The "let's convince them that what we want and what they want are the same thing" still sounds like "let's give them what we like because it will be good for them." It still assumes that the central interests of the fandom are widely shared on some significant level, and is kind of a self-centred view of others.
While it is possible for some furry art to stand on its own, it would be because of its novelty or simply because it is well done art. Being furry would likely be quite ancillary. It wouldn't be a contribution from the fandom and more of simply a creator doing well, making appropriate choices for setting, genre, style, etc. And I think you over-estimate what other fandoms have achieved. They do get acknowledged and the inside references or other fancruft, but I don't know how much internal works had mainstream appeal as opposed to something made for mainstream appeal and not really within the confines of the fandom any more.
This remind me of non-furs I meet off-line who have known a furry at some previous point. They frequently viewed the furry aspect as kind of a negative, but not because of the usual baseless or stereotyping junk trolls say. Instead, the complaint was the excess aggrandising of interests. It wasn't that the non-fur hated anthro stuff, they just didn't care and eventually got tired of it coming up so much. This isn't so much about reputation, as just dealing with interaction between those with different interests.
The mention of charity came up not because of reputation, but because when you said, "When I say furry has never contributed anything of lasting value to the greater world," you make it sound like it is about giving something to the world. The charity is an example of giving something to the world that isn't just more of what we already consume and an example of thinking in broader terms.
And yes, Futurama is a concentration of nerdy people, but by now there are a lot of nerdy people in TV and film industries. You can come across many such people that grew up with Star Wars/Star Trek, comic books, etc., including many that went to conventions and spend time on the internet with other fans. This also means they had the same chance of exposure to the various works that got people interested in anthros before finding the fandom, although in the end that is a much smaller number than people interested in say sci-fi.
The "let's convince them that what we want and what they want are the same thing" still sounds like "let's give them what we like because it will be good for them." It still assumes that the central interests of the fandom are widely shared on some significant level, and is kind of a self-centred view of others.
While it is possible for some furry art to stand on its own, it would be because of its novelty or simply because it is well done art. Being furry would likely be quite ancillary. It wouldn't be a contribution from the fandom and more of simply a creator doing well, making appropriate choices for setting, genre, style, etc. And I think you over-estimate what other fandoms have achieved. They do get acknowledged and the inside references or other fancruft, but I don't know how much internal works had mainstream appeal as opposed to something made for mainstream appeal and not really within the confines of the fandom any more.
This remind me of non-furs I meet off-line who have known a furry at some previous point. They frequently viewed the furry aspect as kind of a negative, but not because of the usual baseless or stereotyping junk trolls say. Instead, the complaint was the excess aggrandising of interests. It wasn't that the non-fur hated anthro stuff, they just didn't care and eventually got tired of it coming up so much. This isn't so much about reputation, as just dealing with interaction between those with different interests.
The mention of charity came up not because of reputation, but because when you said, "When I say furry has never contributed anything of lasting value to the greater world," you make it sound like it is about giving something to the world. The charity is an example of giving something to the world that isn't just more of what we already consume and an example of thinking in broader terms.
And yes, Futurama is a concentration of nerdy people, but by now there are a lot of nerdy people in TV and film industries. You can come across many such people that grew up with Star Wars/Star Trek, comic books, etc., including many that went to conventions and spend time on the internet with other fans. This also means they had the same chance of exposure to the various works that got people interested in anthros before finding the fandom, although in the end that is a much smaller number than people interested in say sci-fi.