Something a bit insidious is going on here. Let me explain.

So please, hear me out. I am a pretty socially conservative dad who has been addicted to extraction shooters since Tarkov released. Being socially conservative, it tracks that YouTube (the only social media I engage with besides Reddit I guess) recommends me parallel content. Over the last five years I've been pushed and watched plenty of videos on the change, for better or worse, that the gaming industry has gone through, from freakishly "progressive" to jaw droppingly stupid.

Once Marathon got dragged into this cycle, the same outlets started shitting on it, calling it "leftard slop", etc. So I never really built up any anticipation for the game. Lo and behold, it comes back into the news cycle a couple weeks ago with the impending server slam. I watch Burnt Peanut a lot, so I saw him playing it and got intrigued- then I looked at his chat. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people freaking the fuck out over the game. Many saying blatantly untrue things about it, throwing slurs, typical knuckle dragger behavior. So I downloaded it- and I got hooked instantly.

Now looking from a fan perspective, not sitting on the sidelines, I'm truly dumbfounded. Sure, some people will play this game and not vibe with it. That's expected. But fans of shooters- especially extraction shooters- being this rabidly against something like this makes no sense. And I would solidly bet that the vast majority of "haters" haven't even tried the game. I am largely apolitical- no Trump fan by any metric, just a Dad who's protective of his kids. But I did see this movement start on the "red" side of media.

I guess my burning question is where did this astroturfed, nonsensical idea that Marathon was some sort of Make Your Kids Trans Simulator 1.0 come from to begin with? There has to be an origin. Thoughts?