=========
=========
Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
=========
=========

Each day a new deluge of stupidity spreads across the web and weakens the structure of fun that keeps most hobbies supported. Surfing the waves as they lash out at everything in their path are hordes of outraged leftists, hellbent on achieving the new-age Puritanism they so seek. Because in the era of the new fringe left, everything is problematic and nothing is allowed to simply be enjoyable.

Any person that spends even a passing moment on social media will no doubt see the constant presence of ‘controversy’ that gobbles up the worldwide trends on a variety of websites. Just this year alone, actors have faced backlash for the audacity of doing their job and Dungeons and Dragons has been criticized for being racist due to its treatment of fictionalized orcs. Although maybe most absurd of all, a video game taking place in Montana came under fire for having too many black folks, or as the headline of the article put it: “Far Cry 5 ignores both Montana’s real history of fascism and its victims.”

In the case of Far Cry 5, these specific criticisms have been going on since 2017. On May 26 of that year, Waypoint, the gaming publication for Vice media, had a podcast in which they expressed a desire for NPCs in the game to call players who choose to play as a black character racial slurs. Austin Walker, the website’s editor in chief, explained that for the game’s narrative to “mean anything,” it had to go in that direction. A game narrative, mind you, which features a religious doomsday cult using a mystical hallucinogenic drug to keep its members under their control.

Hilariously, Vice News almost exactly a year later ran host to an article that carried the headline: “Wait, why are there so many black people in Far Cry 5.”

For a political ideology that claims to respect black people, they sure don’t seem to like them inside their video games…

I wish I could say this type of gaming coverage was a one off instance, but as a clique of ideologically minded friends expand their reach across websites, and as the mainstream media in general appears to be veering off towards one direction, this questionable coverage is only gaining ground.

Yesterday Waypoint criticized the just released Far Cry: New Dawn, for not having disabled people to save. A few weeks ago they also got uppity at the Resident Evil 2 remake because the game takes place in a police station, or as the author of the article put it: “That notion is wild, the police station as fortress/safe haven is laughably naive (particularly for people of color).” 

And while I enjoy picking on Waypoint, they are hardly the only website spewing such nonsense.

A PCgamer reviewer got livid at a game titled Rimworld because in their words, it is “painfully heteronormative.” They then went on to criticize the game’s handling of transgender character backstories, going so far to call them “reductive.” Wanna know the plot twist? The backstories were written by actual trans people who helped Kickstart the game. But as per the new norm, facts didn’t matter and game journalists only dug their feet in to combat the criticisms aimed at them.

As I’ve written about before, this isn’t even the first time transgender characters/writers have been criticized by journalists for not aligning to their view of what trans people are supposed to be.

Such journalists claim to celebrate diversity, but they only respect those of a particularly singular mind. Where’s the diversity in that?

At the end of the day, gaming is escapist fantasy, but escapism is apparently no longer allowed. Now everything must align with the left’s singular view of how the world works, and everything must also address all the various ‘isms’ under the sun lest they be labeled ‘problematic’. Making matters worse is that this isn’t limited to just one entertainment medium.

Everyone by now has probably seen leftist anger bubble over at actors taking on films roles. Scarlett Johansson had to walk away from a role because the outrage mob pulled out their pitchforks and were after her head for her decision to play a trans man. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was chided for playing an amputee in the action spectacle Skyscraper. Bryan Cranston was forced to defend himself for playing a quadriplegic. None of the above are one-off instances as film and television actors now face scrutiny over their roles to an alarmingly growing degree.

So too are comedians getting in trouble for telling jokes.

Everywhere a person looks there is controversy and outrage, and now the hobbies they turn to to escape the noise are getting swallowed up by the exhaustive actions of the new Puritan party. Tabletop games, video games, television series, movies, and even books are continually drowning in the ever growing sea of leftist tears.

Tears that would maybe be funny if they weren’t so influential, but like a kid throwing a tantrum to get their way, corporations and people are playing the role of over protective mommies and daddies, and in doing so they are giving in to the whims of these puffy eyed simpletons.

The massive video game publisher Ubisoft recently apologized and vowed to work with GLAAD to implement changes on upcoming Assassin’s Creed DLC due to the hatred they received over a story bit where the player’s character entered into a relationship with someone with the goal of having a baby to carry on their lineage.

Most annoying of all is that these types of apologies aren’t rare. Scarlett Johansson turned down her film role. A young adult author just decided to not publish her hotly anticipated novel because she was inundated with so much scorn over a scene involving slavery.

In many ways one can’t blame individuals who are unable to stand up to the increasing pressure from those on the left. It’s difficult to persevere through relentless waves of boiling outrage, but while I’ll concede that a singular person may be unable to withstand such heat, there’s no excuse for corporations that bend the knee.

Yet time and time again that’s exactly what’s happening, which only unifies and empowers the mob. A mob that is strongly advocating that escapist media conform to only their views and sensibilities. An advocation that is seemingly working as more and more entities concede to the wills of those that will eat them alive the moment they trip one of the many traps the new-new-age left has littered in their path.

Escapism may never die, but it sure as hell is changing, and I don’t like where it’s heading. The post modern Puritans love to yell about inclusivity, but they only want media that is inclusive to them.