I'd like to take a moment and talk about the whole Skizz situation that is blowing up my X feed. For my Rust family, this probably means nothing to you except it is interesting to see how an online community can take what they perceive and try to cancel someone. To my Minecraft family, some insights.
I've known Skizz IRL for 21 years. This was before he was Skizzleman, and just Andy. I consider him a true friend so maybe that means I'm biased or maybe it means I actually know the human and can share some insights. I'm not here to change anyone's thoughts about him, but to give you a different perspective of someone you only know from the face he puts on as a content creator. And let me say…content creator or not, we all have many faces with the many people we interact with in our lives.
First, I love the guy. He is a loyal, trustworthy, kind and giving friend. Is he perfect? No. But tell me who is? I can tell you that he is the best father I have ever seen (and this is coming from someone with 5 daughters so I've got some insight there). He will bend over backwards for those he knows and doesn't to help them out. It's a trait I admire deeply and we need more of that in the world.
I've seen that some people are calling him a racist. I have no idea or see no direct evidence of this. Again, knowing the real person, I can confirm that he is not. Over 21 years of knowing him, I think I'd have seen or heard something from him. I have not. Have I heard every conversation he's had, no. But I've spent more time with him than most have over 21 years.
I've heard him called a bigot. Again, I have no idea or see no direct evidence of this. Just because you follow someone on X does not mean you support their ideology. I follow Elon Musk because what he says gets a lot of attention and I want to be aware of what is going on with the world. It actually helps get a better more rounded perspective of the world to hear different points of view regardless if you agree with them or not. If you mute those voices you are only listening to your playlist and are being closed minded. Obviously, if someone out there is calling for actual harm of people, then do whatever you find necessary. But don't punish people who are not them. Tell me once where Skizz has not been open to having a safe community? Just because a creator won't say something specific to how you want it said doesn't mean they're not a safe place. They are not your mouthpiece and don't have to speak up on something every time someone asks for it. I know he had mods in the past that said hurtful thing to people. Skizz or any other sane person is not actively watching what people post that he follows. Thankfully he doesn't live on X or other social platforms and lives in the real world. From what I know of the past incident, he removed both of those mods and issued an apology. Again, the words may not have been exactly worded the way you wanted but they are gone.
This whole retweeting of an AI image is truly childish. This is the world we live in now whether you like it or not. The AI pandora's box is open and there is no closing it. He got the artwork from the event coordinator and knew if he retweeted it to his large audience on X it would greatly help the fundraising. He said he didn't inspect it before hand and I believe him. Time to get personal. My father has Alzheimer's (the fund raising event in question), I don't care if I was diabolically opposed or not to AI images, I will and would have done whatever I can do to help find a cause for this TERRIBLE disease. If you haven't been affected by it, maybe you don't know the real pain it can bring to a family. It was not Skizz's decision to coordinate this charity event and was just using his platform to help raise funds for it. He has said in the past that on things he creates he doesn't use AI. I'm sure if he had time to inspect this he may have brought it up but again, he was there to try to do a good thing and as a busy person probably logged on mins before. Also he praised one of the event coordinators and former mod. Just because someone has different beliefs than you doesn't mean that they can't do a good thing as well. This charity event was a good thing. I'm personally extremely grateful that they hosted it and hope that it contributes to a cure.
The last thing I've seen is him being called an ableist due to comments he made to Scar and conversations he had about this father. Knowing Skizz IRL I'm confident he didn't meant anything disrespectful to Scar or this community. I have no idea if they had further conversations in private but that is just that…private between them. As for the comments about his father, everyone deals with grief in a different way. There is no wrong or right way. His family (oddly like mine) deals with serious topics with humor. I completely understand that some people don't get that. Some can be offended by it. Again, how you deal or talk about something isn't always the same as others do. This is the problem with being a content creator and getting personal. People will nitpick what you say and turn it against you. The best thing is to keep both those lives separate. I don't have any idea if he plans to keep them separate or not but if he does that is a tragedy to those that need the type of healing he can provide. Again, if his approach doesn't work for you the best part of this world is you can shut it off. You don't have to listen. Just like if you have a counselor or doctor that you don't agree with you, you can find help in other places. Your way isn't the only way for everyone. Realizes we live in a very diverse world with how people cope with things.
Again, my intent is not to change your mind but to share my thoughts of someone who is a friend. He is my friend and I'm going to support him and make sure that he is ok. I will give you the best advice I give my own children. Assume good intent. You don't know the full story or what is going on behind the scenes or if they can find the right words. When people are calling on cancelling someone, it is just wrong. This is someone's livelihood. How they provide for their family. If you don't like them then turn the channel. You don't need to cancel them. We all have different experiences, ideas and lives. Be kind…we need more kindness in this world.
@RikkuTakanashi@fangzzout This people don't know kindness and tolerance. If they have little of that, then people might be a bit more see eye to eye and tried to understand.
@orca_an@RikkuTakanashi Well I knew that Tango know Skizz before HC since he moved closer to Imp and Skizz. Since Tango and Imp find out that they close, they meet up with each other. Imp bring Skizz alone with him since it the first time meeting Tango in person.
@orca_an@RikkuTakanashi That's might be where I saw it on Imp and Skizz podcast. I remembered that I literally have tears in my eyes listening to him trying the story. I think I become skizz's fan when they start playing Phasmophobia and then I bench watch all his stuff and thought he was on HC lol
@orca_an@RikkuTakanashi That dude doesn't get any break for having kids and making his family grow. Did something like this happened to him in the past? I don't remember all the details, since it's a few years back. That they having a baby but the baby past away.
@ClowninEclipse@e11i3ph4nt1776@RikkuTakanashi Let's turn this back to the topic. Why does my age and my language have to do liking both Skizz and Gem and I'm fine with Gem being bi?