SiegedSec, a collective of self-proclaimed “gay furry hackers,” has claimed credit for breaching online databases of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that spearheaded the rightwing Project 2025 playbook. On Wednesday, as part of string of hacks aimed at organizations that oppose trans rights, SiegedSec released a cache of Heritage Foundation material.

In a post to Telegram announcing the hack, SiegedSec called Project 2025 “an authoritarian Christian nationalist plan to reform the United States government.” The attack was part of the group’s #OpTransRights campaign, which recently targeted rightwing media outlet Real America’s Voice, the Hillsong megachurch, and a Minnesota pastor.

In his foreword to the Project 2025 manifesto, the Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, rails against “the toxic normalization of transgenderism” and “the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology.” The playbook’s other contributors call on “the next conservative administration” to roll back certain policies, including allowing trans people to serve in the military.

“We’re strongly against Project 2025 and everything the Heritage Foundation stands for,” one of SiegedSec’s leaders, who goes by the handle vio, told The Intercept.

  • Don_Dickle
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    145 months ago

    can you ELI5 what the hell a furry is and how it got started?

    • knightly the Sneptaur
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      5 months ago

      They’re kinda like anime fans, but their self-insert characters are all animal people.

      The subculture traces back to a series of room parties at scifi conventions in the 80’s, but didn’t grow into its own until the internet got more common.

      • @Benjaben@lemmy.world
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        35 months ago

        Wait, this is news to me. My understanding was that it began as effectively a kink with its associated community. Like, I think I recall it being pretty much strictly sexual in every way I heard of it for a long time. And then lately I see that it’s more broad than that - the most clear example I have is when my kiddo’s friend recently named it as one of the cliched “kid archetypes” at their high school, e.g. jock/goth/furry/etc. Maybe it was just never specifically sexual or maybe it’s been through some evolutions.

        • ✺roguetrick✺
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          315 months ago

          Brother, you get a bunch of nerds into any subculture and it’ll turn sexual fast. I’m sure there were plenty of spock eared sex parties.

          • @TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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            215 months ago

            I’m convinced there is a subsection of con/ren faire nerds that have more sex than anyone on the planet who isn’t a sex worker. They’re out there breaking stereotypes and boning down.

            • @moody@lemmings.world
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              185 months ago

              Nerdy conventions are well-known for bringing people together who have the same or very comoatible kinks. The more you lean into a fandom, the better your odds of getting laid. Custom cosplay is like a big “pick me” sign.

              • @TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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                155 months ago

                Agree with all that. In addition, there are a lot of open minded nerds. Maybe I’m not into something necessarily, but I’m willing to give it a whirl. That opens up the pool of other nerds that want to bang you.

                And Ren Faires are full of an insane amount of alcohol and (after hours) drugs. So you have a bunch of sweaty nerds with lowered inhibitions camping together. Camping sex is intense (in tents).

            • @Benjaben@lemmy.world
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              105 months ago

              LOL just a devoted nerddom out here making even the Olympic Village look like a buncha prudes by comparison, and no one knows because the participants are too busy fucking to communicate with the outside world.

            • Match!!
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              75 months ago

              Queer nerds? Absolutely. It’s basically a polycule for playing board games and swapping blowjobs

              • @TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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                85 months ago

                Not only them, but the queer nerds are definitely at the top of that list. There’s also a lot of overlap between queer nerds and kinky nerds, but there is a surprising number of straight nerds getting it on as well. And some that start and end the weekend straight but dabble in things they wouldn’t do back home while they’re there.

                And as long as they’re not hurting anyone, good for them. I support getting away for a bit of debauchery from time to time.

          • @kshade@lemmy.world
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            25 months ago

            Brother, you get a bunch of nerds into any subculture and it’ll turn sexual fast. I’m sure there were plenty of spock eared sex parties.

            Case in point:

            It is commonly believed that slash fan fiction originated during the late 1960s, within the Star Trek: The Original Series fan fiction fandom, starting with “Kirk/Spock” stories generally authored by female fans of the series and distributed privately among friends. The name arises from the use of the slash symbol (/) in mentions in the late '70s of K/S (meaning stories where Kirk and Spock had a romantic [and often sexual] relationship)

        • knightly the Sneptaur
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          95 months ago

          It’s always been more broad than that, the sexual aspects are just a lot more apparent than they are in the wider culture.

          Talk to the staff at a convention hotel sometime and they’ll tell you that the kinkiest group they serve are Dentists. They might look more professional at first, but they’ve got disposable income and nothing else to live for, so their room parties get wild.

          • @Benjaben@lemmy.world
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            45 months ago

            That’s interesting and I hadn’t realized. It’s not surprising, I guess, we people tend to latch onto the salacious bits (see the joke about “if you build 100 bridges do they call you Johnny the bridge builder?..”). And frankly “people like to dress up as animals and LARP as them” (and apologies if that’s overly reductive to someone) just isn’t all that interesting lol, like any other hobby I don’t happen to be into.

            Bit about the dentists makes perfect sense, haha. Bet the lawyers are about the same.

        • Match!!
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          45 months ago

          I guess nerd had to be retired after every human under 50 started spending the majority of their time looking at an internet connected device.

        • @Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          15 months ago

          Def started as a 100 percent sexual thing but there’s non sexual subgroups now a days. I believe Fredrick knulson has a into the rabbit hole documentary about it. If he doesn’t, he’s still worth a watch his videos are great.

    • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)
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      165 months ago

      (I am not a furry, but I’ll try my best to explain what I know.)

      People who really like anthropomorphic animals (animals with human features).

      Generally what I’ve heard from others is “If you want to be a furry, you’re a furry.”, so the following are not requirements.

      Most have a “fursona”. It is an animal character that sort of represents you. Like your own personal mascot.
      It may be whatever color and specie you like. Even a hybrid between species. A person can have multiple fursonas.

      Generally furries like to draw these characters, or even some more generic ones like for example Nick Wilde from Zootopia.
      Some furry artists accept drawing commissions, i.e.: you can pay someone to draw your character.

      Some even have fursuits. That is an expensive suit of your fursona, so you can fully be your own private mascot. By expensive, I mean multiple thousands (yes, freedom currency). Of course, it’s made by people, and you are people. DIY is also an option, and if you get skillful enough… money. Though it doesn’t have to be a fullsuit. It could be head-only or partial (head, paws, feetpaws, tail). Also digitigrade suits are usually more expensive than plantigrade, but let’s not get too far.

      Not sure if I gave any good explanation, but certainly better than that episode of CSI xD.

      • Don_Dickle
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        -65 months ago

        Not to be a clit that has got to be the most messed up thing I read today. But I appreciate the info and you typing it out nosarcasm

        • @Nelots@lemm.ee
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          35 months ago

          Eh, its just a community of people having fun and being themselves. I also think it’s weird, but it’s harmless, so who cares? I don’t have the self esteem to be so open about something that society at large finds weird af, so honestly, good for them.

    • Match!!
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      85 months ago

      “the fandom” on youtube is a good documentary if you want to be explained to for 1.5 hours

    • @Wahots@pawb.social
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      5 months ago

      Basically, everyone has a Mii/xbox avatar unique to them, like a physical username, called a persona/fursona. Some people get extremely expensive custom suits of their fursona. It’s semi like anime fans, but not tied to corps, very decentralized. It got started in the 70s and 80s with sci-fi cons where people gathered for disney-esque animal cartoons and comics, and has roots in importing anime to the US.

      The furry community is somewhat like a church with various chapters, you can join furry chats in various cities and countries to quickly form a social network wherever you go. In the US, there tend to be city chats, state chats, regional chats, and national/international chats. These cover a broad range of interests from coin collecting to mountain biking and skiing, but the common thread is that everyone is a furry.

      Conventions occur and are like a cross between a family reunion, blackout party, and university classes where panels are taught on things like fursuit building, drawing, car meetups, pilot meetups, doctor meetups, etc. It’s like a networking and party event on steroids.They are fun as hell and occur all over the world, ranging from a few hundred people to over 15,500 people. They have been growing dramatically since 2016. Cons usually partner with local animal charities and tend to donate tens of thousands of dollars each con.

      It tends to be a very welcoming and open community, drawing a significant portion of the population that is LGBTQ. Last time I checked, this was about 2/3rds of the population.

    • Noxy
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      45 months ago

      disney’s robin hood

      and, disney’s robin hood

      add a dash of balto to both answers too