Are we our own worst enemy?

[Thunder-Bay-Syd]

2 hours ago, LycanTheory said:




You make some good points, Thunder.




This one, in particular, seems to me like something that we could at least mitigate to an extent but with the zoo community so fragmented, I wonder how this could be addressed.




Do you have any thoughts on that?




I suppose the point I'm trying to get at is, I often observe members of the community that seem to want to give something in some way but are often lost as to how or what they could do.




Lyc

I honestly don't think it is possible at this point. I think there are too many deeply ingrained psychological forces at play. We aren't alone with this problem. The biggest comparison I can make is in politics and the way in which the world over humans consistently elect candidates that are snakes in the grass - claim to have the electorates best interests at heart but act in the complete opposite way. It just seems to be human nature to get behind the person who can shout the loudest.




Moving back to our world there are other issues such as anonymity. I've seen people ruin their reputation within the community then change their user name and come back as a prominent member. The biggest issue though is that these problems often come down to an argument of "he said, she said". I think this was the biggest issue with Fausty. Those of us that knew his character from previous interactions could and did warn others about him but it was our word against his and he is one hell of a convincing, persuasive character. In the end our experience counted for naught despite us being trusted members in the community - no one cared what we had to say.




I don't mean to keep bringing up Fausty but he is the perfect example of what I am referring to here especially as that cycle is once again repeating itself as people flock to him on Twitter. I befriended the person whose life he ruined several years ago and it really hurt me to sit with this person and talk about the ways in which his life had been destroyed. It is something I am very bitter about because it shouldn't have happened.




The best we can do I suppose is try to encourage people and especially those new to our world to avoid certain mistakes and really hammer home the point that there are dangerous people amongst us. Doing that though will require us building or rather rebuilding a more robust community that is less fragmented. The desire is there to do something as you rightly point out but I don't have the answers as to what. Some infrastructure that is a cross between something like Telegram and a forum would be ideal but who has the time (and skill) to safely develop it?




No matter what infrastructure is in place though I think we will still have this problem. There is always going to be someone who shouts louder than others and sells a story people want to believe. The thought of fighting for rights, etc is a very romantic notion that a lot of zoos seem to harbour. Unfortunately most simply don't realize that there is no romance involved in being outed, potentially imprisoned, losing your animals, having family and friends turn against you, losing careers, homes, etc, etc.