“What is truth?” The only thing that matters in terms of establishing a group’s (very much permanent) reputation is what percolates to the general cultural zeitgeist of people who don’t know what the word hypertext means. When the insular furry communities of the Y2K era kicked out the weird freaks who were actively hostile to the ideas of kink consent, consent in general, and non-white people continuing to draw breath, they descended on 4chan and SomethingAwful and various other forums and pretty much instantly solidified the unsuspecting public’s idea of furries as being creepy Nazis. It’s not fair, but you only get one shot at establishing an eternal reputation and it’s more or less completely out of your control.