I’m sorry but that entire blog post is complete garbage and not worth even remotely paying attention to.
The majority of it is whining that Wil promoted a blocklist on twitter. That blocklist was originally made to block trolls and stuff but it ran out of support. One of the people working on it pushed their own which Wil supported. What Wil didn’t know, and what many other people who were sharing the tool has no idea about, was that the user had introduced personal blocks into that list and used it as their own thing to go trans people they had beef with. Wil openly admitted to not knowing this and trying to fix the problem in his own blocklist. The article then seems to bash Wil repeatedly for this fact while leaning on “Well he didn’t share the tools enough to fix the problem!” as the sole reason why Wil should be shamed for this mistake. He made a mistake. He was not actively targeting trans people or bashing them. Framing it that he was is the most disingenuous bullshit I can think of.
“However, the most recent dust-up with Wheaton wasn’t about trans specific issues at all but over his friendship with Chris Hardwick.” Also not a remotely valid complaint as the accusations against Chris Hardwick were made by one woman, was investigated, and found to be demonstrably false. I’m not about to shame Wil for being friends with someone who didn’t do anything wrong. So much so that I’m going to quote Wil Wheaton himself on that debacle because I refuse to put anymore effort into it.
I’m not going to apologize to people who were let down by me, because I waited for the facts to come in instead of rushing to join their angry mob. Chris was investigated multiple times and cleared of every accusation, by all of them. And that’s still not good enough for some people, who I also will not apologize to. If ANYTHING his accuser said were true, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Because fundamental values matter. I am not and will not be friends with someone who sexually assaults another person or any of the other things she lied about, and I’m insulted that you think I would be.
Let me be really clear about this: she didn’t exaggerate. She didn’t take things out of context. She straight up LIED. She made things up that aren’t true. She lied about multiple events that I and others witnessed. And there is so much more you don’t know about, because it was never made public. So I didn’t make a friendship exception, because there was no friendship exception to be made. After the facts came in, I stood with and supported my friend who didn’t do any of the things he was accused of doing. I stood by my friend who was cleared multiple times by multiple investigations. I stood by my friend who I had LONG and DIFFICULT conversations with, as I went through every single accusation with him, in my personal effort to get to the truth.
I know there are people who just don’t want to hear this, because they would possibly feel bad about being part of that angry mob, but that doesn’t make it less true: Chris was in a toxic relationship that was unhealthy and horrible. I had a front row seat to it. They were TERRIBLE together. They fought all the time. They brought out the absolute worst in each other. It was awful. All of that is true. And none of the things she said about him in her essay happened. That is also true. She made it all up, because, in her own words, she couldn’t let him “win” when they broke up, whatever the fuck that meant.
I’ve given you a lot more of my time than I wanted to. I’m just real sick and tired of this lie about Chris going unchallenged by people who paid attention to the lie and then either ignored or rejected the truth when that truth came out.
So to recap: Wil Wheaton is “problematic” for making a genuine mistake and for backing up his friend who did nothing wrong.