(For both parties it is legitimate to throw political punches in other contexts, like on social media.)
I don't know that we can entirely avoid discussing politics in the context of a game where even his publisher felt the need to publicly disavow his political views.
It's also a game that incorporates work from a wide variety of other creators, several of whom made well-publicised statements that they would not have agreed to be a part of this had Blow's current political views been common knowledge at the time.
Of course we can! If some far-left activist makes a puzzle game without activism in it, we should do the same and judge the game on its own terms, without need for political discussion or publisher statements.
> It's also a game that incorporates work from a wide variety of other creators, several of whom made well-publicised statements that they would not have agreed to be a part of this had Blow's current political views been common knowledge at the time.
This is like the collaborators of our hypothetical far-left puzzle creator disavowing him for being woke. That's obviously just as bad. If the work (the game in this case) has no political content, the political convictions of the collaborators don't matter.
If a far-left activist made an overly non-political game incorporating the work of other leftists, they would catch flak from their own compatriots over betraying their principals for money.
Look, "separating the art from the artist" is all very well, but we can't do that without acknowledging the political views of the artist(s) (especially when the artists are publicly beefing over said views)
I don't think that's true. It doesn't make any sense. Leftists would obviously be perfectly okay with collaborating with other leftists on whatever.
The point was that people on both the left and right should be okay with collaborating with people of the opposite end of the political spectrum when it comes to apolitical projects.
Imagine you were only allowed (or willing) to contribute to the Linux kernel if your personal unrelated political views align with those of Linus Torvalds. That would obviously be crazy.
> Look, "separating the art from the artist" is all very well, but we can't do that without acknowledging the political views of the artist(s)
Absolutely we can! We don't go around referencing the political opinions of our car mechanic or hair dresser, because these don't matter for the quality of their jobs. Exactly the same holds for game designers who make unpolitical games.
> We don't go around referencing the political opinions of our car mechanic or hair dresser, because these don't matter for the quality of their jobs
You and I seem to live in very different worlds
Hairdressing is extremely political.
As for the car mechanic example, I wouldn't be black and have my car "repaired" by a racist who would overcharge me out of spite and could sabotage my brake lines. Or just talk with women about their experience with car mechanics and see how much their political opinions on women don't matter.
Again, you can afford not to engage with politics at the hair salon or the garage only because you belong to the dominant group.
Start talking to people who aren't like you and you will discover a lot of things you never see in your life. That's what it means to be "woke": it is to awaken to the experience of people who are looked down upon.
It's not. You don't have to evaluate their political opinion to evaluate the quality of the hairstyles. You can just look at their work. Whether the hairdresser is on the left or right, he/she can't and won't force a hairstyle on you which you don't want.
> As for the car mechanic example, I wouldn't be black and have my car "repaired" by a racist who would overcharge me out of spite and could sabotage my brake lines.
This is ridiculous. You could equally have chosen an example of you as an old white man, with a woke car mechanic who overcharges you and sabotages your brake lines out of spite. But you didn't. Because that would be just as absurd. But you only see your political enemy, right-wing people, as evil, not left-wing people, your political allies. That this is extreme political bias I need not point out.
Because it is ridiculous. It is a completely absurd premise born in a mind that tries to "both sides" things that are not the same. "Woke" is not reverse racism.
Written by Blow on February 2025.
What are you pretty sure, exactly?