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spman2099

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,891
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.

Yeah, people shouldn't be held accountable for the things they say or do. It just isn't healthy, dammit.

Can you believe that some people propagate bigotry and others have the audacity to deny them a platform? How tyrannical!
 

Deleted member 862

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,646
starts here - https://twitter.com/davejohnblack/status/1304898021491122177

David Black

So there is no nothing someone could have done and no amount of evidence which could change your mind? (Blanket statements, generalizations and hearsay being some of the problems with cancel culture...)

Jonathan Blow

Haven't I been hearing a lot in the past few years stuff like, "a little collateral damage is the cost of making positive change, and the ends justify the means"? Applies here. The game theory of a rule with no exceptions is very clear.

Jessie Perlo

This didn't answer @davejohnblack's question, I'm actually very curious to hear your answer to his question if you would mind?

Jonathan Blow

I thought I answered it. If you can be more specific about what I didn't answer, I can address that specific point.

Jessie Perlo

Sure thing! And sorry, I realize upon rereading that his initial question may not have been clear so: what is "the line" for you? Or rather, is there a circumstance where you would approve of a speaker being cancelled?

Jonathan Blow

If there were no such thing as cancel culture, yes. The problem is that cancel culture's primary tactic, of hyper-exaggerating small differences of opinion into unforgivable sins, does tremendously more harm today (I don't see actual Nazis speaking at computer conferences).

It does a great deal of harm to the individuals targeted by the harassment (who are many by now), and a great deal of damage to the ability of engineering discourse to occur in the way it must if we are going to solve many of the serious problems facing the world today.

I agree that maintaining a positive and inclusive community is important, and that there are people who can be toxic to that effort. I don't agree that small groups of people who seem to put all their energy into being as offended as possible should control the science and engineering discourse. (And if that ends up being the case, it is not a discourse I want to participate in!) I believe this regardless of the political beliefs of those attempting cancellation.

I think many on the left are happy with cancel culture as it stands today, because the majority of cancel pressure is coming from the left. But the right has been learning these tactics too, and anyone who's paid attention to history knows that it doesn't take very long for these things to do a complete 180. It's in everyone's best interest to ensure that we have relatively impartial ways of deciding who is allowed to contribute to the discourse, and that this isn't subject to whim, who is mad at whom today, or who a particular high school clique declares should be shamed.

I think the integrity of our ability to do science and engineering work is very important to preserve. And, yes, doing this properly involves some concerns that the current political left is vocal about. If someone has done high-quality work and has useful things to say about it, but they are excluded from a conference due to racism, sexism or any other kind of unfair bias, that is also doing serious damage to our ability to have the proper discourse, and this should be fixed. I know the people participating in cancel culture rage mobs think they are helping this correction to happen, but in reality, they're doing way more damage than they are doing good.

So there you go you can be a sexist/racist/horrible person as long as you've done "high-quality work" you get a free pass and everyone has to put up with you.
 

R0987

Avenger
Jan 20, 2018
2,828
What is it with the indie heroes of yesteryear that turns them into complete assholes?
 

LinkStrikesBack

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,348
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.

Darn it, you're right, for too long have we as a species held people accountable for their actions. We need to cut that out right now.
 

Kutaragi

Member
Sep 3, 2020
609
ITALY
I think being a fan of Kutaragi and Blow is consistent. I don't know that Kutaragi was an asshole but he certainly was as arrogant as Blow.

Yeah, I'm a fan of strong personalities.
Kutaragi wasn't asshole as Blow is, but he definitely was waaaaaaay more arrogant^^

It would be cool to have a poll on Era about who will buy Blow's next game. I think he fucked himself very hard with these unpleasant statements.
 
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L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
49,972
"I agree that bigotry is bad, but asking me to do literally anything about it is worse."

"Minorities should be allowed to speak freely, but I shouldn't have to listen to them complain."
 

Darkstorne

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,812
England
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.
Do you believe Era would be a healthier place if sexism, racism, homophobia etc were all allowed, and no-one was ever banned?
 

lvl 99 Pixel

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,639
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.

Which kind of personal gain would that be?
 

julia crawford

Took the red AND the blue pills
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,135
When you read code, the race, religion, politics, gender, and orientation of the author are irrelevant and invisible. The only thing you can tell about the author is their ability to write well organized code. Nothing else matters.

Programmers who think code works like this are the absolute worst. This is literally false.
 

Darkstorne

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,812
England
When you read code, the race, religion, politics, gender, and orientation of the author are irrelevant and invisible. The only thing you can tell about the author is their ability to write well organized code. Nothing else matters.
Programmers who think code works like this are the absolute worst. This is literally false.
It was also Ubisoft's approach to their lead devs up until recently. So long as the games are good, nothing else matters. The ends justify the means.

I wonder if Blow realizes he's supporting Ubisoft's problematic culture with that opinion.
 

Catshade

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,198
If you can boot richard fuckin stallman from computer science community due to his sexist views and actions, you can kick out anyone else like him no matter how talented they are.
 

Tpallidum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,157
You know someone's fucked mentally when they imply racism/sexism/transphobia/etc is "just a difference of opinion"

Lol get fucked, Blow
 

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
49,972
It was also Ubisoft's approach to their lead devs up until recently. So long as the games are good, nothing else matters. The ends justify the means.

I wonder if Blow realizes he's supporting Ubisoft's problematic culture with that opinion.
He isn't stupid; the issue is probably more a matter of his underlying values than what he thinks the results of his views are.

In order to even recognize Ubisoft's culture as problematic, you need to be able to recognize abuse as a significant issue. If you don't hold that as having any value, than you're free to frame employees bringing up the issue as the actual problem.

In the interview posted above, Blow pays some lip service to the issues that people are trying to address before immediately belittling them under claims of being "hyper-exaggerated". He's effectively saying that cancel culture is a problem because the underlying issues, things like bigotry and harassment, don't actually matter as much as other people are claiming they are.
 

Arkanim94

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,110
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.
examples needed.
 

SirNinja

One Winged Slayer
Member
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.
If it's "painfully clear" what you're claiming, you should be able to easily provide examples of both the "people" and the "personal gain" in question.
 

Secretofmateria

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,424
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.

cancel culture is important because it works. Its necessary to hold people and companies to a certain standard of social awareness and decency at the threat of hurting them where it hurts the most..their wallets. People should vote with their wallets, and not supporting people with shitty views is a great way to do that. Folks shouldnt worry about cancel culture if they have nothing to hide.
 

Kyuuji

The Favonius Fox
Member
Nov 8, 2017
32,000
There's a reason half of the RNC was spent whining about cancel culture lol.
 

KORNdog

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
8,001
"cancel culture" isn't even a thing in my mind. it's just boycotting under a different name, something we've done for years. the act of not supporting a person, product or service that you don't agree with...which ironically is exactly what blow is doing by not appearing at events that disinvite speakers.
 

waugh

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Feb 21, 2020
1,401
cancel culture is important because it works. Its necessary to hold people and companies to a certain standard of social awareness and decency at the threat of hurting them where it hurts the most..their wallets. People should vote with their wallets, and not supporting people with shitty views is a great way to do that. Folks shouldnt worry about cancel culture if they have nothing to hide.

Cancel culture doesn't even exist. Its a meme propergated by the right to dismiss legitimate criticism against individuals.
 

Bufbaf

Don't F5!
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,636
Hamburg, Germany
Holding people accountable for their words and actions, and speaking up against hate, oppression, racism or misogyny, and taking your own consequences is not "cancel culture". It's common sense.
 

Deleted member 5596

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,747
Individuals deciding on their own to stop listening to you, buying your products or stop giving their support is not 'cancel culture'. Your words and actions can affect negatively others, so when they give you their back is not 'cancel culture' is just people deciding you aren't worth their time and not giving you anymore a free pass for your actions.

When they harass you or bully you because of it, is not cancel culture is another entirely different issue and unrelated. And is usually done by alt-righter or gators.
 

Deleted member 75738

User-requested account closure
Banned
Jul 22, 2020
54
User Banned (1 Month) Dismissing Legitimate Concern as “Politics”, account in junior phase
That's why i don't like politics mixed with creative works, even though it is something that in a lot of cases seems inevitable.

Blow clearly has a different approach to controversial things that don't fit my narrative, but he created Braid, which i enjoyed, and The Witness, which totally blew my mind off. So i'd like for him to keep dropping games like these two.

I don't care about his views in politics, gender, etc. I just want to play good games, and he delivers.

But, in this situation, he can do whathever he wants, if he doesn't want to go to events/conferences, that's his call, and we have no saying in the matter. But i have to give him that coercing authors in this called "cancel movements" is not the best approach.
 

Cranster

Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,788
Cancel culture doesn't even exist. Its a meme propergated by the right to dismiss legitimate criticism against individuals.
Which is hilarious considering their criticism of people like colin kaepernick. It's only cancel culture when it's conservatives being called out. These people who whine about cancel culture are hypocrites.
 

Tavernade

Tavernade
Moderator
Sep 18, 2018
8,617
I personally can't stand cancel culture. Irrespective of his other views I agree with him that it's not healthy.

It's painfuly clear there is an undercurrent of cancel culture controlled by people purely seeking personal gain by taking down those who they feel have "unfairly" had more success than themselves.

Don't be a baby.

Cancel Culture is just another name for 'karma' or 'just desserts' or 'consequences for your actions.' I for one think assholes should not be allowed to enjoy their lives, and get joy from making their time on this planet just a little more miserable.
 

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,305
Good riddance. I hated Braid. And it didn't age well at all.
I always loved this completely unprompted synopsis of Braid from Soulja Boy because it's just so silly, but as time has has gone on and Blow shows more of who he truly is, my love & appreciation grows because I know how much the video gets under his skin.

 

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,305
That's why i don't like politics mixed with creative works, even though it is something that in a lot of cases seems inevitable.

Blow clearly has a different approach to controversial things that don't fit my narrative, but he created Braid, which i enjoyed, and The Witness, which totally blew my mind off. So i'd like for him to keep dropping games like these two.

I don't care about his views in politics, gender, etc. I just want to play good games, and he delivers.

But, in this situation, he can do whathever he wants, if he doesn't want to go to events/conferences, that's his call, and we have no saying in the matter. But i have to give him that coercing authors in this called "cancel movements" is not the best approach.
So nothing else matters so long as you enjoyed a video game?
 
Oct 28, 2017
848
Any sort of cultist behavior is stupid. His books are good, I'd argue programmers should at least check them out. I certainly improved my technique after reading some of his work. But it's nonsensical to idolize all aspects of his opinions or personality because of that.
Listen, if the person that wrote the book tells me I'm too inferior to understand it I'm 100% not going to buy anything from that person ever. I don't care how amazingly the book is written, if the author is a piece of crap and basically hates who I, and many other programmers, are why the fuck would I read them.
 

Just_a_Mouse

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,030
The mask slips and another true scumbag is revealed. He can keep his trash games to himself, I don't care how many years pass either.
 

Deleted member 5596

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,747
Any sort of cultist behavior is stupid. His books are good, I'd argue programmers should at least check them out. I certainly improved my technique after reading some of his work. But it's nonsensical to idolize all aspects of his opinions or personality because of that.

Not that you aren't free to keep using his books or enjoying his games but I have to guess that, as talented as Jonathan is, he's not the only skilled programmer out there with good programming books. I'm sure his books are good, but I'm also sure there are plenty of good books that people can easily access so they don't have to compromise between supporting the asshole dude and using a good programming book if they don't want to.
 

benny

Member
Oct 26, 2017
381
Seems fine, as do most of the statements made by Uncle Bob.

Also the longer reply by him where Blow expands upon the point is well thought out
 

Deleted member 5028

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,724
I did miss the edit, thanks for pointing it out, I'm 100% saying Colin was targeted and not the other way around. The right is pretty much singularly responsible for "cancelling" people in the way they pretend the left do.
Sorry, get ya now -- yeah, there's a huge difference and he's absolutely a victim of racism disguised as a "cancel culture".