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Ready Or Not Community Manager Fired Over Charlie Kirk Comment
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Ready Or Not Community Manager Fired Over Charlie Kirk Comment

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The community manager for the popular and controversial online SWAT simulator Ready Or Not was fired after posting in the game’s official Discord server that “nothing of value was lost” following the recent assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

On or around September 17, Ready Or Not’s community manager, known online as Kaminsky, was asked to add “Charlie Kirk” and a few variations of the name to the server’s list of filtered words. Kaminsky confirmed they had done so, but then shared their own personal thoughts about Kirk, who was murdered at a speaking event on September 10 in Utah. The community manager posted:

“Funny you mention that because me and my roomate are literally just talking about him getting shot. All I have to say is: Nothing of value was lost.”

Screenshots and posts of this comment were quickly shared online by fans of Kirk and right-wing content creators, with many demanding that Void Interactive fire the manager.  And that’s exactly what Void did.

On Friday, a Void Interactive representative confirmed in Ready Or Not‘s official Discord server that the studio had “ended” its “relationship” with Kaminsky. It’s unclear if the community manager was a full-time employee or a volunteer.  Before the news was official, fans had spotted that Kaminisky, often referred to as Kam online, was no longer listed as being a part of the server. One Discord user in the game’s server claimed that a sticker emoji featuring Kaminsky had also been removed.

Kotaku reached out to Void Interactive for comment. Kaminsky could not immediately be contacted.

“To Our Ready or Not Community, We are aware of comments made by our community manager about a recent tragic event,” posted Void Interactive rep Gerby on Discord.  “These statements do not reflect our values or represent our company. We have ended our relationship with this individual and reminded our team of the responsibility we all share when communicating on public platforms. Our focus remains on fostering a respectful and professional community around Ready or Not.”

This isn’t the first video game industry employee to lose their job after saying the wrong thing about Kirk’s recent murder. Last week, a developer working on Ghost of Yotei was fired by Sony after making a joke about Kirk’s alleged assassin. The alleged killer’s connection to video games has become a big part of the story around Kirk’s murder, with reports that some of the assassin’s bullets had messages etched into them referencing Helldivers 2. Meanwhile, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is also facing pressure to apologize after comments he made about Kirk got his show pulled “indefinitely” on Thursday.

Updated: 9/19/2025, 3:30 p.m. ET: When asked for further comment, Void Interactive PR pointed Kotaku to the studio’s previously mentioned statement, which has also been posted on Ready or Not‘s Steam page.



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Sucker Punch studio head Brian Flemming promotes Ghost of Tsushima.
Game Reviews

PlayStation Studio Boss Breaks Silence On Dev Fired For Charlie Kirk Joke

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For the last week, a war has been waging in the YouTube comments of each new Ghost of Yotei trailer as the PlayStation 5 exclusive nears its release date early next month. That’s because a developer at Sucker Punch Productions joked about the assassination of Charlie Kirk on social media. Sony confirmed it parted ways with the employee following a right-wing pressure campaign, but declined to issue any further statement. Now studio head and co-founder, Brian Fleming, has commented on the firing directly in a new interview.

The Sucker Punch artist Drew Harrison, a nearly 10-year veteran of the studio, had posted “I hope the shooter’s name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back” on the day the assassination took place. Less than 24 hours later she confirmed she fired. “Drew Harrison is no longer an employee of Sucker Punch Productions,” a spokesperson for Sony told Kotaku at the time.

“The facts are accurate,” Fleming Stephen Totilo’s Game File on Friday when asked about the situation. “Drew’s no longer an employee here. I think we’re aligned as a studio that celebrating or making light of someone’s murder is a deal-breaker for us, and we condemn that, kind of in no uncertain terms. That’s sort of our studio, and that’s kind of where we are.”

YouTube / Kotaku

Despite Harrison’s swift firing, angry internet users, urged on by clout chasing culture warriors like Mark ‘Grummz’ Kern, have been demanding Sony take action against any staff members who may have liked or reposted Harrison’s comment, while also targeting other companies and their employees over potential anti-Kirk sentiment. That included Bethesda, which was accused of mocking the right-wing podcast’s supporters when it posted a clip from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle of the famous Nazi puncher saying to a kitten, “You don’t care much about these fascists, do you?” It was later deleted.

Microsoft Gaming employees were also targeted, including by Elon Musk. “We’re aware of the views expressed by a small subset of our employees regarding recent events,” the company announced in response on September 12. “We take matters like this very seriously and we are currently reviewing each individual situation. Comments celebrating violence against anyone are unacceptable and do not align with our values.” A spokesperson for the company declined to comment when asked if anyone had been fired from Microsoft following these investigations.

“Sucker Punch is amazing & one of the last few bright shining lights in the game industry,” Harrison posted this week. “I still support them and I cannot condone any animosity directed at them. It’s truly all the best people.”



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Fired CDC Director Says RFK Jr. Pressured Her to Blindly Approve Vaccine Changes
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Fired CDC Director Says RFK Jr. Pressured Her to Blindly Approve Vaccine Changes

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Debra Houry, former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at CDC, who was one of several agency officials to resign in the wake of Monarez’s firing, also testified during Wednesday’s hearing.

“I resigned because CDC leaders were reduced to rubber stamps, supporting policies not based in science, and putting American lives at risk. Secretary Kennedy censored CDC’s science, politicized its processes, and stripped leaders of independence. I could not and in good conscience, remain under those conditions,” Houry said.

She also accused Kennedy of halting flu campaigns despite the severity of the 2024-2025 flu season, as well as spreading misinformation and promoting unproven treatments for measles.

Houry said she learned that Kennedy had changed the CDC’s Covid-19 vaccine guidance from a social media post on X. “CDC scientists have still not seen the scientific data or justification for this change. That is not gold-standard science,” Houry said, referring to a statement in May that HHS will no longer recommend the vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women

Monarez said Secretary Kennedy had not communicated his plans to change the childhood vaccination schedule to her until their meeting on August 25. Monarez said she told Kennedy that she would be open to changing the childhood vaccine schedule if the evidence or science supported those changes. Kennedy responded that there was no existing science or evidence and elaborated that CDC had never collected that data, according to Monarez.

Monarez said she could not agree to approving ACIP recommendations before knowing what they were. “I have built a career on scientific integrity, and my worst fear was that I would then be in a position of approving something that would reduce access to life-saving vaccines to children and others who need them,” she said.

This Thursday, ACIP is set to discuss the hepatitis B vaccine, which has been recommended for newborns within 24 hours of birth since 1991. But the committee is expected to vote on removing that recommendation and delaying the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine until age 4.

Each year in the US, an estimated 25,000 infants are born to women diagnosed with the hepatitis B virus, or HBV, a serious liver infection that can lead to cirrhosis and cancer. Before the vaccine was introduced, nearly 20,000 babies and children were infected with HBV each year in the US. Now, fewer than 20 get the disease from their mothers.

“Now that we’ve controlled it, do we let the genie out of the bottle? If the recommendation goes away, and a parent does want the vaccine, insurance will no longer cover it free of charge. She’ll be forced to pay out of pocket,” Senator Cassidy said at the conclusion of the hearing. Vaccine coverage is typically tied to ACIP recommendations.

Cassidy was initially hesitant about Kennedy’s nomination as HHS secretary, given his prior statements about vaccines, but he supported him after, he has said, Kennedy promised to maintain vaccine availability and not undermine public trust in them.

ACIP is slated to discuss Covid-19 vaccines on Friday.



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Hundreds of Google AI Workers Were Fired Amid Fight Over Working Conditions
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Hundreds of Google AI Workers Were Fired Amid Fight Over Working Conditions

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More than 200 contractors who worked on evaluating and improving Google’s AI products have been laid off without warning in at least two rounds of layoffs last month. The move comes amid an ongoing fight over pay and working conditions, according to workers who spoke to WIRED.

In the past few years, Google has outsourced its AI rating work—which includes evaluating, editing, or rewriting the Gemini chatbot’s response to make it sound more human and “intelligent”—to thousands of contractors employed by Hitachi-owned GlobalLogic and other outsourcing companies. Most raters working at GlobalLogic are based in the US and deal with English-language content. Just as content moderators help purge and classify content on social media, these workers use their expertise, skill, and judgment to teach chatbots and other AI products, including Google’s search summaries feature called AI Overviews—the right responses on a wide range of subjects. Workers allege that the latest cuts come amid attempts to quash their protests over issues including pay and job insecurity.

These workers, who often are hired because of their specialist knowledge, had to have either a master’s or a PhD to join the super rater program, and typically include writers, teachers, and people from creative fields.

“I was just cut off,” says Andrew Lauzon, who received an email with the news of his termination on August 15. “I asked for a reason, and they said ramp-down on the project—whatever that means.” He joined GlobalLogic in March 2024, where his work ranged from rating AI outputs to coming up with a variety of prompts to feed into the model.

Lauzon says this move by the company shows the precarity of such content moderation jobs. He alleges that GlobalLogic started regularly laying off its workers this year. “How are we supposed to feel secure in this employment when we know that we could go at any moment?” he added.

Workers still at the company claim they are increasingly concerned that they are being set up to replace themselves. According to internal documents viewed by WIRED, GlobalLogic seems to be using these human raters to train the Google AI system that could automatically rate the responses, with the aim of replacing them with AI.

At the same time, the company is also finding ways to get rid of current employees as it continues to hire new workers. In July, GlobalLogic made it mandatory for its workers in Austin, Texas, to return to office, according to a notice seen by WIRED. This has directly impacted several workers who either cannot afford to travel to the office due to financial constraints or cannot go to work due to disabilities or caregiving responsibilities.

Despite handling work they describe as skilled and high-stakes, eight workers who spoke to WIRED say they are being underpaid and suffer from lack of job security and unfavorable working conditions. These alleged conditions have impacted worker morale and challenged the ability for people to execute their jobs well, sources say. Some contractors attempted to unionize earlier this year but say those efforts were quashed. Now they allege that the company has retaliated against them. Two workers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging they were unfairly fired, one due to bringing up wage transparency issues, and the other for advocating for himself and his coworkers.



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Ghost of Yotei protagonist draws her sword.
Game Reviews

Ghost Of Yotei Dev Fired Over Charlie Kirk Joke After Pressure Campaign

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A contingent of right-wing online figures and their followers have been using the recent assassination of conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk to punish people they don’t like. That includes a developer at Ghost of Yotei maker Sucker Punch Productions who Sony confirms it has parted ways with after she made a joke on social media about the shooting.

“I hope the shooter’s name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back,” Drew Harrison, a nearly 10-year veteran of the PlayStation studio, posted in the evening after Kirk was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University. A few hours later, the post was screen-grabbed and shared by anti-woke crusader Mark “Grummz” Kern.

“Suckerpunch Senior Dev celebrates Charlie Kirk’s death,” he wrote. “Ghost of Yotei is dead to me now.” A streamer who goes by Madamsavvy responded, “No more. Cowards keep quiet. The studio deserves to go under.” Kern replied, “No mercy.”

Harrison subsequently shared on social media that people had been contacting her employer angrily trying to get her fired, and posted a screenshot of a barrage of missed calls from anonymous numbers as evidence of an ongoing harassment campaign. Less than 24 hours later, she was fired.

“If standing up against fascism is what cost me my dream job I held for 10 years, I would do it again 100x stronger,” she wrote.

Sony confirmed her departure in an email to Kotaku but declined to comment further. “Drew Harrison is no longer an employee of Sucker Punch Productions,” a spokesperson from Sony Interactive Entertainment wrote.

1 It’s a game. An entertainment. A story a team of creators believes in. They want to make this.

2 it’s a game. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. In fact, why not make the game you want yourself?

— shawn layden 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇸🇯🇵 (@ShawnLayden) September 25, 2024

A loosely aligned “Gamergate 2.0” movement that grew out of conspiracy theories claiming DEI was ruining gaming has been hoping for this sort of outcome for months. The big PS5 exclusive has been in anti-woke activists’ firing line ever since Ghost of Yotei revealed the open-world samurai series’ latest entry would star a woman named Atsu, played by Erika Ishii.

Fed by an algorithmically juiced YouTube rage factory, certain online culture content creators latched onto one of Ishii’s past comments about abolishing the police as a way to attack the game. Videos with titles like “Ghost of Yōtei DOOMED? Radical Activist Erika Ishii Brings Woke Chaos!” later changed to things like “Ghost Of Yotei New Trailer Sparks BACKLASH, Hiring Activists Backfires For Sony & Sucker Punch” as YouTubers combed LinkedIn for evidence proving that people with opinions they disagreed with were ruining games.

Ghost of Yotei is far from the only high-profile blockbuster game to be dragged into this culture war quicksand. Kern and others attacked Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows as well for featuring an African samurai as one of its two main characters. Developers on the game were reportedly told not to comment on the harassment campaign when the game launched earlier this year.

While Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot condemned attacks targeting employees, he also said at the time the company was working on “tackling the dynamics behind the polarized comments around Ubisoft so as to protect the Group’s reputation and maximize our game’s sales potential.”

Members of the harassment campaign to get Harrison fired from Sucker Punch are already targeting individuals at other game studios and publishers over their social media comments. “Every single studio is compromised,” one of them wrote. “And it’s all American leftists doing this.”





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CDC Director Denies Report She's Been Fired by Trump Regime (HHS Says She's Out)
Product Reviews

CDC Director Denies Report She’s Been Fired by Trump Regime (HHS Says She’s Out)

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The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, was reportedly fired on Wednesday after she resisted changes to covid-19 vaccine policies, according to the Washington Post. But her lawyer says she hasn’t been officially notified of the termination, throwing a curveball into an already chaotic news cycle at the CDC.

“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” attorney Mark Zaid posted to Bluesky on Wednesday night. “For that, she has been targeted.”

“Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign,” Zaid continued.

Monarez was confirmed by the U.S. Senate just four weeks ago. After news broke of her ouster (whether it’s real or just imagined by the Trump regime), several other top officials at the federal health agency announced they were resigning, including the Chief Medical Officer.

Monarez was “pressed for days” by Trump regime lawyers and Robert F. Kennedy, Secretary of Health and Human Services, to rescind certain approvals for covid vaccines, according to the Post. Kennedy personally asked Monarez whether she was “aligned with the administration’s efforts to change vaccine policy,” and it seems like we can guess that she wasn’t.

Kennedy reportedly asked Monarez to resign for not supporting “President Trump’s agenda,” but she declined and even sought support from Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, who has received criticism for not pushing back harder against Trump’s anti-science crusaders like Kennedy. Cassidy is a physician and has been seen as one of the few Republicans in a position to stop zealots in the Trump regime who are pushing anti-vaccine policies.

Monarez had testified during her confirmation hearing that she didn’t see any link between vaccines and autism, something that puts her at odds with Kennedy’s worldview and the so-called Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Kennedy first promised back in April to reveal the “cause” of autism in September—something that should be a huge red flag for anyone who cares about science. Scientific discoveries aren’t announced on a schedule like an album dropping. Kennedy renewed his promise to reveal the “cause” during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The X account for HHS claimed that Monarez is “no longer director” of the CDC, thanking her for her “dedicated service” but without explaining why she left.

Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. @SecKennedy has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious…

— HHS.gov (@HHSGov) August 27, 2025

Other top officials who have resigned in the wake of Monarez’s supposed firing include everyone from the Chief Medical Officer to experts on infectious diseases and immunizations.

Debra Houry resigns

Debra Houry, the Chief Medical Officer at CDC, reportedly resigned, explaining in a memo to staff that “I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency,” according to STAT.

Houry wrote that science should “never be censored or subject to political interpretations,” suggesting that precisely such a thing was currently underway at the CDC.

“Vaccines save lives—this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact,” Houry wrote, according to the Washington Post. “Recently, the overstating of risks and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of U.S. measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency.”

Houry was referring to a shooting at CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month. A police officer was killed, and the shooter, identified as Patrick Joseph White, fired at least 500 rounds into the building before taking his own life. White reportedly was upset about the covid-19 vaccine, which he believed made him sick.

Jennifer Layden resigns

Jennifer Layden, director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, also resigned on Wednesday, according to Politico. Layden joined the CDC in 2020, coming from the Chicago Department of Public Health, and co-led a CDC task force on covid-19 that issued guidance on vaccines during the height of the pandemic.

Demetre Daskalakis resigns

Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, also resigned in the wake of Moranez’s firing.

“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health,” Daskalakis said in an email, according to STAT. Daskalakis wrote that he hoped CDC staff would “continue to shine despite this dark cloud over the agency and our profession,” according to the Post.

Daniel Jernigan resigns

Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, also resigned, according to Reuters. Jernigan’s departure is especially significant, considering the U.S. just confirmed its first case of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite.

President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attend an event introducing a new Make America Healthy Again Commission report in the East Room of the White House on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. © Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Monarez wasn’t Trump’s first pick for the head of the CDC. The president, presumably in consultation with RFK Jr., wanted Republican congressman Dave Weldon from Florida to take the role. Weldon was withdrawn from consideration in March over his anti-vaccine views.

One of Kennedy’s allies told the Daily Beast this week that the Health Secretary planned to pull covid-19 vaccines completely from the market “within months,” but it’s unclear if that will actually happen. Kennedy announced Wednesday that the FDA had revoked the emergency use authorization of the covid vaccine and issued narrower rules that will make it much harder for people under the age of 65 and those without other health concerns from getting vaccinated.

It seems very likely that those changes to the covid-19 vaccine policy are at the heart of the shake-up at the CDC, which some people are calling Bloody Wednesday on social media.





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