I know we think it’s right and noble to consider ideas separately from their authors, but I find it hard to read and especially promote this guy’s blog, knowing full well what kind of future he wants for my country.
I do not agree with Luckey's political views - indeed, I am vehemently opposed to them - but they are in no way relevant to his opinions on VR technology. To argue otherwise is tantamount to Lysenkoism.
One of the great strengths of the hacker movement has been our exceptional commitment to diversity and inclusiveness. We don't care what you do in your private life as long as you make a useful contribution to our community. It would be a tragedy if that vital strength was sacrificed in the name of ideological purity. You might believe that Luckey's views make him dangerous, you might even be right, but he would only become more dangerous if he is marginalised by the hacker community and is forced to find other allies.
Evangelical Christians at least maintain the pretence of "loving the sinner while hating the sin". We should show a degree of civility to those who hold political opinions that we find unpalatable; we may one day rely upon that civility ourselves.
And for the record, he’s already found plenty of “other” allies as linked elsewhere in this subthread. I can’t stop Luckey because I am some random schmo, but I can at least help drain his power in some infinitesimal way.
So when you see people, who are well aware of this meaning, using it in a photo like that, what they're saying is "ha ha look how funny the idea of us being racist is". Which of course is actually just normalising white supremacy, and enabling it to go unchallenged by shifting the line between overt racism and coded racism, and preventing any good faith discourse.
So this is either intentionally racist joking-but-not-really on his part or incredibly crass idiocy that provides cover for other racists.
Another one interpretation is "Look how silly SJWs are to believe the 4Chan prank about this being a white power symbol. Let's continue to troll them."
He's posing with two virulent white supremacists. If you lie down with dogs, you might not get fleas but everyone will certainly think you have.
I realise "White Supremacist" is the insult-du-jour, but when you apply it to people who aren't actually racist, you just undermine your own credibility. It's like calling everyone in the Democratic party a communist.
Christ.. I don’t think this level of obfuscation should be left unchallenged. What are you trying to do here exactly?
He would have to be a better actor than Ben Kingsley and Laurence Olivier combined. After Goldman he worked in Hollywood btw.
“In mid-September 2016, Palmer Luckey donated just shy of $10,000 to a recently formed pro-Trump non-profit organization called Nimble America. At the time of his donation, the entire body of Nimble America’s work consisted of putting up a single billboard in the Pittsburgh area [that read “too big to jail. paid for by Nimble America” with a photo of Hillary Clinton]. Going forward, Nimble America planned to put up more billboards in battleground states (hence the organization seeking donations).”
https://uploadvr.com/fake-news-happens-reporting-palmer-luck...
If he retains the same views in 5 years, then you can rightly castigate him