A few things:
- If you've read Benson's statement and still blame Holowka's suicide on his accusers, the Internet, or "cancel culture," you've missed a major point in the statement. Holowka has a long-standing history of abusively threatening suicide to get others to do what he wanted. That he decided to follow through is indeed a tragedy, but after trying to pin his suicidality on others over the years (inflicting all sorts of abuse and trauma as a result), trying to pin his actions on his victims (or anyone else for that matter) spits in the face of those who had to deal with his abuse.
-The ONLY good thing to come out of this at all is that Holowka can no longer directly traumatize others and/or remove creative individuals from the industry. And even then, it would have been far better for him to have gotten better and tried to make restitution.
-Acknowledging the harm he did to others even after his death is not wrong and should not be discouraged. His victims deserve the validation of their experiences, and while grieving, his family deserves the truth should they wish to find it (though anyone who chooses to harass said family can get fucked). Some individuals are going to make judgement calls based on his behavior. Depending on your personal set of ethics, some are going to care about intent (and possibly ascribe intent to actions), but as Benson said, the truth is that regardless of intent, abuse and harm was the typical result of his actions. Personally, motive matters to me, and as I never knew the man personally, I cannot make a judgement call on such. But the truth remains that consciously or not, he was manipulative and put evil out into the world, and likely cost us creative works of others.
-Some of his victims are still being abused by fans of Holowka, and this should be unacceptable to everyone. There are individuals on social media, for example, actively trying to get Zoe Quinn to kill herself (and it ain't the first time).
-Mental illness definitely doesn't make someone a bad person. But one can struggle with mental illness and still be awful as well. Many have already made up their minds about the type of person Holowka was based on his actions and their personal set of ethics. As long as they are not stigmatizing mental illness, they are not inherently wrong to do so.
-There's nothing to be celebrated here. This is a fucked situation for all involved. At best, some may feel a weight lifted, or relieved he can no longer harm anyone directly. They should be allowed to feel this way without judgement.
Edit: and on a personal note as someone on the receiving end of such: Whether intended or not, using threats of suicide to manipulate others is an abusive, awful thing to do regardless of whether it is done consciously or not. The damage it can do to others can take years of therapy to heal, if at all. I have attempted to leave my personal angry trauma response to such out of the above, but my apologies if it bled through.
