War, war everywhere. [WARNING: Contains many personal opinions and long winded rants]

I am back with another blog. This time; War. Flame wars. Flame wars in youtube comments, more precisely.

Recently, (as in, about ten minutes ago) I was watching a few videos on youtube. Nothing really important, just clicking off recommended videos, most of the time they were pony videos. And in EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. There was a god damn flame war. Most of the time I'll read one or two of the longer chains, laugh at it for a bit, then carry about my day. But I've grown tired of it.

I see it everywhere, not just on pony videos. I see some random brony posting some random pony stuff on some random video (it doesn't happen as often as a lot of haters claim, but it does happen) and I see random haters posting random hate on random videos. Pony or not.

In the past the haters were primitive, using simple insults such as "Horse fuckers" or "manchild" and even "cancer of the internet". These things we could deal with and dispatch easily. Now, though, they have become more advanced. They have started to use our own community against us. They complain and whine about how we "ponify everything" and how we "put ponies where ponies don't belong". And while it is not quite as easy to dispel these arguments, as they are partially correct (we do ponify pretty much everything) they are still frail accusations.

Next time you see this argument, ask them how they would feel if the subject matter was crossed with, say, Doctor Who, for example. Odds are they would have very little to counter it. Or what if it was crossed with something they liked? That wouldn't be out of place for them, because it is something they like.

These types of haters suffer from Selective observation. If they want to see ponies everywhere, being crossed with everything and being spread everywhere it "doesn't belong", then they will observe pony being everywhere. meanwhile, they will not observe everything else that gets posted and spread everywhere. They select what they observe to serve their hating purposes.

However, when a pony comment is placed somewhere with absolutely zero pony content, I can understand the annoyance. Maybe even the desire to lash out at them and make them stop/go away. I can understand that reaction. I can also understand the brony side of it where when a hater goes on a pony video for the simple purpose to hate the brony feels then need to lash out at them instead. I can see and understand these reactions.

What I have a problem with is the fact that these reactions happen at all. The causes of these reactions is not something that should be happening. Is the human race really so petty as to go around starting these wars? To willingly start and partake in meaningless, pointless arguments, that in the end don't make any difference? Lets face it, how often do these wars every actually lead to anything even remotely productive? never. To a troll, they get the feel good satisfaction of causing hate and malice. they feel the reward of making others angry. I myself admit to being a troll in some circumstances. I will knowingly - not actively - try and make people angry. I don't deny it, it's not exactly something I'm proud of, but I don't hide the fact. But at the same time, my intention is not solely to anger the other person, it is to make others - not even myself - laugh. Not even at them, per-say, but just to laugh. To have a little fun. I do this most often on a TF2 server. Especially when someone is trying to get the entire team to go certain classes. I hear it all the time, people yelling over the chat about how "the team does not need 3 snipers" or how one guy is doing something wrong. Honestly, it pisses me off. So I'll rise up to them, I'll challenge them. I will troll them. And most of the time, the rest of the people on the server end up laughing at the one guy who was trying to suck all the fun out of it for them just so he could win. I don't do it to make the guy mad, I do it to allow the rest of us to have a nice, fun gaming session. And while my motives do not excuse the means by any length, it is better then doing it simply for the hate. Wow that was a really long winded explanation of what I do, moving on now.

Let's get back on track.

Now then, I don't pretend to understand why bronies have the tendency to post pony everywhere. Maybe it's simply to spread what they believe to be a wonderful fandom that everyone should try, or whether it is actually to bring the rage upon themselves and the community because they themselves are trolls as well. But what these people must know is that they are not only representing themselves, but an entire community. By spreading pony everywhere, they not only cast themselves in the hatred, but the entire community. I personally know people who have been turned off of even trying the fandom because the first they heard of it was from some idiot harrasing them with it. As such, they thought the entire brony fandom was this way, and didn't want any part of it, and assumed it of every other brony. This is what posting pony everywhere does, it gives everyone a negative view of our fandom. A negative view we truly don't deserve. So please, keep the pony stuff to pony things. If you find a video that is pony, then go ahead, make ourself known as a brony, support the video if it's funny. if it's well done. Even if it's some random cross over that will bring down the wrath of many people, it is not their place to judge what we should and shouldn't ponify.

But if you find a video that has absolutely nothing to do with pony, then for god's sake keep your damn mouth shut about it. Say something about the video, say something about how the music was amazing, or how the animation looked good, something. And if someone calls you out on being a brony simply because of your avatar and tells you to leave. ask them why. why should you leave when you are not disrupting anything by simply being there? why should you not be allowed to view things simply because of the things you like?

if there is one thing on this planet that I hate above all else, it is discrimination. Whether that be racial, sexual, political, religious, anything. Discrimination is truly the bane of all existence. how many wars have been fought over it? How many lives need to be lost before people see the pointlessness of it all? I hate it with a burning passion. Unfortunately, I am but one man and cannot put a stop to it alone. Everyone needs to rise up, everyone needs to do something, say something, make themselves known and their opinions heard.

But that is not the point of this blog, the point of this blog is to rant about youtube comment wars, and while I have done that, I feel there is more that needs to be said. There is so much more that needs to be explained, so much more that we need to do and understand, but I cannot help with that. All I can do now is ask you to not create the problem. Don't create, and don't encourage. Simple common sense is your best friend when avoiding a flame war. Simply ask yourself whether or not it is the time to post ponies. Maybe in hundreds of years discrimination will be a thing of the past, and gronw men will be free to like ponies and grown women free to like transformers. But until that day comes there will be wars. there will be hatred. there will be trolls.

but there will also be kindness, as this community shows. Not everything has to end in a war. Not everything has to be settled through fruitless arguments. Not everything needs to be fought about.

Opinions are yours to have and yours to keep. Yours to express and yours to defend. but they are not yours to defile, the brony ideal of love and tolerance is something I rarely see these days. I uphold it when I can, but I am not perfect, no human is perfect. there will always be times when we slip from our ideals, just don't let the mistakes define you. If something you see really pisses you off, and you just can't hold back an angry response, then post that angry response. yell to your heart's content. But when you're done, and if/when they reply to you, let yourself cool off. Let yourself return to your ideals and conduct yourself properly, no matter what they may say to you. And, if they too display this maturity, even apologize for the angry comment. You'd be amazed at what a single apology can do to lighten the mood of an argument. I've seen it. But if they do not show the same level of maturity, then uphold your ideals and defend your opinions, but do not defile theirs, even if they may seem wrong to you.

All I can ask is that you try to make the internet a more peaceful place for everyone.

Thank you so much for reading this. I apologize if this randomly jumps around a lot, but this was all written from the top of my head after one too many flame wars and I had to get it off my chest. My mind is chaos most days, and I organized it as best I could for this blog. If you have any questions or differing opinions, or even just a personal experience with this type of thing, post it in the comments.