I’m not really deep in the gaming community but I’ve been following it a bit more closely since it became a violent culture war battlefield. When a good friend drew my attention to the recent Godot controversy saying I can expect some toxic wokeness there, I had to look at it. It is a great case study on handling extremism — on both sides.
The unnecessary storm
A week ago, some random dude from Warsaw, Poland, posted a reply to a tweet in which an indie game developer shared footage of their upcoming game built using Unreal Engine 5. The reply was, to put it mildly, daft.
Oh no, somebody on the internet is wrong! Quick, call the cavalry!
Or you could, you know, just live your life and ignore stupid people. I think that there is one correct way to respond to this kind of comment: not at all. Particularly since to put it mildly, this person is a random nobody:
But three days later, Godot, a popular open-source game engine, decided to do otherwise:
On the face of it, this could have been just an attempt to turn this into a publicity stunt. Anything to get your brand name out there.
But it seems that in this case, it was not. The Community Manager who manages Godot’s account was quickly identified and it seems like they are in fact a rather woke person who genuinely wanted to turn this into an opportunity for LGBTQ+ visibility. Oh, bless…
Honestly, I’m not sure what to think about this. I’m a bit on the fence when it comes to whether businesses should engage in politics and social issues. It’s usually distasteful and dishonest, but it can be done right and have a positive effect. In this case, it seems like a genuine expression of what at least Nat thinks, so at least there’s that. Whether it represents all of Godot is another question.
There was a whole discussion about this on X, but it’s not what I want to focus on. The question isn’t whether Godot or particular people in it should have taken a stance here, it’s how they’ve done it.
The woke naïveté
Mostly, I just think that posting this was hopelessly naïve. Because obviously, this tweet has turned into a massive flame war with a lot of shit and hate poured on Godot, and a fair bit of shit and hate poured in retaliation. Basically, it was a microcosm of what social media is all about maximising engagement through fanning anger and hate. Elon Musk is the winner.
Anyway, why was posting this naïve? If you don’t know, the gaming industry is experiencing quite a wave of cultural backlash. Ubisoft, a huge studio, is in a middle of a shitstorm over ‘diversity gone wild,’ there are loads of anti-woke conspiracy theories floating about…
I mean, what exactly were you thinking when posting this, Nat? That all you’ll get is replies from Indy dev studios singing kumbaya together?
You broke the first rule of the internet — don’t feed the trolls! Haters thrive on conflict. You gave them what they want. How is anyone surprised how this developed?
But so far, I would say all this was just dumb and naïve. Whatever, walk on and don’t get pulled into stupid discussions, is my take on it.
It was what happened next that was the problem.
The banning spree – is that toxic wokeness?
Nat (or whoever was managing the Godot account at this point — let’s call them Nat*) started banning people who posted negative comments on this tweet. In fact, it looks like people got banned for anything less than unconditional support. Godot’s own supporters got banned. It really got out of hand.
The situation worsened when @Xananax, a moderator of the unofficial Godot-related Discord channels, decided to don his shining armour and began another massive banning spree targeting everyone who expressed any critical views of the whole thing.
Now, I understand that it’s hard to think straight when you’re in the middle of a shitstorm. I get that Nat, Nat*, and other Godot people must have felt under attack and were not thinking straight while banning people left right, and centre.
To anyone who would blame them for this (and there were many!), I recommend a good long look in the mirror. Are you always keeping your cool and doing the right thing when you’re feeling attacked and hugely stressed by a massive amount of hate being poured on you?
Stop pointing at the splinter in your brother’s eye, and all that. Sorry. Your queer sibling’s eye. The point is — it’s human to make bad decisions under stress. Have some understanding and wait for Godot (hehe) to respond after they had a chance to cool down a bit.
And this is where it gets interesting for me. The Godot official channel released a statement two days ago. But Xananax himself did so as well, a day before. And how different these statements were!
But before we look at what great examples of positive and toxic wokeness those statements offer, let’s clarify one thing.
Is banning people OK?
I take guidance from Bertrand Russell here. He wasn’t just a great philosopher, a pioneer of open relationships, and looked amazing with a pipe. He was also a staunch pacifist.
Russell believed in resolving conflicts through dialogue and reason rather than violence — a commitment rooted in his philosophical principles and his experiences during World War I, where he witnessed the devastation caused by war.
However, as Hitler gained power in Germany, Russell argued strongly and vehemently for Britain to put an end to Nazism even if it means another war. Why? Because he thought that in the face of extreme oppression and violence armed resistance is justified, and the consequences of inaction — allowing the spread of fascism — could lead to far greater suffering than the war itself.
His thoughts trickled down to us as the ‘Nazi Bar’ allegory. If you own a bar and one day someone expressing Nazi views shows up, you might think: ah, maybe it’s not that bad, maybe you try to reason with them. But if you let them stay, soon more people like that show up and you find yourself running a bar filled with Nazis.
Or you just throw the first Nazi out and keep your bar clean.
So, was Nat* and Xananax just throwing Nazis out of their bar?
I think this is where the crux of the matter and the defining feature of Toxic Wokeness are. Because, for a moment, it seemed like Nat* and Xananax were treating everybody who posted hateful comments, or was just dismissive, or a bit sarcastic, or maybe just wasn’t supportive enough of their stance, as Nazis. Or, you know, sexist, LGBT-phobic, hateful, racist… pick your equivalent.
The question to you is: are they all Nazis (or equivalent)?
Because sure, ban those who actually engage in hate speech and inciting violence. But don’t fall on this slippery slope and dismiss everyone whose views differ from yours!
It is very easy to justify being shit to people if you paint them as Nazis. If you keep doing that, it’s easy to kind of become a Nazi yourself. In fact, one of the defining features of extremist ideologies is labelling dissenting voices as wrong or unacceptable and dismissing them without any discussion.
But let’s get back to our story.
The Toxic Wokeness of Xananax
I have all the understanding for people who react badly when under pressure, as long as they then take the time to cool down, think clearly, and rectify their mistakes. Both Xananax and the broader Godot leadership (I assume it was no longer just Nat) had time to do so.
After two days, Xananax released the following statement:
In this statement, Xananax not only doubles down on his previous decisions. He basically admits to thinking that everyone he banned is in fact an equivalent of a Nazi:
They are the filth of humanity and banning them is a kindness to everyone, including themselves.
And further confirms that he doesn’t want to engage with anyone who in any way does not agree with him:
They should be doing those tweets every 30mn, and anyone who has a problem with them can fuck off to oblivion, and then fuck off some more. And anyone having any slight issue with it here can fuck off too.
Wow. What a knight in shining armour indeed. The queer community is so grateful for your service.
Or is it?
Because here’s the thing. Did Xananax’s bans actually prevent any hate? Did it protect the queer community? Did they make the haters go: huh, I guess I was unfair, queer people are people and they should be celebrated for making queer games, why not?
Or did they just make them go: OMFG those woke people are more insane than I thought, what a bunch of fuckwits and fragile snowflakes! I’ll go through every channel I have now to talk about this idiocy! And subsequently, go create metric fucktons of content which subject the queer community to even more hate?
Well fucking done, Xananax, thank you so much for your service. You have really done us a solid one.
But that’s the problem with Toxic Wokeness. It doesn’t care about the consequences. All it cares about is feeling righteous. The way things feel and appear is more important than the way things really are. The point of a toxically woke tirade is not to solve the problem — it’s to establish the speaker as morally superior and righteous. The problem can continue or get worse, as long as I get to feel smug about it.
Fortunately, the Foundation itself was smarter.
The Positive Wokeness of Godot
We had to wait for Godot (sorry, I’ll stop now) and their statement another day, but it was worth it. They gave us two: one about the whole situation, the other about Xananax. Here they are:
There are some obvious problems with these statements. For one, the tweet led to the harassment ‘unexpectedly’?
Really?
You put your hand into an anthill and then you were ‘unexpectedly’ bitten by ants? You walked into a biker bar wearing a rainbow tutu and you were ‘unexpectedly’ denied service? You forgot to state your pronouns at a queer circle and you were ‘unexpectedly’ given a five-hour inclusivity awareness lecture?
They also minimise the importance of the ‘unofficial’ Discord server which was in fact advertised on their official website. And at no point do they apologise to those who were banned unfairly.
But fair enough — they have their image to uphold. I think that overall, these statements are good. Assuming this was written in good faith, they:
- Acknowledge responsibility for an over-reaction
- Offer a clear method for rectifying the mistakes (though riddled with a privacy issue as you have to provide your email address to get unbanned)
- Stand firm in their commitment to throw out actual Nazis from their bar.
- Offer a clear way of determining who counts as a Nazi and who doesn’t — their Code of Conduct.
- Clearly condemn Xananax’s toxic wokeness, even getting close to acknowledging his own hateful… wait, no, just ‘harmful’ language.
This, I think, is a decent example of what Progressives should do in such situations. Of course, it would have been better to never have fucked up in the first place. But hey, shit happens. Like I said, those of you who never do stupid things when feeling attacked and overwhelmed, go on, throw the first stone.
What’s important is that they were able to cool down, think clearly, and own up to the mistake, but at the same time stay committed to their core values.
And perhaps most importantly, that they chose to disavow the toxic wokeness of Xananax.
Clean your bar of the Nazis Within and their toxic wokeness
By all means, protect your bar against the Nazis coming from the outside. But also pay close attention to the people within. You don’t want your own bouncers becoming Nazis either.
All too often, sensible people on either side of the political spectrum refuse to condemn their side’s extremists, because they fear that this will annoy their base. They choose to protect their ‘tribe’, even if some people in that tribe are obviously toxic.
There are plenty of conservative extremists and the sensible conservatives should absolutely condemn them. There are also plenty of liberal extremists and the sensible liberals should absolutely condemn them, too.
In particular, I think we should condemn anyone who is much more interested in feeling righteous and receiving the validation of their echo chamber, than in actually making a positive impact. Those are the people who make us look stupid and unreasonable, and who proudly pose for those who wish to paint wokeness as hypocritical and evil.
DO NOT VALIDATE THEM. Do not reward their posturing and do not give them attention. Look past what makes us feel righteous and think about what actually works in creating a more equal and fair world.
I’m happy that Godot has done it.
Now I’m waiting for the rest of us.
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