Dogpatch Press

• Raiding: A hostile invasion or forcible entry to destroy or steal something; predatory warfare.
• Furry Raiders: a Colorado-based and online group that overlaps with “altfurry”, a fringe of furry fandom with a goal to connect racist hate groups inside and outside it.

It’s 2018, and many people have New Years resolutions to accomplish. But a few people are stubbornly against being better. That means the Furry Raiders. This week they gained attention for violent threats meant to silence criticism – (because when they say they want “free speech,” it’s only for them). Their threats followed labeling themselves as “Nazis” – (a look at their member activity in the altfurry chat logs proves it’s really true). Until now their trolling has mostly been inside fandom. But then there was the time when they targeted innocent non-furry outsiders.

We did Nazi that coming! 

On Halloween of 2017, a Colorado event space had a “Big Gay Costume Party”.  Foxler and Kody, the Furry Raiders founder and partner, went in costume with nazi armbands that replaced swastikas with paws.  With nobody else’s help, the staff recognized what the symbolism stood for. The Raiders were kicked out for bringing hate to their space.

Foxler and Kody’s excuses like “it’s just a paw” didn’t work. Anyone can see they’re making a clear reference to nazi iconography. This is good evidence that trolling isn’t just a fandom issue with “both sides” fighting and so-called “SJW’s” inside. Outsiders know these trolls are the source of the problem.

When a business kicks someone out, that’s free market power, freedom of association, and free speech opinion by staff. (A protected social class can claim discrimination, but Nazi isn’t a class.)  Reasonable people would move on and drop it.  But reasonable people doesn’t include a troll whose name means “Fox Hitler”. Again, when they say they want “free speech,” it’s only for them. 

The Furry Raiders retaliated by trolling the business with bad reviews. The review bombing was spread from their Facebook group by trolls who are active in alt-right hate activity (including their member Vetus, who supported trolling FurAffinity with hate images). The story was twisted by people who had never been there; they lied that there was no hate symbolism and pretended a “Big Gay Costume Party” rejected them for being gay.

It’s a pattern seen many times before. They provoke, then pose as victims with a twisted story. The Furry Raiders exist to gang up and tear others down. Anyone who says “no” to a Raider may be Raided.  It’s often directed by phone calls and voice chat by Foxler.  That’s to avoid making records so they can selectively deny doing it, as well as single out individual members for grooming and manipulating.

Why are they like this? The unbiased truth.

Their core members are people who simply can’t get along with others and have massive insecurity about it. Virtually all of their activity is trolling, deflecting criticism and posing as victims of the criticism they provoke. They excuse bad behavior as representing “free speech” and, inexplicably, improving the community. The diversity and tolerance rhetoric strictly covers a tiny repertoire of First World Problems and performative offenses; things they push in others’ faces, like nazi armbands.

The tolerance rhetoric has nothing to do with reaching out to people with real needs. It’s a two-faced lie because naming themselves “Raiders” announces hostility from the start. That’s easy to see for anyone with basic understanding of language and context. But context is poison to trolls who rely on bad faith, hair-splitting, equivocation, semantic games and pedantry to reinvent themselves as victims. It starts with being willfully obtuse about their bad behavior, and ends in tantrums against owning it.

That’s how accusing them of being (self-labeled) nazis triggers their spiteful backlashing. But one thing they can’t be accused of is making sense. So they spent much of 2017 trying to re-re-brand their smiley, huggy false front.  Expect more of that for 2018, but don’t expect it to ever work. The fandom has drawn a line – acceptance isn’t for those who ruin it with destructive trolling and hate.

Being a member of the Furry Raiders or Altfurry is essentially putting on a dunce cap and announcing that you’re done being worthy of respect by peers, and maybe mommy should take you home and put you in the corner. Other grown-ups who play animals set a higher bar than this.

When “Don’t Feed The Trolls” doesn’t work, what does?

It was a common saying on the 90’s internet when groups were small with identifiable members. Now things are bigger and less defined, and ignoring hate has led to organized hate groups worming in to online subcultures. But paying attention to trolls is what they want, so what else can you do?

Join the Altfurry Blocklist.

Subscribe to the Altfurry Blocklist here, and read about why to use it. The more who join, the stronger it gets.

Support the targets to flip the problem to positive gains.

In Colorado, attacks on a non-furry business was embarrassing and harmful for meets, but there wasn’t just drama about it. The business welcomed support and furries got pro-active to bury false reviews with positive ones. The business rating was unaffected by the trolling, and that’s not all. Staffers sent gratitude to furries who supported and an invitation to hold Raider-free meets there. Colorado furs have had a problem with Raiders who refuse to stop coming to meets they’re banned from. When they tried it outside of fandom, nonfurs stepped up to kick them out, and keep them out for good with a new opportunity for meets that wasn’t there before. The attack blew up in the trolls faces.

Furries will always outnumber hate groups trying to get in. If the fandom stands together against them, it can turn into a win-win. Is it divisive? Rejecting a tiny percent of trolls is a healthy division. Division is what they cause by choosing hate, and all they have to do is sincerely stop it. Ditch nazi symbolism, and any group that welcomes racists and neo-nazis who open a door for more of them.

Report Raiders Raiding – The fandom is on your side.

If your local furry groups have Raiders or altfurs dragging down meets, try sending the story to Dogpatch Press.  Include proof that there was a meet and the info sources are real people.  It can help document bad behavior so it can’t be denied and turned into excuses for trolling.

It was never a “both sides” issue – more screenshots of review bombing by the Raiders:

Update from readers:

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