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[Jintor]

After reading more thoughts here and elsewhere I take back my okay

 

[leeh]

Okay, having read through this thread and the tweets linked, I want to try breaking down the apology. Hopefully this will help anyone who - like me - actually bought it on a first glance.



By the third word, we've got some deceptive language here. "Messed up" makes it sound like he made a mistake. This would be nitpicking if not for the fact that that that's clearly how the apology is framed.

Even if we put the severity of what he did aside, Robinson did not make a simple mistake. We know from souIspear's tweets that he was silencing women that he harassed. He knew that what he did was wrong, and that there would be consequences if they became public. Instead of changing his behaviour when he realized that, he instead tried to manipulate others so he could more safely continue his behaviour.

He did not make mistakes. He acted exactly as he intended to.



Here we have him referring to his harassment as flirting. Now, it's entirely possible that he's doing that to avoid legal action. But it's also being used to add to the framework that what he did was an innocent mistake rather than intentional, targeted abuse. See below.



Assuming he was doing the same thing before he became popular as he says, he's was still telling women, unsolicited, to send him nudes. He was still telling them to keep silent.

He briefly admonishes his actions before he was popular by saying that some of the advances were unwanted or handled poorly, but that's not the issue. This wasn't just normal flirting that some people just didn't like. This wasn't just handled poorly, as his actions make it clear it's delibrate. The advances should not have come in this form at all.

Additionally, he's focusing on Twitter, as if the issue is simply that he doesn't know how to handle himself properly through that particular medium. But we're also told that he engages in predatory behaviour in person.

The issues with power he describes are in and of themselves fair, but the issue is that they're meant to distract from the predatory nature of his behaviour and shift the issue to changing context. They might still be there if the apology was genuine, but that's not what they follow, so it serves to provide enough sincerity to make it look like the whole thing is sincere.



Building on the image he's been creating, this is attempting to move the responsibility to the shifting context and make the apology seem genuine.

This might have been appropriate in an apology if his actions were okay in the previous context, but they aren't. This might have been appropriate in an apology if he actually didn't know what he was doing, but his actions have demonstrated that he did.



This is the really grand bit of manipulation. The obvious bad apologies fail because the guilty party is blatantly just saying things to get themselves out of blame, maybe slapping some token "I'm sorry" and "I feel bad" into it because they know they're supposed to. This doesn't look like that. I think this is the part that really fooled me and others.

The thing is, here, he makes it a point to establish that he's actually learned something. He makes it a point to acknowledge that there's a problem with what he did. The issue is that the problem he's acknowledging still isn't the real problem. He's still putting it on the context, not on his intentional predatory behaviour.

So you think he's learned, but he hasn't actually addressed what he should have learned.



For those of us who thought it was a strong apology at first, I think what we expected it to be - at best - was this. Just talking about how bad he feels without actually having any reflection on his problems, never outright stating what he did and why it was wrong.

Robinson's crafty enough to be specific here and to say that he made a mistake. It's specific enough to look genuine, to look like it isn't deflecting. But, again, what he's apologizing for isn't really what he did. That's the deflection.

Great post. I read the "apology" and it was acting like he don goof, rather than being a harassing, creepy, weird person who broke the law.

 

[Snagret]

https://twitter.com/ybbaaabby/status/895875398927433729
https://twitter.com/ybbaaabby/status/895876064244670464
Abby from Giant Bomb goes in on him

Abby rules.

There's a lot of wiggling going on in his apology that turned me off. Whatever his intent, I'm glad he's separating from Polygon and taking a step back from the "spotlight". I'm absolutely not interested in his future endeavors as a content creator and hopefully he finds something else to do rather than continue to try and be an internet personality.

 

[Squire]

@russpitts has been relentless about this topic.

Be weary of dudes like this. This is something that's affected people's real lives. Being glib (angry yes, but glib also) and taking advantage of it to get in some sick owns on twitter is gross.

The telling thing is there isn't even a message of support or an actual criticism of the statement. Just obvious burns on an easy target. Russ Pitts is lame.

 

[Bastables]

These aren't very fun to watch, but it really helps me understand the perspective from women who go through this sort of thing. The first video in particular... make a scene!! Make a scene right away!!

I had no idea someone would respond to that kind of event by quietly going to a librarian rather than immediately yelling at the person and drawing everyone's attention as possible (someone was shooting upskirts in a library campus and a woman recalls her experience). If I heard someone in a library screaming about someone taking a picture of her in that manner, I'd move to try and help, and I for SURE would not be any sort of annoyed with the woman yelling. This is one of those things where you MAKE NOISE because holy shit, most people are on your side here.

That's the thing right? We all think everyone will help, will do the right thing, the human thing.

But as Catarina's experience shows, no passenger would intercede, the Bus driver would not intercede. It's not until she flee's to her home and her flatmates, that the Police are called and "help". She never even thinks to call the Constables herself... inspite of the police having "heard of him" none of the prior harassed ever put in a formal complaint so the cops did nothing till Catarina went through the process after her flat mates called the cops.

This is what Women have to live with, and creeps like Nick prowling around in a sphere of a hobby on top of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UEegUWcveI

 

[Noaloha]

Be weary of dudes like this. This is something that's affected people's real lives.

You're saying 'be tired of and/or exasperated at dudes like this'. I don't think that was your intent.

Wary.

 

[H2Yo]

This thread reminds me of those old guy muppets.

"It's excellent!"
"It's excellent"
"It's great"
"It's good"
"It's adequate"
"It's okay"
"It's average"
"It's poor"
"It's bad"
"It's awful"
"It's the worst!"

 

[Real Hero]

This thread reminds me of those old guy muppets.

"It's excellent!"
"It's excellent"
"It's great"
"It's good"
"It's adequate"
"It's okay"
"It's average"
"It's poor"
"It's bad"
"It's awful"
"It's the worst!"

that speaks to the manipulative nature of the apology

 

[ElectronicOldMen]

Ahaha of course his apology letter has to be emotionally manipulative as well. Fuck him.

 

[Aquavelvaman]

I was hoping he would get the apology right, considering the people near him. He definitely has/had smart people around him...

Very disappointing.

 

[Stahsky]

This thread reminds me of that time when I first tried figuring out how to use gradients in photoshop

 

[Joey Ravn]

This thread reminds me of those old guy muppets.

"It's excellent!"
"It's excellent"
"It's great"
"It's good"
"It's adequate"
"It's okay"
"It's average"
"It's poor"
"It's bad"
"It's awful"
"It's the worst!"

The amount of "hot takes" by people who obviously just skimmed through the "apology" falls radically after the first few pages, thankfully.

 

[jimmypop]

This person needs time off from work and a dedication to self-help. Maturity doesn't come with age.

The apology is shit. Any other read is intentionally pushing an agenda.

 

[Messofanego]

Faux apologies have evolved. Now you need to be aware that you should validate the victim's experiences as real and you should shut up and listen. I'm glad most are savvy enough to see through those token phrases. Especially because he's never specific and doesn't delineate between consensual flirting and asking for unsolicited nudes, then telling the girls to keep it on the down low.

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

How long until he launched his own patreon so that he can read articles off Wikipedia?

 

[hotcyder]

So that's pretty much it for him now, right?

He was only a solid content creator when working with another Polygon team-member, so if no one else going to touch him then pretty much his career is down the pan?

I don't feel at all sorry for him.

 

[ElectronicOldMen]

How long you until he launched his own patreon so that he can read articles off Wikipedia?

Next week - ''Nick's Last Stand' patreon reaches $40k per month'

 

[MaverickHunterAsh]

Reads on the surface like a decent apology, but I'm not fully sold; either way, that is not for me to decide as I was not personally victimized by his actions. Hopefully he gets the help he clearly needs and is able to come out of this a better person, but it's not my place to decide if or when he should be forgiven.

Really surprised and pleased with how Polygon has handled this, however. It's good they're going their separate ways.

 

[jipewithin]

Okay, having read through this thread and the tweets linked, I want to try breaking down the apology. Hopefully this will help anyone who - like me - actually bought it on a first glance.



By the third word, we've got some deceptive language here. "Messed up" makes it sound like he made a mistake. This would be nitpicking if not for the fact that that that's clearly how the apology is framed.

Even if we put the severity of what he did aside, Robinson did not make a simple mistake. We know from souIspear's tweets that he was silencing women that he harassed. He knew that what he did was wrong, and that there would be consequences if they became public. Instead of changing his behaviour when he realized that, he instead tried to manipulate others so he could more safely continue his behaviour.

He did not make mistakes. He acted exactly as he intended to.



Here we have him referring to his harassment as flirting. Now, it's entirely possible that he's doing that to avoid legal action. But it's also being used to add to the framework that what he did was an innocent mistake rather than intentional, targeted abuse. See below.



Assuming he was doing the same thing before he became popular as he says, he's was still telling women, unsolicited, to send him nudes. He was still telling them to keep silent.

He briefly admonishes his actions before he was popular by saying that some of the advances were unwanted or handled poorly, but that's not the issue. This wasn't just normal flirting that some people just didn't like. This wasn't just handled poorly, as his actions make it clear it's delibrate. The advances should not have come in this form at all.

Additionally, he's focusing on Twitter, as if the issue is simply that he doesn't know how to handle himself properly through that particular medium. But we're also told that he engages in predatory behaviour in person.

The issues with power he describes are in and of themselves fair, but the issue is that they're meant to distract from the predatory nature of his behaviour and shift the issue to changing context. They might still be there if the apology was genuine, but that's not what they follow, so it serves to provide enough sincerity to make it look like the whole thing is sincere.



Building on the image he's been creating, this is attempting to move the responsibility to the shifting context and make the apology seem genuine.

This might have been appropriate in an apology if his actions were okay in the previous context, but they aren't. This might have been appropriate in an apology if he actually didn't know what he was doing, but his actions have demonstrated that he did.



This is the really grand bit of manipulation. The obvious bad apologies fail because the guilty party is blatantly just saying things to get themselves out of blame, maybe slapping some token "I'm sorry" and "I feel bad" into it because they know they're supposed to. This doesn't look like that. I think this is the part that really fooled me and others.

The thing is, here, he makes it a point to establish that he's actually learned something. He makes it a point to acknowledge that there's a problem with what he did. The issue is that the problem he's acknowledging still isn't the real problem. He's still putting it on the context, not on his intentional predatory behaviour.

So you think he's learned, but he hasn't actually addressed what he should have learned.



For those of us who thought it was a strong apology at first, I think what we expected it to be - at best - was this. Just talking about how bad he feels without actually having any reflection on his problems, never outright stating what he did and why it was wrong.

Robinson's crafty enough to be specific here and to say that he made a mistake. It's specific enough to look genuine, to look like it isn't deflecting. But, again, what he's apologizing for isn't really what he did. That's the deflection.

Thank you for this post, really shed a light on the whole case. After reading the first post, without really even knowing that much about the case (didn't read the previous thread that much about what he exactly did) I though he was sorry about flirting because he was in position of power. Never even crossed my mind this "flirting" involved asking nudes and silencing those people. That's just sickening to me, no way that is "just flirting".

 

[Widge]

As far as apologies go, this was a pretty good one

Yeah. Worst thing I see often are sentiments like "I'm sorry you misunderstood my humour and were offended"...

 

[Monkeyball]

Yeah. Worst thing I see often are sentiments like "I'm sorry you misunderstood my humour and were offended"...

Yeah. And this one was much better, saying his harassment was just flirting.

 

[Maximo]

Next week - ''Nick's Last Stand' patreon reaches $40k per month'

 

[avengers23]

I was hoping he would get the apology right, considering the people near him. He definitely has/had smart people around him...

Very disappointing.

For him to get the apology right, he would need to understand what was actually wrong about what he has done (and probably will continue to do "out of the spotlight").

To carry an old Idle Thumbs meme into a more serious situation, Fuck Nick in all of his future endeavors.

 

[SJurgenson]

Yeah. Worst thing I see often are sentiments like "I'm sorry you misunderstood my humour and were offended"...

If we're comparing against the Internet shitheel standard of "anything I say or do is OK if I call it 'humor'", we're not really holding people to a high bar here...

 

[theindieboy]

Next week - ''Nick's Last Stand' patreon reaches $40k per month'

I doubt it, as far as I know he has not be involved in other podcasts that much that are Patreon funded. Colin leaving Kinda Funny meant that a lot of his fans were already on Patreon this makes it a lot easier to raise money faster, additioally Colin did some seriously high profile stuff around launch like Joe Rogen, Glen Beck, Dave Rubin (who is on Patreon also so more likely for his audience to support). Patreon has the issue of getting people trough the door once they support one creator far more likely to support other, and again what Colin did was something completly different branching into another field (polotics/History) this allowed for the combining of two types of audiences video games and history/polotics. However the video game space on Patreon is getting extremely crowded and has stand outs like NoClip (high production documentries) KindaFunny, Easy Allies, What's Good Games (whihc are fairly large groups of people with lots of experience creating and editing there own content to a high quality standard) and 100s if not 1000s of others, I can't see what Nick could bring to the table as a single outlet that aren't being covered by others that have been doing it for a long time. Imagine he could do $2-5K from loyal fanbase but that would likely drop quickly if he does not start producing something unquiue, its a crowded marketplace now and there are a lot of others that are well established. Personally think he would be better trying to join somewhere else if looking for a longterm job. All of this is said as opinion on Patreon and how it works these days, i certainly am not supporting him or denouncing him as dont really know all the facts, but he would not be getting my money any time soon and don't like what i have seen about this at all.

 

[SJurgenson]

The Internet Asshole market is booming since the election! Hell, the Google Manifesto dude is now making Intranet Asshole a viable market now too!

 

[Widge]

I've not read this in depth enough so I'll refrain from making any more surface level fly by assessments until I know better.

 

[Squire]

You're saying 'be tired of and/or exasperated at dudes like this'. I don't think that was your intent.

Wary.

I mean, I AM tired of dudes like this, but you're correct, thank you.

 

[boo]

Nice that he apologized. I prefer to believe in the best in people so I choose to take his apology at face value.

 

[Monkeyball]

Nice that he apologized. I prefer to believe in the best in people so I choose to take his apology at face value.

You choose ignorance?

 

[VibratingDonkey]

Nice that he apologized. I prefer to believe in the best in people so I choose to take his apology at face value.

Yeah. Worst thing I see often are sentiments like "I'm sorry you misunderstood my humour and were offended"...

Not the worst =/= good.
When compared to the worst, it might seem good at a first glance, but it's not.
It's making an effort to appear good, but is actually the worst.

He had a chance. He blew it.

 

[purseowner]

Nice that he apologized. I prefer to believe in the best in people so I choose to take his apology at face value.

Well ain't that big of you.

 

[Kusagari]

This apology is the same manipulative, "soft boy" bullshit Austin was talking about. The entire thing is written in a way to make him seem sincere and genuine while at the same boiling his repeated harassment down an infantile mistake that was only a problem because he was in a position of power. Luckily, Nick no longer has that power. So he's free to turn conversations about t-shirts into asking for a blowjob in peace now.

 

[MrMatt555]

He's been exposed and thats what matters. It'll all fall into place and the truth will come out, eventually. There's no point in dissecting this guy's apology when he doesn't fully understand nor care to admit what he's apologizing for.

 

[Head.spawn]

One sentence teenager text-message translation:

"At first life was ez, n I wuz just slidin in dem dm's like a beast, begging for titty pics! Everything was fine until everyone thought I was cool and then I became a responsibility and then it was bad n' stuff and I should've been more courteous when askin for da nudez and stuff, mb ooops."

 

[lewisgone]

He knew what he was doing and this isn't an apology.

He's pretending he made a mistake and that he didn't consider how his role in the games industry made the power dynamics fucked.

Instead what this was was systemic attempts to "flirt" with many woman related to the games industry, some young (underage even, apparently), requests for nudes alongside requests to keep things quiet (the biggest reason this is bs and he knew the dynamics were wrong).

A mistake would be a one time, two time deal...anyone taking this guy at his word is kidding themselves. He has stopped because he was caught and for no other reason. He knew it was wrong and did it anyway for a long time.

Anyone go knows the first thing about journalism knows that this was beyond unacceptable behaviour. This guy is pretending that he seriously thought his actions were harmless...it's a joke of an "apology".

 

[Jacksinthe]

He's been exposed and thats what matters. It'll all fall into place and the truth will come out, eventually. There's no point in dissecting this guy's apology when he doesn't fully understand nor care to admit what he's apologizing for.

No point in bringing attention to a problem or how it's viewed by the offender in an effort to highlight another problem.

Got it.

/s

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Like, who is this guy? I'd never heard of him until all these allegations, and have since found out that he works for Polygon. But various points in that apology about "position of power", "all my fans", "suddenly a very public figure", bro I've never even heard of you...

 

[Monkeyball]

Like, who is this guy? I'd never heard of him until all these allegations, and have since found out that he works for Polygon. But various points in that apology about "position of power", "all my fans", "suddenly a very public figure", bro I've never even heard of you...

He is famous, people follow him on tweeter.

 

[TatteredHat]

Like, who is this guy? I'd never heard of him until all these allegations, and have since found out that he works for Polygon. But various points in that apology about "position of power", "all my fans", "suddenly a very public figure", bro I've never even heard of you...

People nowadays are very quick to claim that they are famous when they get a few followers on social media.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Like, who is this guy? I'd never heard of him until all these allegations, and have since found out that he works for Polygon. But various points in that apology about "position of power", "all my fans", "suddenly a very public figure", bro I've never even heard of you...

Plenty of valid reasons to criticise the guy, this isn't one of them. One of (*one of*) the reasons he's been been dragged over this is the irresponsible use of whatever microcelebrity he had -- responding to that directly in an apology isn't uncalled for. Whether his response is appropriate is a whole other conversation.

 

[The Technomancer]

https://twitter.com/ybbaaabby/status/895875398927433729
https://twitter.com/ybbaaabby/status/895876064244670464
Abby from Giant Bomb goes in on him

Yeaaaaaaah Abby!

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Like, who is this guy? I'd never heard of him until all these allegations, and have since found out that he works for Polygon. But various points in that apology about "position of power", "all my fans", "suddenly a very public figure", bro I've never even heard of you...

Nick was involved in making some of the most popular vids on Polygon. I think he's also worked on a lot of McElroy stuff.

 

[L Thammy]

Like, who is this guy? I'd never heard of him until all these allegations, and have since found out that he works for Polygon. But various points in that apology about "position of power", "all my fans", "suddenly a very public figure", bro I've never even heard of you...

People nowadays are very quick to claim that they are famous when they get a few followers on social media.

People watched his videos. I don't think it's a good idea to dismiss this because it's an element at play. Didn't souIspear admit to being a fan of his and that the way she responded to him was affected by that?

Robinson is trying to present his fame as creating the problem by changing the context of his actions; that's wrong. What he did is wrong regardless of how popular he was. But this was a factor at play, and possibly something he made use of in his predatory behaviour.

 

[Bowlie]

I still don't like how in that last paragraph he's trying to win his fans back already, like he's past the punishment phase and painting a good picture of himself.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

To be honest, at first I thought the apology was fine. Reading this thread made it clear that it really isn't. Really fascinating how easy it is to overlook certain things if you have never experienced, or are at no risk of experiencing, them. At the very least, I learned something today, so there's that.

 

[Monkeyball]

The worst part is really the "flirting".

That's like saying you poked someone with a stick when you murdered them with an axe.

 

[Chip N Chance]

Like, who is this guy? I'd never heard of him until all these allegations, and have since found out that he works for Polygon. But various points in that apology about "position of power", "all my fans", "suddenly a very public figure", bro I've never even heard of you...

Theres allot of people on the internet claiming he had a position of power, but i myself follow games rather closely and have never heard of him. Maybe im just getting out of touch, because im sure theres a ton of youtubers with millions of subscribers who i have never even heard and will probably never engage with.

I really wish i had a much stronger stance on the situation, but its just a bunch of people on twitter eluding to something that may have happened in the past. Hell one of them was deleted. Even Waypoint, as progressive and open as they think that they are doing a podcast talking about the situation, all they ever said was the same eluding to statements like "ive heard some things" or "i know some stuff". Its weak.

I just hope this guy gets fired so we dont have to talk about him or make other people in the industry feel uncomfortable around him during events or around the office.

 

[BTA]

Nice tweets by Abby, hmm.

How long until he launched his own patreon so that he can read articles off Wikipedia?

Heh, he can't even do that well. There's a bit in that Link's Crossbow Training page he read on the last CGI that mentions Miyamoto wanting Link to have an actual gun as a result of time travel, and he skipped that bit.

snip

Yeah, that's pretty much my thoughts on that, especially as a lot of his current fans are fans of things with him and Griffin, not just him.

 

[webrunner]

*looks at hands*
if only I wasn't so.. damn. powerful... i could control these.. urges