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Ah, sweet schadenfreude! The gamebros at 4chan have been insisting publicly that the whole #GamerGate campaign — you know, the vicious attacks on game developer Zoe Quinn and other women in gaming — has been a spontaneous grassroots uprising against corruption in the world of game journalism, not a targeted campaign by misogynistic 4channers and their allies to ruin the lives of Quinn and everyone even vaguely connected with or even just aligned with her.
Well, it’s just become a lot harder to make that argument with a straight face. Last night, Quinn announced that she’s been lurking in the IRC where 4chaners have been diligently and often quite deviously planning this “spontaneous” uprising. And she’s started posting screenshots that seem to offer pretty incontrovertible evidence of just how duplicitously 4channers planned every element of #GamerGate.
You can find Quinn’s tweets of these screenshots laid out neatly on this Storify page; it’s essential reading for anyone who’s been following all this.
But I thought I’d highlight some of my favorite bits.
Here, 4channers talk about trying to hack her email:
definitely no raids ever happen because of 4chan and I definitely hacked myself mmhmmm pic.twitter.com/3309AiQk3u
— zoë “Baddie Proctor” quinn (@UnburntWitch) September 6, 2014
Here they spout bizarre conspiracy theory — while conspiring to hack another website.
this has pure insanity AND some illegal shit in it pic.twitter.com/rRo5KVFBhZ
— zoë “Baddie Proctor” quinn (@UnburntWitch) September 6, 2014
In this screenshot — you can find the whole thing here — 4channers talk candidly about how they hope to ruin her career:
More of the same:
because this is about integrity. not revenge. not harassment. not hurting people. pic.twitter.com/rSSm4ZJG4T
— zoë “Baddie Proctor” quinn (@UnburntWitch) September 6, 2014
Here some 4channers talk about #NotYourShield, a supposedly spontaneous bit of hashtag activism in which people of color — and white dudes pretending to be people of color — attack “social justice warriors” for supposedly using them as “shields” for their attack on gaming. Notice the dudes at the end talking about showing up on Twitter “as a Latino” and “in blackface” to support the campaign.
Given how damning a lot of these screenshots are, it’s hardly surprising that they freaked out when Quinn started posting her screenshots:
https://twitter.com/MsMinotaur/status/508177920687210496
Too late, dudes. Too late.
Let’s try this for each new page of comments:
Eron Gjoni organized an internet mob to harass and threaten his ex-girlfriend with the intent of destroying her life. Do not date him, do not hire him, do not interact with him at all. Someone that does shit like this is unredeemable and will only cause harm to others he meets. Feel free to repost this wherever you want.
I think we can all agree that the Furrinati is the Social Justice GM.
Hey! Can I make a sources request from you guys? So, obviously, we knew from the beginning that Eron Gjoni could’ve easily faked the screen caps. We also knew that his claims that he didn’t want 4Channers harassing her didn’t hold too much water considering that he took the time to type out 10,000 words documenting her alleged crimes against him. He was clearly hoping that she’d catch a lot of shit after his post went up.
But I’ve been hearing people saying more confidently now that he lied about the cheating stuff and that he played a more active role in orchestrating the harassment against her. Do you have any sources backing up those claims? I’d like to be able to use them in potential future arguments if anyone here does.
Also, I’m glad to see that Zoe Quinn has driven a dump-truck-sized whole through the argument that #gamergate is about journalistic integrity rather about her, her feminism, and her private life, which might have (le gasp, le horror) involved sex with more than one person!
SECURITY HAS BEEN COMPROMISED
I REPEAT
SECURITY HAS BEEN COMPROMISED
INITIATE BACKPEDALLING PROTOCOL
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
EVERYBODY PANIC!
Can I be a Social Justice Warforged Cleric? I never got to play my character “Triage” for very long. Curse online forum games! 😛
Or, instead of a Social Justice Shaman, I could be a Social Justice Sailor Warrior. Sailor Justice! In the name of Social Justice, I will strongly rebuke you!
@Cthulu’s Intern – your avatar is smiling.
Never trust a smiling Game Master.
Still waiting to see a Social Justice Monk. Granted, at low levels they are pretty lousy, but once they hit about level 7 or 8, they become pretty darned powerful!
I don’t think proving she did or did not cheat really matters…But on that latter bit, I’m STILL looking for a source.
So do not take it as confirmed, as I said upthread. Take it as something that may or may not be correct.
Actually, “social justice warrior” is used in some online fandom circles to differentiate between fans who are honestly interested in social justice, and those who use social justice as a baseball bat against fans/fandoms they don’t like, or to gain fandom ego-strokes. A good example of the former can be found in the revamped Star Trek movie fandom. Some Kirk/Spock shippers were calling Spock/Uhura shippers homophobic; some S/U shippers were calling K/S shippers racists.
A link folks interested in finding out more about what I mean here may find useful:
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Social_Justice
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/6/6111065/gamergate-explained-everybody-fighting
Well, coordination from 4chan confirmed, but no confirmation that Gjoni was involved in that.
Apparently Gjoni’s in the chat logs on the storify. I simply don’t know what username he’s using.
Heh… the username is Eron in turquoise…Gawd, really???
…He’s that stupid???
All new clan members welcome! Entry fee is a picture of a ninja kitty, with or without weaponry.
I am loving all the new Social Justice position titles!
I think I need to be a social justice knitter when I’m not ninjaing. One must have a hobby.
Come on, admit it, you really want to be a Social Justice Pirate.
Kitteh, I love pirates. But in my case, I was referring to Sailor Moon. Which, I also love. Sailor Moon being my first anime that I ever loved. But piracy seems like a great calling! I serve justice (and pancakes) upon the Seven Seas.
I want to be a Social Justice Secret Agent. SJWs need spies you know. Zoe Quinn has done an excellent job already.
Secret Agent has great hazard pay too.
redpoppy,
pancaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakes ARRRRR!
Nostalgia moment – Cardcaptor Sakura was my first 🙂
Um um um, I’m part Japanese so can I be a Social Justice Geisha? I guess Social Justice Samurai would be more apt, but I just feel that SJG is more my calling – I can serve (truth serum?) tea and play the zither in a Deliberate Manner.
Actually, I do think Social Justice Cleric suits me well. I tend to gravitate towards supporting roles in multiplayer games anyway. So, I reckon I should prepare the dexterity-increasing cleric spell Cat’s Grace every day, then? With all the Social Justice Ninjas with their Social Justice Ninja Kitty familiars (or is it the other way around?) in our party, it’s basically a given.
Since I don’t have a particular deity to worship, I think I’ll be a cleric for a cause.
I can just see it now, us standing in a narrow passageway in the tomb of Overused MRA Bullshit, watching intently as a monstrous shadow skulks closer towards the light from our torches.
A cold shiver runs up my spine as I realize that the creature must have laid dormant when our ranger and scout, samantha and katz, went to secure the catacombs ahead and look for a halfway decent resting place. It slipped right past them and targeted our small, remaining group. It’s not stupid like many others of its kind, and it’s much more powerful. It must have heard the clashes of battle before, and deduced correctly that our ninjas and rogues stayed back to ambush any of the raiders that might still be following us after their last hit. It knew we’d be weakened.
I curse under my breath as I glance back at Save The Queen, unconscious but stabilized on an emergency stretcher carried by our bards Bina, marinerachel and contrapangloss. Our paladin had to go all white knight on us and get zirself (sorry, Save The Queen, I don’t know your preferred pronouns) gravely injured while shielding our strategist mildlymagnificent from a particularly vicious troll barbarian. Our druid emilygoddess and our wild mage Michelle C Young spent nearly all their spells to keep the rest of the raider band away and to secure our escape, but through some miracle or twist of fate, we made it. I do not believe in Providence, which might sound odd for a cleric, but I do believe in dumb luck. I only wish we hadn’t gotten separated from the rest of our group in the ensuing chaos. A few shaman, eldritch and warforged spells would have made me more confident facing this abomination from ages long past.
The shuffling of feet draws closer. LBT, our retired berserker tightens his grip on his axe. In his eyes, I see the beginnings of a rage, but I signal him to stay back – even if his heart could take another bout of rage, we’re out of healing, and we can’t afford any more injuries. Our minstrels have to save their remaining magical songs for an emergency. I know now that if any magical effects should be used, it’s Turn Undead. I know I can handle this threat, despite my mediocre charisma. I know I can do this.
With my heart in my throat, I step forward, clutching the holy symbol in my hand. The monster is close now, and I can smell the stench of rotten straw that follows this particular undead creature everywhere. I breathe in and mutter a silent prayer. Suddenly, a bright light emanates from my pendant, and my voice fills the catacombs as I proclaim:
“Vade retro, zombie Solanas, in the name of Don’t Be A Dick!”
Good times.
Anarchonist, love it! XD
What do clerics look like in these games? I’m picturing someone in your basic black soutane, very understated, maybe with a dog-collar, and quietly holding mighty powers (though probably not the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch).
@Anarchonist,
LOL!
I will be a Social Justice Twofootologist. (My last game was Call of Catthulhu. ^^;)