Turns out Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey is a huge Donald Trump supporter
There is nothing virtual about Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey's support of Donald Trump.
The VR millionaire is financially backing a pro-Trump organization called Nimble America that aims to circulate anti-Hillary Clinton memes across the internet, reports the The Daily Beast.
And who helped Luckey create Nimble America? None other than conservative pundit Milo Yiannopoulos, recently famous for being banned from Twitter after harassing Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones online.
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Nimble America describes itself as a "social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit" that believes "shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real," and lists a Reddit user by the name of NimbleRichMan as the group's co-founder.
Luckey confirmed to The Daily Beast that he was NimbleRichMan.
After the story was published and Luckey started receiving blowback on social media, NimbleRichMan's account was deleted.
According to The Daily Beast, he posted this to pro-Trump subreddit r/The_Donald:
"The American Revolution was funded by wealthy individuals. The same has been true of many movements for freedom in history. You can’t fight the American elite without serious firepower. They will outspend you and destroy you by any and all means."
In an AMA, he also wrote this about Hillary Clinton:
"We know Hillary Clinton is corrupt, a warmonger, a freedom-stripper. Not the good kind you see dancing in bikinis on Independence Day, the bad kind that strips freedom from citizens and grants it to donors."
Many people in the tech world were not amused.
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Facebook bought Oculus in 2014 for $2 billion. According to Forbes, Luckey is worth around $700 million, which goes some way to explain why he decided to fund Nimble America.
“I’ve got plenty of money," he told The Daily Beast. “Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time.”
Topics Oculus Virtual Reality Donald Trump Memes
Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles.
