@horseman6: You're going to get fringe extremists and misguided people no matter what the issue is. Those far-left reactionaries that cry for the immediate firing of people who misspeak are horrible, but far-right reactionaries are born out of the same mold. For every case of people protesting and calling for resignation of Deans who give a stage for Neo-Nazis, you're going to get people doxxing and stalking women who criticized their videogames. It doesn't eliminate or make less of the actual issues people have. And if you lined up the atrocities committed by both sides, you'd find one side is heavily skewed anyways and it's a false-equivalence to think they're equally bad.
Jumping to hyperbole and claiming a slippery slope that people being held accountable for shitty views is a horrible side-effect of "PC culture" is paranoia. People have a right to voice their opinion, but nobody has an obligation to listen or not question it. And you have to get off this warped view that coastal elites are policing your thoughts and voices. Actual disenfranchised voices are pushing against hate and negative opinions, not some ethics professor bankrolled by a silicon-valley tech mogul or a website full of a diverse cast (of which Austin I think is uniquely experienced in discussing discrimination and negative attention he's received). Sexist, transphobic, and racist remarks will always be considered problematic, this didn't just sprout up because some Ivy League elite said it was. To say it's not questionable to have those views just because it's "an opinion" is disingenuous and ignorant of the impact those kinds of opinions have, especially when they're held by people in positions of power and make decisions based on those opinions to potentially marginalize already powerless groups. It's always struck me as odd that "PC culture" is seen as an attack on free speech when in reality it's literally "That shit you said was not cool," and "Respect that person's decision in how they want to live their life."
Free speech is not free from consequences from the public, it only keeps the government from silencing you. If I'm friends with Tommy and Greg, and Tommy said something bad about Greg to me, it's not on me if I tell Greg about it and Greg decides to not hang out with Tommy again. If I tell an employer that their employee went on a racist tirade or disparaged women, they're free to fire or sanction them. People are free to call-out others just as much as people are free to spout ignorant opinions and insults. The power excised here is just the power to be vocal, what companies and people in positions of power do is up to them alone (unless the problem is actually the result of vicious rumors, then that's libel and slander, of which there are laws to defend against that, and in the worst cases of somebody acting violently on your rumors criminal liability). I respect the right to free speech, I don't have to respect what they say.
To stay on topic, I'm free to not buy this game and criticize the creator for his shitty views if I want. I appreciate him making an apology, but the statements he made in the past and present, as well as the Steam description and his interviews, have raised too many red flags for me. That's about all I'm going to give on that topic and anything else about this argument about an attack on free speech.
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