>>11
People tend to be xenophobic and closed-minded when its not their area of expertise(such as subcultures they never heard of).
I am not showing off my subcultural baggage, i understand why some people hate furries, but calling X mental illness devalues the concept(e.g. everyone calling things they don't like "mad", "insane" or "retarded"). As i understand it, the people who are hated outside of a subculture are most often those which display subcultural "superiority" to mainstream groups(e.g. challenging some cultural concept accepted as granted or 'misusing' language of native culture) which it subsequently considers as subversive or abhorrent without examining the wider culture context from which such features come from: the fursuits(which are not some subculture defining element as many think) are just representation of inner desires of subculture members to break off with modern culture(which is challenging status-quo) and be more "animalistic"(rather then abstractly symbolic) which is seen more of a anti-social element than some postmodern strain of thought(instead of understanding that empathic, inclusive nature of the subculture which makes "anti-social" anti-mainstream).