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Youtubers Bitching About Politics @YtersBitching ... Oh for f---'s sake 2:20 /15:32 #FiveNightsAtFreddys #ScottCawthon #Politics Why The Five Nights At Freddy's Guy Sucks (The Jimquisition) 266,589 views 14 Jun 2021 28K 14K SHARE E+ SAVE ... 12:46 PM · Jun 25, 2021 · Twitter for Android

Brad Glasgow @Brad_Glasgow So the Five Nights at Freddy's guy retired because of mass outrage and media hit pieces due to his being. republican. It's a good reminder that the people loudly campaigning for diversity and inclusion are actually just seeking (far left) political hegemony. 6:16 AM · Jun 17, 2021 · Twitter Web App

Kane Carter @Popgoes6 If you voiced your opinions on Scott this week, I respect that and I respect you. I want to thank those who are trying to educate the ignorant. | However, if you consider him retiring to be a "win" of some sort, I'm asking that you unfollow me and, essentially, f--- off. 8:58 PM · 16 Jun 21 · Twitter Web App

Colin Moriarty @notaxation I don't know anything about Five Nights at Freddy's or its creator Scott Cawthon, but I find his treatment incredibly lame. Because he donated to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell? Oh no! Now he's gone. Don't tell me the gaming industry doesn't have a politicization problem. 7:54 AM · 17 Jun 21 · Twitter Web App

Sophia (HaRMful SaTiRe) Na. · 13m The one sided gaming media just chased a game developer out of the medium for the second time this year, the only 'scandal' here being that they donated to politicians the clique didn't like. So don't you ever f------ dare tell me my clique article from last year was false. Patrick Klepek @patrickklepek see ya Translate Tweet Polygon @Polygon · 1h Five Nights at Freddy's creator says he's retiring and handing off the franchise amid blowback over political donations polygon.com/22538276/five-. 4:01 PM · Jun 17, 2021 · TweetDeck

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Overview

Scott Cawthon Republican Candidates Donations Controversy refers to a controversy that followed the Five Nights at Freddy's fanbase discovering that the game's creator Scott Cawthon made donations to Republican candidates and political action committees during the 2020 U.S. elections. While Cawthon never hid his political and religious views, the discovery led to wider awareness of Cawthon's personal views within the FNaF player base, with many criticizing and attempting to cancel Cawthon over his views and actions. As a part of the controversy, a fictional narrative that YouTuber Markiplier created Five Nights at Freddy's (a reference to the Hatsune Miku Created Minecraft meme) trended on Twitter. In mid-June 2021, Scott Cawthon announced his retirement from making Five Nights at Freddy's games.

Background

On June 10th, 2021, Twitter^[12]^[13] user @beesmygod_ posted screenshots of political donations to Republican candidates and political action committees made by indie game developer and creator of the Five Night's at Freddy's franchise Scott Cawthon in 2020 (tweets no longer available). On the same day, Twitter^[1]^[2] user @IAmGryphooner reposted the screenshots (tweets shown below, left and right). The list included donations to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Republican senate candidate Mitch McConnel and several other Republican candidates. The posts by @IAmGryphonner received over 4,000 retweets and 8,700 likes and 300 retweets and 2,000 likes in one week.

chief imagineering officer of antifa @IAmGryphoneer ... turns out scott cawthon, well-known as the creator of five nights at freddy's and less known as being a christian fundie, maxed out his political donations to republican candidates and PACS in 2020. Category Contributor Occupation Date Amount Recipient Recipient Jurisdiction |Money to |Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT GAME DESIGNER 09-29-2015 $2.500 Carson. Ben (R) Federal SALADO, TX 76571 |Money to Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT 05-01-2016 $5 Indiana GREGG. JOHN R & HALE, CHRISTINA Bloomington, IN 47401 |Money to Parties $2.500 National Republican Senatorial Federal CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 SALADO, 76571 Cmte (R) Money to | Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $933 Nunes. Devin (R) Federal SALADO. 76571 |Money to |Candidates Collins, Joe (R) CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $2,800 Federal SALADO, 76571 |Money to | Candidates McConnell, Mitch (R) CAWTHON, SCOTT Graphic 08-18-2020 $5,000 Federal SALADO, 76571 Designer Money to | Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $2.800 Gardner, Cory (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 1:12 PM · Jun 10, 2021 · Twitter Web App

chief imagineering officer of antifa @IAmGryphoneer ... Replying to @IAmGryphoneer trump, McConnell, carson, nunes, the (s)hits. |Money to |Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $933 McCarthy. Kevin (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 Money to PACS $2,500 CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 WinRed Federal SALADO, 76571 |Money to | Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $2.800 Stefanik, Elise (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 Money to |Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $2,800 Cassidy, Bill (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 |Money to | Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT ENTREPRENEUR 12-20-2019 $2.000 Trump. Donald (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 |Money to |Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $2.800 Rodgers, Cathy McMorris (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 Money to | Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT GAME DESIGNER 10-22-2019 $2,500 Gabbard, Tulsi (D) Federal SALADO, 76571 1:12 PM · Jun 10, 2021 · Twitter Web App

On the same day, Scott Cawthon trended on Twitter,^[3] achieving the number four rank in the early hours on June 11th. On June 10th, multiple Twitter users made posts critical of Cawthon and highlighted the perceived contradiction between the policies supported by the politicians that he donated to and the mean political alignment of Five Nights at Freddy's player base, generally considered inclusive and LGBTQ-friendly, with Five Night's at Freddy's sometimes cited as a furry game.^[4]

For example, two hours after the @IAmGryphoneer's tweets, Twitter^[5] user @H0RR0RCITY made a tweet that received over 380 retweets and 5,200 likes in one week (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter^[6] user @Piemations made a post in which they highlighted the amount of Google search results for "fnaf gay porn" that gained over 3,400 retweets and 20,700 likes (shown below, center). Also on June 10th, Twitter^[7] user @CursedModernism wrote that the rapidly spreading knowledge of Cawthon's donations was akin to "9/11 for zoomers," with the tweet gaining over 140 retweets and 1,700 likes (shown below, right).

PhoneEnjoyer8 (comms open) @HORRORCITY Scott cawthon seeing his creation become such a staple in young Igbt fans its impossible to look up fnaf without seeing gay furry s---: 3:16 PM · Jun 10, 2021 · Twitter for Android

Mike ... @Piemations scott cawthon may be a republican but "fnaf gay p---" has over ten million results on google so who really wins here 7:49 PM - Jun 10, 2021 - Twitter Web App

Cursed Modernist Images @CursedModernism ... This is like 9/11 for zoomers chief imagineering officer of antifa @IAmGryphoneer turns out scott cawthon, well-known as the creator of five nights at freddy's and less known as being a christian fundie, maxed out his political donations to republican candidates and PACS in 2020. Category Contributor Occupation Amount Recipient Recipient Jurisdiction Date Money to Candidates CAWTHON. SCOTT GAME DESIGNER 09-29-2015 $2.500 Carson, Ben (R) Federal SALADO, TX 76571 Money to Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT GREGG, JOHN R & HALE CHRISTINA 05-01-2016 $5 Indiana Bloomington, IN 47401 Money to Parties CAWTHON, SCOTT SALADO, 76571 DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $2.500 National Republican Senatorial Federal Cmte (R) Money to Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $933 Nunes. Devin (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 Money to Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 $2.800 Collins joe (R) Federal SALADO, 76571 Money to Candidates CAWTHON, SCOTT Federal Graphic Designer 08-18-2020 $5.000 McConnell, Mitch (R) SALADO, 76571 Money to $2.800 Gardner, Cory (R) Federal CAWTHON. SCOTT DESIGNER 08-19-2020 Candidates SALADO, 76571 1:12 PM Jun 10, 2021 · Twitter Web App 5:58 PM · Jun 10, 2021 · Twitter Web App

Developments

"Markiplier Created Five Night's at Freddy's"

On June 11th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @ghoulbur made a tweet in which they stated that YouTuber Markiplier, an avid Five Night's at Freddy's content creator, was the real creator of Five Nights at Freddy's video games. The tweet (shown below, left) referenced the Hatsune Miku Created Minecraft meme and received over 1,100 retweets and 8,400 likes in five days.

Later on the same day, more viral posts that stated that Markiplier and YouTuber MatPat, known for his Five Night's at Freddy's theory videos, created the video game series were posted^[9]^[10] (example shown below, right).

seb ... @ghoulbur so scott cawthon is apparently h*mophobic and has donated to many anti LQBTQIA+ foundations. so id like to introduce you to the real creator of FNAF 12:05 AM - Jun 11, 2021 · Twitter for iPhone

cyd @goldenadores_ ... cant believe markiplier and matpat are the actual creators of fnaf (REAL) 12:03 PM · Jun 11, 2021 · Twitter for iPhone

Cawthon's First Response

On June 12th, 2021, Scott Cawthon published a response in which he addressed the claims made against him on Twitter (full response shown below). In the response, Cawthon reaffirmed his full personal support for the LGBTQ+ community and stated that he had no intention of apologizing for "exercising his right, and his duty, as an American citizen, to vote for and support the candidates who he felt could best run the country." Additionally, Cawthon stated that he was doxxed and received threats. The post received over 16,300 upvotes (60 percent upvoted) in the /r/fivenightsatfreddys subreddit^[11] in four days.

r/fivenightsatfreddys - Posted by Scott Cawthon u/animdude 8 hours ago a Top Awarded O4 e 2 e 92 29 3 110 9.1k 5 O 8 106 2 6 93 24 2 My response, and maybe last post. Discussion This message isn't specifically directly at the Freddit community; this is just the community that I care about the most and where I choose to post these things. I never cared much for Twitter anyway. To say that the last few days have been surreal would be an understatement. I've debated greatly how best to address this, including not addressing it at all, but with so many people from the LGBT community in the fanbase that I love, that's not an option. I'd like to think that the last seven years would have given me the benefit of the doubt in regards to how I try to treat people, but there I was, trending on twitter for being a homophobe, getting doxed, with people threatening to come to my house. My wife is six weeks pregnant and she spent last night in fear because of what was being said online. She has already been struggling with her pregnancy so seeing her so afraid really scared me. All this because I exercised my right, and my duty, as an American citizen, to vote for and support the candidates who I felt could best run the country, for everyone, and that's something that I won't apologize for. For those who took the time to look, you saw that the candidates I supported included men, women, white people, black people, republicans, and democrats. I supported Kimberly Klacik in Baltimore because I believed that she really cared for the African American community there and wanted to pull them out of poverty. I believed she could have really make a difference in a time when so many black communities were struggling. She lost, unfortunately. I supported Tulsi Gabbard, a democrat, even though I disagreed with her on several issues, because I felt she would have been a good and fair president. And yes, I supported President Trump, because I felt he was the best man to fuel a strong economy and stand up to America's enemies abroad, of which there are many. Even if there were candidates who had better things to say to the LGBT community directly, and bigger promises to make, I believed that their stances on other issues would have ended up doing much greater harm to those communities than good. All of this explanation, I fear, is wasted, as people don't want to discuss with one another anymore; they want endless apologies and submission. People who are expecting those from me will get neither. I've always been supportive of creators, and have tried to treat everyone fairly, and treat everyone with dignity and respect. I've never cared about anyone's race, religion, gender, or orientation. I just treat people as people, everyone the same, and because of that, I've ended up with a very diverse group of people that I've worked with over the years. It wasn't intentional. It just happened that way. I choose people who are best for the job; I treat everyone the same, and I ended up with people from all walks of life in my professional life and my personal life as well. That's the way it should be. That's the way I want it to be. That's the way I will continue to be. I'm a republican. I'm a Christian. I'm pro-life. I believe in God. I also believe in equality, and in science, and in common sense. Despite what some may say, all of those things can go together. That's not an apology or promise to change, it's the way it's always been. If I get cancelled, then I get cancelled. I don't do this for the money anymore; I do it because I enjoy it. If people think I'm doing more harm than good now, then maybe it's better that I get cancelled and retire. I would accept that. I've had a fulfilling career. Besides, most things that people can take from you are things that never had much value to begin with.

I'm a republican. I'm a Christian. I'm pro-life. I believe in God. I also believe in equality, and in science, and in common sense. Despite what some may say, all of those things can go together. That's not an apology or promise to change, it's the way it's always been.
If I get cancelled, then I get cancelled. I don't do this for the money anymore; I do it because I enjoy it. If people think I'm doing more harm than good now, then maybe it's better that I get cancelled and retire. […]
I have always loved, and will continue to love, this community and this fanbase, even if someday it doesn't include me anymore.

Cawthon's Retirement

On June 16th, 2021, Scott Cawthon posted a letter on his website^[14] in which he announced his retirement from making Five Nights at Freddy's games, writing that the franchise will continue but that he will no longer take part in the process. Cawthon wrote that he will instead focus on making video games for his children and for fun.

Before I say anything else, check out this awesome piece of fanart. Pretty amazing stuff, right? I have boxes and boxes of artwork like this from fans that I've saved over the years. I've tried to answer as many letters as I could, and I apologize to anyone that I missed somehow. Someday when I have a bigger living room maybe l'll make a giant collage of all the fanart l've collected. Stuff like this has made it all worthwhile to me over the last seven years. I've had a blessed, fulfilling, and rich career. I've been shown great kindness and I've tried to show great kindness in return. I've tried to make some good games (let the debate ensue), and I've witnessed the creation of possibly the most creative and talented fanbase on the planet. But here on the seventh anniversary of the first game's trailer, as I realize that I was in my mid-30's when I created the series and now I'm approaching my mid-40's, I realize that I miss a lot of things that I got to focus on before FNAF became such a success. I miss making games for my kids, I miss doing it just for fun, and I miss making rpgs even though I stink at it. All of this to say that I am retiring. I have been shown tremendous love and support over this last week, a lot of which has come from the LGBTQ community. The kindness shown to me has been surreal. Is this the end of FNAF? No. This just means that someone else will eventually be running the show; someone of my choosing, and someone that I trust. We will have to wait and see how it all plays out, but an announcement will be made at some point. Unnamed fan, 8-years old I have SIX kids now (although one of them is currently the size of a blueberry.) I love them dearly; they are my whole world and my whole universe. I want to focus my attention on them, focus on protecting them, and spend my time making things for them. I only ask that my fanbase respect my decision. I will still be around, just not in the capacity that I used to be. What a blessed career I've had; what wonderful people I've met; and what a tremendous blessing to have been able to know all of you. Thank you so much. See you on the flipside.

Online Reactions

Cawthon's response received mixed reactions on social media, with some users continuing to criticize the game designer over his support of Republican candidates and others praising Cawthon for standing by his personal beliefs (example posts shown below).

= Angela Adora = @AngelaAdoraa scott cawthon explaining why donating a s--- load of money to politicians who want people like me dead is actually super supportive and progressive and his opinion that should be respected GIF 3:36 PM · Jun 12, 2021 · Twitter Web App

I'm a republican. I'm a Christian. I'm pro-life. I believe in God. I also believe in equality, and in science, and in common sense. Despite what some may say, all of those things can go together. That's not an apology or promise to change, it's the way it's always been. If I get cancelled, then I get cancelled. I don't do this for the money anymore; I do it because I enjoy it. If people think I'm doing more harm than good now, then maybe it's better that I get cancelled and retire. I would accept that. I've had a fulfilling career. Besides, most things that people can take from you are things that never had much value to begin with. I have always loved, and will continue to love, this community and this fanbase, even if someday it doesn't include me anymore. 1 7.4k 26 Q3.7k 1 Share I have a lot of respect for Scott, not even talking about his views or anything. He's sensible and knows he has nothing to apologize for. Hard to believe we live in a world where such things could be considered controversial. Always stand for what you know is right.

Rykar McCoy @RykarMcCoy This whole Scott Cawthon things got me really depressed. No matter how good a person you are, no matter how you treat your fans, no matter how little you discuss politics, there's always intolerant psychos willing to tear you apart the second you think differently than they do. feels

Following the news of Cawthon's retirement, hashtag #ThankYouScott trended on Twitter,^[15] with fans expressing gratitude to the designer for his work on the franchise.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Twitter – @IAmGryphoneer

^[2] Twitter – @IAmGryphoneer

^[3] Get Day Trends – Scott Cawthon in United States

^[4] Wikifur – Five Nights at Freddy's

^[5] Twitter – @H0RR0RCITY

^[6] Twitter – @Piemations

^[7] Twitter – @Piemations

^[8] Twitter – @ghoulbur

^[9] Twitter – @CR4Sh_K1D

^[10] Twitter – @goldenadores_

^[11] Reddit – My response, and maybe last post.

^[12] Twitter – @beesmygod_

^[13] Twitter – @beesmygod_

^[14] Scottgames – Scott Cawthon's Retirement Announcement

^[15] Twitter – ThankYouScott

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Nash Across the 8th Dimension @Nash076 . Jun 17 There we go. Now no one is ever allowed to be angry about anything I do ever again or hold me accountable for my actions in even the smallest way. That's how this works, right? St deptient en DONATION DETAILS Your receipt is being e Print your receipz Order number Donation amount (USD) Payment method Donation type Any questiona Contact u 4-2826785 $20.40 PayPal One Time denatiateoro Did you know your employer may match your donation? Increase the impact of your donation. Search for Employer O 11 23 26 O 440 Nash Across the 8th Dimension @Nash076 - Jun 17 Am I allowed to mention that Cawthon's charitable donations were also large tax deductions or no? O 5 t7 58 O 492 Nash Across the 8th Dimension @Nash076 - Jun 17 It's not that I'm being swarmed by these little cancerfucks that bugs me. It's that they don't even have the decency to follow me before they start yelling I mean honestly is bumping my metrics too much to ask? Really who raised you. 10 t7 17 O 347 Nash Across the 8th Dimension @Nash076 · Jun 17 What's the number, then? What the exact total I need to pay for a plenary indulgence? Give me a ballpark. Maybe we can all crowdfund an apology out of you s--------. Increase the impact of your donation. Search for Employer i 11 O 123 PoshSquash @PoshestSquash Replying to @Nash076 Mf donated half a million bucks and you donated 20 and say you helped equally. F--- off 5:51 PM - Jun 17, 2021 - Twitter for Android O 14 27 16 O 305

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Scott Cawthon Republican Candidates Donations Controversy

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