It is a bit disheartening how conventions are reacting to him having a particular political belief. One doesn't need to agree with it or support it (Indeed, I've been against Putin's unjustified war since the beginning and frustrated that Ukraine is basically just being left alone when we should be giving them far more support.) to understand that one should be free to hold those and profess those beliefs.
Things might be different if he had been involved in combat in Ukraine but it doesn't seem that that's the case. It might have been different if he was using Eurofurence to promote Russian propaganda but I didn't see any mention of that. He was going to be there to perform his music as he has done in the past with no issues. That he has views that are contrary to the organisers and majority of attendees is irrelevant.
Western values should include free speech and the freedom to hold diverse political opinions. We should not be going back in time to the days of McCarthyism in the US where people were sanctioned for holding the wrong political beliefs. Or going East to the autocratic regimes of Russia and China where dissent from the political mainstream results in you losing your job, prison time or worse. We are supposed to have a society which values diversity of thought and, when there is disagreement, we discuss our differences rather than try to silence those with whom we disagree.
Even worse is that Eurofurence's announcement comes just days after an assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie because he wrote something that other people disagreed with. It worries me that I see many in the furry fandom that seem to follow the extremist branch of left wing ideology that is happy to use violence as a political tool. Those people that celebrate punching others for their beliefs (however abhorrent they may be) and is happy to talk about how some key moments in the LGBT movement came from a riot, along with images of bloody bricks. It is concerning to wonder how many of those people might actually act out those violent fantasies, as we have seen with Islamic fundamentalists, to enforce their own brand of intolerance. Exclusion and violence are not the answers to disagreements.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
It is a bit disheartening how conventions are reacting to him having a particular political belief. One doesn't need to agree with it or support it (Indeed, I've been against Putin's unjustified war since the beginning and frustrated that Ukraine is basically just being left alone when we should be giving them far more support.) to understand that one should be free to hold those and profess those beliefs.
Things might be different if he had been involved in combat in Ukraine but it doesn't seem that that's the case. It might have been different if he was using Eurofurence to promote Russian propaganda but I didn't see any mention of that. He was going to be there to perform his music as he has done in the past with no issues. That he has views that are contrary to the organisers and majority of attendees is irrelevant.
Western values should include free speech and the freedom to hold diverse political opinions. We should not be going back in time to the days of McCarthyism in the US where people were sanctioned for holding the wrong political beliefs. Or going East to the autocratic regimes of Russia and China where dissent from the political mainstream results in you losing your job, prison time or worse. We are supposed to have a society which values diversity of thought and, when there is disagreement, we discuss our differences rather than try to silence those with whom we disagree.
Even worse is that Eurofurence's announcement comes just days after an assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie because he wrote something that other people disagreed with. It worries me that I see many in the furry fandom that seem to follow the extremist branch of left wing ideology that is happy to use violence as a political tool. Those people that celebrate punching others for their beliefs (however abhorrent they may be) and is happy to talk about how some key moments in the LGBT movement came from a riot, along with images of bloody bricks. It is concerning to wonder how many of those people might actually act out those violent fantasies, as we have seen with Islamic fundamentalists, to enforce their own brand of intolerance. Exclusion and violence are not the answers to disagreements.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~