Eyes have been on Palmer Luckey, the founder of Facebook-owned Oculus, following an article linking him to ‘Nimble America’, a polarizing political group that’s been described as part of the fringe ‘alt-right’. Following developer and community backlash, Luckey has issued an apology and a denial of some of the claims made against him.

While Brendan Iribe is the CEO of Oculus, Luckey is the company’s founder and in many ways an important public face of Oculus thanks to his role in bringing about the VR renaissance we’re currently enjoying.

oculus palmer luckey and Brendan Iribe
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey (left) and CEO Brendan Iribe (right)

Luckey was the subject of a recent article by The Daily Beast which claims that he has admitted to being a financial backer of Nimble America, a group dedicated to supporting Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump by circulating negative memes of Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent in the race for the White House.

While Road to VR doesn’t cover politics, backlash among Oculus’ developers and community has brought the issue into the VR realm.

According to the original article, Luckey confirmed to The Daily Beast that he had used the pseudonym ‘NimbleRichMan’ to write a (now deleted) post in the pro-Trump subreddit /r/The_Donald, on behalf of the organisation which says it’s dedicated to proving “shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real.” Founders of that subreddit have helped circulate and popularise white supremacist memes depicting Trump, according to the same Daily Beast report. Nimble America had apparently taken credit for a billboard spotted in Pittsburgh, depicting a caricature of Clinton bearing the slogan “Too Big to Jail,” referring to the Democratic candidate’s recent email server troubles.

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nimble-hillary

Luckey has issued a statement in response to the article via his personal Facebook page. The part-apology, part-denial confirms that Luckey made a large donation to Nimble America, but refutes claims that he made specific posts under the Reddit username NimbleRichMan.

I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners.The recent news stories about me do not accurately represent my views.

Here’s more background: I contributed $10,000 to Nimble America because I thought the organization had fresh ideas on how to communicate with young voters through the use of several billboards. I am a libertarian who has publicly supported Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in the past, and I plan on voting for Gary in this election as well.

I am committed to the principles of fair play and equal treatment. I did not write the “NimbleRichMan” posts, nor did I delete the account. Reports that I am a founder or employee of Nimble America are false. I don’t have any plans to donate beyond what I have already given to Nimble America.

Still, my actions were my own and do not represent Oculus. I’m sorry for the impact my actions are having on the community.

Following Luckey statement, Daily Beast Senior News Editor Ben Collins, one of the authors of the initial article, says that the refutations are false, citing emails from Luckey himself, which Collins posted to Twitter.

VR Developer and Community Backlash

In the aftermath of the story breaking, Motherboard has reported that several developers producing titles for Oculus’ Rift VR platform have spoken out in response, many stating they’re withdrawing their support for the Oculus platform as long as Luckey is still with the company.

With Fez and Superhypercube publisher Polytron stating, “In a political climate as fragile and horrifying as this one, we cannot tacitly endorse these actions by supporting Luckey or his platform.”

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Insomniac Games, who have developed and released two games exclusively for Oculus’ platform (with one more on the way), took a more measured and diplomatic approach; speaking to Motherboard, the company said, “Insomniac Games condemns all forms of hate speech. While everyone has a right to express his or her political opinion, the behavior and sentiments reported do not reflect the values of our company. We are also confident that this behavior and sentiment does not reflect the values of the many Oculus employees we work with on a daily basis.”

As for the VR community which has grown alongside the fledgling VR industry, many have expressed anger at Luckey’s stance. A thread about the Daily Beast article on the Oculus section of Reddit has seen a whopping 3,900 comments, with some users disavowing Oculus and its Rift headset while others expressed shock, disbelief, and disappointment at the news.

Whether this will have a tangible impact on Oculus as a company remains to be seen. For now the company hasn’t made any public statements regarding the incident except to point to Luckey’s personal statement.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • visual

    Everyone has political views. Get over it. Only fascists look to shame and silence dissenting viewpoints. His political opinion was never associated with his work until people attempted to attack him. Ad hominem is the low hanging fruit of SJWs.

    • Raphael

      People attempted to attack him? What are u going on about? His support for a group creating trump and white supremacist memes was discovered… His girlfriend is crapping on about “unchecked immigration” on twitter.

      When you’re a prominent spokes-person for a company you have to think about what you’re doing and who you associate with.

      • impurekind

        Here’s what a bunch of ignorant people like you are doing: 2 + 2 = 5.

        Funding the group for a specific purpose and intent does not mean he supports everything they do. Correlation does not imply causation.

        There’s also nothing inherently wrong with someone saying there may be a problem with immigration. Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t; she has an opinion and she’s expressing it, as is her constitutionally protected right.

        You’re just adding 2 and 2 together and getting 5.

        And, there’s a dangerous line being crossed when everyone starts using this whole argument about your work dictating everything you can do or say even in your own personal and private life. That amounts to creating an oppressive and authoritarian society that uses the fact that basically everyone has to have a job—we’re not really given much of a choice in this—to basically silence any kind of “free” and personal speech or opinions that some of you might not agree with or like to hear but are totally fair and legal to have and express.

        You know . . . sheep minds are becoming a real problem in this so called “free” and “civilised” modern society we have created.

        • Raphael

          Isn’t it funny how people like you bleat on about freedom of speech but it only goes one way? You want Palmer to be able to have whatever political opinions he chooses without it impacting his work or reputation… so freedom of speech is only applicable to those affiliated with far-right or similar groups? So freedom of speech ends with anyone having issue with Palmer’s actions?

          I do remember the racist who was calling a little black girl “nigger” on her father’s voicemail.. the company who employed him subsequently fired him… some people (like Anthony Cumia) took to his defense saying he should be allowed to exercise freedom of speech without losing his job.

          Re: Palmer’s girlfriend…

          She has an opinion on immigration…

          “Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t; she has an opinion and she’s expressing it, as is her constitutionally protected right.”

          So what am I doing? I’m breaking your personal police law that says I can’t challenge someone with an opposing view?

          • impurekind

            Again:

            “You are totally missing the point about the whole “freedom to choose” thing. It’s not a line that goes infinitely in both directions: He’s free so they’re free so he’s free so they’re free . . . These developers are still entirely free to do whatever they want regardless of what Palmer thinks or does politically, but them pulling support in this particular way is literally and directly punishing him (and his company), in a professional and commercial business capacity, for having a personal view that he should be totally free to have without any form of very deliberate and directed persecution or oppression. Palmer isn’t silencing or taking away business from these developers by supporting groups that sh*t-post the worm that is Clinton (Trump is just as bad) but these developers are effectively trying to use their position and actions to silence Palmer (and therefor his particular views too). It’s like “shut up and only do/say what we agree with or we will take this away from you”, and that’s just wrong.”

            You don’t seem to get it.

            What you are doing is like some total and utter moron saying “You punched me so I get to punch you so you get to punch me so I get to punch you” without realising the person who threw the first punch is the problem—and that one that needs to be stopped in the first place.

            Palmer having a political opinion was not him throwing the first punch; the devs basically punishing Palmer for expressing his opinion, effectively using the situation to oppress his opinions and views, is them throwing the first punch in this case.

            The developers actions are wrong here, not Palmers. But, yes, it’s their choice to do whatever they want—just as we can all choose to do whatever the **** we want whenever the *** we want as long as we aren’t breaking any laws or whatever. In this case, however, what these developers are doing is clearly for all the wrong reasons and is actually quite insidious and dangerous. They’re sending out a very clear message to sheep like you: “Stop saying things we don’t agree with or we will punish you”, and the issue is that sheep like you don’t see a problem with that. You see a problem with Palmer being allowed to express his personal views and opinions but you don’t see an issue with developers using this situation to basically enforce their personal views and opinions on others in a way that’s actually rather oppressive and authoritarian.

            Trust me; it’s you who needs to get a clue here.

            And, I’m now bored of going around in circles with you, so I’m out of this article.

          • Taun

            It also is a very non-targeted action by the developers. They stop Rift development to ‘punish’ Palmer. But who ends up really ‘suffering’ the consequences? The employees of Oculus may be put at risk. The customers who already own a Rift are being denied access to their future software. But Palmer is still rich a all hell. So everyone suffers except Palmer.

          • Face it, its one thing to say stupid things devs don’t agree with but there is that fine line no one should cross. There are over 3000 comments hating on his opinions and considering the activities of who’s hes funding it makes seen for this to happen. It is Palmers fault for being dumb.

          • rheddherring

            Except one little detail: it’s not YOU who’s going to define that fine line. Nor a group of you with pitchforks and torches Bitchy

          • What fine line? Supporting any opposing viewpoint to the Left is violating the “Fine Line”?

            And for these 3000 comments hating on him, it might have something to do with the forum moderators on Reddit actually directly hateful messages towards Palmer and shutting down all voices of support. The Leftist-Extremists vote bombed all discussions to make it impossible to voice any other opinion, burying all the voices of support for Palmer. I couldn’t even get close to the actual thread!

          • WyrdestGeek

            oh yes, it must be a conspiracy. Anytime things don’t go how you want, it’s gots to be a conspiracy.

            Question: Do you want to “Make America Great Again”?

          • Doug Diamond

            So you agree with freedom of speech, but not freedom of choice? Makes zero sense.

          • WyrdestGeek

            Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of real world consequences for speech. It only means the Government can’t actually arrest or kill you.

            The general public or your employers employees are entirely permitted to punish you, provided that they don’t break the law, if they don’t like what you have to say.

            it’s been this way since forever.

            Did you really not know this?

          • Bryan Ischo

            Not sure where you live, but generally you have to have a reasonable job-related cause to fire people where I live. Even if it’s not codified in law explicitly, it tends to be how people act because they know that juries will generally side with employees who were terminated without reasonable cause, even if there is no actual legal requirement for such.

          • jlschmugge

            “Sheep like you” is an unnecessary comment. Character defamation only relates unchecked emotions in a speaker, and is inefficient as rhetoric.

          • WyrdestGeek

            An expression of one’s views is (usually) also an attempt to influence the opinions and beliefs of others. Palmer is not *just* getting on the Twitters and saying “I like cats.” He is funding a group that’s focus is to smear a particular political candidate.

            That’s not illegal. But neither is it particularly nice.

            Palmer wants to express his personal views (and spend a pile of cash) to influence public opinion?

            Fine, whatever. But I am free to say it’s wrong. And I am free to respond in kind. And I am free to choose to take my business elsewhere.

            It doesn’t matter if it’s rational, it doesn’t matter if it’s fair. It doesn’t matter if it offends you. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s Authoritarian.

            So long as no law is broken, all the free speech– and all the not-illegal consequences of that speech is all fair game.

            Your attempts to guilt people into not doing it will not be successful. If anything, your arrogance and your ignorance just send a message that more such actions are necessary.

            You need to understand– you can hold whatever highly polarizing beliefs you want. And you are free to express them. But when you do, you must be willing to bear the social and political consequences. It’s part of being a grown-up.
            —

            Furry cows moo and decompress.

          • Bryan Ischo

            Insulting a child is not actually exercising freedom of speech. There are categories of speech that are not protected, and insulting a child would certainly be in that category. The person was fired not because of the content of their speech in terms of the ideas represented, but instead because the speech was intended to harm a child. That is a PERFECTLY REASONABLE reason to fire someone – because they are essentially committing a crime by harassing someone.

          • Let’s see, you’re putting words into Impurekind’s mouth he didn’t say to have a one-sided argument with yourself. I can’t imagine why he has the patience to talk to you at all.

        • Funktapus

          Palmer can say or do whatever he wants politically. I can stop supporting him based on what he does though. Freedom of speech gives people the legal right to speak without government permission, but it doesn’t protect someone from the ramifications of their words.

          • rheddherring

            Precisely. But putting group pressure on someone to be FIRED for their political support of a candidate? Are you freaking kidding me?!? Why not put questions on their resume too?

          • WyrdestGeek

            What would you do about it?

            Would you make it illegal for people to withdraw their support for oculus in response to Palmer Luckey’s words and actions?

        • How do you fund a group with knowledge of their horrendous activities.

          You cannot just fund the KKK because they do everything thy can to help white folks out so why should he fund this new white supremacist group and get a pass.

          Who cares about his stupid noble intention, you fund that group you are no better than them and you are as well for accepting it

          You re that piece of dirt of the bottom of my boot d o is Palmer.

          And even if he did not know of all their activities, how dumb can you be to not search these guys before funding them. There are so many faux charitable organizations, you’d think he’d be smart enough to do research before funding anything especially with to much damning easy to access knowledge.

          He is a moron and you are a neanderthal.

          • I’d like to see these Pro-KKK posts from Nimble America. Please, attach links or something. I’d like to see Nimble America’s image of them burning a black child on a cross. I’d like to see their ads advising people to kick puppies and steal candy from babies, all well draped in the Nazi flag.

            Because, at this point, I’ve seen ONE image from Nimble America, and that’s the image calling Hillary Clinton a crook. The rest of these statements seem like fevered dreams in your crazy extremist imagination. Ask for Immigration Reform isn’t racism. Neither is not supporting the growth of the Welfare State. YOU create the insanity in your own head that it is. YOU create the visions of madness that there are packs of frothing-at-the-mouth rednecks, with torches and pitchforks, out to murder everyone, flying a Nazi banner. That is YOUR imagination.

            But hey, unlike you, I’m open minded. Please share these TERRIBLY RACIST images you *THINK* you saw. I’d love to be proven wrong.

          • Hotcakes

            Oh look, no reply 2 days later. Didn’t see that coming.

      • Rlee

        So thinking that immigration is out of control is racist? You kids have a hard life a head of you.

        • Raphael

          It’s currently the number one focus and the only focus of race hate groups. I don’t know if palmey’s GF is a far-right fascist or just caught up in the current trend of blaming all problems on immigration. Am I saying immigration is something that shouldn’t be discussed? No… it’s one of many issues that needs to be discussed but there’s a difference between informed, intelligent debate versus an emo girl posting cartoons and crapping on about unchecked immigration.

          Certainly her focus on immigration is consistent with the race hate rhetoric we see in the UK.

        • WyrdestGeek

          Thinking immigration is out of control is not racist in and of itself.

          However it is generally speaking stupid, misguided, misinformed. And wrong.

          but not necessarily racist.

          • Treabhar Mac Oireabaird

            Not everyone who’s anti-immigration is racist, but everyone who is racist is anti-immigration.

          • Kalle

            Are you saying that immigrants can’t be racists? I. e. If you hate someone or look down on them just because their skin is of another color, then you are a racist, no matter what color you have on your skin.

      • rheddherring

        Why not fire people that don’t agree with your viewpoint because they seem racist? Great idea. Don’t let someone who founded a company be allowed to stay if you don’t agree with who he has donated money to. Burn the witch, burn!

    • Running Welder

      Only an idiot would think this is a fascist attack on an innocent man. We live in a country where our politics have been turned into a vile pool of rank sewage being poured over the people of this country and a large portion drink it like it’s champagne. His political opinion is associated with his work as it is his work that has allowed him to fund the organization so they could slander and spread lies. And way to be a racist.

      • impurekind

        What a crock of sh*t. It’s irrelevant that his work allowed him to fund the organisation. That’s just a matter or circumstance. He, we, they would all still have the same views and opinions regardless of the f’n job he, we, they have and do or how much he, we, they make doing it. His personal views are not associated with his work in any meaningful way, and to link the two is just the act of some weak minded social media programmed sheep who wants to believe there some kind of causation in this correlation. But, correlation does not imply causation. And exactly how is he a racist for sh*t-posting the insidious worm that is Clinton? We should all be doing that imo. And, for the record, Trump is 100% just as bad.

        And, using the fact someone works for a company—which we all do—as basically a way to silence any personal views and opinions they have/express is an extremely dangerous road to go down.

        “Can’t/shouldn’t say anything anyone might not like to hear because you’re an employee of some corporation . . .”

        There’s a REAL problem with that kind of thinking that goes right to the heart of free speech, freedom, authoritarianism, oppression, etc.

        • Raphael

          Ummm… he’s funding a group who also create memes for white supremacists and he also met with a white supremacist who has a lifetime twitter ban for racially abusing a black woman there. Whilst I can understand that Palmer may not have known the background of said white supremacist… funding that group of trolls has turned out to be a bad move. His girlfriend crapping-on about “unchecked immigration” on twitter doesn’t help his cause.

        • Funktapus

          I have the FREEDOM to take my business elsewhere if I dont like what Palmer does in his spare time. Deal with it.

          • Bryan Ischo

            You do have that freedom. But we don’t have to respect you for how you use it. And I don’t respect you because of what you’re saying, which is that you think that our society will be better if we use collective fascism via economic censure to silence anyone we don’t agree with.

          • Running Welder

            Not our fault you’re to blind to see that the tried and true no longer works for people in this country.

          • Bryan Ischo

            What I see is that the emergence of social media is allowing a whole new level of mob mentality that is truly frightening. This mob mentality communicated through social media will NOT improve society at all, unfortunately, it will only serve to completely obliterate any tolerance that anyone may have for those whom they don’t agree with. Which is, and I hate to have to use this word, fascism. Fascism through social media mob mentality. Scary stuff.

          • Running Welder

            So you find it acceptable to continue to tolerate hatred and oppression of those who have done nothing wrong? You find it acceptable to allow continued rhetoric against those who are different in the color of their skin or the difference in their religion or orientation? Tolerating these is what the Germans did in the 30’s.

          • Bryan Ischo

            Define “tolerate”.

            Also, yes, we must continue to allow rhetoric against that we don’t like, because rhetoric is free speech within this discussion and trying to disallow free speech is going to turn you into those Germans of the 30’s much faster than anything else.

          • Running Welder

            If by disallow you mean pull funding or support from a person or company who is supporting hate speech and rhetoric and you label that is taking away free speech then you have no idea what tolerate means. We tolerate it as it is however we as consumers and citizens and business owners do not have to provide support in acceptance nor do we have to conduct business with any individual or business that condones such rhetoric. Pulling support of any kind from any individual or business is our right and any suggestion as you are eluding to that by doing so is an attempt to quell free speech is an attempt to redirect blame. We do not have to support rhetoric, we do not have to support hate and if you haven’t noticed the movement to bring an end to it is growing because more and more people are realizing that continuing to idly stand by and ignore it has not worked. The whole idea behind free speech was never meant for what its being used as a shield for these days. It was meant as a way to allow people to speak out against their government and leaders not as a way to protect the right to call a black man a nigger or Mexican a spik.

        • You are a neanderthal, deal with it. You are WAY out of touch here and that’s because you have your head so far up your ass.

          • Bryan Ischo

            Your personal attacks are not going to convince anyone of anything. They don’t have any semblance of rational thought in them and they are going to be ignored by anyone trying to find anything worth understanding from either their own side of the debate or from the other side.

        • Running Welder

          Oh I was calling you racist with the sjw remark but yeah he is racist since the group creates work for hate groups. His business is tied to this whether you like it or not because the money came from his business, guilt by association is something you should look up. Most every company has rules of conduct when it comes to what you do on and off the clock and how it pertains to the image of the company. People loose their jobs all the time these days for racist sexist rhetoric that they post on social media or in supporting this rhetoric because companies do not want to be associated with it and that’s a grand thing in squashing these kinds of people which you reek of being a card carrying member.

    • unc0nnected

      They aren’t attacking him for his views they are pulling support for him for taking money earned from the value of his shares of Oculus and using that to fund an alt right group. They are saying that they don’t want to indirectly support racists by having money generated by the sales of their games be used to fund the actions of a group of people they find deplorable.

      • Anthony Clay

        For those who think that *discussion* of politics should forever be separated from VR because of…idealism:

        Read “Ready Player One”.

        No one wants to associate Oculus (or any company) with the ‘evil’ IOI Corporation – yet (especially given the many controversies to date) it would see we are already well down that road.

        • Bryan Ischo

          Why don’t you summarize what Ready Player One says? I don’t really have time to read a fictional novel just to understand your viewpoint.

      • Rlee

        You guys are going to throw that “racist” word around so much that it ends up having no meaning. You’ve already discredited the word “hero”. Just who will it benefit when people are desensitized to the word “racist”?

        • Bryan Ischo

          100% agree with you here.

        • ummm…

          “Racist” / “politically correct” all over/misused.

        • Fundamentalist Daleks

          No, we’re going to say “racist” when we see the posts on The_Donald that were upvoted and fine with the mods who comprised half of Nimble that Palmer enabled.

        • Ben

          Yep, “SJW” is becoming a worse word than “racist” amongst those willing to read deeper than click bait. Which shouldn’t be the case but it’s there own doing.

        • David

          Don’t get it twisted. The thing that has happened in this election is not the over use of the word racist but rather us being desensitized to racism in general as all the kooks and racists have come out of the woodworks. Thanks to Trump they have been empowered and inspired by his hateful rhetoric & he has normalized the worst parts of humanity and given credence to a closed society that is the antithesis of what made America great in the first place.
          If you are fine supporting this then go right ahead but I won’t be joining you

          • HughdePayens

            Seems overwrought…

          • David

            You’re about 4 months late to this conversation

          • HughdePayens

            Still seems overwrought…

      • Dami Valorton

        Calling Trump rasist never would have crossed your feeble mind if the media hadn’t baited and planted that seed.

        • Reading comprehension hasn’t crossed your feeble mind.

        • ummm…

          you sure about that? do you listen to him?

          • realtrisk

            lol, well said.

        • serversurfer

          … by playing the videos of him saying Mexicans are rapists and Muslims should be banned and blacks should be stopped and frisked? Man, they sure are teh bias. /rolleyes

        • David

          Calling people that are anti Trump ‘feeble minded’ is demonstrably false as it has been shown clearly that those that support him tend to be ‘white males without college degrees” while those with college degrees tend to support his opponent or Sanders when he was still running.

          On the other hand you may recall that what brought Donald Trump to the front of the GOP pack in the first place was his condemnation of Mexicans, followed by Muslims and if you take a look at his messaging towards the African American community you will see that it is drenched in racial stereo typing and low expectations. Add to that him being prosecuted for refusing to rent to minorities and the fact that he is endorsed by the freaking KKK it really isn’t so much of a stretch to say his campaign might have some racial issues

      • ChimneyJoe

        LMAO. You think The_Donald is a racist group? You get Imbecilic Moron of the Internet of the Month award.

        The problem with liberals and other retarded fools is that they get their news from HuffPo and CNN and literally are too stupid to even realize the untruths they digest as fact.

        It’s hilarious watching you idiots, though.

        It’s like watching fish flail around on dry land.

        Seriously.

        You are that stupid.

        • Akeydel

          i gotta say, your purely ad hominem post has really swayed my views, congratulations you are an internet hero

          • rheddherring

            Deep Akeydel, impressive come back.

          • ummm…

            looks like a third small mind has entered the fray

          • ChimneyJoe

            I think you need to get your nose up in there just a bit tighter.

            I’ll stop by sometime early next week with a crow bar to help you get it back out. I don’t want to ruin your weekend.

          • ChimneyJoe

            I was trying to change your mind? Really?

            You’d have to have one in order for that to happen, but it’s nice to see you’ve got some friends here to play smelly fingers with.

            Enjoy your night and the circle jerk, retards.

        • ummm…

          the problem with “liberals”; the problem with “republicans” – you are at the bottom of the heap and dont even know it.

          • ChimneyJoe

            Mommmmmmy! (sniff) Make him stop! If he doesn’t (sniff) I’m going to just say what he said cause… sniff…. cause… I’m 2 years old and …. sniff….. just because.

          • Bryan Ischo

            You’re not going to hurt anyone’s feelings on the internet, so please stop trying.

          • ummm…

            what?

        • David

          Wow how can anyone disagree with the air-tight argument you just laid upon our feeble minds? You truly are the debate champion and we should all bow down to your intellect.
          Jesus…. Its like arguing evolution with a bible thumper. Its a total waste of time because if it didn’t come from Brietbart, Fox News or the lying mouth of Trump himself you will just blame it all on Liberal Media Bias.

          • ChimneyJoe

            Back to HuffPo and CNN with you – where whores shill for the lying whore hag queen and morons and idiots swallow lies faster than a fat feminazi goes through a truckload of Doritos.

            Thanks for the laugh, Einstein.

        • Mike Brown

          …as opposed to what you and your conservative cohort’s real problem with liberals being that not only do they tend to always end up on the right side of history….but have the audacity to remember what actually happened in the past….but have the audacity to remind you and the rest of you destructive idiots of how destructive your political conservatism has been to the US and elsewhere…and that you really should not keep attempting to repeat the same mistakes…because we have a memory longer than that of a goldfish?

          • ChimneyJoe

            Your memories are nothing compared to your common sense.

            You have about as much of that as is contained in the center portion of a grasshopper’s asshole.

            You are some delusional clowns, though, and always good for a laugh, I’ll give you that.

          • Mike Brown

            Again…the conservative all but admits that he is a lack-witted simpleton not fit to be a a voting member of our republic…..as he not only does he not realize that in his haste that memory is the foundation of “common sense” but the past also serves as prelude….hence the reason he and the rest of his drooling, mouth breathing comrades keep making the same unforgivably, demonstrably stupid decisions that ALWAYS end up in FAIL….because whom needs shit like the past….or knowing what in the hell you are doing…right ?

          • ChimneyJoe

            Thank you for your reply. I am going to use it on a “GoFundMe” page as the opening quote in an attempt to solicit investors to develop a product that can eradicate Oral Incontinence. The streams of pure $hit that come out of the mouths of liberals are an outright danger to the lives of children and other living things.

          • Mike Brown

            So in other news….ChimneyJoe posts some nonsense about GoFundMe and what he thinks is a clever euphemism for “oral diahreah” or…something…..because he is unable to counter my replies with anything that is not only cogent….but also with anything that an 8 year old boy would have trouble finding terribly clever. Do you ever get tired of playing the fool ?

      • rheddherring

        That is such crap. Of COURSE they are attacking him. It is about doing whatever possible to punish those who don’t share your political stance, and then justifying it with the “correct terms” like supporting racists. Which creates the crowd with pitchforks mentality that forces people to believe in lockstep, which is absolutely NOT a true progressive ideal, it is a cheap, self serving mentality.

        • WyrdestGeek

          Distancing on self from Palmer Luckey is an action born out of disgust or anger, not an attempt to “punish”.

          Think of some value or ideal you hold dear.

          Now imagine someone semi-famous actin or saying something going directly against it.

          What are you supposed to do in response? If you do nothing then I guess you didn’t really care that much about whatever it was after all.

          • Bryan Ischo

            What I would do is speak out to try to make other people understand why my opponent is wrong. What I would NOT do is try to punish my opponent for having a viewpoint different from my own.

            “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”

            That is a very eloquent quote that I think is something to be aspired to. I feel that many people posting here feel exactly opposite to the above; they would instead say:

            “I disapprove of what you say, so I will stop at nothing to prevent you from saying it”

            I find that stance completely unethical and contrary to the concepts of freedom and liberty.

            I never thought I’d live to see the “left” go so far left that they come all the way back around to the “far right”, but apparently it’s happening now.

          • WyrdestGeek

            Ah, correction– “stop at nothing” is certainly not the case. I am not proposing nor would I support anything illegal.

            And I *will* defend that person’s right to not be threatened by, arrested by, or tried and convicted by any police or governmental agency for anything they might say. Always.

            You just don’t seem to be grasping this distinction between government and non-government.

            It matters because the government are the only ones legally allowed to hold you against your will as long as they want or to kill you.

    • Bryan Ischo

      I agree with you. It’s repulsive how people in this country now feel it is acceptable to economically censure people who don’t share their viewpoints. It’s also completely disingenuous to invoke a “fight against racism” to justify your actions. It’s like the cheapest and easiest way to try to justify trying to force everyone else to think like you.

      • You have no idea what you are talking about and you know nothing of whats going on. You are just spouting random garbage.

        Research the group activities and see for yourself, moron.

        • Bryan Ischo

          What I don’t understand is, how can anyone justify upvoting ad hominem attacks like this? Even if you are on the “burn Luckey” side of this debate, why would you upvote garbage like the post above? It has ZERO content and is simply a personal attack.

          I’m talking to you, “Kijutsu”, “yag”, “Akeydel”, and “Cat of Many Faces”. Is that seriously the kind of post that you want to see repeated on forums like this?

      • WyrdestGeek

        How would you do it differently differently if you had the power?

        • Bryan Ischo

          How would I do what differently?

          If you’re talking about what the devs did, I would post my criticism of Luckey and let everyone know what I think of the groups that he has funded and their actions. I would say that while I do not like what Luckey has done, I am not going to hold the VR enthusiast community hostage over my personal political beliefs, and would not change my planned support for the platform.

          Or were you asking about something else?

    • WyrdestGeek

      You have freedom of speech.

      You do not have freedom of consequences from speech.

      Calling people “fascists” doesn’t really advance the debate, nor is it likely to change anyone’s mind.

      • Bryan Ischo

        I’ve used the word “fascist” here, and I don’t like having to use it, but I don’t know how to otherwise indicate the seriousness of the actions that people are taking to try to silence others. Do you have a better word? I’ll use it if you do.

        Also, there are actions that one can take that are anti-freedom-of-speech. Economic censure is one of them. That’s the point here. The concepts are pretty nuanced; it’s like the old debate of, if I have freedom of speech, does that mean that I can use that freedom to shout down someone who is trying to exercise their own free speech? I guess if you have a simple, non-nuanced concept of freedom of speech, where the idea of “freedom” means “no restrictions of any kind”, then you would think that you should have that freedom. But I don’t think so. I think that limiting certain individual acts such as shouting others down, for the collective benefit of preventing anyone’s freedom to express themselves from being impinged upon, is actually a greater level of freedom of speech. It’s a freedom of “meaningful expression of ideas” at the expense of “speech used as an offensive weapon.”

        People trying to economically damage someone because they want to prevent that person from expressing themselves, are in my mind, guilty of using “speech as a weapon”, and should be prevented from doing so, for the benefit of the actual free exchange of ideas.

    • Frederick Colbourne

      Oculus founder Palmer Luckey Issues Statement

      As Visual says, “Get over it.”

      Who is doing the worst, Luckey, who is exercising his right to choose which politician he wished to support, or the people who are harassing him and Oculus?

      This is more childish than Fascist.

    • realtrisk

      Agree 100% with this statement. This kind of reaction is so ridiculous it just shows how low liberals are willing to go to smear anyone who dares disagree with them.

    • Fundamentalist Daleks

      Who wants to silence him? Facebook just needs to encourage him to spend more time with his family and stop distracting from Oculus’ work. Having racism and hate memes linked to Oculus isn’t good for VR, it’s VR poison and Mr. Luckey has been poisoning the well with his incompetence all year. So get out of Oculus and go become an alt right Rand hero if that’s what you’re going to spend 2016 doing instead of concentrating on VR during the year of consumer launch.

      What a disgrace to all the thousands of people working hard to make VR work this year. Idiocy and ego was not supposed to be your project, Luckey. Touch was. Now this nonsense overshadows Connect 3 and the Touch launch during the leadup to the election. Clearly business genius was never on Luckey’s resume along with half bright Nintendo modder.

    • serversurfer

      This post is confusing. You start by agreeing that Palmer’s active support of “shitposting and meme magic” to suppress ideas he doesn’t like makes him a fascist organizer, yet the tone of your post makes it sound like you’re defending him. Why do you seem to be supporting the very same fascist behavior you decry? Oh, right, shitposting and meme magic… Yours was meant to be a DARVO post, right?

  • impurekind

    Look, the fact is that he’s 100% right to sh*t-post the likes of Hillary Clinton. Elite twits like her who abuse their wealth, power, and position for nefarious purposes are not your friends, they are your enemies. And that’s true of Donald Trump too. Palmer should not be getting persecuted for having a political opinion and supporting his political stance in whatever way he sees fit (within the law and basic human decency). And, there’s all these accusations of him supporting hate speech and stuff, but sh*t-posting a political candidate in this utter joke of an election is not supporting hate speech (which is what many people are now accusing him of), it’s not even close. And it doesn’t even count if the people he’s funding also engage in hate speech at times (I don’t know if they are or not) because it doesn’t mean he’s automatically funding that part of their actions just because he thought he could use some of their talents in one way or another in this particular election. Correlation does not imply causation, and Palmer and Oculus are now simply victims of junk, sensationalist “news” media and social media garbage from everything I can see.

    • Raphael

      Everyone’s a victim. It’s a learning lesson for Palmer. He is young and people do dumb stuff at his age. He’s a partiot who perhaps made a wrong choice in his funding. I don’t think Palmer is a nazi but I don’t agree with his assertion that America is the greatest country on earth. Nor do I agree with his girlfriend crapping-on about immigration. Simple minds tend to be swayed very easily into believing all of the problems are down to “immigration”.

      • Freeman

        She craps on ILLEGAL immigration. They don’t like ILLEGAL immigration. You can spot the simple mind by noticing which one can’t keep up with the nuance.

        • Raphael

          Duh… missing the bigger picture aren’t you… that of the heavily conditioned focused on illegal immigrants. Just like those far-right groups who spend all their time bitching about immigrants regardless of whether they’re illegal, The point you are too simple to understand is that there are far greater issues rather than mere surface reality. That dumb cosplay emo is only able to react to surface reality (much like yourself).

          • Freeman

            Duh… missing the bigger picture aren’t you… that of the heavily conditioned focused on immigrants. Just like those far-left groups who spend all their time bitching about racists regardless of whether they’re racist, The point you are too simple to understand is that there are far greater issues rather than mere surface reality.

          • Raphael

            Yes, absolutely correct. Either extreme is wrong. And as you say… there are far greater issues than mere surface reality.

          • Freeman

            You actually believe you’re making a point when you make vague allusion, don’t you? Seems like another sign of a simple-minded person who doesn’t know how to articulate and defend his delusions.

          • Raphael

            You have an opinion that differs significantly from mine which means we must now enter into a sequence of insults until one of us gets tired or is banned.

            I am not simple-minded… you are….

            You are the deluded one… not me…

            Your turn…

          • Freeman

            I never actually called you simple-minded or delusional. If you’ll notice, I pointed out simple-minded and delusional behavior that you are exhibiting. …except when I copy pasted your comment. …another point of nuance.

          • Raphael

            Yes, another point of nuance.

            So the question is… what are we going to do? I disagree with some of your points and you disagree with some or all of mine.

          • Freeman

            We are going to end this conversation on a good note. It was nice talking to you. I hope you have a good day.

          • Raphael

            My day will be lazy (and I am too lazy to sit upright for some reason). You have a good day too.

          • sfmike

            My problem with Palmer is now I know he is a Libertarian which means to me that he hates the federal government and doesn’t want to participate tax wise in public infrastructure or other social programs that help people. He just wants to greedily hold on to his fortune and say f***you to the rest of us. He has every right to do this but it also my right to not want to help him make another greedy nickel.

          • Bryan Ischo

            You truly do not understand what Libertarianism is then.

        • Vae

          Exactly true…This is a systemic problem that impedes humanity.

  • impurekind

    Enough with this sh*t. Get back to posting about f’n VR and gaming/entertainment. All you d*mn gaming and entertainment sites need to stop shoving your noses in this political crap and influencing the views and opinions of a whole lot of weak minded sheep in such matters. They don’t need ignoramuses intentionally/unintentionally telling them how and what to think, especially when we’re talking about two totally f’n insidious elitist worms battling it out in a totally f’n joke of an election. Get the ‘f’ out of politics and get back to what you’re good at.

    Seriously, when the **** did all you ***** ruin gaming with all this totally and utterly f’n junk political trash that should really have **** all to do with this joyous pastime. You’re all f’n ruining things. Christ, I wish I could turn back time and go back to playing games on NES and SNES in a time where politics and all this “social” media brainwashed sh*t had **** all to do with jumping around on enemies heads and saving princesses.

    Can’t you see that YOU people are part of the problem in our modern society. You’re destroying/corrupting the small amount of innocence and purity left in this world with all this “social” media sensationalist trash.

    Just tell us about cool VR tech, games, and experiences! Allow us to enjoy that, free from all the bullsh*t that is the rest of the world, at least!!!!!!!!

    But here’s the sad and real truth: It’s all about getting those clicks. You’d all help the world be dragged down into hell for a few extra clicks.

    • Raphael

      Once again with your adolf hitler-esque attempts to control… I would say RoadtoVR aren’t breaking any laws posting about a very prominent VR figure being involved with a meme group who have also created memes for white supremacy. Here you are stomping your adolf foot and telling us what we can and can’t discuss. You crap on about freedom of speech while trying to take away those rights for anyone you disagree with.

      • impurekind

        See the other reply I just made to you for how totally and utterly ignorant you are being here.

        If I were as ignorant as you I could now just say “I’m not breaking any laws by posting what I just posted and this is you trying to force me not to write what I just wrote because you say I’m crapping on freedom of speech . . . blah ******** blah blah”

        It’s not a stupid f’n infinite line in both directions: I’m free so you’re free so I’m free so you’re free . . .

        He’s expressed his views/opinions and the developers are abusing the situation to basically try and oppress his views/opinions by threatening to drop support unless he’s fired or whatever. Him expressing his views/opinions caused them no harm in and of itself, so the “freedom of speech and freedom to choose” stuff didn’t start with him. They are directly causing him harm now; that’s where “freedom of speech and freedom to choose” actually started. He didn’t do anything to punish them or basically control what they are allowed to think, say, and do. They are doing exactly that to him.

        If you can’t see the difference I’d suggest you need to do a little more learning/study on such things.

        • unc0nnected

          He is expressing his views by taken the currency created by his work at Oculus, money in this case, and giving that to the alt right so they can help a sociopath lead and likely destroy the free world. Some of these developers are taking the only currency they have, the games they make, and are taking them away from Oculus(likely to prevent them from making more money which can then go to supporting the alt right some more) . They will never have the cash resources to be able to compete with the influence that Lucky can wield financially so they are using the most valuable currency they do have. Now I think you are totally right to disagree with them making demands to have Lucky fired, that feels bit fascist but they are most certainly free to not support an organization founded by a guy who funds despicable groups. Just like if I made hot dogs and I didn’t want them sold in a chain of stores that my kkk neighbour and all of his racist friends owns a bunch of shares in. There’s going to be a bunch of pissed of people who can’t get my hot dogs anymore and I’m probably not going to make as many sales but I have the right not to indirectly support the kkk driving profits through the sale of my wildly popular hot dogs(you really need to try them at this point) which in turn bumps the share value up which in turn lines the pockets of my KKK neighbour, which in turn goes towards burning crosses.

          • Bryan Ischo

            Luckey gives money to an organization that does nothing except express opinions publicly. These developers pulling support are trying to justify their actions by saying that they don’t want to support that. So basically they are pulling support because they don’t want Luckey to express his opinion indirectly through a third party.

            So you are saying that you think it’s OK for people to try to use economic censure to prevent other people from expressing their opinion.

            That is FASCISM by COLLECTIVE ACTION. My god this is a frightening time to be alive. Who knew that the enabling technologies of the internet and social media would allow individuals to collectively group together to form fascism.

          • Raphael

            yeah, you’re trying a re-spin to make it mostly-harmless. They are pulling support because the meme-group haven’t just created anti-hillary memes but pro white supremacist and because palmer had a meeting with one who got a lifetime ban on twitter for racially attacking a black woman.

            You can re-spin that as fascism but I would call it having a moral/ethical compass.

          • Mike

            Where are your sources that they made white supremecist memes? Also, Mildo did not racially attack anyone – he just said that she looks like his ex boyfriend.

          • Raphael

            Daily Beast.

  • Raphael

    Ummm… excuse me? So they can’t pull support and hurt Oculus/Palmer although they disagree with his views? So you mean they must keep an alliance with someone they’re opposed to? Does that sound like a free society?

    “These developers are still entirely free to do whatever they want regardless of what Palmer thinks or does politically, ” << yes… free to pull support.

    "but them pulling support in this particular way is literally and directly punishing him (and his company)," <<< oh so they should have pulled support in another way?

    "in a professional and commercial business capacity, for having a personal view that he should be totally free to have without any form of very deliberate and directed persecution or oppression." << quarter-baked logic.

    So you're another one of these trendy numpties who think a guy should keep his job if he racially abuses a black girl so long as he's not doing it from work. What he does in his free time is his business.

    "Palmer isn't silencing or taking away business from these developers by supporting groups that sh*t-post the worm that is Clinton (Trump is just as bad) but these developers are effectively trying to use their position and actions to silence Palmer" << It's not just about Trump. If you can read and understand english… the meme group create pro white supremacist memes too.

    It's scary how some people adopt these trendy views that people should be allowed to say or do anything under the banner of freedom of speech without it impacting them.

    So you have a particular view that palmer being punished by having business taken away is costing him money. So what?

    Let's look at the evidence:

    You come here stomping your foot and demanding roattovr don't discuss anything other than vr games.

    You demand that developers should not punish palmer because of his personal views…

    So said developers have no rights and must be chained to doing business with palmer… yeah… sounds just like a free society.

    Once again ladies and gentlemen:

    "in a professional and commercial business capacity, for having a personal view that he should be totally free to have without any form of very deliberate and directed persecution or oppression." << translates to:

    Should be free to do or say whatever he wants without having anyone criticise him.

    Developers should by law be forced to keep working with him.

    Your swastika is visible.

    • unc0nnected

      They also aren’t pulling support because of his views, the are pulling support because he uses that Oculus money to fund groups they find deplorable and they don’t want their products to indirectly help fund said groups. There is a difference here

      • Raphael

        Both… As one developer put it “because he thinks it’s funny supporting white supremacist memes”.

        • Taun

          So you have proof that the REAL quote isn’t being taken out of context? I see no proof of him supporting white supremacist memes. Heck, no one has yet to link to one since yesterday. All I see is the anti-Hillary meme. And as someone on the far left, I kinda like sentiment of ‘Too Big to Jail’.

          Maybe he is what you say. But I’ve yet to see the proof. And by that I mean an actual link to something, not heresay.

        • Amith Thomas

          where were the white supremacist memes ? So far the ‘racist’ and ‘white supremacist’ connections seem to be rather weak don’t you think ?

          It’s pro-trump and shit posting Hillary. There are lots of people on the trump side who are actually racist. Therefore Palmer was funding white supremacist memes ? Funny, because he didn’t fund any white supremacist memes.the result of his funding = wasn’t white supremacist was it ?

          That seems to be what it’s about. Even on Nimble America’s website. Where is the racist and white supremacist stuff ? So far all I’ve seen is. ‘Well, they’re a group on r/TheDonald, and some people on r/TheDonald post racist stuff.’

          Seems a tad unfair to Luckey don’t you think ? Directly saying ‘he’s funding racism and white supremacy”, just because of overall association with the right is kind of stupid.

          • Raphael

            Welcome to the world where tiny things become epic. I don’t think Palmer would knowingly support nazis. In fact.. I don’t think Palmer will support anything in future.

            I do envision a range of plastic Trump covers for Oculus Rift though but that will be 3rd party rather than Oculus.

            Eventually this will all die down until the next oculus related drama. Possible future Oculus dramas:

            Oculus strapping rifts to monkeys in their research labs.

            Palmer’s coke habit.

            Palmer’s CIA connection.

      • Bryan Ischo

        What is the difference? There is no freaking difference.

        You are saying that there is a difference between:

        – Pulling support for Oculus because Palmer speaks his opinions out loud
        – Pulling support for Oculus because Palmer pays money to someone else to speak his opinions for him

        There is no difference there. In both cases, Palmer is making his opinions heard, either directly by speaking him, or indirectly by having others speak them for him. Developers are trying to censor him from expressing his opinion either way. Which I find more repulsive than Palmer’s political views.

        • I see no issue with devs silencing fascist white supremacist views. And I see no issue with pulling support because they don’t like his opinions.

          So what?

    • Bob

      “Ummm… excuse me? So they can’t pull support and hurt Oculus/Palmer although they disagree with his views? So you mean they must keep an alliance with someone they’re opposed to? Does that sound like a free society?”

      Are you serious? These devs can do whatever the fuck they want. If they want to pull out because they don’t agree with somebody’s political stance then they are free to do so. Who’s forcing them to keep an “alliance”? Luckey? Please. This guy’s views and opinions are his own and have nothing to do with the company. If you’re pulling support then obviously that’s on your end but nothing else has changed.

      • Raphael

        “This guy’s views and opinions are his own and have nothing to do with the company.” << this is bizarre. So a company has to accept whatever views an employee has? So if a company has strong anti-racist views they should keep an employee who is racist because his views are none of their business?

        That is bizarre and yet another example of twisted quarter-baked logic.

        Another example of the misuse of freedom of speech. Hiding behind freedom of speech while taking away a company's right to choose the kind of employee they want. An employee that doesn't have a negative impact on their brand. I do believe that a significant percentage of you are absolutely insane. If you can't understand that freedom of speech and freedom of choice should also be applicable to a company deciding who they want to work with.

        • Bryan Ischo

          Two points:

          – Yes, I think that a company should not be allowed to fire an individual because his personal viewpoints are different form their own. Believe it or not, people are ALLOWED to be racists. They are allowed to express racist opinions. That is the freedom that they are guaranteed and should be guaranteed, without fear of economic reprisal from their employer.

          – The real problem here is not how people with direct relationships with each other interact. You bringing up an example in which two entities with a direct relationship (employer/employee) are under consideration shows to me that you don’t understand the actual issue at hand. The problem is when UNRELATED people collectively join together via social media to try to form an ad-hoc fascist group. That is much more insidious because it allows the magnification of people’s personal opinions into a collective force that can use economic censure to silence anyone they don’t agree with.

          • Raphael

            “I would suggest that, rather than focusing on free speech, employers should focus on the harm to their reputations and the disruption to their business that their employees’ racist comments may be causing. It is not necessary to prove actual harm has occurred; the mere possibility is enough.”

            http://www.butler.legal/what-to-do-with-racist-employees

          • Bryan Ischo

            Wow that’s truly frightening. We don’t actually need to prove that we’ve been harmed, just that there is a possibility that we may have been harmed.

            In that vein, I guess that cops don’t have to prove that they’re being threatened before they shoot a black man, just that there is a possibility that they may have been threatened.

            I am quite certain that your viewpoints are self-contradictory and that you don’t even realize it.

          • Raphael

            Yes, cops don’t have to prove they’re being threatened. So long as the victim is black that in itself will enable them to escape a jail sentence (at least in 99.9 percent of cases).

            “Suspect had his arms raised and officers felt threatened by this.. split second decision was made to shoot the suspect 14 times”.

            The real world in which some of us live is one in which a company can receive a shit-storm for continuing to employ a racist.

            I don’t think Palmey is a racist. I think he just funded something that seemed like a great idea.

      • Bryan Ischo

        This whole thing devolves into stupid economic warfare between groups of people with different viewpoints, enabled by “social media”. That is so freaking ridiculous.

        “We as a group are not going to buy your product because we don’t like what a high ranking member of your company thinks”.

        “Oh yeah, well then what company does your leader work for? We won’t buy anything from that company either.”

        The effect is going to be that nobody will be truly free to express their opinions for fear of public economic backlash.

        This is FASCISM in action.

        Sure, people are absolutely free to be as fascist as they want to be. But I really personally hate that this is what our society is devolving into.

        • Bob

          Go make sense to this Raphael individual who seems to be the Knight in Shining Armor.

  • CURTROCK

    This is about VR. Capital V, Capital R. V-fucking-R. Leave the politics to the politicians. If you truly believe in this new & wonderous technology, support or don’t support a company based on the merits of their products/services.

    • Bob

      ” Leave the politics to the politicians. ”

      This is ALL that needs to be said. End of story.

    • yag

      Politics is everywhere and politics is more important than anything. All of our actions, like supporting a company or not, buying one product or not (“vote with your wallet”), have political ramifications.

    • Akeydel

      Corporations are viewed people now, anything that makes money has a say in politics. To “leave politics to the politicians” you’d have to repeal a supreme court decision and pass a bunch of restrictions on political spending.
      I’m 100% in favor of it, but that’s not the world we live in currently.

  • VRgameDevGirl

    Another reason I hate politics. They have NOTHING to do with VR or the rift, if it wasn’t for Lucky we may not be where we are today when it comes to VR. Devs dropping support over this is ridiculous.

    • Bryan Ischo

      Agreed. I wrote Polytron this email:

      “I think it’s abhorrent that you would drop support for the Oculus
      platform for your games for political reasons. You must not realize
      that this is the essence of fascism: trying to silence those who have a
      different viewpoint from your own. In this case it’s not a government
      doing it, but individuals who believe that collectively they can have
      the same effect through economic censure.

      Of course you are free to support or not support the Oculus platform for
      whatever reason you choose. Fortunately this is still a free country.
      But I believe that you and others like you set a dangerous precedent
      when you try to groupthink away anyone who you feel doesn’t represent
      your personal views.”

      • Raphael

        I wrote Polytron the following:

        Dear Polytron,

        I’m pleased to see that you’re not just game developers but have a social and moral compass pointing in the same direction as my own (largely North) Although I wouldn’t vote for Hillary (even though I risk assassination), I certainly wouldn’t vote for trumpet.

        I hereby promise to buy all of your future games even if they get really crappy reviews.

        Furthermore I promise to write good reviews even if a particular game of yours turns out to be a dud.

        Thank you for not supporting Palmey’s meme-funding even though I doubt Palmey is a swastika and jack-boots boy. He has noticeably gained weight which I suspect has something to do with his participation in chocolate eating contests. Hopefully this latest drama will be enough to make him drop a few pounds.

        Regards,

        OrangeUnderpants

        • Bryan Ischo

          Awesome so … you are saying that you will now willingly lie to other consumers about the quality of someone’s product just because it suits your political agenda?

          Is this what it means to have a moral compass “largely pointing north”?

          • Raphael

            Yes Bryan, largely pointing north. Sometimes northwest.

    • Akeydel

      That’s the thing though, everyone champions Luckey as the founder of VR through the oculus kickstarter, but it looks like he essentially stole the tech himself
      https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/23/zenimax-oculus-rift-lawsuit-john-carmack-took-tech/

  • Swifty

    Thanks for writing this article. Although you are not a political magazine, this needs to be covered here. One would have to be pretty blinkered to think developers abandoning a VR platform and their reasons for doing so, was not critical VR news.
    Hardly surprising to see the most voiciferously disapproving of it being covered is the person who politically sides with the viewpoints being condemned.

  • Firestorm185

    I’m not going to condemn or say that anything Palmer did was ok. But honestly, I don’t care. What he does, and how people react to it, is his problem. I believe that it has little to no effect on who Oculus is as a company, I’m not disowning my Rift, and I still hope the company as a whole will still be successful in this field. I’m giving them another chance, I hope some of you will too. :)

    • Akeydel

      This is not the first time Luckey and Oculus have come under fire though.
      There are convincing allegations that large parts of the design were essentially stolen from Zenimax.
      Overall, it looks like Luckey is a really horrible person, even though his company has gained from his spokesmanship, especially during the kickstarter phase.
      I can’t support the company which indirectly supports Luckey.
      https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/23/zenimax-oculus-rift-lawsuit-john-carmack-took-tech/

      • Firestorm185

        Oh yeah. I totally get ya. And of course, you’re allowed to make whatever decision you want with where your money (and by continuation your support) goes. I actually retracted this from my original statement, but I was going to say that this is not the first time something like this has come up. And I can’t say I agree with some of the decisions they’ve made either. However, when it comes to VR I still think the hardware itself is beautiful (even if partially stolen) and they’ve helped bring it a long way from where it was in 2012. Honestly, once the Touch controllers come out I’ll be pretty much done spending money on VR hardware at all on either company, (til Gen 2 that is), since at that point I could play/work on everything a Vive could, plus some on the Home store. Heck, if I wanted to I could kinda play some Vive games with my Oculus and a Leap Motion right now, but I want to wait for the real deal to come out. But that’s besides the point: Several people may have messed up, but the company itself is still invested heavily into VR and I don’t want to alienate myself from them, even if political/ethical views don’t necessarily line up. Its sounds kinda dumb, but the only reason I have for that is that I want to get as much out of VR as possible, and they are currently who I aligned myself with in the HMD war ( I followed them since the Kickstarter and finally saved up enough to purchase one earlier this year. It was like a dream come true). However, like I said, your opinions,beliefs, and where your wallet goes are completely up to you, and you have the freedom to do whatever you want with that. I totally respect any decision you make, and any other VR enthusiast for that matter, and I hope people would not disrespect me for keeping my Rift the way it is. VR is supposed to be social, and I don’t think we’d get that friendly atmosphir by arguing on topics like this for more than just a little while. That’s why in my first post I never said that what anyone was thinking was wrong. It’s up to them. But thanks for talking! It’s interesting to see what someone else thinks about the situation. :)

  • Crusher

    Really? I can see the outrage if he molested some school children but it looks like he supported an anti-Hillary meme group. Again, really??

  • Rlee

    The political left is the new face of Fascism. Shut down debate, demonize the other side and attempt to ruin them if all else fails. Hitler would be proud.

    • yag

      Deliciously ironic.

      • Vae

        Logic dictates otherwise.

    • Bryan Ischo

      Reminds me of the song “California Uber Alles” by the Dead Kennedys. It’s truly scary to see the twisted ideology described in that song from the 1970’s being realized today.

  • Bryan Ischo

    I think a lot of the debate could be solved if people would understand this:

    – Trying to stop other people from expressing their opinion is not itself an act of expressing an opinion

    We all believe it’s everyone’s right to express their opinion. But you cannot use that as justification for developers dropping support for Oculus, claiming that this is just those developers expressing their opinion. They are doing MUCH MORE than just expressing an opinion. Expressing an opinion would be saying “we think the things that Palmer and the groups he supports says are wrong and here is why”. They are not doing that. They are trying to STOP Palmer from expressing his opinions by putting economic pressure on him. That is NOT expressing opinion. That is collective fascism.

    • Akeydel

      No, money talks.
      By buying a product, you are directly supporting that company. That company is allowed to directly support any political candidates or views that it chooses.
      The only way to NOT support the views that you disagree with is to NOT support companies that hold those views.
      But even beyond that: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a975490093fda5975704034b0d6f5033bf41a39c7d4d4a9fb925e1385f755b89.png

      • Bryan Ischo

        Do you understand that there is a concept of social norm that goes beyond what is dictated by law? And do you understand that social norm is IMPORTANT because it determines how people interact? Social norms can encourage freedom of thought and free expression of that thought; or they can discourage it. THAT is what we are talking about. We are NOT talking about freedom of speech.

        The concept is alot more nuanced than can be represented in a comic strip. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one.

  • jlschmugge

    Thank you for trying to remain impartial. That is hard to do nowadays. This scares me, not for any politics, but that it will affect the games I get as a Rift only owner. That is not fair. I didn’t give money to anybody for political reasons, just to Oculus and game develops because I want to play games. It is also not fair to the many employees of Oculus who’s livelihoods are now unfortunately wrapped up in this.

    Still, I can’t help the feeling that someone took the opportunity of an ill advised donation by Luckey to taint his somewhat divided reputation.

  • DiGiCT Ltd

    Again it comes to the point of telling lies and only telling partly the truth.
    It is not about the political part that matters here, but rather his lies and make stories like he feels fit to him.
    I never believe what this dude tells, he is not a thrustworthy person IMO and maybe occulus is indeed better of without him.
    As he is one important spokesmen of Oculus, he sure does not behave like that, it lacks responsibility.

    Either way for the Americans i wish them all good luck with their elections on those 2 candidates, even when both of them are a bad choice after all.

  • Dami Valorton

    Who cares what politics he supports? Lol, so two virtually unknown “game developers” tweeting they are dropping support. They probably couldn’t write a title worth playing anyway.

  • Haters are gonna hate. What I find more disconcerting is that Palmer denied that he wrote under NimbleRichMan and then was publicly called out on it by Ben Collins. He apologized, but tried to pass the buck. He got his fingers caught in the cookie jar. He needs to man up and take the heat.

    • DougP

      Re: “What I find more disconcerting is that Palmer denied that he wrote under NimbleRichMan”
      Disconcerting, sure. Surprising, not at all.

  • MichaelJPierce

    Pepe is not racists and we at the_Donald kicked this guy and all mods involved out for shilling a faux PAC that tried to copy the LOOK of Donald Trumps official website, and the fact it was also incomplete yet asking for funds for billboards. Wholly ineffective and disgusting to try and take advanatge of Trump supporters.

  • ChimneyJoe

    The days of liberal fascism are coming to an end. After America speaks on 11/08 and we elect Trump, then we go to work on the rest of the problems.

    We are going to dismantle and completely obliterate the lying and treasonous news organizations like CNN.

    We are going to re-haul the education system and kick out the liberals – their idiot professors on the college campuses will be selling hotdogs to make a living.

    The SJWs and other assorted freaks will need so many safe spaces we might have to give the fatties their own state where they can cry and pound the pillow and not bother the rest of us.

    Electing Trump is the first step. The hard work begins after that.

    Get ready libs – this fight is just starting and we are going to dismantle and destroy everything you’ve done to screw up this country that we love and you hate.

    • Akeydel

      this rings eerily close to Goebbels’ Wir fordern nazi propaganda

      • ChimneyJoe

        And you ring eerily close to a simpleton fool whose best shot is drawing a link to Hitler.

        Well done, though – you haven’t tossed out racist, xenophobe or bigot – the typical three biggies that the dopey libs use when stumped and their neurons can’t fire due to truth and sensory overload.

        • Bryan Ischo

          Well dude you are the one who started with “liberal fascism.” You also accused “liberals” (which is a meaningless term that small minded people use to label other people) of hating the country they live in, which is absolutely absurd and would be offensive to anyone who took you seriously.

          Anyone who labels another person “liberal” or “conservative” in a pejorative way immediately loses almost all credibility with me.

          Also, your post was completely off topic and so I downvoted it.

        • Patrick Moore

          Fascism is as fascism does. The parallels between Trumpism and the early days of Naziism are not hard to see. It’s still right-authoritarianism, wrapped up in the fable of national rebirth and hatred of “the other.”

  • Cat of Many Faces

    I hope this asshole rots.

    Support a racist group of pondscum, fine. just watch as people with a conscience run away from you in droves.

    jerk

    • Bryan Ischo

      You mean, people who value their own viewpoint more than they value freedom of thought and expression, right? That’s not the same thing as having a conscience.

      • Cat of Many Faces

        You know that this is exactly what the hand of the market is right?

        You are not seriously suggesting that i HAVE to buy from someone i dislike?

        I feel i am fully within my rights to not give money to someone i think is terrible. What’s your alternative?

        • Jacob Roberts

          I can’t imagine a much faster or dumber way to screw up the economy.

          Seriously, imagine if suddenly half the country were trying to shut down every company that had an executive that made pro-Clinton donations or statements. Would it not just sound petty and irrational to you? Would that not be irritating, even infuriating?
          The far-right are not often the voices of reason in the world, but at least we’ve never seen any traction from them on that sort of thing. It’s a bummer to have seen it gain traction again and again from the left. An economy that is split down political lines would be a garbage economy.

          • Cat of Many Faces

            So are you saying i shouldn’t have the freedom to choose where i spend my money?

            I’m not really seeing any other options really. Either i can choose to not support a thing because i don’t like what my money will be used for, or i don’t have that freedom of choice.

          • Jacob Roberts

            you don’t like what your money will be used for?? Of the $600 that you spend on a rift, pennies of that will go to Palmer. And from those pennies, a tiny tiny tiny fraction may end up going to a cause you don’t like. His net worth is $700 million and he donated $10,000. Wanna pull out a calculator?

            More importantly, you don’t think there are Clinton donors at Oculus? Guess what, when you spend money at any large business, some of that money is going to Trump supporters. And some of it is going to Clinton supporters. And most of it is going to a bunch of people that don’t really care and would rather not get caught up in a petty little political feud.

          • Cat of Many Faces

            So, again, i shouldn’t be allowed to do what i want with my money? I mean, it’s fine if you think it’s silly. But i’m not sure if you are saying i should not be ALLOWED to make that decision.

            I’m honestly not quite sure what you want here…

            Are you trying to convince me, or are you saying it should be against the law?

          • Jacob Roberts

            … … … that a serious question?

            guess its my own fault for putting out a serious reply to the ‘racist group of pondscum’ comment…

          • Cat of Many Faces

            yes it’s a serious question… sorry?

        • Jacob Roberts

          And that’s ignoring the fact that you’re talking about boycotting a huge company based on the political leanings of one single executive, a highly unrepresentative sample. You don’t think there are Clinton supporters in upper management at Oculus? You don’t think there are Trump supporters at Vive?

          I don’t like Trump any more than you, but if you take a discerning eye to the table, the demonization of public figures that express any opinions deviating from the left is clearly out of line.

          And… really? ‘racist group of pondscum’? I probably just wasted a lot of reasoning on someone that has no desire to hear it.

  • rheddherring

    Of course you’re not allowed to support any candidate that I oppose, didn’t you know you must step down immediately now that you have been OUTED? That’s an EXCELLENT reason to not allow someone to do his or her job. Unbelievably asinine.

  • Martin Petersson

    We need people like Palmer to show the way, go Palmer! If he just won’t make excuses for it. People conform to status quo and mass immigration from the third world is ruining the west, that’s why the media and people that have a voice that reaches the masses are needed to show the rest of the sheep out there there’s nothing wrong with being opposed to it.

    • Sensitive Allan

      Luck for you you were born in the West then, hey? Be a pain having to try and get in otherwise.

      • Martin Petersson

        Well, I live in Sweden, until recently we had the most liberal immigration in all of the world, the most generous welfare. What happened? Violent crime skyrocketed over the years, gang rapes, less than 34% of the so called refugees has a job after 15 years here and they only become more numerous, they also get lower grades in school and some parts of the country is nowadays no go zones. That has led to a majority of society changing in favor of a more conservative policy. Why would anyone seriously deliberately ruin your own nation? Oh and because of this people in need of cancer treatment are denied it because there aren’t enough resources to take care of everyone any more. But as long as it won’t impact you I guess it’s all well and good is that it? “immigration can’t ever be wrong”. Also we pay the worlds highest taxes to support this madness.

      • Bryan Ischo

        I upvoted you because I think your comment was clever.

        However, speaking more seriously … I think that the best we can do is vet immigrant applications and accept only people who are likely to contribute positively to our society. I lived in New Zealand for a while (I am from the USA) and their immigration policy was very clear: if you don’t rate highly in at least a few categories (that represent the country’s needs, such as having expertise in a needed field, or bringing wealth into the country), then you are not accepted.

        I personally think that some percentage of people should be accepted according to their need more than their qualifications, because it may allow them to support reform in their native country from a better economic position in the USA.

        I realize that this means that many people who might find a better life for themselves by immigrating to another country would be out of luck; but that’s the unfortunate and harsh reality of this world: not everyone is born into the same circumstances. But just because you were born as a have-not, does not mean you just get to take away from those born as a have.

  • Sensitive Allan

    This is what happens when teenagers run companies.

  • Tom A

    If there’s one tyranny the internet has bred, it’s the phenomenon of mass targeted social bullying.

    It amazes me that people can en masse attack an individual’s character so incredibly aggressively, and think they’re somehow performing some positive moral action.

    Who elected “the internet” the judge, jury and executioner for social justice? And can these people not see the farcical irony in their attemps to protect society by viciously attacking any part of it they do not like, or disagree with?

    This whole fallacy of “free-speech guarantees me the right to attack you if you say something I disagree with” is just a feeble pretence that has enabled bullies to justify their actions and kid themselves into a clear conscience.

    Social bullying, harassment and ostracization has no part in a free speech society. The Nazis and Stalinists used exactly the same kind of aggressive pressure tactics that self-proclaimed Liberals are employing today, and unless they stop and check their own actions, who knows how this century will play out.

  • Richard Winn Taylor II

    Jerk, Another good reason to stick with Vive or Gear or any other headset. He should get his head out of his Oculass.

  • Raphael

    Agrees,

  • This election has gotten pretty nasty. Well… actually the left has gotten pretty nasty. I’d be curious to see some of this “Nimble America” stuff, because I’ve been utterly slammed by evil, vile, hateful things from the Far-Left so far. Surgeon Simulator added a level devoted to dismembering Trump. Shapeways is selling a butt-plug in Trump’s shape. I’ve seen numerous TV shows just tearing into the man. For godsakes, there is no LOW these people will not stoop to. It’s hatefully childish. It’s sick.

    And now the Left wishes to go after people’s businesses and financial interests in order to take down the Right? I wasn’t planning on buying the Oculus and Touch combo, because for development purposes, I’m already invested in VIVE and VIVE does enough. But now… I think I’m going to buy an Oculus set when it becomes available.

    VR is not the property of the Democratic Party!

  • wowgivemeabreak

    America: where you have all the little sheeple proclaiming freedom of speech and freedom to believe what you want…until it goes against the majority which comprises the liberal loving media and liberal leaning SJWs online and suddenly you are vilified and people are out to try and ruin you. I have seen some of the backlash this guy has got and you’d think he was arrested for raping women or beating up babies. That people are taking a man’s PERSONAL ACTIONS and attaching it to a company he isn’t even the head of just shows how far today’s society has fallen.

    That many (most?) Americans can’t see this is what makes it so funny…and sad.

    I think Trump is a bigot clown but the amusing thing is that nimble america billboard shown above is true. Hillary has broken the law but she is too big to jail and she is as corrupt as they come as proven by all the scandals she has been involved in…but reality isn’t something the SJWs and liberals ever want to accept. They’ll just instead claim sexism or other childlike crap whenever one presents them with fact.

    Having said the above, that nimble america group sounds pretty lame.

  • RS

    It does not seem unreasonable that developers want to stop doing business with a company whose founder has donated money to an organisation that is known to have promoted hate speech.

  • RipVoid

    You’re a rather long winded Oculus apologist regardless of the issue.

  • Randy V.

    The thing of it is this. VR gaming has absolutely nothing to do with politics. 10k to a billionaire is nothing, 10k in politics is nothing, people spent more in Star Citizen in 1 hour today. Why is this even news? Why is it front page 4 and 5 articles deep and day to day updates on every gaming site? This is below tabloid in its necessity.

    • Demongo

      So a growing bunch of developers pulling support for the principal VR platform due to the political affiliations and published statements of a principal founder of the platform are politics and shouldn’t be covered on a VR news site?

      Seriously?

      • Randy V.

        LOL look at the games these “developers” are making. They are making waves because their games will not. Click bait. Since when did a persons political affiliation effect a gaming industry, last time I checked it was not illegal to support a presidential primary. Stop being a media tool.

      • Randy V.

        Developers? You mean Developer, singular. Insomniac retracted, and rightfully so. The only game developer now on the hate wagon is Polygonal and its games are complete crap, and that is the reason its using click bait hate propaganda to get people to look at them. No this isn’t news, no it shouldn’t be covered here or anywhere. People have opinions and its legal to support a presidential primary, as Trump is.

        Why on earth would a developer pull support of a game because a person no longer in control of a company (he sold his control to Facebook remember?) has a political opinion. Sounds like a click bait campaign to me.

  • I don’t like what he has done but dropping support is a different thing. I support Oculus with our ImmotionRoom system because we want OCULUS USERS to use it, not because I love Oculus chiefs. It is better if we leave politics out of technical stuff

  • OgreTactics

    Fantastic, SJW fascists have now spread like cancer to…VR. When people are going to get a fucking clue at how unfunny and how actually dangerous the SJW ideology is…

  • Canuk Atlarge

    Glad these people are exposing themselves. Anyone who thinks it is not only right, but necessary to publically withdraw and decry a solid company because of one mans politics, who try to use the threat of their business to sledgehammer lives apart and force careers to end over political views, number among the few who actually do need to be boycotted. Thank you superhypedupcube, and tower underworld, for letting me know to not ever buy anything you produce, until seeing a sold path to reform and a shift towards supporting freedom and basic human rights. Others of like mind, please speak up as well. Its important that we know who you are.

    While I disagree with insomniacs stance, I have no problem with their statement or views. They are not trying to ruin lives or cause firing of people, but are simply making their views knows. They are lucky to have such views that they can do that, as opposed to Lucky, who needs to hide his to avoid being openly attacked.

  • Daz Nightowl

    The fact that he just came out as a libertarian should make the left even more mad they can’t understand what libertarian even means let alone understand how they can combat it. Good on Palmer! I’m not a Facebook fan but you have my vote!!

    • ummm…

      so giggling about non libertarians not having a grasp of libertarian politics (for which the libertarian establishment has little idea – part of the ideology) makes you feel superior. Whether you like it or not, know about it or not, libertariansism, republicanism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, progressivism, are all integral parts of the american political fabric and constantly revitalize one another. Your childish and illogical insults do nothing to change that.

  • OgreTactics

    Also “Tower Underworld Online V” is not a real game and is a sarcastic reaction to this story. Yet beside Polytron there’s so few disgusting spineless people who are cancelling their game to impose their fascistic views on others, that this non-existing game gets featured as an example…

  • CMcD

    Guess what… When you work and earn money, you get to spend that however you damn please so long as you’re not breaking any laws, that’s how that works. Also, this just in, people are allowed to vote for whoever they want to. I know that’s surprising for these developers that I’ve NEVER HEARD OF, except for insomniac, whose statement is actually coherent and makes sense, but in America you can vote for whomever you want to, anyone opposed to that freedom doesn’t understand how voting works. To the developers I’ve never heard of, I just want you to know that Hillary and trump are both horrible options and I demand you refuse to release your game on any platform that is run by ANY humans who live in America and vote for either candidate. Thanks!!

    • ummm…

      news flash. opinions are just that, opinions. You may have a problem with how Koch, or Soros, or Adelman, or Bloomberg etc. spend their money. You can say it. You can agitate or organize around your opinions/beliefs/ideology etc. However, what you really can’t do it EXPECT or REQUIRE that others dont have them. Your argument is analogous to a child crying in the corner when it realizes that no candy is forthcoming.

      • CMcD

        Hahaha… I’m confused, it sounds like you’re agreeing with me.

        • ummm…

          I’ve read your post more thoroughly. I’m unsure of what your premises and assumptions are re: the individuals responsibility and rights and the responsibility and rights of the citizen. Furthermore, I think recommending that we dont spend our monies towards causes we disagree witih, however tangential i may be, would mean we would all have a hard time spending our money. Maybe there are more efficient ways to affect change.

  • Rlee

    I have a Rift and now I will support Oculus as much as I can. Politically correct fascists have never been able to hurt any company ( remember the boycott on Chick-fil-A that only made them more popular? ) They throw around the “Hitler” moniker without even knowing the roots of Nazism and Fascism. Stifling honest debate or the exchange of ideas is one of the core tenants of Fascism.

  • roybatty28

    Palmer shouldn’t apologize to the Nazi SJWs.

  • Grant Whittle

    Intolerance of intolerance is simply not the same thing.

    • Aaron

      I have intolerance for your intolerance of intolerance.

  • DM

    I find it ridiculous that companies will veto an entire hardware and software platform just because of the political views rumoured to be shown by an employee. These developers are in turn forcing their political views on potential interested customers i.e. Oculus Rift owners who now face the posibility of content being denied them.

  • brandon9271

    Good for Palmer. Hillary Clinton is a c*nt bag and should be in prison.