Furry Raiders Part 3
Now This Gets Rude
Now there is nothing to say I won't talk about the actions that the group has made over the years and yes welcome to the third and last entry on the Furry Raiders commentary. I have come to the conclusion that I will talk about the moments the group was supposed to be respecting the rules and yet decided not to.
Foxler and some of his followers have at times say they respect the views and rules of some conventions, but there were moments that were reported by DogPatchPress and also several former members who also reported the actions to local groups and conventions.
As stated, DenFur Convention in Colorado actually outright banned Foxler and then some of his fellow friends who tried to get him into the convention. This ended with him being taken off the hotel area by the local police and he had a trespass charged levelled against him. (This is alleged, whether true or not has not been proven.)
Foxler by some sense should have kept himself clean, or at least left without causing an incident, well nope. Allegedly he allowed his group to actually cause a huge amount of issues.
Also after MidWest FurFest in 2014, many also alleged it was The Furry Raiders, this was later disproven as there was no real evidence that this kind of thing was anything they would do, especially when some of their members actually were in attendance.
Link: CSI Fur Fest
While that is the case, I am of the opinion as stated in the past posts that there was no reason The Furry Raiders would even consider doing this. It isn't in their motivations and nor is it in their best interest to attack a furry conventions like this.
I personally of my own views believe there was no way to prove or even disprove that The Furry Raiders had anyhting to do with that attack, so we will leave it at that, and continue.
As for other issues that the group has caused it disrupted some meets to the point that in Colorado they either ceased to exist or the hosts had to rebrand it.
The Look at the Site
Now yes, I have taken a look at their website: FurryRaiders.org and it seems as if you have to through the vetting process to make sure you're over the age of 18. This is a noted improvement and also the link may be broken due to how blogger works, so I will list the link once more. I am not going to just go without saying without some sense that the site is anything but benign and has changed its look to appeal to a different group of people.
I will state this, there seems to be a shift and change in the way they run the group and I myself will not believe that Foxler is out of sight and out of mind. He has faced a great deal of criminal history and his actions have left many of us feeling a bit annoyed with how it does appear.
The site boasts of a podcsast, a different group of events that have been dated since 2019, which yeah, COVID hasn't been kind in the most part for any fandom groups. So that's just something that will have to be waited on.
The group looks like they are cleaning up their actions, but honestly, you can put fresh paint on anything but that doesn't mean it will work.
My opinion matters little on that matter, I just don't see much hope for the group if that's all they're doing, there is no apology to the groups they hurt and the individuals that called them out for their actions. So I am not going to press much on that website.
Chatroom BS
As the name implies, DogPatchPress sent in their own snoop/sockpuppet account to actually figure out what the hell is going on with the group. The results were astounding and disturbing as I had to take my time reading this stuff and I honestly felt like I was sick to my stomach as I am one of the few people who had relatives who fought in World War II and this subject is exceedingly touchie for me.
The fact that as I read through the pictures that were supplied and I felt as if the entire group was just toxic as hell. I am certainly not sure how any person who is sane could really consider what they are saying to be a good thing, I will post the link and you can read for yourself.
Link: What I learned from lurking the Furry Raiders Chat
While I read through this a few times, my heart was sinking each time, the people responding seemed almost hypocrits in my eyes. These are people who seem welcoming, but also some of the posts seem to lement the fact they lost friendships that lasted longer than the group has been around.
I'm not going to mention the number of issues I saw with the group being hard-pressed to get new people to join them, only to find that these kinds of people are not the kind you want to associate with.
In the fact these were going to be groups that once again have pressed the issue hard enough that they are borderline a hate group. From how I looked at it, the Furry Raiders in their views are bordline a Neo-Nazi hate group, to the point that they're harboring intentions that are not becoming of a group that is supposed to be community-based.
Those Who Defend
I know people will hate this, but there are those who defend the group and their desire to do community-based outreach. This in itself what led to some people becoming confused and while I have found articles that defend Foxler and his friends, I am still to the point that I can't say I can believe it considering that some of the commenters have said the majority of the article is misleading.
Link: Furries of For Collins Respond to Alt-Right Allegations
Reading the article again several times I have run to many differing opinions on it, this article seems to run into the defense of Foxler and the Raiders as being simply misunderstood. While many Furries who commented said that this article doesn't even touch on the fact that some leaders have been out of touch. There is also the fact this is an old article from 2018, where the group was running into many legal issues and was banned and kicked from many groups within Denver and surrounding areas.
I attempted to stay out of this mess as much as I could and attempted to start a group called Star Paws which were for Sci-Fi/Fantasy loving furries who wanted to do something more for their benefit and not allow current members of Furry Raiders in fearing they'd bring in their brand of ideas. I was slowly realizing that this kind of model would not work and while I mentioned to Foxler that the Star Paws group had no interest in what he had to offer, he was very disappointed with our rules that his group could not join in. This was mostly for the benefit of other groups that I felt did not get represented in the fandom as much.
Now that I had that cleared up, I'm going to discuss what I read and also how it was coming off, the truth of the matter that the Raiders do have some positive aspects, that need for community, but sadly, the Fur Fandom in Colorado suffered a lot because Rocky Mountain Fur Con failed so horribly. It was that failure that made the fandoms look as if the entire idea of it was going to fall into the hands of people that didn't have the fandom in mind.
Foxler and the rest of the Furry Raiders may as well be the victims of the circumstance as it were, but still their actions are by any other term not only unwelcoming but also the work of a gang. They didn't just follow their own set of rules, but they became almost something that fandom should be wary of. Cosplay fandoms have the same issue at some point while back in 2016 with their own problems stemming from the protests in Charollettville which come to mind.
Conclusion
This is my own opinion again, this differs from those who read this page or at least read the other blogs made about this group. So if a Furry Raider wants to have a beef with my opinion, then let's just state that I am looking at all the facts and all the things that came out regarding the situation.
For starters, the group bought a block of rooms at RMFC (Rocky Mountain Fur Con) was considered a monopoly and while they attempted to release twenty of the rooms, it did not work. You guys chose to associate with an individual while he was a former founder of the con had been removed from the staff due to lying about his past. Associating with him also diminished the trust that Foxler had with the groups involved.
From talking to some furries who wanted you guys to remove your armbands, you refused and thus were removed from the meets. You shouldn't have fought that and accepted the defeat on that end. Also personal property was damaged according to a furry I talked to, while yes Foxler apologized to the young girl it does not excuse the actions of your group, while I witnessed that apology from Foxler and his boyfriend, which from what I gathered they were not even at the meet, so they should have called out the offending members which they did not. (Also Foxeler had no idea that this action occurred until StarFest when he was asked to leave by convention staff)
While my interactions with Foxler have always been amiable and often times he was relatively clueless of what actions his group makes in his name. He has his own problems and also he has become more of a problem with the community with how high his group holds him as a leader, this either will kill the group or kill him, whichever comes first.
His dirty laundry will come out and yes, while I understand that this is something that I have come to expect from many groups, let me put it this way. I used to admire Marion Zimmer Bradley as an author then holy hell did her laundry come out. She sexually assaulted minors, and of course, Foxler was accused of that, he also associated with a pedophile which doesn't mean he technically did much, but he may or may not have known.
Do I trust the Furry Raiders? NO, I DO NOT! Honestly, I have read some of the stories associated and it took me a while to compile all the information into this. Now I have to come to my conclusion and while it sounds like I just rewrote my entire articles on the matter and the history, my issues have remained that Furry Raiders are going to fall appart no matter what they do to fix their problems. They can say whatever nice words that put out. So with this said, I am ending my research, and whatever comes up next or updates I will post on here as much as I can.
Links:
Even Furries are no longer safe from Neo-Nazi Meddling
Furry Raiders "Foxler" Sex Crimes Case
Does The Furry Community Have a Nazi Problem?
WikiFur: Furry Raiders
Note: Much of the allegations are against allegations and some of the evidence has not been proven without a doubt. The truth is that we can only go off what we have read in articles and also from what other members and former members have said.
The Fandom is always changing and while I don't condone the actions of the past, please note, I gave opinion, not fact. This is based on what I have seen and read from sources that I found both with former members and also sources such as DogPatchPress and many other sources as you see links to. I will be updating as the information changes. This again is going to be put up as this has taken me a while to compile and also read through.
I am not an expert nor am I active in the Fur Fandom anymore, I retired my fursona and built a new and I will not be going into detail.
Comments
Post a Comment