Neil is judged based upon his own character, not strictly who he is friends with. Who do you think knows Colin better, the KF crew and someone like Neil, or people on the internet? The fact someone can disagree with someone else on social, political, or even religious grounds but still call them a friend should be of a surprise to NO ONE. Are you going to say the same about Greg, Nick and Tim if they still speak to and are friends with Colin? Are they all normalising some ism just for the mere fact they can remain friends with Colin (and even wish him well)?
We've all got family, whether it's parents or brothers/sisters who we disagree with totally on certain things. Same goes for friends and work colleagues. I've got two parents who voted for Brexit, and now that you know that, or anyone else on GAF, do you think I'm going to agree with any calls to bigot, racist, xenophobe or anything else overruling my knowledge of them as individuals? Of course not. I've debated with them for hours, not only on brexit, but tonnes of things in life. Over a span of 20+ years. I can still hug them both and love them knowing the sum of their overall parts, with warts and faults and everything I don't agree with them on, without scorching them from my life, demanding they never speak to me on social media and deciding my parents are "dead to me". I bring that up because some advice topics on GAF about family and friends are utterly tragic. More importantly in the case of Colin, it's the case of friends rather than parents. The KF guys and Neil may have known Colin for years, debated him, disagreed with him, but still had common ground, fun and respect. You really think it should be required Neil gets in line with a hunt online for everyone and anyone who even now dares to speak to Colin?
It's out of control when the goal posts get to this point. It goes from Colin is an asshole, to friends of Colin are assholes if they don't leave him, to people who follow Colin on Twitter might be assholes because following clearly means 1:1 agreement. Imagine being a relatively known writer for a games site, walking down the street and Colin sees you and says hey, your article on x was cool, nice to meet you, how are you doing? If your response would be to turn your inner dials to 11 and scream piece of shit and run away, then that is a failing on your behalf socially, not Colins. Life doesn't tend to be like that for most people, and even with those we might find problematic most of us try to remain civil, and care more about individualism rather than collectivism.
Sorry for the rant, but when you took my original flippant comment and tried to leave it with the "well if Neil stays friends it means Neil as an extension supports/normalises x", then it's just madness. Blaming and instigating fault by collectivism is often a scorch the earth policy that goes a step too far.
