Steam forums is a a pretty pure slice of "gamer energy" when it comes to these things. I
I thanked the user for the post because it shed light on the underlying issue:
- Separate work from the worker
- Separate art from the artist
- Separate good from the bad
... And many other flavors of the same concept. This ultimately boils down to my primary (only) stance on the matter. If we can't agree on this then I respectfully ask that we agree to disagree.
I'm sorry, but I'm not going to just agree to disagree on this as I believe this is the crux of the issue here and you should understand where we are coming from fully.
I thought I explained it concisely, and this is an honest attempt for your to understand our perspective here, so I'll try once more:
It is easy to say "separate art from the artist", and at a glance it seems like a logical thing to do. If a person produces a work that is valuable, then their political views or hateful things they say don't directly diminish the value of the work they did. That work, standing in a vacuum, still has meaningful value.
It does not stand in a vacuum, though. If you support a person's work, you support the person. If you support the person, your support helps perpetuate everything they are able to do because of that support.
Even if you outright state and make it clear you condone their actions/beliefs and only find value in their work, you are still signal boosting the person and their beliefs and helping them spread.
For some of us, there is a line we cannot cross here. If a person's beliefs and support are the literal antithesis of our lives (LGBTQ - trans women specially here, non-white peoples, etc...), then "separation of art from the artist" becomes an unfathomable thing. How can we do that, lend support to a person who is actively harming us and our rights? How can we NOT raise awareness here for those how care about the same things?
Now, you might not personally feel the weight of this. Perhaps the things you separate from the artist do not directly affect you, or perhaps they do and you are somehow able to let them go. Minorities are not a monolith, it is fine if you can personally do this.
However, when you come into a thread like this and dismiss the above with calls IN GENERAL to "separate art from artist" and lamenting the fact people don't seem to be able to do this, you are actively dismissing the reasons why people DO do this.
Much like your ACAB comments. I understand why a person might think "but not all cops are terrible people", but that is not what the phrase is saying. It is commenting on the "brother hood of silence and complicity via inaction that allows for the truly bad cops to do what they do. For example, the 50 cops who walked out of their riot squad positions recently after an officer who assaulted a women was charged... where were all the good cops standing up together to call this out? This doesn't happen, hence: ACAB.
You're free to debate against the above, that is your right, but dismissing the concerns of others or not even taking the time to inform yourself why or acknowledge them when they are explained is a hallmark of people we meet who express views like your own. Understanding all of this, it is easy to see why your posts have had the reactions they did.
You are free to ignore this, you are free to carry on posting as you are, I can't force an understanding on you. I just hop[e that, even if you disagree with us, you can understand why we are responding the way we are.
The implications are quite heavy, but are still not conclusive.
I'm sorry, but they are conclusive here imo. You absolutely cannot support the above without directly supporting the racism that is the root cause of it all. And this is another reason "separation of good and bad" is simply not feasible for many people, and it should be easy to understand why this is.
