This week Blizzard Entertainment put profits before human rights and capitulated to the authoritarian regime of communist China. They banned a Hearthstone player name Ng “blitzchung” Wai Chung, took all his winnings and fired two interviewers all because he expressed solidarity with the people of Hong Kong who desire freedom and democracy.
Why did Blizzard, a company that never misses an opportunity to virtue signal about their concern for the human rights of minorities and LGBTQ people do this?
They did it to appease the bloodthirsty communist Chinese rulers so Blizzard can continue to keep doing business in China. All Blizzard cares about is money. Period.
This week, another soulless woke but greedy American corporation, the NBA, forced Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey coach to retract a tweet in support of freedom for Hong Kong. Why? Because it angered the vicious Chinese regime.
In another show of corporate cowardice, Apple removed the Taiwanese flag emoji from phones in Hong Kong.
As of the writing this article, predictably, there has been no mention of this catastrophe from the woke cowards at Blizzard Watch. To their credit, Massively has an excellent article on the fiasco with frequent updates.
Jeremy Hambly at The Quartering has done a superb job exposing the hypocrisy of Blizzard with his latest video on this story:
You Heard it Here First
In December of 2018, when nobody else in the industry seemed to care about this, I warned the video game community about Blizzard’s double-standards and hypocrisy doing business with the repressive Chinese regime. From my article:
BLIZZARD AND COMMUNIST CHINA
Despite all of the sanctimonious speeches about values, diversity and inclusion, Blizzard has no problems doing business in the totalitarian regime of communist China that routinely violates the rights of its own citizens, harvests organs from prisoners and to this day has mass internment camps that imprison political prisoners. Regrettably, many big American corporations and tech giants do business in China.
Blizzard also capitulates to the Chinese government and censors the artwork within both Diablo and World of Warcraft. More changes to Blizzard products offered in China are imminent as the Chinese regime is cracking down on video games with the creation of their new censorship board called the Online Games Ethics Committee.
Let us also not forget that it’s been estimated that since the rise of communist China, 65 million of its own people have been killed due to executions, starvation, and work camps and to this day China persecutes its own citizens including those of Tibet and religious minorities of Christian and Muslims. Why would Blizzard want to do business with a despotic regime like China?
Answer: increased profits. Follow the money. Like carbon credits for industrial polluters, virtue signaling and diversity initiatives are the clever sleight of hand distraction that buys immunity for big tech companies to escape the wrath of the diversity and inclusion shakedown artists here in America.
Exposing Blizzard’s Moral Sloth
It is no secret that the communist Chinese regime has been repressing their own population and putting them into concentration camps. This is happening today — right now! The citizens of China have no rights. There is no freedom in China. The Chinese government controls everything that the populace sees, reads, hears and does. Citizens of China are under constant surveillance. Big Brother is always watching.
Imagine doing business with Nazi Germany during Word War 2, with the full knowledge that Jews, Christians and dissidents were being rounded up and interred in concentration camps and murdered. The exact same thing is going on right now in communist China.
Current and former Blizzard executives such as Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham, Chris Metzen and J. Allan Brack — just to name a few — had to have known this all along. They are not stupid. But they did not care. They did nothing because it’s all about the money and appeasing their shareholders.
Predictably all of these people have been silent on this current crisis. Isn’t it strange how “nice guy” Mike Morhaime was so quick to talk about Blizzard’s values and bashed President Trump on the so-called “Muslim ban” but has nothing to say about the crisis in Hong Kong or the millions of Ugher Muslims being rounded up and put in Chinese concentration camps. You’re a phony and a hypocrite Mike and you should be ashamed of yourself.
There are reports that Blizzard employees are angry and protesting internally. The mission statement outside Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, CA has been covered up by irate Blizzard employees. Note the reply to the original tweet by an ex-Blizzard employee.
#BlizzardBoycott is trending on Twitter. The official Blizzard subreddit is now locked. Blizzard fans are unsubscribing for their games.
Angry fans are already creating memes and artwork mocking Blizzard:
The creators of South Park have also gotten involved and issued a non-apology apology to China:
Even former Blizzard developer Mark Kern has finally had enough:
Conclusion
The Blizzard of 2019 is a company run by people without a shred of integrity and decency. These whited sepulchers of humanity only care about the price of Activision-Blizzard stock and satiating the greed of their shareholders. They routinely use cynical strategies of rainbow capitalism and diversity/inclusion virtue signaling as a smokescreen to hide the true nature of their rapacity.
Where is the woke left in all of this?
Nowhere to be found. I thought they cared about human rights. This crisis has exposed them for the dupes, frauds and useful idiots that they are. They could care less about freedom and democracy in Hong Kong because transgender rights and stopping the bad Orange man and his “white supremacist” supporters are far more important.
The very same progressive left that constantly applauds Blizzard for their diversity and inclusion PR agitprop is missing in action. When a female Blizzard employee bullied a male Blizzard employee, the left and the social justice cancel culture were conveniently silent.
Blizzard’s decision to genuflect before the Chinese censors is a public relations disaster of monumental proportions for Blizzard. Blizzard deserves every ounce of anger and derision directed at them.
In the past, I’ve authored many articles exposing Blizzard’s hypocrisy and shallow corporate virtue signaling. Now it’s all coming back to haunt them just as I predicted.
Blizzard is at a crossroads. They can continue to do business inside communist China and face universal scorn from gamers and lose their complete respect or they can apologize for being sniveling sycophants and tell China to go to hell and take the moral high ground. If they chose the path of righteousness they will lose money in the short term, but long term it will save Blizzard.
Isn’t it ironic that a company that creates video games with grand narratives of good vs. evil is so woefully indifferent to the evil that they support?
Overwatch’s Tracer: You know, the world could always use more heroes.
How about it Blizzard? Are you going to practice what you preach? Are you going to take the high road and be a hero or descend into the abyss of depravity and be a villain?
Blizzcon 2019 is coming up in a few weeks. The whole world will be watching Blizzard.
-Wolfshead
