I think very highly of Wendy Starfall, formerly of OpenCollar and later of Peanut No. 9 and Heartcore. She has put in a lot of hard work to make collars and other RLV devices that work well and are easy to use, without being as heavily resource-intensive as earlier OpenCollar versions. The folks behind OpenCollar took the group away from her and have been waging an unjust, constant campaign of hate and slander to try to drive her out of Second Life for it. I use and recommend her stuff wholeheartedly.
I think it's unfortunate that Wendy feels the need to have the collar and the group espouse her political views. This would be unfortunate no matter what those views are, but she is an avowed leftist, and pushes political causes at the far left end of the spectrum. I disagree with nearly all of those stances, as a conservative who believes in freedom and individual rights.
Last night, Wendy posted this to the channel on the Discord server for her products used for updates:
Wendy Starfall:
I object to every one of these statements, some more so than others: Climate change is not political propaganda, but it has been weaponized by those on the left to try to force through the kind of socialist economic destruction they have been pushing for a century; polar bears et al are not Antifa terrorists, but Extinction Rebellion and similar groups are; the wearing of protective face masks during a pandemic is not fascist oppression, but forcing people to do so on pain of fine and imprisonment is; racial equality and the rest is something we should all support, but not the Marxist, segregationist, black supremacist demands of the Black Lives Matter movement or the rioting that goes along with it. The politicization of all of these issues started on the left, and while conservatives push back, if the left would stop politicizing everything, we would see a sharp drop in the level of rancor in our society.
Let me clear: socialism is the most destructive, evil ideology ever put on paper. It has killed over a hundred million people, and made billions more people's lives hell on earth. Not only that, but while it's possible to vote socialism in, you have to shoot your way out of it. The United States will only become a socialist country literally over my dead body.
I found it extremely jarring to see her push those hard-left viewpoints under the headline that she loves us all very much. Those two are polar opposites of each other. I know Wendy means well, but I just can't sit idly by and let that kind of thing go unchallenged.
I asked where I should post a rebuttal. Wendy laid into me and basically told me that that server is her space and if I wanted to rebut her posts, to do it on my own space. Others there dogpiled on top of me. I finally decided I, and others who believe as I do, wasn't welcome there any more and left.
Wendy has now apologized to me. I accept that apology. It doesn't mean that I feel any more welcome there, however, given the reactions of others. I have rejoined the server, but have muted every channel in it so that I no longer receive any Discord notifications. I will use it for technical support exclusively and leave the leftists there to their echo chamber.
Conservatives on Second Life, as with much of online society, have to censor themselves severely. We cannot state our opinions with the same freedom as leftists, lest we be hounded out of our own spaces and off of the net entirely. I, for one, am sick of it.
I believe our society is rapidly approaching the point of a real, shooting civil war. We have gotten to this point because we can no longer discuss our differences calmly and rationally. In the past, Wendy and I have discussed those differences without shouting at each other. I understand the stresses she has been under lately, and am sorry I added to those stresses. I think it's best for now that I disengage and let things lie where they are.
I consider Wendy a friend. She's a genuinely caring person who has put up with far more crap than anyone ever should. I've tried to help what little I am able. But now...I'm sorry, but I just can't get close enough, any more. Maybe in the future, but for now, it's best we go our separate ways.
