People on the political left have a tolerance problem. For a side that preaches about inclusivity and acceptance, they are disturbingly intolerant and their “inclusivity” comes with some terms and conditions that makes it actually quite exclusive. Sign the dotted line and get admitted through the door, but leave your values and opinions behind because this club has a strict cerebral dress code and only certain thought patterns are allowed.
I wish I could say it’s a good thing. I’m not much of one for clubs. But, sadly, this club was somehow forcibly constructed around me. It’s as if a bubble grew out of a fissure in the ground and absorbed everything in its path, entrapping it in a dome of hot air and bad takes.
Upsettingly, these bad takes are beginning to affect hobbies that many people hold dear.
Take for example gaming. Never mind the fact that being a gamer basically makes you a Nazi in today’s leftist lexicon — though it’s hard to keep track of who isn’t one in their eyes at this point. People who work in the gaming journalism medium are actively slandering the people they supposedly write for.
A cabal of leftist influencers seem intent on molding a hobby into something that only benefits them.
In many ways one of the best aspects of gaming as an entertainment medium is that it’s an interactive experience that offers something for everyone. From kids to the elderly to , even the most physically disabled among us, anyone can be a gamer.
Its global monetary valuation is evidence enough of this. It didn’t become an industry worth untold billions on the backs of just heterosexual white men, yet that is the narrative being weaved by countless gaming “news” outlets.
It’s through that narrative that the gaming press has begun calling for the limitation of certain types of games in a bid to make gaming friendlier to women and other supposed “marginalized” folks.
(As an aside, as a transgendered chick writing an article about gaming on a right leaning website, I call shenanigans on that.)
This same press also likes to claim that there aren’t enough female protagonists in games. Sadly, this idea has been used to attack developers for not having female characters. Even in instances where the game is a work in progress and they’ve just yet to be added. They also ignore that one look at some of the highest reviewed titles of 2017 proves that notion wrong. Especially in today’s era where a ton of them allow players to choose their gender (laughably this has still been spun by journalists to be a bad thing).
With every passing day there seems to be a new call from the ever increasing radical left to ban, censor, limit, or otherwise restrict the creation of certain games (as I’ll touch up on further below this extends to all other forms of media too).
You see, they want gaming to be inclusive, but they only want it to be inclusive to them.
Similar to film, television and books, video games are comprised of countless genres, and genres within genres. From adventure games, to shooters, to puzzles, to even interactive visual novels, gaming is rife with experiences that can cater to anybody.
But imagine if due to a dislike of sports titles, someone began calling for titles like Fifa and Madden to go away. It’s an absurd notion, right? Well this is exactly what is happening on the left.
Semi-recently Matt Martin, the editor in chief of VG 24/7 expressed the following: “Sad little boys and their corny titty games are on the way out, a dying breed. Good riddance. Gaming is only going to get more inclusive, positive, and stronger.”
But I have to ask: How does rooting for certain types of games to die out make the hobby more inclusive?
Gaming should cater to all mindsets. Sure, some are more immature and ridiculous than others, but so what, they don’t hurt anyone, so why try to make them go away?
You see, an entertainment medium is truly inclusive when there are countless things you enjoy, and countless things you hate. Obviously if there are things you enjoy then there are creators making content that aligns with what you seek, and if there are things you hate, well then there are creators making content to those with a different mindset than you.
Yet to the new radical left, anything that upsets their sensibilities should not exist.
They feel a need to make media conform to a single mindset, theirs. Which quite frankly is the opposite of what art is supposed to be.
That mindset is expanding well beyond games, too. Just look at the outrage that arose when Barnes and Noble was going to sell Milo Yiannopoulos’ book. They caved in to pressure from the left and prohibited it being physically sold in their brick and mortar stores. Similar outrage was levied towards Fox when it renewed the television series ‘Last Man Standing’ after ABC canceled it. Thankfully for those who are fans of the series Fox went forth with its plans, but this does highlight an important aspect of the ever increasingly deranged left, they want to stop the existence of anything they disagree with politically on.
What they fail to realize is that no book, game, movie, or television show can appeal to every single person. Even to those within the same social circle. Yet social justice warriors feel the need to try, and in doing so they’re going about making media inclusive in all the wrong ways, because entertainment becomes inclusive by propping up all genres so that anyone can find something that appeals to them personally.
When your inclusivity is about exclusivity, you’re going about it all the wrong way.
Sophia Narwitz is a freelance writer. You can follow Sophia on Twitter here.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.