Oculus' Palmer Luckey should have known better than to publicly support Trump, but he has the right

Politics and democracy are funny things. Everyone has the right to free speech, to vote for anyone they desire and to support them in any way they see fit. It’s a system that seems to work very well, but only till someone disagrees with you. As long as the above doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s rights as defined by the constitution, and said support is legal and aboveboard, anything goes. When people found out that Oculus Rift creator, Palmer Luckey had funded a pro-Donald Trump shitposting (memes, jokes, etc.) group online, everyone lost their minds. But why? Nobody complained when Tim Cook held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. Developers publicly dropped support for Oculus, angry fans vented their frustration on Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels and Luckey was forced to issue an apology and clarify his political stance. Here’s the whole story Nimble America is a shitposting factory that churns out memes, jokes and other similar content, but with a distinctly pro-Donald Trump stance. It turns out that Palmer Luckey donated $10,000 (around Rs 6,70,000) to the company. That’s pocket change for a man worth $700 million. If that wasn’t enough, Luckey reportedly posted regularly on The Donald subreddit posing as NimbleRichMan. That ID has since been deleted and Luckey denies that the ID belongs to him. With posts like, “The American Revolution was funded by wealthy individuals. The same has been true of many movements for freedom in history. You can’t fight the American elite without serious firepower. They will outspend you and destroy you by any and all means,” one can see why. The Daily Beast, which first broke the story on Luckey’s contributions, quotes him as saying, “Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time.”

Following these revelations and aforementioned community backlash, Luckey issued a statement on Facebook where he apologised and clarified his actions. He claims that he only saw Nimble America had “had fresh ideas on how to communicate with young voters” and that he’s a libertarian who supports Ron Paul and Gary Johnson. It’s in that same post that he denies writing the NimbleRichMan posts and subsequently deleting the account. He concludes with an apology, “Still, my actions were my own and do not represent Oculus. I’m sorry for the impact my actions are having on the community.” Money will have its way Millionaires and billionaires “misusing” their money to push their own agenda is nothing new. Peter Thiel’s thirst for revenge pushed Gawker Media to bankruptcy , for example. Is this morally wrong? It’s a matter of perspective. Is it unethical? Again, it’s a matter of perspective.

Will Luckey vote for Trump? That’s not our concern. Some might feel that Trump is the worst thing to happen to America, and maybe the world, in a century, but he is a US Presidential candidate and he has the constitutional right to do so. He also has the support of millions of Americans. Palmer Luckey is one of them. Trump has been called a bigot, a racist, a narcissist and many number of unflattering things, but he’s not doing anything illegal. In fact, the same applies to Luckey. What they’re doing may be unethical, immoral, immature and misguided; we may not like it, but they’re still within their rights to do what they’re doing.

Oculus CEO, Brendan Iribe was quick to come out in support for Luckey, saying that Luckey was “deeply sorry,” but also pointing out that, “Everyone at Oculus is free to support the issues or causes that matter to them, whether or not we agree with those views.” He added that Luckey’s actions were his alone and that his views do not represent the views of Oculus or its partners. Palmer Luckey should have known better, but he has every right to do what he did.