That’s the Bible. Modern Christianity (in the US, at least) tends to focus on us vs. them, and othering anyone who doesn’t believe what you believe. They say it’s their book, but they don’t read it much.
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I think reading this story is giving me Future Shock.
I’m remembering weed-fueled college dorm debates about whether modern life is better than stone age life. “People died from an impacted tooth!” was my friend’s favorite point to make.
I dunno. Arguably troubled youth is troubled youth no matter where or when it exists, but to be hypnotized by a cartoon pony. . . ? There’s something very surreal about it.
In the same way humanity stumbled trying to figure out how to live with nuclear technology, and how after 50 years we are only starting to understand the true impact plastics have on our world, we are still grappling with all the different side effects of the information age.
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I don’t think they do. The whole “Brony” fandom originated from people watching it ironically, and then it turned out it was a pretty fun show and people began to watch and enjoy in earnest.
But there were always people who were fans because it pissed off the squares too. Guys weren’t supposed to like rainbow colored girl ponies. So there was a sort of anti-establishment culture within the fandom. They were doing it for the lulz. And then there were other who used the colorful “peace and love” imagery as ironic imagery. Which again would rile up people.
And then there were the furries and furry adjacent… and the ones who are ruining things with rule 34. There were many reasons people were into the show.
My kid was a huge MLP fan and I took her to two local Brony conventions. Combined with that and a local comic con appearance, we got her signatures of the Mane Six, as well as some supporting cast. We even got to meet and draw with Dana Simpson who draws the Phoebe and her Unicorn comic. I think overall that fandom is great, though from what I have gathered from some documentaries/retrospective I have seen - I am glad I didn’t have to shuffle her away from a booth selling body pillow covers. 
But for every Brony there for the sexy stuff, or using the imagery and fandom ironically, you have a dozen earnest fans who enjoy it for other reasons. If they could snap their fingers and excise Nazis from the fandom, they would.
Anyway… from what I have read about this guy, it’s another case of a person who felt like a loser, and glommed on to white supremacist bullshit that told him he was special. He was an angry young man whose mom and people around him thought he was a ticking bomb. The Brony aspect is just a distraction to the real problems in the story.
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Please consider not naming the shooter or posting pictures.
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In times like these, now more than ever, I miss Hunter, Bill Hicks, and George Carlin more and more.
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And Joe Strummer.
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Unsure if comment is about stone age life, or modern American “health care.”
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FTFY.
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My speculation of the hour: Some people are so toxic that they just can’t stand anything that isn’t like them because it makes them uncomfortable. This means they are always searching for the things that are the least like them but trying to make those things more like them. Then I apply that to the kinds of people that would approach a children’s show fandom that way.
And I think “yep… pedos and nazis.” And then I feel sad.
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Like Richard Spencer trying to claim Depeche Mode…
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I’ve never liked the way that media talking about ‘bronies’ (heck, the term ‘bronies’) inherently buys into the ‘boy show’/‘girl show’ dichotomy and the idea that there’s something weird or aberrant about someone assigned ‘boy’ liking a show categorized ‘girl’.
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Really, it’s more that Nazis are weaponizing the brony community’s emphasis on compassion and tolerance to inject themselves into that community (and many, many others; nerd-dom is full of people who are full-tilt “free speech” types who don’t want to exclude anyone because they don’t want to be like the “mainstream” culture that’s shunned them already). I think the brony community has been more susceptible to it than others for a variety of reasons, though.
- It did, in fact, start on 4chan as a nearly-irony-poisoned joke in the first place, with people on /co/ flooding pictures and memes just to piss others off. “Mods are asleep, post ponies” was a real thing for a reason. “Wait, this show is actually good” only happened later.
- “Love and tolerate”, which has become something of a community maxim to the point that it was a major focus of the documentary that John DeLancie co-produced, doesn’t come from the show at all, but once again from the irony-poisoned pit of 4chan, as a sort of “we’ll get you in the end” response to people complaining about all the pony posting. The Nazis use it as a shield to defend themselves against exclusion, despite the show regularly making a point of illustrating how important it is to counter such “opinions”. And not subtly, either. Chancelor Neigh-say’s
whitepony supremacy is so over-the-top you can buy it at the Honey-baked Ham Store. - The fandom’s largest hub, Equestria Daily, is run almost entirely by young straight white men (there may be a woman or two on staff at this point, but AFAIK there are no queer-identifying folks or POC there), and it has a history of platforming anti-diversity viewpoints as “soapbox” discussions.
That said, the brony community is hardly unique. As a community largely populated by other young white men, it has the same problems with toxic masculinity and libertarian free speech absolutism as every other white-male-dominated fandom, and the anti-SJW anti-diversity anti-feminist GatorGorte movement wormed its way through them just like it did with Star Wars, Magic the Gathering, furries, and many others. That, combined with the mainstreaming of white supremacist politics in the form of Trump and his election in 2016, really screwed up a lot of communities, and unfortunately bronies have (perhaps inexplicably) been much slower on the uptake that it happened.
It doesn’t help that a lot of the good people in the community saw what was happening and pulled the parachute cord, leaving the alt-right voices with even less push-back.
I just want to close off with a link to a Twitter thread that I may have shamelessly stolen points from because I agree with so much of it. It’s from a person who used to be a big fixture in the art side of the community, and you should definitely give her some love for her thoughts here as well as for her art, which is delightful.
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Bronies themselves came up with that term, so maybe take it up with them?
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That’s the one.
Was active on white supremacist websites - “yadda yadda”
His own family reported him to the FBI as being at risk of violence - “yawn”
He was an adult who watched cartoons - “yeah, run with that!”
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This is reasonably correct. Especially within the internal contexts of 4chan, seeing some people enjoy ponies made other people extremely mad. That is powerful, so it attracted people doing it for the lulz; but even among those of us who did genuinely enjoy pony, it was easy to become intoxicated with that power.
That said, for the vast majority of us, it remained an internal thing, a terrible secret not to be revealed to normies. That’s where it intersects with the “don’t show them your powerlevel” ethos.
However, here’s where I’m going to have to strongly disagree with you:
Stop demonizing sexuality. I would without hesitation Thanos-snap /mlpol/ and the other Nazis out of the fandom, and many of the people I know trying to actively eject the alt-right from the pony fandom are queer and enjoy sexualizing the ponies as an exploration of their own selves. Toys like MLP aren’t just pieces of plastic for kids: they can help everyone, including adults, to find out who they are on the inside.
Also, you mention Dana Simpson. Do you not think she is an adult too? It sounds like I could ruin your image of her work with a few facts about her, but I won’t, because I respect her.
Anyway, in conclusion, sex is not your enemy. I am sorry if it makes life difficult for you, but it is not going anywhere, because it is a part of life, in many senses of that word. Therefore, please do not clump cloppers together with Nazis.
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Yep; it’s the letting Nazi punks drink at your bar analogy, all over again, along with a dash of Popper’s Paradox.
If you care about your ingroup, then you can’t allow even one toxic fascist asshole’s presence to be ‘tolerated’ - because that shit spreads like wildfire, and is more corrosive than acid.
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I’m not.
If you’re focusing on the word “ruining”, it was more tongue in cheek. Generally I am for doing what ever you want as long as it is consensual. But it can be a problem as a parent of a then young kid that people are sexualizing cartoon characters meant for kids that can pop up on an image search even with safe search on. I don’t “blame” anyone for putting something out on the web and then Google returns it as a search result. It’s an annoying danger of the internet.
That said, when you have a fandom that caters to a mix of bag of ages, it should have a level of segregation. Brony conventions are hardly unique in having an element of sexual art around it. There are explicit comic books and pin up art at comic cons, there are erotic art and fan fic at Star Trek cons. They are usually not on open display. I think I recall one such book of prints at a local con that said something like “Adults Only”, but nothing out and about. Great. But I have seen videos where pillow cases and IIRC prints were on display at one of the last large Brony cons. No one is saying anything is wrong with either of those items, but if the people at a convention are of all ages, the content on display should take this into consideration.
I didn’t - I just said they were part of the fandom. Notice I said they would finger snap Nazis, not anyone else. The fandom is diverse and people are there for various reasons. Most of those reasons aren’t harming anyone, including those in it for the porn, or people doing it ironically for the lulz. Those promoting Nazi rhetoric are harming people.
I have no idea what in the hell you are talking about. Yes she is an adult (just like most, but not all, of the voice actors we have met) - and she produces work meant for kids - who adults enjoy as well. Including me - I have read all of the books I have gotten my kid (well most, I am behind because I never see her due to Covid.) She was lovely to talk to and interact with and we spent about 45 minutes with her learning to draw Phoebe and Marigold.
If she has drawn other adults only oriented art - good for her. She knows enough to segregate the two audiences.
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“FBI agents found no crime had been committed when they interviewed him in April 2020.”
One wonders what the FBI would have found if he had been black.
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