Love and Tolerate

[Revy ~ Two Hands 862]

I've stuck around through much drama in the MLP fandom but I've seen others go, I'm beginning to see why. The fandom is a long long way from love and tolerance these days. The ask Princess Molestia blog is the latest drama, but that seems to have given cause for some ponies to act very poorly toward each other, with spite, malice and with no sense of repercussion, love or tolerance.

Disagreement is expected but I'm tired of seeing the flat out abuse that is somehow allowed at this point. Does anyone still believe in the message of the show the reason I for one got involved in this community, to love and tolerate?

Edited August 20, 2013 by Gamer Twilight

[Scootalove 10,692]

Honestly, no. The fandom does not still believe in love and tolerate when it comes to each other but, we usually look on ''love and tolerate'' when we are dealing with haters of the show.

[Revy ~ Two Hands 862]

Honestly, no. The fandom does not still believe in love and tolerate when it comes to each other but, we usually look on ''love and tolerate'' when we are dealing with haters of the show.

That's even worse than the people who call us pony f*gs though. At least they are being direct and not backstabbing people who supposedly on the same side.   

Edited August 20, 2013 by Gamer Twilight

[Sir.Flutter Hooves 2,953]

Eh, we never really believed in Love and Tolerance. I actually think it's pretty stupid myself, it's basically just saying we can't agree with you so we might as well shut up and just tolerate it.

 

There's still some left though, most bronies are not rabid about Molestia. It's fine, theres still some love and tolrance in the fandom.

[Rockymoo 2,137]

I still love and tolerate.

Especially other bronies. You guys are like family to me.

The only ones I have trouble with are the social groups that disliking them has been hard-wired into my brain for the longest time before becoming a brony, but I'm trying to work on it.

[Revy ~ Two Hands 862]

I still love and tolerate.

Especially other bronies. You guys are like family to me.

The only ones I have trouble with are the social groups that disliking them has been hard-wired into my brain for the longest time before becoming a brony, but I'm trying to work on it.

There is still some good left in this fandom then. I'm getting tired of seeing people treat me like crap because I'm not in there inner circles of internet friends...ugh it's why I came to the brony fandom in the first place  is because I thought people could just be people or should I say ponies, without the need to be assertive or elitist like most internet communities are   

Edited August 20, 2013 by Gamer Twilight

[Krys9 456]

When I was starting out I thought "Love and Tolerance" was the name of the game but like Scootalove said it's mostly reserved for mainly haters of the show so I have been slowly drifting away from that ideal. But I do always try to tolerate people. For my own sanity. lol 

[Rockymoo 2,137]

There is still some good left in this fandom then. I'm getting tired of seeing people treat me like crap because I'm not in there inner circles of internet friends...ugh it's why I came to the brony fandom in the first place  is because I thought people could just be people or should I say ponies, without the need to be assertive or elitist like most internet communities are   

I didn't even know there WERE brony cliques, honestly. I get along with just about everypony for the most part.

Hmm. If I find a way to do it, I really should try to minimize the concept of exclusive groups of friends in the fandom so everypony here is completely open with one another. That's been my policy so far, and it's not changing.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Tricksy Lewlamoon

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

While "Love and Tolerate" just started as a joke on 4chan, it's actually a neat idea. Nothing more. And actually "Love and Accept" would be even better because just tolerating something doesn't mean you're even a bit okay with it. It just means you avoid it if you don't like it.

 

Not forgetting that humans are not really made for being that way... Conflict has always been the best path to progression; ironically and sadly.

 

But as long as we can get along with each other, try not to be too worried about the haters and brony on, I don't think we have to think about that statement and its "validity" that much.

[~Silver Essence~ 2,625]

I'll be honest, no.

 

As of now, the fandom has grown differently as time went on, for the great or good? It's always pending.

 

A saying on 4chan, but now, I guess it's just that, "a saying." 

[Commissar Alexer 764]

The message is a joke.

 

This fandom was founded in the depths of 4chan, what did you expect?

The entire fandom is practically in an state of enternal civil war.

 

Down with Molestia,Trollestia any other X-lestia Campaigns, Drama over Alicorn Twilight, Crusade against Equestria Girls, the extermination war of the Conversion Bureau and Optimalverse, the pedophilic accusation of MandoPony, death threats against members of the show team, the disaster of the Las Pegasus Unicon, the execution of the Fighting is Magic fan game and many more will definitely come.

 

 

"There no such thing as "love & tolerance", only drama and whining."

[SkyDream 315]

I'm going to say that there is no "we."

 

There can't be.  It's like saying "All humans like to go to the beach."    Yeah, there's a beach there, and there are humans there, but that doesn't mean that 100% of people love the beach for the same reasons.  Some people like to get free sand from the beach then high-tail it back to their sandbags supporting their basketball hoops or whatnot. 

 

You can be called a Brony because you put a Rainbow Dash portrait somewhere on your profile, regardless of the reason why it's there.  Do you admire her tenacity and loyalty?  Or do you just like to stare at her hair while high as a kite?     Either way, people see Rainbow Dash and think "Bro-hoof."    That's the unfortunate part.

 

The lumping together is inevitable though.  Everyone wants to have something in common with anyone immediately adjacent to them, and they'll use an MLP:FiM related content as just that stepping stone to reach out and acknowledge a similarity to remove some degree of internal loneliness. 

 

I'm a Brony because I wish to take the message of the show hidden well inside its depths to heart.  I wish to become a better person, capable of true unconditional love and the tolerance that comes with it.  (It's there.  Believe me, it's there.)     .... aaaaand there are people who just want to clop.   

 

.. and that's just fine too.

[Denim&Venöm 22,006]

I still believe that love and tolerance is present in the fandom. . A bunch of bad stuff happens on planet earth, that doesn't make the whole world a hell hole. Just as a few groups are being overly dramatic about some incidents portrays the fandom as falling apart, while if you look at the big picture, the shows motto is still being carried on strong by most of the bronydom.

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,676]

I'm still left uneasy from my experience with another pony forums. There I thought I could express myself openly and vulnerably and while it worked out well for a time, but, well... turns out I wasn't really protected by the good will of the community but by my ability to debate. As one user stated to me at the time, they know I would win. The true colors of that community became apparent when I tried to argue for something not very strong you could say. Despite my best efforts to stay civil and technical, I received the full fury of the community. It started out with a few before an entire group beat down on me. Feeling disillusioned and broken, I was simply ignored and left to lick my wounds by myself. It made me grow numb and resentful in response. That's the thing when you open up vulnerably; you're that much more vulnerable to feeling wounded and hurt. On the bright side, I'm hoping this place could reverse that to some degree at least and I'm optimistic so far.

 

Another thing I could add to this is that people tend to form hierarchies when in groups. The question then becomes what kind of hierarchy we're talking about. Commonly we think about dominance hierarchies as usually seen in the wild. There's also the formal hierarchies as seen in businesses and other organizations. However, the kind of hierarchy that never gets talked about is the hierarchy of attachment. It's the kind of hierarchy you'd find in a loving family. The relationships from one "rank" to another not being characterized through enforcement but one where one acts like the caregiver and the other as accepting dependence from said caregiver. Like mother to son, like big brother to little sister. Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle come to mind.

 

The reason why I believe this is relevant to the discussion is because of how things can go wrong. Being a caregiver involves that you be assertive and take charge but still vulnerable to feel responsibility and guilt. If you can feel your own wounds, you can feel that of others as well. However, if you were to numb out, you also become numb to feelings of guilt, responsibility and empathy but the feelings of assertiveness and tendencies to take charge remain. When such a person sees signs of dependence in another, they get taken as cues to exploit a person. We tend to call such people "bullies".

 

So what can this tell us? Well, the point being that it's not really that simple to "love and tolerate". People do not simply execute instructions or algorithms like machines. We all have a breaking point somewhere. A point where all seems so wrong and you wind up feeling scared and helpless. The support that a person receives at a time like that could make or break how they traverse this path. But what if such a person does come across at least one person who's willing to open one's arms to such a person. That it's OK to talk about it or even cry without fear of being shamed. That no matter what, someone is there and willing to listen and welcome you into his or her presence. Under such care, the troubled person may find a sense or rest and in time should make sense of things. After all, growth happens in rest. The same is true for the mind. Should this fail to happen, should the troubled person get ignored or shamed, you can pretty much bet that this person will grow numb to kill the pain of the wounds already inflicted and to shield oneself from receiving new wounds. What often happens is that the alarm that also comes with such a predicament tends to make people become domineering.

 

Well, I've said this elsewhere before to different people and this is the response I generally get.