2020 was a year to forget for so many reasons I won’t go into because we don’t need to relive that shit again. But I stumbled upon a mind-boggling event via Kotaku involving a Sonic fan site called TSSZ and its owner, who tried to compare the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggles of Black Americans to Sonic the Hedgehog. No, I’m not kidding. See for yourself:
There were a lot of bad takes on BLM in 2020 (and they haven’t stopped since). Some folks apologised (or did that “sorry if you were offended because you misunderstood me” non-apology thing). Some doubled down. But in the case of the TSSZ owner… they shut the whole site down. For good.
If you try to go to the website, you’re met with the logo and 1999–2022. I don’t believe cancel culture exists but I do believe they just cancelled themselves over something that could have been remedied with an apology, acknowledgement, and some learning. But hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go fast.