Progressive-minded social justice gamers are up in arms over the videogame website GameSpot’s ad partnership with the Army National Guard, apparently unaware the military is supposed to be on “their” side in the upcoming election.
Woke videogamer Twitter melted down on Tuesday over two tweets by GameSpot – not to be confused with the retailer GameStop – in which an Army National Guard sergeant talks about upcoming games, followed by a link to their esports page.
So this is what everyone is freaking out on @GameSpot over? I see some calling it “the most disgusting thing they’ve seen on the internet.” Man people are soft. It’s not THAT serious. pic.twitter.com/uh09PjCsLg
After dozens of people complained about the video being “super awkward” and a “bad look,” the site deleted both tweets in less than an hour.
Gamespot had this super awkward National Guard ad up on their main feed for a little under an hour, tons of people commented that it’s a bad look and should be deleted, and they deleted it in under an hour. That about sums it up. pic.twitter.com/9CEhPEBJlY
One blue checkmark went so far to dub the ad “gross” and a “disgusting betrayal” of the journalists who worked hard to make GameSpot “a brand worth advertising with in the first place.”
Whoever posted this, pass this up the chain:This is not only gross on its own merit, but it’s also a disgusting betrayal of the content teams who have worked exceptionally hard, especially over this past year, to make GameSpot a brand worth advertising with in the first place.
One of the reviews editors at GameSpot agreed, calling it “reprehensible.”
I find it reprehensible
Apparently, the woke gamer community was disgusted because when they see National Guard they think of it being used to suppress riots. One popular tweet simply linked to the Wikipedia article about the 1970 Kent State shooting of unarmed student protesters against the Vietnam War.
Another argued that the ad shows the “the extent to which video games are intertwined with us imperialism and warfare not just in their worldview but materially, systemically…”
These reactions were largely in line with revelations by social justice activists earlier this summer about the Army’s esports team advertising on Twitch. One progressive activist’s crusade to get them deplatformed ended with the Army in full retreat suspending esports operations until 2021.
While the woke gamers – many with Black Lives Matter in their names or bios – may regard the mere existence of the National Guard or the US military as offensive, the irony is that the latest polls show the troops actually backing Democrat nominee Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.
Of the active-duty service members surveyed by the newspaper Military Times, 41 percent said they would vote for Biden and only 37 backed Trump. The incumbent had only a 25 percent favorable rating, to 42 percent very unfavorable – and that’s with only 16 percent of those polled identifying as Democrats.
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