All Mode
It’s politics season in the United States of America, and if you pay attention to the media, you know politics have assumed their quadrennial position as a spectator sport because the 2016 season started at least two years ago.
Politics — like other peoples’ crying children and the guy who sells hand lotion in the mall — are typically better-off ignored, at least for most of us. I’m not saying you shouldn’t care, because you absolutely should if you’re American. I’m certainly not going to tell you what to think, though. Political ads are ubiquitous, and most of us have a pretty good idea of who we’re voting for by this point anyway. Some of us may have even watched the debate in VR. However, sometimes the lotion peddler won’t shut up and stop following you.
Image credit: Time Magazine
In lieu of any political memes, here’s Palmer Luckey on the cover of Time Magazine.
Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR (currently owned by Facebook), has been financially tied to a pro-Donald Trump “‘shitposting” meme machine, as reported by The Daily Beast.
The group is called Nimble America, and is a non-profit that is meant to damage Hilary Clinton’s reputation while boosting Donald Trump’s. This has now become the equivalent of the lotion seller leaving his middle-of-the-mall post and following you into H&M, squirting his lotion all over that cable-knit sweater you wanted to purchase. Politics have become a little harder to ignore as they have dribbled over into the world of VR.
Many VR developers have begun to revoke support for the Oculus Rift, and have taken a stand by boycotting Oculus until Palmer Luckey steps down. In a tweet linking to a Pastebin document, developer Polytron stated that they “will not be pursuing Oculus support” for their VR game SUPERHYPERCUBE. They also encouraged everyone reading to vote in the upcoming presidential election, pleading to “not let bigotry, white supremacy, hate and fear win.”
Other developers are pulling support, including Tomorrow Today Labs and Scruta Games. Even if you could not care less about the state of politics in America, if you’re an Oculus fan, this is unfortunate. On the other hand, there are certainly developers not taking a stance on the issue either way, and there are also other VR headsets out there.
I think this whole issue is complete bullshit. What a bunch of fascists. They disagree with someone’s political views, so they attempt to socially lynch him.
Maybe.