How to love the freedom of leaderless fandom, and fight the flipside of organized abuse
by Patch O'Furr
Do you know the story where several blind people try to describe an elephant by only touching small parts of it? Nobody can say what the whole animal is.
That happens when furry subculture talks about itself, and protests outside stereotypes by falling into its own… The Geek Social Fallacies.
Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power. If you don’t like the media, Be The Media. That’s the mission at Dogpatch Press, but the subculture keeps stubborn blind spots. Many stories are too inside for professionals to investigate, but hobbyists lack the resources, especially when they need action that people don’t want to take. Then they stay overlooked, underreported, and suppressed. Nobody is immune to the psychology of denying uncomfortable knowledge. This is how you get too much shallow drama between individuals, but too little intensive research. You may say the solution is showing more of the positive; but that’s not seeing the whole elephant.
The more we know, the more it empowers people to do better.
