Seriously, what the fuck is going on? I really have to ask. Gootecks being a Qanoner was enough of a shock. I'm not gonna lie and say I saw it coming, that shit genuinely took me for a ride. However, it was a real shock to me that Arturo Sanchez sent a $5 superchat to white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Ok, I'm not fully surprised I guess. He did go on that anti-woke tirade a while back. He didn't really endear himself to the public when that whole issue with DTN payouts came up, but Idk, that just seems like jumping the shark. Like someone was writing a TV show and just ran out of ideas.
Like ok, you've become a pariah in the mainstream you used to dominate. You were once the toast of the town and no one wants to deal with you anymore, so you pivot to a conservative audience. Fine! that makes basic sense. Like it horrible, and repugnant, but that's basically how a great many conservative talking head is born. Hell, most of them never had the first bit of popularity to begin with. but like.... Fuentes? Fuentes himself is kinda in his own flop era, so I guess conceptually him and Art are a match made in heaven, but also, idk, you have to have like a thousand better places to run that grift at. I guess Fuentes already had "ties" to the FGC, but i just don't get how Art could stoop so low
I don't mean stoop low in terms associating with racists and other kidns of bigots. That stuff makes sense, but like shoot higher man. Did you even try to contact Andrew Tate or Tim Pool? Candace Owens mighta given you the time of day even, but fucking Fuentes???
You were one of the foundational members of FGC internet media. You built alot of this shit, yet you go brown nosing Nick Fuentes chat like you're trying out to be his next discord Kitten. What the hell? Aww man how the mighty have fallen.
I compared Furby to JK Rowling. Because he wasn't exactly my hero, but he had an outsized influence, and I recognized his status, but now they've both fallen so low. the main difference being that JK is still relatively rich and famous because she has a loyal audience of white women funding her lifestyle.
So I think a better comparison is Kevin Sorbo. Kevin Sorbo was a relatively renowned hollywood star at one point. He played Hercules and had some other good roles I can't recall right now. Now if you have a particular media diet, you may know him as the guy that's in all the God's not Dead movies. He says that he was blacklisted for being a proud conservative Christian, but maybe consider that he just wasn't that good an actor. He started to fall off during the Hercules days
To be fair, this was due to an series of strokes
.
However, more keen eyed cultural critics have said that he grifted to the conservative christian media space because his mainstream opportunites dried up. And I think we're clearly seeing something similar with Art.
He's been able to stick around the mainstream FGC space for a while even after becoming less relevant, but recent issues with his light alleged money laundering scandal.
At the end of the day, this isn't just about don't meet your heroe, but don't have heroes. I don't mean don't ever look up to folks, but don't idolize people beyong the point of reproach. Regardless of how famous someone is, how much money they have, how good they are at pressing buttons, we should all be accountable to each other. We should all be able to pull someone to the side and say "hey, you're kinda fucking up." I haven't plenty of folks in this community that I look up to one way or another, but they aren't infallible. If they step out of line or do something wrong, I'll step up and speak my mind. This responsibility is how we maintain a community beyond just having a similar hobby.