So how much do some angry gamebros hate Anita Sarkeesian? Enough to send me death threats … for writing about the death threats sent to Anita Sarkeesian.
Shortly after my post on the threats against Sarkeesian went up on Thursday, I got these messages sent to me as anonymous “asks” on Tumblr. These were all in succession, in this order; I’m pasting each one individually instead of the whole bunch at once so you can read them in the order in which I got them. [TRIGGER WARNING: Violent threats; I’m putting them past the jump.]
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There is a certain irony in that last comment, whether or not it came from the guy (and I’m pretty damn sure it was a guy) who sent all the threats that immediately preceded it. It’s pretty clear to me that Sarkeesian has no need to fake anything; obviously her haters aren’t exactly shy about sending death threats to people they don’t like.
And if this is what my inbox looks like for merely writing about Sarkeesian, I can only imagine what her inbox looks like. I suspect she gets threats like these all the time; the reason she called the police about several of the threats she got this week is that the threateners posted her personal information as well.
In the interest of full disclosure: Here and here are screenshots of these messages as they appeared in my Tumblr inbox; I’ve blurred out the personal information of the people sending me cat pics.
Needless to say, I’ve turned off anonymous asks on my Tumblr blogs.
I couldn’t help myself.
( I was all like “What the hell’s a bothy?” Nah, don’t answer, I searched it.)
ROFL not at all, I used to work there and you nailed it!
Someone is using Team Fortress 2 lines for evil, and that makes me so, so sad.
Oh, Dave. I have no words, other than I am sorry you have to go through this.
HOW DARE THEY?
Argh.
He can’t even come up with his own threats…
The quality of our education system these days…*shakes head.* We can’t even educate a good delinquent these days.
Somewhat related and gives me hope for the future of the gaming industry: one of the lead developers for World of Warcraft recently tweeted his support and thanks to the Feminist Frequency project. The dudebros were of course not amused but people in the industry are learning- important ones. https://twitter.com/holinka/status/504685330826412032
On the OP: PZ Myers made an interesting comment about his way of dealing with threats, and how they largely dried up after he started doing it.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2014/08/smart-marketing-good-business/comment-page-1/#comment-2737406
It honestly seems like a reasonable safety measure to research who sent you these threads and document their identity in a publically accessable place. If nothing else and if it’s possible to ascertain their identity with some certainity.
Late to the party as per usual.
David, I’m so sorry that the creepy threatening jerks have decided that you’re their new target. May you and the kitties stay safe!
childrenofthebroccoli, I hope that your lovely dapper cat is feeling better today. It’s rotten that she was sick enough for a trip to the vet 🙁
Seconded. But how on earth is she going to get new material now that she can’t come here and try to stir the pot? Poor dear.
Oh my god, Brittany Murphy. Now I have a sad.
Oh, dear dog, David! That sucks! Please stay safe. I love what you do here, on this blog, and don’t know how you have the fortitude to wade through the muck without the added joy of receiving death threats! If it’s any consolation, maybe the fact that so many asshats feel threatened by you is proof that you’re doing the right thing? Probably not much consolation, though. Still, I’m rooting for you! Though that’s probably not much consolation, either.
Phoencian; I am dying from the stupid human sketch! Dying! I keep seeing John Cleese going on about how stupid humans are and then I giggle out loud and my kids think I’ve lost it. Thanks!
And since the recipient can’t tell the difference, the words still take on a threatening aspect even if the person sending them knows they won’t follow through.
Separate MRA homeworld > clean energy IMO.
Seconded.
I skimmed these at first and my mind combined them into “Goatse simulator” and I had a really bad mental image.
@Auntie Alias
I recall a comment from some time back that prosecutors often want women on the juries in rape cases, because they tend to be a lot more susceptible to trashing the victim’s reputation. After all, if you can make yourself believe that the victim really deserved it and did something that you’d never do, you can still believe that you’re guaranteed to be safe… all other evidence to the contrary.
The human mind can be a really nasty thing when people start actively rationalizing around their confirmation biases.
I was discussing this with friends, and realized something, with the past message from a “tired” MRA to THIS guy here.
The MRAs, the PUAs, the misogynists in general are essentially in the same position as homophobes. They’re losing.
A few years ago the anti-gay/anti-gay marriage people were, if not mainstream, sort of “there” at least, but over time they’ve become more and more odious to people and culture at large. This has happened, to further the irony, partially as their own doing – as people got to know gay people as PEOPLE, the anti-gay haters looked worse. But they can’t back down because their reason for existing (and for some organizations) their paycheck is about hating gays.
And these guys are the same way. The acceptance of women in society has gone on longer than open moves to accept gay people, there’s plenty of barriers and bigotry, but it’s becoming less and less acceptable. People KNOW women in the form of mothers, sisters, friends, wives, aunts, and so on, so the message of “women are evil and suck” only carries so far, probably why they try to call their misogyny as “anti-femminist.” I imagine even people that are biased towards women look at guys like the above and think “he’s freaking insane”
The thing is, they have two choices. Backing down and admitting their wrong – or looking worse and falling further and further into their own subculture or cultures that accept them (much as anti-gay groups in the US are more and more active out of it). It doesn’t get better for them unless they back down.
Think they’re crazy now? Imagine how they’ll be in ten years. Hell, odds seem good we’ll see Hillary Clinton as president in 2016 if she runs, imagine that meltdown.
I think it’s pretty darned obvious if you’re getting death threats just because you WROTE about her, she’s DEFINITELY getting those death threats. It’s so sad that these people have nothing better to do with their time but threaten & make other people feel unsafe & silenced, especially those people who have so often been threatened & silenced before. It’s so sad.
(On a side note… HEY! There’s my kitty submission! *fingers crossed that it gets posted, even though it isn’t as witty & awesome as the others*)
My reaction to that:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd302/briansmom99/seen.jpg
Will someone leave death threats for talking about death threats, while talking about death threats? Deathreatception. (Insert obnoxious horn sound here.)
You do realize this is a joke…. Those are callouts from TF2. And is maggot really a death threat?
J, it’s really not much of a joke to someone who doesn’t play TF2. “Maggot” is not the death threat. The ones about reducing my neck to paste and blowing out my brains are.
If you were to call up the president and say “I’m gonna blow the inside of ya head over five counties” I’m pretty sure the secret service would not be impressed that it was a game reference. You’d be jailed for threatening the president.
If you went into a bank and yelled “I’ve got a bomb and I’m going to blow this whole place up!” it wouldn’t matter that this is a quote from the movie “Cobra.”
A threat is a threat, whether or not it’s a quote from somewhere.
Have you noticed that comments that begin “you do realize…” are generally written by the terminally obtuse?
David, how dare you suggest you got death threats when one of them wasn’t? Something something journalistic integrity blah blah.
Ok, very late to this thread, but I’m sorry you’re getting death threats (even if they are quotes. Seriously, that doesn’t make them less threatening…grief).
Childrenofthebroccoli, glad your kitty is doing better.
Phoenician, that was absolutely beautiful.
In general, good to see the last of Inanity.
On games, anyone here play puzzle games like Monkey Island, Longest Journey, Sam & Max (or DS/3DS titles like Professor Layton)?
Any REAL gamer would know that the line is “Everything above your neck’s gonna be a fine red MIST”, not “fine red PASTE”, so clearly whoever sent these in is a Fake Geek Anon who just wants to con REAL gamers into believing they’re one of them.