(CW: Discussion of Transphobia, Murder and Genocide)
Talk about a redemption arc, If you had told me 3 years ago that Activision-Blizzard would go on to deliberately squander their own profits to get a Transphobic Bigot removed from their most profitable game, I would have thought you were crazy, yet here we are.
Pride Month is only a week away and we at JMAA.TV are more than ready to celebrate the festivities. Activision are also celebrating Pride Month as they announced that they are releasing LGBTQ themed camo’s for Modern Warfare III Season 4.
However during this time of acceptance and celebration, we should all take a moment and reflect on the Historical events that shaped the LGBTQIA+ community into the community we know today. June 9th 2024 will mark the one year anniversary of Nickmercs removal from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
Who is Nickmercs?
Nick "NICKMERCS" Kolcheff is an American Twitch and Kick streamer and the Co-Owner of Faze clan, Though if you follow me on Twitter or YouTube you may know him by other much less flattering names like “NaziMercs“ or “Nick Fuentes Mercs”, there’s a reason for this.
Nickmercs is in a similar vein to Doctor Disrespect who we covered previously. He’s a hard ass “Anti-Woke“ scumbag who wastes his life getting irrationally angry while playing Battle Royale games. He used to be a mainstay in the Call of Duty community, to the point where he got his own Operator Bundle in Warzone 2. I’ll never understand why Activision gave a skin to Nickmercs of all people and not a dedicated Cod youtuber like Raidaway or Swagg.
Not like it matters anyway. Considering what Nick did we’re probably not anymore bundles based on Content Creator’s and it’s certainly for an understandable reason
On June 7th 2023, Anti-LGBTQ protestors attacked a group of Pro-LGBTQ protestors outside a school in Glendale, California. Chris Puckett, a caster for the Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues would quote tweet the video stating…
“This happened 4 blocks from my Overwatch League apartment.
Americans are in a sad place right now.
Let people love who they love and live your own life.”
Nickmercs noticed the tweet and replied saying.
“They should leave little children alone. That’s the real issue.”
For those who aren’t aware The phase “Leave the Kids Alone“ is a Transphobic and Homophobic phrase whose purpose is to paint the LGBTQ+ community as Pedophiles.
Source: Oxford Languages
It’s what’s known as a “Dogwhistle“, a coded political message that’s designed to only be recognised by a particular group of people.
Dogwhistle are most commonly used by Conservatives to incite Paranoia and Hatred towards marginalised groups, in this instance being targeted towards the LGBTQ community.
An example of a Dogwhistle from recent history would be Republican politicians saying Barack Obama’s full name and putting extra emphasis on his middle name which happens to be Hussein, meant to imply a supposed connection to Saddam Hussein which clearly wasn’t the case.
Nickmercs tweet serves a similar purpose, attempting to paint the LGBTQ+ community as groomers trying to indoctrinate children into their satanic sex cult. This type of harmful misinformation is known as Stochastic Terrorism
Source: https://www.dictionary.com/
Stochastic Terrorism is the act of publicly demonising a group with the intention of inciting Violence and hatred against them. This can manifest in all sorts of ways, From cold blooded murders like the Brianna Ghey stabbing, Republican politicians like Ron Desantis signing the “Don’t Say Gay“ Bill and Trans people being driven to suicide by Kiwifarms.
If left unchallenged, this hatred could lead to a systematic genocide against the LGBTQ community, we can’t allow that to happen.
The Court of Corporate opinion
Anyone with a brain would be able to tell you that this is all complete bullshit and many people agree with me, including those from major companies and organisations.
The Gay and Lesbian alliance against defamation or GLAAD for short put out a statement regarding these accusations when they said.
““It pains me to have to clarify that no, the LGBTQ community does not embrace pedophilia””
Activision would remove Nickmercs bundle from the Call of Duty item shop two days later while putting out a Press Statement showing their support to the LGBTQ community.
“Due to recent events, we have removed the “NICKMERCS Operator” bundle from the Modern Warfare II and Warzone store. We are focused on celebrating PRIDE with our employees and our community.”
Despite outcry and a very pitiful attempt at a boycott from Nickmercs fanboys, this proved to be a profitable move for Activision as the Blackcell Battlepass became the third highest selling item on Steam, Probably as a result of Trans gamers and their Allies spite buying it.
This more than likely made Activision far more money then they would have ever gotten from Nick’s garbage bundle.
This brings us back to present day, Activision released a blog post going over everything that’s being planned for Modern Warfare III season 4, one of the item’s coming is a free bundle containing 7 Camos depicting the Bi, Lesbian, Non-Binary, PanSexual, Transgender, Gay and Asexual Pride flags.
Some might argue that Activision did all of this just to profit off of Pride month and I would agree with you to an extent. However, by removing Nickmercs bundle they saved far more than there Bank accounts, They deplatformed a stochastic terrorist who’s words and beliefs posed a serious threat to an entire marginalised community.
So tell me Nick, if the LGBTQ community was actually full of Pedophiles, how come all these major corporations support them?
Happy Pride Month Everybody, Stay Safe
