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Comment by StavrosK | Hacker News Reader

By the way, what's with the "even the furry had more friends than me" bigotry? Would "even the gay had more friends than me" fly?

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Considering the fact that he speaks fondly of him outside of that line, I assumed he was being facetious and playing off the common social view of furries as loner weirdos. Not that that makes it okay, but I don't think it was meant to be harmful.

I chalk it up to the fact that what’s perfectly normal within a group of friends can seem harsh from the outside. He’s probably just accustomed to making jokes like that with Jay, so sees no issue putting it on his blog.

"Perfectly normal within friends."

What is perfectly normal within friends can still be unwanted, even if it was okay at first. It's why I don't like to encourage jokey insults like this any more. Sure at first I was okay with homophobic comments, but after a while it turns from being playful with friends into hurtful and annoying.

I definitely agree with StavrosK, it does feel very off to me.

Well, yes. I did find the comment in extremely poor taste, but I also don’t pretend to have enough information to assess it further. Nothing to do but suspend judgement and give a measured response.

Well, if a gay friend of mine doesn't mind "even the gay gets laid more than me", it still doesn't mean I'll go around saying it in public or online, I don't have the relationship I have with my friend with everyone.

Anyway, I was just checking to see if that was a generally accepted statement just because the word "furry" was there rather than something else, or if I was missing something.

Oh, undoubtedly. Even online, the vast majority of people don’t know or understand internet subcultures nearly as well as general issues of sexuality. It’s unrealistic to expect otherwise.

I take more good-natured flak from my friends for identifying as a furry than for being bisexual. This without even associating with roleplay, pornography, fursuiting, conventions, Otherkin, or any of the “sub-subcultures” that get attention for their peculiarities. I just think anthropomorphic animal characters are pretty swell.

While I'd agree if this was just a random friend he was referring to as a furry, but... this is Jay Naylor we're talking about. His being a furry is very, very, very public -- in fact, he's one of the best known furries out there. I think you're taking this entirely too seriously.

Distasteful is not serious. Consider the durian fruit, how it smells, how it makes us hold our noses and laugh. No, I don’t take this seriously. I have already forgotten it.

Yeah, that's an interpretation I can accept. I'm not sure it was meant that way, but it might (the part about "he was my friend" makes me unsure).

The author goes on to explain how he messed up their friendship. So even if they aren't friends, I can't see that being anything else but a joke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigotry

'Bigotry is the state of mind of a "bigot," a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one who exhibits intolerance or animosity toward members of a group.[1]'

It's contrast, not bigotry. Bigotry is when a jock beats up a furry for being a furry.

He made a joke. Laugh at it. Not one part of that had anything to do with bigotry. Relax.

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