Sidenote on origins of fluffies
Fluffies as we know them now came from a space where this was permitted. An argument could be made that this is simply continuing as is.
Not fully true.
Fluffies originate from 4chan, which is known for its free-for-all rules of engagement. It’s not simply permitted, there are no which is a space on the internet where there are no holds barred and you’re likely to get slapped with slurs both created with something you identify with as a target, and tossed randomly just because they’re strong and loaded words.
In Fluffy Community, this would not fly. You can’t in ill-will call people slurs related to them with an intent to harm through slur use. I wouldn’t say that this community is continuing 4chan’s tradition.
But that’s just a side note.
Personal thoughts
Look, I can’t speak for anyone else but myself.
Growing up in the 90s, we had slurs at every step - although mostly related to homosexuality and mental health, given the homogenity of my home country. Neither myself nor my friends - both heterosexual or not - cared much about them being tossed around.
Majority of time, they were not meant to hurt. Majority of the time, they weren’t meaningful with their meaning. Calling someone a “fag” didn’t have much to do with their sexuality, it was just a loaded word. Rare times where these were meant to hit a person they were “designed for”, people would stand up in defense of their friends.
This makes it really hard for me to understand why in today’s world we’re so afraid of a word, as if they’re always an extension of the ill intent behind their original meaning. You can disallow the usage of a word, either by totally banning any instances of it, or by controlling in which context it might appear (ex. educational, or maybe humorous), but that won’t stop the ill intent itself, which will work its way around the ban on certain keywords.
Some thoughts on slur use
Sometimes it feels like today’s world is so hellbent on eradicating hateful language simply because it’s the easier approach than actually addressing the issue of actual prevalent hatred towards certain groups or communities of people.
“That’s it, boys - we banned all racist words. Racism is no more. Now let’s go find a pub full of other men of high social status, majority of them being of caucasian origin due to some weird coincidence and surely not systemic racism.”
You, who takes offense on behalf of a minority - ask yourself why? And answer honestly. Surely, it is repugnant, but how much of your opinion about it was dictated by other people taking offense on behalf of same minority? Doesn’t the fear, hate, disdain for these words feel at least tiny bit artifically inflated?
And why are these words deemed bad, but other aren’t? Why is it bad to call someone a “faggot”, which technically means a bundle of sticks, but it’s perfectly fine to call someone mentally ill, when it perpetuates stigma around mental health issues? Why is it fine to threaten people with harm or tell them to commit suicide? How come someone can wish death upon a creator of abuse comics, but you say one bad word and suddenly so much of the community gets riled up?
Also, a sidenote on slurs.
At least to me, banning words gives them power. We acknowledge how harmful they are, and as such we fear them more. And I didn’t know that I personally should be offended by being called “retarded” due to my neurodivergence, until Twitter told me it’s of utmost importance to be offended. Normalization of use in non-ill manner disempowers them. If I’m a “retard” and you’re a “retard” and everyone else is a “retard”, simply because it’s a word that gets tossed around, it loses its original meaning.
Where do we go from here?
Personally I see no point in actually banning certain words or content. Censorship in such way bears no actual merit beyond appeasing one group of people and infuriating another. Is status quo, where both sides can’t eat the cake and have the cake, really so evil? Can’t we - like Karn suggests - go for a 5 in a world full of 1s and 10s?
As to suggestion that such content steers storylines away from fluffies and comparing banning slurs to banning anthro, I disagree and wholeheartedly.
There are stories you can tell with anthro content and they were never banned. Heck - even anthro porn in service to the story or a joke is allowed. What we don’t want is this website turning into Fluffy621, and I think we don’t want it turning to some fluffy version of Redwatch.
Should, say for example, Asschwitz be banned? It’s a joke, racism is in service to it. Is it offensive? Yes. Racist? Yes. Edgy? Yes.
Is it related to the fluffies and is it a coherent story though? Also yes.
Perhaps guidelines to categorizing works containing such content would be useful, as already suggested.
Otherwise, rule nine still stands - civility. And as a mod, I can see how it maybe should be both more respected by users and more enforced by staff. That’s for a different discussion, though. One that’s gonna be more difficult technically than this one, but also less charged emotionally, so I suggest we consider it at a later time.