Let me start by not telling what my political views are. That's really not the point. Why the hell would you care? If you agree with me, you'll nod in agreement, if you disagree, you won't even read what I have to say. It's a waste of time.
What I will say is, that (in my experience), I probably disagree with a lot of what most people have to say about politics, and yet, I'm subjected to it continually.
We live in fucked up times. Not so much because of situations we're in, but rather because of everyone's constant need to be outraged about something and sprawl their brain farts all over my twitter feed. Or their need to advocate for someone based on characteristics that don't effect shit.
I should let you know at this point, that I am the worst possible thing. I am a white, cis-gendered, male. For this it seems (from what I read daily) I should apologize. But you know what? FUCK THAT. I can't help that I was born this way. Identity politics are the worst kind of bigotry.
Remember this guy's dream? Something...something content of their character..something... something skin? We have a day for him.. it was last week. Nevermind.
He was a smart man.. helped a lot of people.
Anyway... Every single day, someone I respect (or once respected) decides to let me know, that everything is shit because of me. This (whatever it is), is my fault.
It happened today. A woman I work with (on an all female production crew no less), just broke out in a rant on Twitter about how white cis males skate through life and get jobs in tech, even though her femme students are better. I am the sole developer on this team.. doing all of the actual production work. This pissed me off to read.
I want to be super clear here. I love women. I was raised by women, I work with women, I'm married to one and I have produced a small one. Women are people. I like most of the women I know.
If I say women enough times will it lose its meaning?
Because it should!
I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR GENITALS, YOUR SEXUAL PREFERENCE, YOUR SKIN TONE or any other thing that you don't have control of. What I do care about, is the fact that YOU care! What the fuck is wrong with you?
NO you can't be racist to me because I'm pale, no, you can't be sexist to me because we have different bits, NO you can't have a job because of any of this.. let me see your god damn work!
FUCK
I'm sick of it.
I keep hearing about how privileged I am while I work my ass off. Meanwhile, I see all of these programs to help indie developers. Here is Oculus Launchpad. First paragraph:
"Now in its second year, Oculus Launch Pad provides women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and people from other underrepresented backgrounds funding and resources to ensure diversity of thought in the VR ecosystem."
Oh.. that's nice right? Do they have a way to help GOOD indie developers that have no funding, regardless of their "background"? Nope, fuck you cis male scum.
You know what, that's fine. Maybe I can't get into Women in XR or Women in Virtual Reality to get some support. I can just work harder.. run a kickstarter, I don't need advocacy. Through adversity I have gained strength. I can do this. Right?
Oh wait.. it's all the fucking journalists too!
I know I keep complaining about Twitter. "Just get off twitter dude" I'm sure a lot of you are saying. Unfortunately, that isn't an option. It's really the only way for me to connect with journalists and other bigger developers. And it fucking kills me.
Do you know how hard it is to read their shit everyday and not scream "I DON'T FUCKING CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELS! LETS TALK ABOUT VR GAMES!"?
Really hard.
Anyway. I love you. I understand that life is hard. Just please know that being a bigot and blaming it on random people based on perceived identity isn't helping. It actually kind of sucks.
Chivalry isn't dead.
Meritocracy is on life support.
I get where you're coming from. :)