I always thought that the way people treat/talk about furries is a moral test (though a very easy one to pass) to tell if people are actually morally principled or if they are just following social pressure. The analogy with how people treat gay people is actually pretty apt (people get offended by it mainly because they falsely think you're saying something disfavorable about gay people by comparing them to furries, but the whole point of the analogy is the opposite - that you shouldn't mistreat either group). Until not too long ago, the vast majority of people treated gay people very badly, often with open contempt and sometimes with endorsements of violence if only it was legal. Nowadays, at least in the western world, the vast majority of people have realized that this was immoral, and if you still try to treat gay people like that today, most people will side against you. But is this because people actually have a better moral sense or moral dispositions, or is it just people going along with what society tells them, and treating whatever social norms are currently prevalent as "obvious"? You can tell based on how they treat people who objectively aren't doing anything wrong but who it's still socially acceptable or even socially encouraged to mistreat. Those who understand why it's immoral to mistreat gay people realize that the exact same reasons apply here, but those who are just going along with society will try to come up with some ad-hoc reason to justify their social prejudices.
Wholeheartedly agree! It's wild how so many people make arbitrary cutoffs in their moral circle--all in ways that suspiciously fit the zeitgeist. It can of course be hard to notice that you're doing this before it's brought to your attention, but many just seem wholly unwilling to even reflect on whether they do this.
I don't just think it's apt - I think it's identical. That is to say, I don't just think that someone who hates on furries is psychologically more likely to hate on gay people; I think most people who hate on furries are doing so in order to express their hate for sexualities that society doesn't consider normal in a way that is socially acceptable.
Great article
Thank you!
I always thought that the way people treat/talk about furries is a moral test (though a very easy one to pass) to tell if people are actually morally principled or if they are just following social pressure. The analogy with how people treat gay people is actually pretty apt (people get offended by it mainly because they falsely think you're saying something disfavorable about gay people by comparing them to furries, but the whole point of the analogy is the opposite - that you shouldn't mistreat either group). Until not too long ago, the vast majority of people treated gay people very badly, often with open contempt and sometimes with endorsements of violence if only it was legal. Nowadays, at least in the western world, the vast majority of people have realized that this was immoral, and if you still try to treat gay people like that today, most people will side against you. But is this because people actually have a better moral sense or moral dispositions, or is it just people going along with what society tells them, and treating whatever social norms are currently prevalent as "obvious"? You can tell based on how they treat people who objectively aren't doing anything wrong but who it's still socially acceptable or even socially encouraged to mistreat. Those who understand why it's immoral to mistreat gay people realize that the exact same reasons apply here, but those who are just going along with society will try to come up with some ad-hoc reason to justify their social prejudices.
Wholeheartedly agree! It's wild how so many people make arbitrary cutoffs in their moral circle--all in ways that suspiciously fit the zeitgeist. It can of course be hard to notice that you're doing this before it's brought to your attention, but many just seem wholly unwilling to even reflect on whether they do this.
I don't just think it's apt - I think it's identical. That is to say, I don't just think that someone who hates on furries is psychologically more likely to hate on gay people; I think most people who hate on furries are doing so in order to express their hate for sexualities that society doesn't consider normal in a way that is socially acceptable.