Hippieslayer
Smash Ace
This is about Zero in particular and the cancel culture in the Smash Community in general. Please read to the end. I am not defending what Zero did, but I'm trying to put it into perspective.
People throw the word pedofile around a lot. Whenever someone tries to bring some kind of nuance into the discussion it's there: "You are defending a pedophile". The problem being you don't really seem to know what pedophilia actually is and you don't seem to understand what you are doing throwing the word around. You drain it of it's actual meaning.
What Zero did does not constitute pedophilia. That's not up for discussion. At all. What he did constitutes hebephilia. At worst. And even that is stretching it considering how young Zero was at the time. You act like the american views about sex and ages of consent are objective truth; they are not.
There's just no nuance whatsoever. Whether someone 24+ directly and physically overpowered and r**ed a minor or some 19 year old sent some creepy messages to another a younger teenager who was 14 years of age doesn't matter. Everyone gets the same treatment.
And that treatment is having everything taken from them with no chance of ever getting it back or being forgiven.
Zero was a young, obese, nerdy and horny virgin who had lived his entire adult life in the smash scene bubble. Moreover, he had emigrated alone from Chile. And when he sent those messages he had been living in Skye Williams house for some time. A place where that type of behavior was normal and; furthermore, a place which housed actual pedophiles. Think about what this means for a bit please. Like really think. If you can stop hating for half a minute or so. These circumstances do not excuse Zero, but they are still relevant.
What do you expect from a guy like that? What right do you have to take everything from him for a few mistakes he commited when he was not really an adult either. How many young, stupid, sexually inept and horny guys have made similar mistakes?
I'm guessing a fairly large percentage, that's what I've taken from the "Me too" movement. And I'm also guessing that some of the people who are hellbent on hating Zero and wanted him jailed are probably not so innocent themselves. We are all just humans, and humans make mistakes, and if we want to make a world that's fit for us to live in we have to be able to forgive and not just punish.
Individuals living in a culture that permits these types of acts cannot be held entirely responsible for acting in accordance with said culture. Dealing with said individual by getting rid of them permanently will not solve the problem. Rather, it is a quick fix done more for purpose of satisfying a kind of bloodlust; thereby, giving birth to another type of culture wherein we can't really talk about these things in a rational manner because of all the emotional extremes (hatred and fear in particular) involved.
A lot of the people making memes and spouting the word Pedophile are quite frankly young and stupid. They are people who enjoy hating because it gives their lives a temporary sense of purpose. It comes naturally to them whereas nuanced thinking does not, that's something far more difficult to do because it requires being able to look past your own initial emotional response to the matter at hand.
But consider this: Zero (and a few others who were similarly treated by the smash community) gave their entire lives to this game. They bet it all on a kind of mad gamble. People like them who are willing to do that are arguably the lifeblood of this entire community. The skills they dedicated their lives to honing are what makes the game exciting to watch.
Smash was their career, their social life etc.. Smash was their everything. And without thinking twice you took it all away. You may as well have put a bag over Zero's head, led him out into some secluded place and then shot him . It would have been quicker and far less painful. Think again about who Zero was when he sent those messages. Where he was at and how he got there. Is the suffering he caused proportional to the punishment he recieved?
I don't think so. And I don't think anyone in this community has any business throwing additional hatred onto Zero. It's just not your job to do that and you should be glad that you don't have blood on your hands.. yet that is. You soon might, and you are lucky you haven't already. Consider Reckfull.
That is all.
People throw the word pedofile around a lot. Whenever someone tries to bring some kind of nuance into the discussion it's there: "You are defending a pedophile". The problem being you don't really seem to know what pedophilia actually is and you don't seem to understand what you are doing throwing the word around. You drain it of it's actual meaning.
What Zero did does not constitute pedophilia. That's not up for discussion. At all. What he did constitutes hebephilia. At worst. And even that is stretching it considering how young Zero was at the time. You act like the american views about sex and ages of consent are objective truth; they are not.
There's just no nuance whatsoever. Whether someone 24+ directly and physically overpowered and r**ed a minor or some 19 year old sent some creepy messages to another a younger teenager who was 14 years of age doesn't matter. Everyone gets the same treatment.
And that treatment is having everything taken from them with no chance of ever getting it back or being forgiven.
Zero was a young, obese, nerdy and horny virgin who had lived his entire adult life in the smash scene bubble. Moreover, he had emigrated alone from Chile. And when he sent those messages he had been living in Skye Williams house for some time. A place where that type of behavior was normal and; furthermore, a place which housed actual pedophiles. Think about what this means for a bit please. Like really think. If you can stop hating for half a minute or so. These circumstances do not excuse Zero, but they are still relevant.
What do you expect from a guy like that? What right do you have to take everything from him for a few mistakes he commited when he was not really an adult either. How many young, stupid, sexually inept and horny guys have made similar mistakes?
I'm guessing a fairly large percentage, that's what I've taken from the "Me too" movement. And I'm also guessing that some of the people who are hellbent on hating Zero and wanted him jailed are probably not so innocent themselves. We are all just humans, and humans make mistakes, and if we want to make a world that's fit for us to live in we have to be able to forgive and not just punish.
Individuals living in a culture that permits these types of acts cannot be held entirely responsible for acting in accordance with said culture. Dealing with said individual by getting rid of them permanently will not solve the problem. Rather, it is a quick fix done more for purpose of satisfying a kind of bloodlust; thereby, giving birth to another type of culture wherein we can't really talk about these things in a rational manner because of all the emotional extremes (hatred and fear in particular) involved.
A lot of the people making memes and spouting the word Pedophile are quite frankly young and stupid. They are people who enjoy hating because it gives their lives a temporary sense of purpose. It comes naturally to them whereas nuanced thinking does not, that's something far more difficult to do because it requires being able to look past your own initial emotional response to the matter at hand.
But consider this: Zero (and a few others who were similarly treated by the smash community) gave their entire lives to this game. They bet it all on a kind of mad gamble. People like them who are willing to do that are arguably the lifeblood of this entire community. The skills they dedicated their lives to honing are what makes the game exciting to watch.
Smash was their career, their social life etc.. Smash was their everything. And without thinking twice you took it all away. You may as well have put a bag over Zero's head, led him out into some secluded place and then shot him . It would have been quicker and far less painful. Think again about who Zero was when he sent those messages. Where he was at and how he got there. Is the suffering he caused proportional to the punishment he recieved?
I don't think so. And I don't think anyone in this community has any business throwing additional hatred onto Zero. It's just not your job to do that and you should be glad that you don't have blood on your hands.. yet that is. You soon might, and you are lucky you haven't already. Consider Reckfull.
That is all.
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