) and Brazil’s Getulio Vargas (who worked with Brazil’s Integralists)
• Rightwing military juntas such as Pinochet’s Chile, Videla’s Argentina and the military junta in Brazil, all regimes that enlisted the help of Italian fascist terrorists in the 1970s to help kill dissidents in and outside their countries – as well as having given asylum to Nazi war criminals.

Besides personal origins, there was art that mingled Italian Futurist artwork (historically connected with fascism), Soviet uniforms, and Italian ‘Arditi’ uniforms – the Arditi were the precursor to Mussolini’s Blackshirts, in the same way the WWI German ‘stormtroopers’ were precursors to the far-right Freikorps militias, whose members also joined the Nazis’s ‘stormtrooper’ Brownshirts. We noticed art of furries in the uniforms of the Hlinka Guard, the Slovakian collaborationist movement that sided with the Nazis and took part in the Holocaust (see the section at the bottom on ‘tradcaths’). Mingled or incoherent symbolism may marry fascist imagery with historic ‘workers’ imagery. The more it harmonizes with other dogwhistles, the more it can be a tell of Nazbol ideology (covered below.)

There is one notable fascist furry that seems to have no real presence publicly…

Casen aka Ironmarch’s Kacen
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/casen/
https://g6jy5jkx466lrqojcngbnksugrcfxsl562bzuikrka5rv7srgguqbjid.onion.ly/fa/kacen/

The big one – Ironmarch’s token furry admin, and the odd one out of its admins in that he has not either been publicly exposed such as Alisher Mukhitdinov (aka Alexander Slavros, now in hiding) – or Benjamin Kyle Raymond (former leader of National Action, now imprisoned).

Kacen apparently got involved in this motley crew on Deviantart in the late 2000s, and helped run the first iteration of Ironmarch for them, the ‘International Third Positionist Federation’ – that itself grew out of their Deviantart Nazi scene (that had the likes of infamous serial killer fan/artist Torture-device, who may also have been an Ironmarch admin too).

It seems that Kacen was friends with Reagan Lodge from the very start, and had invited him to Ironmarch. By chance, Kacen’s current identity, Casen (extremely subtle), was found by art of his sona on furaffinity. This was instantly recognizable – it is the exact same fursona that Kacen had during the peak of his fascist activities, which he tried to spread to Second Life no less.

Thanks in part to both Furaffinity and the preserved Onion archive of Kacen, we can confirm that one of the founders of an actual terrorist group, is still present in the furry community to this day, with other fascists in the fandom ready to pass his torch.

PART (2) – Lowdown on the obscure reactionary ideologies/dogwhistles

What separates the Lodge/Sabourin axis from Altfurry is that, due to being more ideological than Altfurry was, they also know a bit better how to claim plausible deniability. Whilst being diehard fascists, unlike Altfurry they tend to be a bit shy from openly saying racial slurs or cheering for genocide… most of the time, anyway. This means that usually, the members of the Lodge/Sabourin scene will draw on the imagery of relatively more obscure fascist movements (as seen above; Italian Fascists, Hlinka Guard, etc). Beyond this are also an array of more obscure ideologies and practices very common among the Lodge/Sabourin scene, and indeed a good chunk of the twitter-dwelling far-right (ie Perfume Nationalist orbiters). This section is lengthy, so apologies in advance.

‘National Bolsheviks’ aka Nazbols

This apparently contradictory ideology is espoused by many in particularly Whaleoil’s circle, and whilst having been deeply obscure for decades, surprisingly has been there from fascism’s beginning but was resurrected by Russian nationalists in the 90s, then by Ironmarch (which, natch, had been set up by a Russian fascist, Alexander Slavros, who had worked with these ones, and apparently had quite the love for Stalin as a leader)

This tendency started in both German nationalist circles, and the Russian nationalist emigre that had left the country after the Russian Civil War (one of these Russians, Nikolay Ustralyov, having been idolized on Ironmarch) but its greatest claim to fame before the 90s was that it was more or less the ideology of Ernst Rohm and the Strasser brothers, who were purged out of the Nazi Party in the Night of the Long Knives (Otto Strasser, the surviving Strasser, would attempt to restart his Nazi Party offshoot, ‘the Black Front’, after the war). ‘National Bolshevism’ did not get any real traction again until the 90s in Russia when the National Bolshevik Party was set up, and currently exists in the USA in the form of Ironmarch user and Orthodox convert (see below about the Orthodox convert/fascism connection) Mathew Heimbach’s Traditionalist Worker Party – the flags are really subtle about what sort of ideologies this is intending to marry.

Otto Strasser (the surviving Strasser brother) after the war

Russian National Bolshevik demonstration

Mathew Heimbach

Whilst seeming like a ridiculous contradiction of an ideology thanks to fascism’s historically fierce ‘anti-Bolshevism’, it actually makes a certain kind of sense – to the sort of brain poisoned nerds that would be trying to spread fascism in the furry fandom of all places anyway. ‘Nazbols’ idolize in particular the Soviet Union, especially under the Stalinist era, as well as similarly militarized communist states such as China at the height of Maoism, or North Korea. (There are even those who endorse Pol Pot – these tend to overlap more with the Unabomber fans, see below).

The appeal these regimes have to military obsessed, culturally reactionary nerds is obvious – under Stalin the USSR was fiercely militaristic, a police state, and culturally reactionary and oppressive (homosexuality being classed as ‘bourgeois’ and warranting imprisonment). Between that, the imagery of Red Army parades, and all the kitschy ‘socialist realism’ artwork of the era, it’s no wonder it would seem appealing to people who idolize the fascist regimes for identical reasons – especially if they despise what the current Left is, which is being all about cultural criticism, aversion to the police/military and open sexuality/gender expression.

Whaleoil was a blatant Nazbol in this scene, at one point following ‘Boulderlob’, a Nazbol ‘parody’ of infamous rightwing cartoonist Stonetoss (all it actually adds in is praising North Korea, which says a bit about the ideology’s supposedly radical qualities).

This is probably confusing to the sort of self-described ‘tankies’ online who think Stalin was ‘a smol woke bae’ but to anyone else it is blatant. Nazbols online rarely use the actual National Bolshevik flag – it’s too obvious a tell – but they tend to use other bastardizations of historic ‘workers’ imagery, such as hammers, sickles, and other traditional anarchist/communist imagery (Red Army soldiers, pastiches of ‘socialist realism’ art, the IWW logo) which sometimes makes them hard to spot. The more subtle (or so they think) Nazbols will sometimes even refer to themselves as ‘leftists’ or ‘communists’, as their ideology states that they are the ‘true’ leftists. (This is, again, possibly what they see in the Stalin-era USSR that would have people killed for any ideological infraction – particularly related to ‘bourgeois’ ‘degenerate’ sexuality). This is nothing new when some ‘post-left’ orbiting Perfume Nationalist is touting that same line. Usually the biggest tell of whether someone is a Nazbol or not is when they draw fascist soldiers alongside ‘communist’ ones or pally with outright fash. Language of ‘real workers’ whilst being scathing of LGBT or other social issues, is a big tell of both ‘Nazbols’ and ‘post-left’ reactionaries.

Matthew Heimbach with his white supremacist group and Romanian Iron Guard flag

Orthodox Christian converts 

Perhaps the most unhinged new development in the far-right scene, which considering the types that already infest it is saying something. Whilst appearing to be an entirely new development, Orthodox Christianity and fascism have a surprisingly long, and vicious connection together, that culminated in the Holocaust in several countries. The most fierce of the various Orthodox fascist movements was Romania’s Iron Guard aka the Legion of the Archangel Michael – so religious was this particular movement that its leader, Corneliu Codreanu, insisted that he had been visited by the actual angel Michael. The Iron Guard was infamous for its brutality compared to even other fascist movements, with bizarre rituals involving blood drinking, and briefly ruled Romania under the ‘National Legionary State’ before it was ousted in an inter-political spat, with the Legion committing the vicious Bucharest pogrom in response – they would even skin their victims alive and hang them from meat hooks, something that even repelled the Nazis. When the Iron Guard was ousted, its former collaborator Ion Antonescu would rule the country under a military junta, and was Hitler’s most fervent ally – and a fierce anti-semite who did not need any backing to deport Jews and other ethnic minorities to extermination camps under his reign.

Romania was not the only Orthodox Christian fascist regime – Greece was briefly ruled under the fascist junta of Ioannis Metaxas’s ‘4th of August regime’, before it was then invaded by the Nazis and replaced with a puppet regime, the Hellenic State, whose vicious ‘Security Battalions’ performed brutal executions on communist partisans and rounded up Jews to send to death camps as well. Some of these former Hellenic State collaborators (given a slap on the wrist by the West in order to help them fight communist militants after the war) would then form the US-backed ‘Regime of the Colonels’ in the 1960s, and both the Metaxas and Colonels regimes are idolized by Golden Dawn, Greece’s vicious neo-Nazi movement. All of these regimes/movements professed Orthodox Christianity, citing it as their bulwark against godless communism, and the Greek Orthodox Church firmly supported both the Metaxas and Colonels governments, as it did Golden Dawn as well.

How do a couple of backwards fascist regimes in 1930s-40s Romania and 1930s-40s/1960s Greece connect to modern American fascists? Again, the answer is Ironmarch. Codreanu, Antonescu and Golden Dawn were idolized by Ironmarch’s founders and members, with Codreanu’s blathering tracts such as ‘For My Legionaires’ being shared to its users (the site even briefly had a ‘Fascist Internet Archive’ in a bad imitation of the Marxist Internet Archive – unsurprisingly it was tiny compared to the latter, as fascist ideology is historically not ‘intellectual’ or thoughtful if it can rely on obedience and violence) – and noticeably, both Reagan Lodge and Mathew Heimbach had been users on it, and ergo converted to Orthodox Christianity soon after, as did other Ironmarch veterans such as EasternCrow.

There are more relevant connections as to why Orthodox fascism spreads easily, if not for how much Eastern European fascists of all stripes flourished on both Ironmarch (with several Russian and Serbian users), and on 4chan, whose various ‘international’ boards, the places were some of the most insufferable internet memes came from, most of them started from rabid Balkan nationalists. (See: the infamous ‘Serbia Strong/Remove Kebab’ meme, making light of the Bosnian genocide which was committed by Orthodox, Serbian nationalists.) There is also the fact of how the Pope in recent years has began giving more liberal gestures, making him less appealing to whatever Catholic fascists are about… which brings us to;

Catholic converts aka ‘Tradcaths’

History of Italian fascism and the Vatican

Again, a relatively new online development with a very long real-world history – Catholicism and reactionary movements have been hand in hand for nearly 2 centuries, so it is no wonder that modern fascists would get the hint, especially when two of the most ‘successful’ fascist regimes in history – Antonio Salazar’s Portugal, and Francisco Franco’s Spain – were indeed ‘traditional Catholic’ clerical fascist states. (Never mind also, that Fascist Italy also worked hand in hand with the Catholic church), as well as the Austrian ‘Fatherland Front’ regime of Engelbert Dolfuss (who nominally opposed Nazism only due to Germany’s nationalist ideals to take over Austria – the two regimes were more or less identical otherwise, with Austria even having its own SS style militia, the Sturm Korps). Despite Ironmarch being full of the sort of godawful nerds who would make distinctions about ‘true fascism’ or not, it had several staunch Catholic users. There were several more outright vicious Catholic movements that, of course, collaborated with the Nazis and took part in the Holocaust – a lot of these having had fanart drawn of them by Whaleoil’s scene.

The three most notable of the Catholic fascist collaborator movements were Jozef Tiso’s Hlinka Guard in Slovakia, Ante Pavelic’s Ustase in Croatia, and Leon Degrelle’s Rexists in Belgium – all three were ardent collaborators with the Nazis (Tiso and Degrelle even sent troops to fight with the Germans against the Soviets). All three took part in the Holocaust (the Ustase being the most vicious of all, perhaps the Catholic equivalent to the Iron Guard, as they would not use bullets or gas chambers, but instead burn people alive and slit victims throats with a wrist-mounted knife). And all three were fervently Catholic. This distinction may sound like pointless fluff, but I feel it’s important as several of the ‘Orthodox’ and ‘tradcath’ types try to pretend their ideologies were either not fascist, or opposed to Hitler. (This ties in with untruth spread by Christian revisionists that the Nazis were ‘anti-Christian’ – when the truth was, the Nazis actually wanted to heal the Protestant-Catholic divide in Germany with a new ‘Positive Christianity’, hence why Nazi Germany never became fully ‘clerical fascist’ like Portugal, Spain, Austria, the collaborator regimes, or even Italy).

Religious fascism of the Christian sort already has a long-standing history in the USA as is, what with the existence of Father Coughlin in the 1930s. Coughlin was perhaps the precedent to Alex Jones and the most militant fascist the USA ever had – and that’s not even getting into the USA’s huge contingent of Evangelicals either. It is only the Orthodox converts that are the new guys on the block, but them and their Catholic cousins are far more easy to spot than Nazbols – profiles with the Vatican flag or the Orthodox cross in their usernames are always a dead giveaway, especially if the profile then has scripture quotes or some sort of religious artwork for a banner (coupled with a furry or anime avatar half the time). The scene around Lodge/Sulacoyote and Sabourin/Whaleoil is infested with other Orthodox and Catholic converts who often draw art of the collaborator regimes, with even Whaleoil having drawn artwork of furries dressed as Orthodox priests. (It possibly ties in with his undying obsession for the fictional religious orders in Looking Glass Studio’s Thief games, which he has drawn tons of fanart of and even cosplayed as.)

‘Primitivists’ aka Unabomber fans

These are perhaps the most bizarre and incoherent of the lot, somewhere between Nazbols and Orthodox converts on the insanity scale. It is, again, not very surprising if you know how the more ‘esoteric’ fascists operate – obsession with themes of nature and ‘folk’ have been a mainstay of fascist bullshit since the start, from the Nazis drawing on ‘Volkische’ nonsense, to the aesthetics of bands such as Death in June and Current 93, to even infamous Nazi black metal musician Varg Vikernes now becoming a massive Tolkien nerd (Tolkien himself wrote articles supporting Franco and his Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War).

This form of bizarre ‘back to the land’ fascism’s ideological pinnacle comes in the form of two ‘primitivist’ ideologues – Ted Kaczynski aka the ‘Unabomber’, and the more obscure Pentti Linkola, a sort of Finnish equivalent to Kaczynski (minus the terrorism part) whose great idea to solve the climate crisis was more or less mass genocide and eugenics. Kaczynski in general is especially appealing to fascists – despite all the claims that his ideology was ‘hard to pin down’, he was basically a rightwinger who snapped, and his manifesto is full of pithy snipes against the gay liberation movement and feminism. These sort of ‘ecological’ fascists are rare to come by, but usually can be easily spotted by directly referencing Kaczynski or Linkola’s names, quotations from either’s manifestos, general ‘back to the land’ yap, or using that one police sketch of the Unabomber as an icon.

These types will typically tend to be aligned with other ‘folk’ minded fascists usually obsessing over Norse runes and whatever (always easy to spot) unless they happen to be Orthodox/Catholic converts, sharing memes about Death in June and other neofolk bands, or sharing images and ‘funny’ posts relating to Varg Vikernes since he became a Gandalf cosplayer. They will typically have little tree icons in their profiles, usually wedged next to the lightning bolts, Vatican flags or Orthodox crosses. Sometimes these types will have overlap with the Nazbols, the focal point being Pol Pot especially due to his slaughter of ‘intellectuals’ – and occasionally, other more incoherent ideologies not particularly loved by typical far-rightists, such as Islamism or Gaddafi’s Green Book.

You will also see references to pine trees from the ecofascist / primmie subset, some describing themselves as followers of “Deep Ecology” (in connection to Linkola). Pine tree flags were spotted at the January 6th insurrection and pine tree emojis can be found in the profiles of online reactionaries.

Thanks to the guest author for this huge report! We needed this when even the obscure references have been seen on the fringe by the editor.

NEW AND IMPROVED editor’s note:

It’s nice to host guest writers. Often, if something reads as thoughtful and linked to lots of supporting material, it goes out as the writers intend.

Of course there is the value of “less is more”. A triple length story that hits big parts good might do better with less.

When the writers don’t make people happy, people do comments like these.

(Person briefly mentioned in the story): Basically, what they’re writing on is true, and a pretty fucking annoying problem. As an artist who draws millitary stuff and happens to be in the millitary, I attract these people like flies. There’s literally too many of them to do anything about. I have examples time and time again of them commenting cringey shit on my art. Personally I try to stay as far away from the political sphere while not being a huge pushover or enabler, because I really don’t know that much. I’m essentially a bluecollar worker that happens to draw stuff that either turns me on or I think is cool. The issue here and that since I don’t always blatantly announce where I am politically (for reasons mentioned above) people like to fill in the blanks with whatever they want me to be. And I really have no idea who Lodge is. The last gripe I have is how much weight the authors seemed to put on who someone follows or has following them. To a lot of us, Twitter is literally just to post furry porn and pictures of cars, and I have a habit of following back randomly. I have way more important things in my life than screening every single one of my followers or the people I follow, nor am I responsible for the weird shit some talented artist did in their past. That’s between them and the offended party.

Dogpatch, I love you guys, but some of these people aren’t war-hungry nazi idiots!! It hurts seeing Crassus on there especially, who seems to focus on African militia and hasn’t shown a shred of nazi ideology. Hell, a lot of these people are leftists!!

— ranibow sprimkle boy (@plushievik) March 9, 2022

If I had one sentence to describe that, it would be : "it's not reasonable"
It can even be ridiculous at times
I think you write well. I don't understand why you need to bother with this. Yes there's nazi, it does exist.
But don't post it if you don't have solid proofs

— crit102-Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Enthusiast (@Marikermrua) March 9, 2022

This was a tough read, Patch, and not because of the subject. The armchair psychology, historical tangents and pointless art criticism didn't do the readability oft his piece any favours.

Coupled with some call-outs seeming to be purely conjecture… makes it a bit of a grind.

— Baikal (@Baikalicious) March 9, 2022

The salty replies to this really show how Reagan Lodge could do nazi fan art while being among literal terrorists, and still be popular for decades https://t.co/u12NnnGv95

— Nazifur Receipts (@NazifurReceipts) March 9, 2022

A – True.
B – Thanks.
C – Fair.
D – Honest.
E – Also true.

Anyways, I constantly read people saying, we should have a better news site! Why doesn’t someone make a better news site!

YEAH, I’VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR YEARS! I’ll be a big reader when you start it!

Meanwhile, things are better and better here all the time. That’s why the several writers were asked to update.

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