Social justice warriors are finding their noses put out of joint by Factorio founder Michal “Kovarex” Kovarik who told the baying mob to “take the cancel culture mentality and shove it up your ass."
Essentially, the mob took issue with his recommendation of a “problematic” individual by the name of Robert Cecil Martin, a programmer and project manager of some repute. Martin’s sin was to quote former president Donald Trump and express a pro-police attitude and make a number of jokes which some perceived as sexist, well over a decade ago.
A lesser individual would have broken under the crashing waves of the rabid mob’s cries for him to “make things right.” As Martin himself said, in quoting Trump, the new normal is very much a “new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.”
Not content with simply rejecting the unhinged demands of the cancel campaign, Kovarik took to mocking them.
On social media, Kovarik mockingly thanked the mob, saying “I'm really happy for the free ads we are getting. Thank you for that.”
Kovarik doubled down on his stance with firm words for his detractors who urged him to check the supposedly problematic statements or political positions Martin allegedly held.
On Reddit, those who presume to lecture Kovarik urged him to be a “bit more careful” about sharing his work -- in other words, “check yourself.” It was pure guilt by association -- Kovarik was potentially guilty of every single one of Martin’s flaws and shortcomings just by sharing his work. Kovarik wasn’t having it.
“I won’t even search him up,” replied Kovarik. “You know why? Because I don’t care at all. I don’t care if he cheats on his wife, is a bigot, or pays proper tips in restaurant. These things are simply not relevant.”
He added:
“If Stalin had a good writeup on programming, would linking that be dangerous, because some people might read it, start liking HIM, thus start liking communism and the inevitable [sic] mass murder that follows it? Is this how little we trust other individuals when it comes to access to information?”
“I personally trust my readers to have the ability to create their own opinions instead of blindly following whatever says the person they like.”
It’s worth pointing out that Kovarik knew exactly who he was dealing with: the progressive left. The cancel culture brigade. Calling out Soviet communism and Stalin was undoubtedly a way to provoke them into anger. It certainly received a fair amount of “yikes” in response. The left is, as always, predictable. Almost disappointingly so.
The mob took aim at Kovarik with multiple threads attempting to now cancel Kovarik for his refusal to give in.
One might think that Kovarik’s combative behavior towards his critics would garner negative publicity and result in an avalanche of negative reviews. And in fact, that’s precisely what happened -- at least for a time. Factorio’s Steam community exploded with negative comments panning Kovarik for “transphobia”
However, the effort had the opposite effect: fans of Factorio fired back with positive reviews, many having previously played dozens if not hundreds of hours of the game without saying a word about it -- showing what everyone ought to have already known: there’s more of us than there are of them. Thousands of positive reviews outweighed the failed attempt of review-bombing by disgruntled online activists.
Giving in to the woke mob only alienates people who would otherwise support you while feeding the beast and giving them permission to continue their rampage. Kovarik handled things differently: he stood his ground and stopped them in their tracks. The numbers prove it.
And people? Well, they love the game.