The Sad Truth

[Tephnos]

After recent events, I think bronies are essentially becoming like Amerca; victims of their own success.

If we think back and remember what happened to America: At various points (the most notable being directly after WWII, which I'm sure you can all recall), America was a country full of brilliant people with a lot of ingenuity and consisted of a well-ordered, and well structured society. As a result, we all know that is was extremely successful and popular. The so called 'American Dream' if you will.

The problem? This popularity and success attracts the type of people of either want to exploit the system for their own personal gain; not caring who or what they had to step all over in order to do so. Or, they are simply not very 'good' people, but still wanted to reap the benefits of a society full of good people. Basically, taking and giving nothing back.

Do you see the similarity?

Essentially, becoming popular and drawing more members to your group inevitably leads to one conclusion: The more people, the more BAD people your group will consist of. Often, those people take over until the original intent of said group is preserved only by a select minority.

At this point you might be thinking, how do we solve such a problem?

Ahaha.

You don't.

It is almost never possible to flush corruption and hatred out of a place once it had taken hold. In almost all cases, the best you can do is wait for it to destroy itself, and then go back and build a reformed version on top of the remains.

The problem stems mainly from the fact that the only thing you need to do in order to be a 'brony' in this case is to say that you are, and even if other bronies tell you that you're not, they can't force you to stop. So, when enough of the people who claim to be bronies are angry loudmouths, that becomes the image of the group, in spite of the objections of everyone else.

There are two options:

Eliminate all of these 'bronies'
Or, make them see reason.

As you can see, both are entirely unrealistic (and unethical).

What can we do? Simply, we just have to ignore the bad image that the fandom is beginning to generate, and stay true to ourselves. We are not, and I mean not, going to convert the fandom back to it's original roots, so the best thing we can hope for is to simply stay true to ourselves and becomes that 'select minority'.

I don't expect positive reactions to this post, but I just needed to say it. This has happened to every community on the internet, it happens all the time in real life, it's just humanity. I expected it.

[randomblockfilms]

well personally i haven't seen anyone going around saying, "IM A BRONY!! YOU IZ ALL DUMB PEOPLEZZZ AAHAHAHHAH!!!! (this is obviously an exaggeration but i hope you get the point)
so i don't know what to say to this. heh

so based on my personal experiences, i think that these types of bronies shouldn't be a big threat to the mlp community as a whole. but ive been wrong before.

these intellectual topics always get me confused so im probably not much help

[Senator Myth]

Just try to have fun. Don't let other people ruin your fun. Smile. None of these issues are nearly as important as they may seem. All that is important is that you have fun with your friends and with your ponies. This community has experienced turbulent times before, but it has always survived strong. People who truly love this show and truly enjoy the company of their brony friends will always be in evidence.

If I may make a suggestion, stop spreading things that piss you off. There's a definite trend I've been seeing of people posting things that get them riled up, whether it's NCF bullshit or stuff about the Derpy situation or whatever. I'll admit that even I'm guilty of this. I don't know what aspect of human nature compels us to want to do this, but if I have any advice, spread drama and hate as little as possible. There's no need to feel self-righteous. We're all just here to have fun.

You may say I'm a fool, but I believe the Brony community is still worthwhile. It simply dwells on the negative more than it used to, a negative side that has been here since the beginning. My only suggestion is to try to change that trend and have fun. Just smile and enjoy.

[Freewave]

Agree. we had our Dear MLP thread which brought up a lot of issues, we've seen the various factions of our scene, people have had chances to complain anonymously on ponyconfessions. Now people just need to move on if there's parts of the community they don't like. MLP is huge and multi-faceted and there's room for everyone as long as we respect our differences and don't tread on each other. I don't see the implosion happening as feared anytime soon.

[Navron]

Haters have always been attacking us and our fun.
Clopping is a very, very, old term.

And hell, with the whole Derpy situation. Let's not forget a few people offended by the name "Derpy," pales in comparison to previous slander against the show itself, like one of the earlier reviews claiming the show was based on racial and sexual stereotypes, or the Christian TV network saying the show is satanic.

Senator nailed the whole aspect on the head. Stop focusing on the negatives!

Everybody will look back on when they first discovered the community as being better than the present community, for 2 reasons:

1. When you first joined the fandom you had vast amounts of unexplored awesomeness. So many PMVs, parodies, music, etc. Now you've probably seen a good majority of them.
2. It's human nature to remember positive things, and forget negative ones. Nostalgia seems like a golden glow because you remember how great it was, "back in the day," but it seems great because you forgot all those times you were forced to go to bed early, stop watching cartoons, do homework, etc.

Keeping the fandom in a positive light simply means keep it in a positive light to yourself. Smile! closed off at $26,000 raised for the CCA, the haters have slowed down quite a bit, and the show itself is only halfway through Season 2, with Season 3 already confirmed.

If you spread joy, you'll inspire joy. If you spread generosity, you inspire generosity.

And if you spread negativity, you will inspire negativity.

[MixolydianPony]

“Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

[Facade]

lets not dwell on the negative while it has still to come rather lets be inspired by the positive while its still here.

[Calamus_Dash]

I don't wanna derail the thread but I fucking LOLed when I realized it was Teph taking another jab at America

<3

[Tephnos]

I don't wanna derail the thread but I fucking LOLed when I realized it was Teph taking another jab at America

<3

Love how you COMPLETEY miss where I bigged up America big time. Hah.

Anyway, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm just pointing out the community in general, but I choose to ignore it and stick to the things that keep me happy.

The bronies page just posted something that made me laugh:

Times have changed.
Bronies are getting worse.
They love and tolerate the trolls rather than spit and curse.
Should we blame their motives?
Or their morality?
Or should we just blame a character on TV?
YES!

Blame Derpy Hooves! Blame Derpy Hooves.
You know that tolerance came along since Derpy Hooves came along
Blame Derpy Hooves! Blame Derpy Hooves!
We must form a full troll assault
It's Derpy Hooves' fault!

[H8_Seed]

I don't wanna derail the thread but I fucking LOLed when I realized it was Teph taking another jab at America

<3

Where was this? I failed to see it.

As a matter of fact, the only time I've ever seen Tephnos take a jab at America is when we Americans start poking fun at ourselves first.

[MiuMiuChuu]

My two cents: Fandom disappoints.

But what others had said, if you keep looking at the positive light, fandom is seventh heaven.
Enjoy what you enjoy, respect others, ignore the ignorance, and just be happy with the entertainment the show give you.

[MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN]

Your America analogy is weird and forced. The fact is, even after all the shit America's suffered the past 12 years, we're still the OBVIOUS Superpower. We always worry and talk about The Fall of Rome because that's what any wise person does while they're King of the Mountain. But brah, people around the world reacted to the threat of U.S Default last summer by.......buying treasury bonds lol. America's will fall slowwwwwwwwly.....into mere Great Power status lol. China knows its decades away from even being a real equal - shit there's hundreds of millions of Chinese that still don't have CLEAN WATER.

A better comparison would be....the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.

A powerful, decentralized, impromptu grassroots movement with TONS of passion!

They make themselves heard with a vengeance. YEAH!

BUT..........

because they're a powerful, decentralized, impromptu grassroots movement with tons of passion, undesirable assholes latch themselves onto it for attention and try to hijack it. Undesirable assholes that no-one likes.

For the Tea Party, it was the Neo-Nazis, the Neo-Confederates, the Birthers, anti-Muslim bigots, and Ron Paul supporters.

For OWS, it was the Black Bloc Anarchists, Starbucks Marxists, 9/11 Truthers, Scarily Mentally Ill Homeless, and Ron Paul supporters again LOL.

It wat happens when you're a popular movement but you're not really organized. (That's why I get pissed when anyone compares themselves to The Civil Rights Movement. Ppl act like all those Black History Month events happened by chance lol those dogs and firehoses happened because MLK and the leadership KNEW that marching in THAT city with THAT police chief at THAT time would have the results it did. They were on their shit.)

[Freewave]

lets not turn this into a political discussion please. wrong place and time.