I joined itch.io because I thought it was a safe space for all kinds of creative freedoms and expressions.  NSFW games are still considered taboo and VNs face derision on many fronts, so when I found that itch.io seemed to support and even cater, to some degree, this genre of storytelling, I was impressed.  Now, it seems, I should've reserved judgement.

Back in the 70s, there were a few fringe religious groups led by some (questionably) charismatic figures that objected to songs being played on the radio that offended their small groups' sensibilities.  If a song had a profanity in it of any kind, it was considered dirty, unacceptable, and un-Christian.  They approached radio stations and demanded these songs not be played.  When the stations told them to jump in the river, these groups took it to the next step: they started visiting the stations' advertisers.  The threat seemed credible as these religious people would go to small businesses and say things like 'if you advertise on this station that supports the playing of smut, our group boasting thousands of members, will boycott your business and your products.'  The tactic worked.  Small businesses, afraid of losing their livelihood, capitulated and pulled their ads from these radio stations.  The stations fought back however; at least the big ones did.  Smaller ones took a pretty severe hit to their revenue and some disappeared as a result.

Here we are again, a new generation of these same kinds of people all bent out of shape over something that doesn't affect them in any way pushing their agenda by way of financial censorship.  The result is that outlets that used to support the creative expression in question is capitulating to the demands of a fringe group that is deciding what is and isn't acceptable for everyone.

I got to see this shadow play happen in the 70s.  I am not surprised to see it happen again... just disappointed.

The tragic irony of the whole thing with the Christians is that, in the Bible, it's at least implied that going out of your way to vouch for censorship is a blatantly not Christian thing.  At the very least, Abeka Books (a solid Christian homeschool curriculum that I worked with) has stated and shown time and time again that a rise in coerced censorship of any kind for any reason is generally a really really bad sign.

My point is the chumps responsible for the BS we've faced before and are facing again now were never really in it to protect children, or evangelize the media, or really any benevolent reason.

They're just bullies--manchildren that wear things like "think of the children", "protect minors", "clean up the streets", all manner of phrases that otherwise mean nothing to them, as masks to trick the innocent from left and right alike into playing their putrid war games at the expense of God-given human rights and therefore all our lives.

It falls from the same rotten tree as cancel culture and book banning.  Same branch even.  

The most disgusting part?  It worked.  Low-tier power trip junkies have been doing this for centuries and it always worked.

And I'm beyond sick of it.