As some might already know, Palmer Luckey is the inventor of Oculus, one of the latest HD VR devices of this year. His company was quickly bought by Facebook, and he is apparently still heavily involved in its production. This hasn’t been made explicitly clear by Facebook as of yet, and it might have something to do with his rather radical political views.
According to various sources, mainly The Daily Beast, Luckey has been investing in something called “Nimble America”. This is a site originated on Reddit as a “shitposting” movement, and grew to the site it is today. Shitposting is defined by Urban Dictionary as “the failure to make a constructive post; the inability to add useful information to a forum; worthless overly offensive generally racists [sic] posts written in a manner which aggravates others.” Nimble America is dedicated to “making America great again,” believing “that America has been lead by poor leaders who have abandoned American principles and sold out all Americans. With the right leadership America will reverse its course towards mediocrity and globalism, becoming great again”. Their methods include shitposting, “meme magic,” and somehow translating both into real life.
The proof of Luckey’s involvement is overwhelming, though the inventor seems to be keen on intermittently denying and confirming it. He claims that he was only Nimble America’s “money man” and that “it’s something that no campaign is going to run. I’ve got plenty of money. Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time.” Funnily enough, Luckey met the group behind Nimble America through Facebook. He told them he was amused and wanted to see more their work, Nimble America was of course happy to accept. In addition, Luckey is listed as the vice president of the group on the site. You know, because vice presidents are just “money men” looking for “a real jolly good time”. Luckery even goes so far as to confirm himself the author of a shitpost on Reddit reading “the same has been true of many movements for freedom in history. You can’t fight the American elite without serious firepower. They will outspend you and destroy you by any and all means”.
All of that being said, why should we care what this inventor does with his money? He came up with the brilliant idea of Oculus, and though Facebook bought it for quite the exorbitant fee, he is still the head of Oculus itself. So by buying the Oculus, do we contribute to Luckey’s political cause? Yes and no. Yes, because you’re contributing to whatever profit he earns from Facebook, which in turn allows him to live the life he does. No, because if you were to buy morally based on the creator of any given product, you’d be left short a lot of your favorite things.
Capitalism does not favor morality, so if you want Facebook to make better games on the Oculus, you better start investing in it. If you want Facebook to stop selling a product created by a Trump supporter, you’re going to be left in the dust. You can apply the same logic to all art really, as our esteemed Matthew Hayes discusses in another dispatch . As he points out, we would be missing out on a lot beautiful work if we cared about how horrible the creator was as a person.