Many pony fans are feeling hurt, confused and upset by the news that an apparent nazi brony committed a mass shooting. There's an urge to get defensive, to state "this isn't who we are!"
But that attitude doesn't actually address the problem or do anything to solve it.
The truth is, the top sites in this community are guilty of allowing this sort of ideology to fester in our community for ages.
From EQD taking a laid-back attitude to political opinion posts, to Derpibooru reversing its decision to get rid of nazi content. This is US.
While trying to satisfy "both sides" we only allow violent extremists to infiltrate and spread fascism throughout our community.
Let me be clear: this is not the fault of your average pony fan. This issue starts at the TOP. Site admins and moderators I'm talking to YOU.
You do not bargain with the nazis in your spaces. You do not hold polls to see how they feel about being kicked out. You do not cater to the whims of white supremacists.
You kick them the fuck out. No ifs ands or buts.
When a place like Derpibooru, our most popular image site, takes a stand against nazi content and then backs down days later do you know what that says?
It says you value having nazis in your community more than you value not being seen as a nazi breeding ground.
If you're upset with THIS being the public image the world has of us, but do nothing to actually tackle the issue then you deserve the public condemnation you get.
This is the image we EARNED through inaction and compromising with "ironic" brony nazis.
Does the media sensationalize and play up angles for ratings? Of course they do.
But this is not some absurd falsification. We've known brony nazis were a thing for years now and top sites in our fandom did NOTHING. They treated it like a joke.
"Its not a big problem"
On Derpibooru, Aryanne is the third most popular original character in number of images on the site, coming in behind a mass self-insert character and the main character from one of the most popular pony fanfics of all time.
Its no surprise to me that nazis love us.
The leaders of Derpibooru fought an entire internal war over hosting Nazi imagery and content on their site.
If this is the sort of thing you fight to preserve and support in your community, how can you then be upset that the wider world associates us with nazis?
It doesn't matter if you're "trying to better moderate" your site. You compromised. You signaled to people like the Fedex shooter that this is ok to do in the pony community.
The fact that nazi imagery remains on the site AT ALL means Derpibooru is fine with that.
So I don't really care for people saying "this isn't us" or "he doesn't represent us".
At least when it comes to our leading communities that's a big fat lie. We lay out a welcome mat for these people, fight to support them, and ensure that they'll always be apart of our fandom.
PS: If you're staff at Derpibooru and this thread upsets you, then maybe actually do something about nazis and nazi content on your site.
Otherwise spare me the righteous indignation. Its meaningless.
If you're new to the pony fandom's struggle with nazis, check out this thread!
Yeah, that's part of how it works. It sorta sounds like a reasonable argument. You don't want to stereotype poor Rainbow Dash don't you? Not all tomboys are gay!
Not this one, and not this one, and oop sorry not this one either, and DEFINITELY not that one...
Once you start letting people dictate the correct way to be LGBT you're already playing a rigged game. Who the fuck cares if its "too obvious"? That in and of itself is a way of conforming...making sure you're a "good" gay that isn't "too stereotypical".
I have zero patience these days for straight people trying to dictate what the right, accepted way to be LGBT is. Fuck entirely off with that noise. Let people be a stereotype. As long as they're happy what does it matter to you?
This sort of thinking is so pervasive because taken at face-value it sounds vaguely reasonable. The ponies can't be gay because their would be too much backlash from concerned parents.
But the further you dig you realize there's no actual evidence to back that up.
The reasoning also states that "its just not normalized enough".
But...showing these characters in shows like this WOULD normalize it. it makes no sense to say "its not popular" while then ALSO saying you shouldn't attempt to change that.
Soon enough you start realizing that it almost seems like they just don't want any LGBT characters in their cartoons. All the arguments overlap and form this circular logical. And the moment you realize that it all crumbles like paper, revealing standard, plain homophobia.
I've been looking through EQD's Community Soapbox articles and I found someone in 2017 arguing that RD can't be a lesbian because that would please "close minded" people.
Is it any wonder the community turned out this way? He got top billing lmao.
Perhaps having "apolitical" straight white guys running the fandom's largest sites was not the greatest idea. Do they vet these things? Do they have any PoC or LGBT staff at all? Hell I'd do it for free.
I like to call this "TVtropes homophobia".
She can't be gay because it would either "be too obvious" or "not make sense for her character". Make some OTHER character gay, not a main character. Sorry, there's just not enough REASON for her to be gay, those are the rules.
This part of the story has been buried for some reason. It doesn't appear in the main article being shared around with updates on the shooter. I only recently had to find out through an eagle-eyed twitter user.
Seems like the hitler worship should maybe be the lead?
I'd be interested in seeing the content that was posted on those facebook pages. What is being generally described as "pony content" might have some political messages in them that a normal reporter might miss.
Like I can already see conservative bronies trying to defend themselves to the people they've tried to suck up to. "W-we're based I swear! No don't bully me I thought we were coooool!"
The truth is, nazis tolerated pony fans to take advantage of them. That bond is broken now
1. The concept of Family exists and is espoused on the left, just not in the "white aryan brotherhood" way. Family can include friends and others not related to you by blood, a far more progressive take on the concept that the show mirrors.
2. "History needs to be remembered" is again, a concept on the left that is expanded upon. Whether it be the teaching of inconvenient facts about Native history, black history, and ESPECIALLY queer history (stonewall riots) the left actually scores better on this than the right
3. "Find your strengths and work hard" is literally just a buzzword on the right, and usually means "find some way to fuck someone over without being caught".
And even taken honestly this is not a strictly conservative idea. Its so basic as to be applicable anywhere.