Video game industry veteran John Carmack posted recently about the recent trend to contact employers of individuals who espouse opposing opinions or beliefs, in the hopes of getting them fired.
The industry veteran and programmer by trade expressed frustration over right-leaning people canceling left-leaning people, the latter of which have been posting frustration online that former President Donald Trump wasn’t assassinated this past week.
In his post, Carmack accuses right-wing internet users of participating in the same behavior that’s exacerbated the culture war with “glee”.
“I’m sad to see the glee that some on the right have at the opportunity to deploy cancel culture over post-assassination-attempt comments,” Carmack said. “I’m a hard core free speech advocate, and I look at it like germ warfare – it’s bad for the whole ecosystem.”
He added, “People like to think that they would fight and die for their sacred principles. This is low stakes practice. The actors will say ‘THOSE aren’t MY sacred principles, I’m going to punch back at my enemy’, but to the people at the margin – Maybe the principle is important to you? Maybe you shouldn’t cheer for an online mob?”
Some of the responses to Carmack’s tweet accuse him of not coming to the defense of conservative victims of cancel culture, something which he has in the past expressed regret for, having said at the time: “I regret not doing more to support and defend Palmer Luckey at Facebook.”
Other responses to Carmack claim that there’s a substantial difference between wishing death on a former president, and a child wearing a traditional headdress when he’s actually part of that culture.
However, Carmack appears to consider it a matter of principle that cancel culture (regardless of source) is dangerous, calling it “germ warfare” in reference to its chilling effect on free speech.
Carmack is largely known as the co-founder of id Software and the lead programmer on popular games such as Doom, Wolfenstein, Commander Keen, and more.
