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Jonathan Blow threatens to boycott conferences that "disinvite speaker[s] due to "cancel culture"-style pressure" [UPDATE: He's a COVID truther too]

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SixPointEight

SixPointEight

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,283
2B or not 2B said:
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.
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Bob doesn't say that explicitly - buuuuut he still has problematic views. In the sense that he believes that meritocracy is a thing in the first place, and therefore no effort has to be made to make the industry better for marginalized groups because meritocracy!

So yeah if you read the dotted lines it's all there but he just never explicitly said it.

Still - fuck him.
 
tobascodagama

tobascodagama

Member
Aug 21, 2020
1,358
Every once in a while, your unfounded gut feeling about somebody turns out to be accurate. This is one of those times. (Bob Martin being a prick is news to me, though. No idea how I missed that.)
 
red_shift_ltd

red_shift_ltd

Member
May 24, 2019
741
US
White men complaining about blowback for abusers is just such nonsense.
He's right in the age bracket where he probably has some embarrassing dirt or at least some friends who do.

I mean, ok sure man it's your life. We'll be ok without you.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,318
JuniperAndSage said:
Spent way too much of the last decade surrounded by dudes just like this. Just the most boring, unethical, ignorant dudes imaginable. And despite all that (or more like because of it) they run the country.
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It's painful to see these types lionized as well. Dude is a talented game maker. He's not a fucking visionary or a sage. He's a programmer.
 
Grimsey

Grimsey

Member
Nov 1, 2017
539
Spoo said:
Why do we even care about this? Like, seriously, is it news? Did, somehow, people before this believe that Jon Blow wasn't an asshole? Is this some earth-shattering revelation from Blow to his followers on Twitter that has major ramifications for the rest of the world? No. Blow will continue to make his games, unimpeded, and his followers can continue reading his hot takes and malding about them over here, but honestly this isn't deserving of a thread. All it does is signal boost some dumb take on Twitter, which we have enough of already thanks to the President of the United State having an account there. Sadly, the latter individual is newsworthy since shitty decisions *that* guy makes actually contributes to fucking the world more. Game devs having shitty opinions is nothing new, and though it may be cathartic to yell into the echo chamber about how stupid Jon Blow is, people here are still following his Twitter waiting for him to make his next dumbass decree.

We gotta stop acting like we aren't falling right into the trap when we build mountains out of mole hills.
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I'll admit that I wasn't aware of his uh.. opinions, and agreed, it's not exactly something to lose sleep over. My question has more to do with, why would a public face potentially sabotage their own brand for no good reason? It seems like a good way to alienate part of the audience. And beyond that, why welcome the drama? Are they just bored? I dunno, clearly I don't understand Twitter. Follow-up question, why does anyone use Twitter (I kid)
 
Silvergun-Blue

Silvergun-Blue

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,930
JuniperAndSage said:
Spent way too much of the last decade surrounded by dudes just like this. Just the most boring, unethical, ignorant dudes imaginable. And despite all that (or more like because of it) they run the country.
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I read a great quote on r/twoxchromasomes. "Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man" It really sums up the unearned self importance of these people.
 
Kenai

Kenai

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,182
Terminalz said:
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.
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The whole problem with that frame of thinking is that there is no bottom floor. Is it ok that JK Rowling is a massive TERF that is contributing to the marginalization and death of a lot of innocent trans folk because she made the Harry Potter franchise? Is it ok for Chik Fil A to be horribly anti lbgt if they make good sandwiches? How about if they donate to the Special Olympics?

"They are allowed to 'get away' with X amount of evil because they are good at Y". I find that view pretty fcked up personally, especially if you are volunteering up groups of marginalized people that you are not a part of. Who are you or me or anyone else to speak for them on what is and isn't ok for them to have to deal with?
 
A.M.

A.M.

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
810
Under a mountain of blankets. Send cute otters.
Huh, so...
fb1ee8cf-4596-434c-94eojeg.png


Link to the tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/Dwarvenhobble/status/1305626332630581248

I... What?
 
Res-bot

Res-bot

Member
Nov 11, 2017
618
User banned (1 month): trolling with a racist joke
This Jonathan Blow guy has been putting his bigoted views into his games for ages. Take this puzzle solution in the Witness:

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It's basically advocating racial segregation. Separating blacks and whites. It even becomes one of the 'core rules' in progressing through the puzzles in the game. Ingraining historical and systemic abuse against a certain people into some sort of abstract puzzle to be solved. Devious shocking and typical of Blow.
 
Feep

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,596
Res-bot said:
This Jonathan Blow guy has been putting his bigoted views into his games for ages. Take this puzzle solution in the Witness:

33068265.jpg

It's basically advocating racial segregation. Separating blacks and whites. It even becomes one of the 'core rules' in progressing through the puzzles in the game. Ingraining historical and systemic abuse against a certain people into some sort of abstract puzzle to be solved. Devious shocking and typical of Blow.
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I can't stand Blow or his views, but like...this has to be a troll?
 
vpricot

vpricot

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
483
Good. Sink into obscurity. You make good games but beyond that your thoughts hold no value for me.
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

#1 Waluigi Fan! Current Status: Crying
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,908
It sucks how awful he is considering how much I love Braid and The Witness. Why do fuckers like him have to ruin everything.
 

Deleted member 8752

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,122
Way to add nothing to the conversation but ignorance and condescension. Thanks for nothing, Blow.

You're not the smartest guy in the room, even though you desperately want to be.
 
Messofanego

Messofanego

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,118
UK
Hope he retires from gaming and just farts off into the wind. He doesn't deserve relevancy. He's just now about controversial takes ever since The Witness came out.
 
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