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Oculus' Palmer Luckey funds white-supremacist/misogynistic/anti-lgbt harassment group

Kurdel said:
This is what happens when people believe the right wing media exaggerations and think the left is crying wolf with Trump, and they are "both as bad".

Such a sad state of affairs
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Honestly, it's the political equivalent of the Dodo bird. We have gone through so many generations without the threat of a candidate behaving like a totalitarian despot peddling actively dangerous policies, that some people simply don't know how to react when they see the threat before their eyes, and think that doing nothing is the best course of action when in fact it is the incorrect one.
 
StoOgE said:
Any response from Facebook yet?

I assume this has gotten big enough that they can't ignore it.
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Oculus Connect is in two weeks iirc. Either he is there and the entire thing will be about this or he is absent without Facebook saying anything and it will be about why he is absent:

Only way for Facebook to deal with it Is to address it before.
 
Obliterator said:
That's why I won't be voting at all in this election. There is no candidate I find capable of leading this country in the right direction.

And before I get the "Not voting is a vote for Trump!" No its not. If this country is asinine enough to put Trump into power then godspeed and can't believe we let it get to this point. But I'm not casting a vote for Hilary either.

I may vote to honor those that fought for my right to Vote, but I'll just write in my own ballet
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Good on you mate. None of the main, viable candidates deserve your vote. Sure, one could argue Hilary is less bad than Trump, but if one is to be truly principled they wouldn't vote for either. The lesser of two evils argument is a copout in my opinion.
 
I've been talking to Palmer online since before he made his first prototype, and never really knew about his political leanings until we became friends on facebook. Since then he has jumped into a few of my posts arguing with me about various topics, and is usually always taking a pretty hard Right stance. I never really took it to heart, because people are going to disagree about politics... but learning of this is really fucking disheartening.

I still have the first prototype HMD he ever made, and I was kind of hanging onto it bc it's a pretty neat piece of history that I'm proud to be a tiny part of... but I guess my prized possession just got devalued. Really curious to see what, if anything, happens to him as a result of this.

Crazy.
 
Armaros said:
Oculus Connect is in two weeks iirc. Either he is there and the entire thing will be about this or he is absent without Facebook saying anything and it will be about why he is absent:

Only way for Facebook to deal with it Is to address it before.
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So, he is going to be put on unpaid leave in the next 48 hours is what I'm hearing.

Didn't know they had a big event coming up for Oculus.
 
StoOgE said:
Any response from Facebook yet?

I assume this has gotten big enough that they can't ignore it.
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I wouldn't be shocked if Facebook tried to ignore this. If they leave it alone for a few days I would imagine it wouldn't spread outside of the VR realm. The news stories today will fizzle out eventually and VR is down in popularity.
 
This is some fucked up shit. Out of anyone in this election what does Palmar Luckey have to lose? Absolutely nothing other than maintaining his white privilege. He is a rich white guy whose life is set, doesn't have to worry about getting shot by a policeman for being black, doesn't have to worry about getting deported, doesn't even have to worry about paying the bills, but yet he is outraged. The fact that he sees the election as a his playtoy to make "dank memes" is the embodiment of white privilege, as a POC I don't have that choice.
 
pixellated_man said:
Good on you mate. None of the main, viable candidates deserve your vote. Sure, one could argue Hilary is less bad than Trump, but if one is to be truly principled they wouldn't vote for either. The lesser of two evils argument is a copout in my opinion.
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Nope. One candidate is way fucking worse than the other.

It's Trump
 
Specialmias said:
I wouldn't be shocked if Facebook tried to ignore this. If they leave it alone for a few days I would imagine it wouldn't spread outside of the VR realm. The news stories today will fizzle out eventually and VR is down in popularity.
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In an election cycle and with Zuckerberg being very prominent outspoken critic of Donald Trump, this is going to jump to main stream news in the next day or two.
 
Someone high up at a friend's company got in trouble when some off the cuff remarks made it to the press and it became a story. People outside the company used it to vilify the business as a whole, but according to my friend everyone inside was really upset and hurt by it, including that guy's superiors. It took awhile for that guy to recover inside the company.

This is a million times worse. It was planned and involves financing which is a pretty big stamp of approval. It sends a message to a lot of employees about Luckey's respect for them I imagine. It's going to be really hard, if possible at all, for him to recover in the eyes of these people. I would love to sit in on their hipchat or slack or whatever they use and see what's going on today.
 
GhaleonEB said:
This is the crux of it. He's running on a nationalist, racist platform. You can quibble around the edges, but if you are supporting the candidate, you are, broadly speaking, supportive of their platform.
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This kind of common sense should be knoon by all. But, alas, with Trump as a candidate, common sense must be dead these days.
 
Specialmias said:
I wouldn't be shocked if Facebook tried to ignore this. If they leave it alone for a few days I would imagine it wouldn't spread outside of the VR realm. The news stories today will fizzle out eventually and VR is down in popularity.
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Seventy70 said:
I'm not sure why people think Facebook is going to do anything about this. While we all may know it's a "white supremacist group". it's not something they say directly. They are just going to respond with, "Our employee's political views are their own private matter and we have no comment."
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If he, zuckerberg, called out his employees for crossing out BLM...I really don't see him pretending this hasn't happened.
 
Titanoboa said:
I think he's a horrible person for believing and supporting these things.
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Which is fine, it sounds like some people don't think he should be able believe and support who he wants though and that is obviously different. Like i said, I am late to the thread and don't want to attribute anything to people without knowing more is all.
 
Empty Space said:
I'm a little surprised this hasn't reached the front page of reddit. I guess maybe groups like this do have control of it.
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Mahonay said:
Reddit is run by a lot of shitty people, it wouldn't surprise me.
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Try not to talk bollocks.

VkrIr9K.png


It's getting plenty of coverage on Reddit.
 
Trogdor1123 said:
Which is fine, it sounds like some people don't think he should be able believe and support who he wants though and that is obviously different. Like i said, I am late to the thread and don't want to attribute anything to people without knowing more is all.
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You are contributing literally nothing already.
 
I'm not sure why people think Facebook is going to do anything about this. While we all may know it's a "white supremacist group". it's not something they say directly. Facebook is just going to respond with, "Our employee's political views are their own private matter and we have no comment."
 
Trogdor1123 said:
Which is fine, it sounds like some people don't think he should be able believe and support who he wants though and that is obviously different. Like i said, I am late to the thread and don't want to attribute anything to people without knowing more is all.
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I want to say that nobody or very close to nobody is saying that. I don't think he should be able to say stuff like that without getting fired, but of course it's his right to be horrible.
 
Is facebook going to pull a Mozilla? I think there's no way, the identity politics pushback has been so strong another company wouldn't try that.
 
Specialmias said:
I wouldn't be shocked if Facebook tried to ignore this. If they leave it alone for a few days I would imagine it wouldn't spread outside of the VR realm. The news stories today will fizzle out eventually and VR is down in popularity.
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He is the founder and public face of Oculus. Supporting/funding a racist, fascist platform is something so toxic and so hideous that it cannot simply fizzle away no matter how long you wait.

He is done, finished. Forever.
 
I found it less shocking when I remembered that Palmer appears to be a man in his mid forties from the 1990's in the body of a modern twenty-something.
 
sk3 said:
Is facebook going to pull a Mozilla? I think there's no way, the identity politics pushback has been so strong another company wouldn't try that.
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Palmer is so closely associated with Oculus that I think they have to do something, especially with a product/tech that is in its infancy. You don't want to run the risk of this being the first thing they think of when they hear "oculus rift".
 
Seventy70 said:
I'm not sure why people think Facebook is going to do anything about this. While we all may know it's a "white supremacist group". it's not something they say directly. Facebook is just going to respond with, "Our employee's political views are their own private matter and we have no comment."
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Oculus is having a major public event soon about the release of the Touch. Palmer being there or not without this being address will raise this issue again.

Palmer has been their face at all of these events, if they don't directly deal with this, if he is there or not, this
will be the story around the event.

Every instance mentioning Palmer will Include this.
 
Ninja Scooter said:
Palmer is so closely associated with Oculus that I think they have to do something, especially with a product/tech that is in its infancy. You don't want to run the risk of this being the first thing they think of when they hear "oculus rift".
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Palmer is essentially their cover boy.
 
pixellated_man said:
Good on you mate. None of the main, viable candidates deserve your vote. Sure, one could argue Hilary is less bad than Trump, but if one is to be truly principled they wouldn't vote for either. The lesser of two evils argument is a copout in my opinion.
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That makes zero sense on any level.

If you feel one is worse than the other, than at the very least voting for the better candidate is the only course of action, unless you don't actually view the other candidate as worse.
 
blazinglazers said:
I hear what you're saying, and I think you're accurately describing what a vast amount of the country is feeling.

However, in the end elections are about personal responsibility. Like another poster said, a vote means you're all in. You have a clear choice between two people who stand for dramatically different things.

You're responsible for what you support in this world.
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Exactly why I never vote. Every single one who comes to power breaks promises or starts an immoral war somewhere in the world. I don't want to be responsible for the horrible things these people do when they become leader. Lesser of two evils argument does not wash me of the part I play in enabling these people into power.
 
Mahonay said:
Okay good.

Whenever I think of Reddit I just immediately think of all their really fucked moderators.
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My experience has been good but I only hang out in the technical parts.

I fully expect a statement from Facebook today.
 
maquiladora said:
He is the founder and public face of Oculus. Supporting/funding a racist, fascist platform is something so toxic and so hideous that it cannot simply fizzle away no matter how long you wait.

He is done, finished. Forever.
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I don't think so. While the platform he's supporting is racist and fascist, nothing will happen because it's a very well known and supported political party.
 
pixellated_man said:
Exactly why I never vote. Every single one who comes to power breaks promises or starts an immoral war somewhere in the world. I don't want to be responsible for the horrible things these people do when they become leader. Lesser of two evils argument does not wash me of the part I play in enabling these people into power.
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I'm sorry but you are a bad citizen.
 
pixellated_man said:
Exactly why I never vote. Every single one who comes to power breaks promises or starts an immoral war somewhere in the world. I don't want to be responsible for the horrible things these people do when they become leader. Lesser of two evils argument does not wash me of the part I play in enabling these people into power.
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Then you have no place in a political discussion.
 
Trogdor1123 said:
Out of curiosity, are people saying he shouldn't feel this way or support who he believes in or just that they don't agree with it? In pretty late to the thread.
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He's free to feel however he wants to feel. People are saying that they're not gonna support the company he works for any longer though. That's completely valid in my opinion.
 
maquiladora said:
He is the founder and public face of Oculus. Supporting/funding a racist, fascist platform is something so toxic and so hideous that it cannot simply fizzle away no matter how long you wait.

He is done, finished. Forever.
Click to expand...

Yep.

The lack of Facebook messaging means there is a 3 hour long conference call going on somewhere and people are scrambling lawyers.
 
sk3 said:
Is facebook going to pull a Mozilla? I think there's no way, the identity politics pushback has been so strong another company wouldn't try that.
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He's the face of Oculus and on Time Magazine wearing it. He's damaged the brand image with this and devs are already protesting for him to be fired or they will not make games and apps for Oculus.
 
Mahonay said:
You are contributing literally nothing already.
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Get over yourself, I am asking questions for God's sake. Heaven forbid i do that before rushing to judgement. How awful of me.

Titanoboa said:
I want to say that nobody or very close to nobody is saying that. I don't think he should be able to say stuff like that without getting fired, but of course it's his right to be horrible.
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Good stuff, I appreciate it. It's pretty sad state of affairs when stuff like this happens.
 
Trogdor1123 said:
Out of curiosity, are people saying he shouldn't feel this way or support who he believes in or just that they don't agree with it? In pretty late to the thread.
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I don't mean to just point this at you, but this post reads exactly like those "I've never heard of Anita Sarkeesian, but [obvious character assassination formatted to look like a question from an outsider]" tactic that still crops up in threads around that topic. Like, honestly, do you not understand the premise for people's objection to active lobbying associated with white nationalist/supremacist causes? If your question were sincere, wouldn't you just read the thread?
 
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