Oculus Remains Silent After Community, Dev Backlash Over Luckey Funding Anti-Hillary Memes

[kcarbotte]

Amidst the news of Oculus' Founder, Palmer Luckey, backing an anti-Hillary non-profit, some developers are distancing themselves from the Oculus platform.

Oculus Remains Silent After Community, Dev Backlash Over Luckey Funding Anti-Hillary Memes : Read more

 

[g-thor]

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. How would devs feel if Luckey announced that any pro Hillary supporters would not be allowed to market their software on the Rift? Do citizens of America believe in free speech, freedom of thought, freedom of association or not? It's your Constitution that really sets you apart from so many other countries in the world. Don't forget how important the principles it enshrines are to your national character.

 

[bit_user]

Facebook will probably just hunker down and wait for this to blow over. As long as Luckey didn't do this on the company's behalf or using company resources, I don't see them parting ways over it.

We usually think of California as liberal, but there have been lots of tech luminaries that back the GOP. Even Apple's Tim Cook has recently been fundraising for them. The only difference here is the level of polarization, in the presidential race, and the specific tactics which Luckey is funding (which are probably not that different from the "yellow journalism" of a hundred years ago).

 

[kcarbotte]

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. How would devs feel if Luckey announced that any pro Hillary supporters would not be allowed to market their software on the Rift? Do citizens of America believe in free speech, freedom of thought, freedom of association or not? It's your Constitution that really sets you apart from so many other countries in the world. Don't forget how important the principles it enshrines are to your national character.

Boycotting and denouncing something you don't agree with is part of that freedom.

To be clear, the developers that have denounced Oculus thus far, have been clear to point out the racist memes that this organization promotes, not the fact that Luckey supports Trump.

 

[rayden54]

lawl. Everyone and their dog spouts anti-Trump <mod edit> (including about half the tech news sites). Someone uses their money to support anti-Clinton <mod edit> and suddenly everyone's outraged. What a bunch of hypocrites.

<Watch your language>

 

[Lovenlife2015]

The liberal agenda and those who support it only care about there freedom and if you don't agree with them well you don't deserve to have freedom. This is what the modern day Democratic Party believes.

 

[kcarbotte]

lawl. Everyone and their dog spouts anti-Trump <mod edit> (including about half the tech news sites). Someone uses their money to support anti-Clinton <mod edit> and suddenly everyone's outraged. What a bunch of hypocrites.

Anti-Hillary isn't the issue.
Neither is pro-Trump

It's the messages of bigotry found in the memes he's funding that have outraged the community.

 

[MW____]

Freedom of speech means you cant go to jail for saying what you think. If you're in my house spewing racist stuff I can still show you the door like Twitter or leave if it's your house like in this case with Oculus and devs leaving.

Freedom of speech =/= freedom of consequence

 

[jdog2pt0]

This is beyond asinine. What happened to being allowed to have a personal life. All these naysayers are just people who are so bored that they having nothing better to do than to find things to get upset about. This is the tech industry; why can't we be divided over what hardware we use and what games we play instead of letting politics leach into the equation. I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that a bunch of the whiners aren't people who play games/would ever own an oculus rift anyway. Probably just those sjw cucks looking for something to bitch about.

 

[therealduckofdeath]

A white guy in IT who spams racist and misogynist memes on the internet. How original. Isn't it about time for the most advanced industry mankind has to start clearing out its 18th century mentality?
Whelp. I'm not buying a Gear VR HMD for my soon-to-be new Galaxy Note 7 until that Redacted is gone from Oculus.

 

[jpishgar]

Just a reminder, on the Tom's Hardware forums, civility is compulsory. Particularly when discussing items along this topic. Please keep things relevant to the discussion at hand, and respect each other.
-JP

 

[Realist9]

I guess I would have to see the memes to have any intelligent response to this. Although, the use of the words "racist" and "bigot" has been so warped the last 5 or 10 years, it's clear most people have no clue what they actually mean.

 

[Realist9]

Also, if the headline is "...funding anti-Hillary memes..." but the content is actually about bigoted memes, then the headline is wrong.

 

[Joseph_117]

He's getting what he deserves I hate both candidates but Hillary is better

 

[wiyosaya]

He's getting what he deserves I hate both candidates but Hillary is better

As I see it, you have that right.

My vote is not FOR Hillary, but AGAINST Trump and all the vile divisive vitriol he spouts and represents.

As far as VR goes, I would have bought Steam anyway.

 

[Jeff Fx]

The liberal agenda and those who support it only care about there freedom and if you don't agree with them well you don't deserve to have freedom. This is what the modern day Democratic Party believes.

No, that's what people indoctrinated by media built to mislead Conservatives actually believe that liberals believe. There's never been a freedom to be a bad person, and you don't get one just because too many Conservatives think being a bad person is a value to be cherished. Empower bigots, or be a bigot,and people and businesses will shun you. This isn't a bad thing, it's one way we keep hostile people from hurting others. Conservatives and Liberals both support being able to choose who we do business with as long as it's a problem with the individual, and not based on bigotry. It's just the far-right-wing extremists that think there should be no consequences for being openly-terrible people.

The Liberal agenda is just to treat others decently, and to maintain a secular, reason-based society so civilization survives.

 

[Jeff Fx]

He's getting what he deserves I hate both candidates but Hillary is better

As I see it, you have that right.

My vote is not FOR Hillary, but AGAINST Trump and all the vile divisive vitriol he spouts and represents.

As far as VR goes, I would have bought Steam anyway.

Same here, but just about every reason they give to dislike Hillary turns out to be right-wing propaganda. My reason to not be thrilled with her is irrational too. I'd like more people from different families to participate in our politics, but I can see that's not a rational reason to reject a qualified candidate.

Trump's open support of, and emboldening of terrible bigots is totally unacceptable, so I'll definitely show up primarily to stop the rise of something really ugly in America.

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Imagine if Google decided to cancel the accounts of anyone who they determined was a pro-Clinton supporter? Does that sound like a rational decision? No. Likewise threatening to withdraw business from another company because of a tangential relationship is just as foolish. Business is business, politics is politics. Best to keep the two separated.

Sadly, this is going to be probably one of the most polarizing election cycles in quite some time, and I think things are only going to get worse until the election is over.

 

[Adr2t]

Most of these companies I never even heard of? What does it matter? Their games wont be miss in my book.

 

[urbanj]

Anyone else wondering how many of these Developers who have denounced Oculus have recently received a large payment in their bank accounts?

"The article alleges"
"The Daily Beast said"

Statements which have no proof behind them.
Personally, I don't care if it is true or not. I am just pointing out how people have these knee jerk reactions without actually analyzing the info they are taking in.
It's like being bitten by a snake and immediately cutting off your leg. Better hope that snake was super poisonous and you made the right call.

 

[therealduckofdeath]

Imagine if Google decided to cancel the accounts of anyone who they determined was a pro-Clinton supporter?

This really has nothing to do with partisanism, unless you're telling us that the GOP is openly racist and misogynist.

 

[rayden54]

lawl. Everyone and their dog spouts anti-Trump <mod edit> (including about half the tech news sites). Someone uses their money to support anti-Clinton <mod edit> and suddenly everyone's outraged. What a bunch of hypocrites.

Anti-Hillary isn't the issue.
Neither is pro-Trump

It's the messages of bigotry found in the memes he's funding that have outraged the community.

Funny how that's not mentioned in the article. One line does mention "keeping hatred and bigotry." Problem is people seem to use the "hatred and bigotry" as a strawman argument for anything that comes out of Trump's mouth.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Self-righteous indignation? These companies have a right to conduct their businesses as they see fit, within the law, just as Mr. Luckey has a right to express himself. While there may be no legal consequences to saying something that others disagree with, or to boycotting the company he works for, there certainly are other consequences.

 

[littleleo]

Well you hate to see this talk of boycotting businesses over something one guy in the business has done or is doing outside of the business. That affects all the other people working their who may not share the guy's political views. But now they are being punished for something beyond their control. I think everyone should take a step back and let the emotions cool before you make such a decision.

To the one guy asking who care about these developers that he hasn't heard of and why he should care. Well there aren't stacks and stacks of VR games and if you reduce the number available for a platform you limit the competitiveness of that company. VR is still a new and growing segment out there, and there aren't as many options today as there will be in say just a year from now. Imagine if Bill Gates had been in this kind of situation back when PCs were just beginning. Do you think MS would be as dominate if a bunch of developers blacklisted MS? Back when IBM came out with their 1st PC there were other O/Ss out there that are gone today. Imagine if developers only made office products for non-MS platforms or games developers avoided coding for MS how different it would be today.

As strange as this whole situation is, it is interesting that one side seems to be identified as inherently racist. Perhaps those supporting that group should ask themselves why. Better yet perhaps they should be more vocal in there support to purge any racist attitudes in their faction.

 

[jpishgar]

There will be no allegations of bias against the moderation team in this thread. If you have an issue with an action taken on an individual post or thread, you are welcome to report it with details to Assistant Community Manager or myself, in private message, for review and handling. This thread is subject to enhanced scrutiny. Civility is, as I said before, compulsory.

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