JonTron, not looking at all sad about being removed from a game that looks like garbage.

YouTube personality JonTron voiced a character in the upcoming Yooka-Laylee video game, which releases within the next few weeks. However, after JonTron expressed his views on a few sensitive matters, the developer, Playtonic, made the choice to remove his voice from the game via a content update.

Upon hearing this, I was interested in knowing just what he said, so I did a little web search. Polygon.com had the following headline:

JonTron being cut from Yooka-Laylee after spouting racist views

Just what were the racist views we’re talking about here? He said that wealthier black people commit more crimes than poorer white people, for one thing. He also said that citizenship is not a human right.

Neither of which are racist statements as much as they are observations. It is statistically accurate that black people commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. And it’s true that no one is entitled to citizenship in any country that they weren’t born in (in some cases, they can lose that much).

Leftist news sites and others with an obvious bias are not trying to convince the smartest people among us. For an idea to gain traction, it is only necessary to convince enough gullible cretins. Considering this, it’s no surprise that a news site like Polygon would conflate speaking of actual immigration law and crime statistics with hardcore ban-the-blacks-to-their-own-water-fountains racism.

Playtonic issued a statement regarding their decision to remove JonTron, and this passage in particular caught my eye:

Playtonic is a studio that celebrates diversity in all forms and strives to make games that everyone can enjoy.

“Diversity in all forms”, that is, unless that diversity involves opinions that are different from your own. Believe it or not, there’s more to diversity than having people around that look different. There are many employers that display informational pamphlets about Purim in their breakroom. Yet, those very same employers would be hesitant to actually hire a Jewish applicant if it meant that he’d want time off to keep the Holy Days, including the weekly Sabbath. This is because their so-called “commitment to diversity” is little more than virtue-signalling bluster.

One might think that with the Republican party being in control of all elected branches of federal government, there would be more respect for right-wing viewpoints. However, Playtonic’s treatment of JonTron and Polygon’s slant against him is a solemn reminder that this is not the case. Even though the political right has institutional control of the government, the left is just about as establishment as they’ve ever been. This is because their influence extends to virtually all levels of society, including education, labor unions, most of the news media, most social media, the entertainment industry, and the tech industry. They are still very much in a position of power that they can abuse.

And abuse it, they do, and they want you to know that if you step out of line and express an opinion that is not in lock-step with their own, they’ll do what they can to make that choice expensive for you.

Of course, this story doesn’t conclude with people putting up with it. Since stating their intention to remove JonTron from their game, Playtonic has been hit hard with refund requests, including from those who backed their Kickstarter project. People are expressing their disappointment with their money by demanding it back. If companies like Playtonic want to hit us for expressing our opinions, we’ll hit back where it really matters: right in their pocketbooks.

I know that there are those out there who would point out that the decision by game companies, social media, and the like to block content isn’t as much a violation of the first amendment as it is private companies deciding what content they deem suitable and which people they want associated with their image. I know, and I don’t care. As I see it, even private companies have a moral responsibility (even if not a legal one) to behave towards their customers, employees, and users in a manner consistent with the values of western civilization, which protects and honors free expression.

When it comes down to it, free expression is one of the most important things that western civilization has. Do you realize how hard it would be to determine who among us is a complete doddering imbecile if they were not allowed to state exactly what’s going on in their weak, simplistic minds?

The fastest way to expose a fool is to permit him to speak.