Many pony fans are feeling hurt, confused and upset by the news that an apparent nazi brony committed a mass shooting. There's an urge to get defensive, to state "this isn't who we are!"

But that attitude doesn't actually address the problem or do anything to solve it.

The truth is, the top sites in this community are guilty of allowing this sort of ideology to fester in our community for ages.

From EQD taking a laid-back attitude to political opinion posts, to Derpibooru reversing its decision to get rid of nazi content. This is US.

While trying to satisfy "both sides" we only allow violent extremists to infiltrate and spread fascism throughout our community.

Let me be clear: this is not the fault of your average pony fan. This issue starts at the TOP. Site admins and moderators I'm talking to YOU.

You do not bargain with the nazis in your spaces. You do not hold polls to see how they feel about being kicked out. You do not cater to the whims of white supremacists.

You kick them the fuck out. No ifs ands or buts.

When a place like Derpibooru, our most popular image site, takes a stand against nazi content and then backs down days later do you know what that says?

It says you value having nazis in your community more than you value not being seen as a nazi breeding ground.

If you're upset with THIS being the public image the world has of us, but do nothing to actually tackle the issue then you deserve the public condemnation you get.

This is the image we EARNED through inaction and compromising with "ironic" brony nazis.

Does the media sensationalize and play up angles for ratings? Of course they do.

But this is not some absurd falsification. We've known brony nazis were a thing for years now and top sites in our fandom did NOTHING. They treated it like a joke.

"Its not a big problem"

On Derpibooru, Aryanne is the third most popular original character in number of images on the site, coming in behind a mass self-insert character and the main character from one of the most popular pony fanfics of all time.

Its no surprise to me that nazis love us.

The leaders of Derpibooru fought an entire internal war over hosting Nazi imagery and content on their site.

If this is the sort of thing you fight to preserve and support in your community, how can you then be upset that the wider world associates us with nazis?

It doesn't matter if you're "trying to better moderate" your site. You compromised. You signaled to people like the Fedex shooter that this is ok to do in the pony community.

The fact that nazi imagery remains on the site AT ALL means Derpibooru is fine with that.

So I don't really care for people saying "this isn't us" or "he doesn't represent us".

At least when it comes to our leading communities that's a big fat lie. We lay out a welcome mat for these people, fight to support them, and ensure that they'll always be apart of our fandom.

PS: If you're staff at Derpibooru and this thread upsets you, then maybe actually do something about nazis and nazi content on your site.

Otherwise spare me the righteous indignation. Its meaningless.