I know there's been a million things said about JonTron's Twitch stream and all the bullshit that followed, but what I want to focus on is this selective use gamers have on "Freedom of Speech". JonTron was scorned for spreading outright falsehoods and bullshit statistics like "Wealthy blacks commmit more crimes than poor whites" and the biggest defense that his rabid fanbase can come up with is "Legally, he has the right to say that." Likewise with PewDiePie. Disney cut off all ties with him because of what they saw as anti-semitic content on his show. "But freedom of speech!" is the rally cry as to why Disney shouldn't do what they please with property they own, for some reason.
Meanwhile, there's Phil Fish. Responded brashly to a question on his opinion of Japanese games by saying "Your games just suck." Did he get people rushing in to defend him with "freedom of speech"? Did he become a martyr in a certain section of the gaming community like JonTron and PDP? Nah. Instead, he was harassed for so long and so often that he straight-up quit making video games four years ago.
So why the selective use of this defense tactic? People seriously think slandering games is a more disgusting thing than outright racism and xenophobia? Where were these 1st Amendment defenders when Phil was getting doxxed for a statement a portion of gamers themselves would say? Is the Free Speech argument just only going to be used when Youtube "stars" decide to slander entire groups of people?
Meanwhile, there's Phil Fish. Responded brashly to a question on his opinion of Japanese games by saying "Your games just suck." Did he get people rushing in to defend him with "freedom of speech"? Did he become a martyr in a certain section of the gaming community like JonTron and PDP? Nah. Instead, he was harassed for so long and so often that he straight-up quit making video games four years ago.
So why the selective use of this defense tactic? People seriously think slandering games is a more disgusting thing than outright racism and xenophobia? Where were these 1st Amendment defenders when Phil was getting doxxed for a statement a portion of gamers themselves would say? Is the Free Speech argument just only going to be used when Youtube "stars" decide to slander entire groups of people?