I was originally going to write a huge post about this because I'm very passionate about fandom (the good, the bad, the dead and the ugly) and how the culture generally works but I am dead serious when I say I would go down swinging defending furries before most other people.

That sounds like a joke, but that fanbase is mostly neurodivergent and/or queer children who just like cute animals. If they want to express themselves with a sparkledog, fucking let them. For every freak out there, there's a hundred who's not.