So yesterday I discovered a #GamerGate manifesto that started with these dramatic pronouncements:
We are Gamers.
We are alive.
And that was just the opener.
By the time the manifesto manifestoed itself all the way to the end, the anonymous author had warned us that games were a poor beleaguered “art form” that needed to “be protected from the dogmatic rhetoric of a clique of totalitarian ideologues,” angrily “denounce[d] the mercantilization of debased social justice,” and taken a few swipes at “careerist writers who sacrifice social harmony, human ethics and intellectual honesty on the altar of Controversy.”
The manifesto-writer declared that the aforementioned gamers who are alive collectively “reject the Industry of Outrage and it’s [sic] guilt-based economic model … reject the ideological megaphones who perpetually parrot their prejudiced hate,” and get a bit peeved when their gender, race, sexual orientation and so forth are “traded on the mediatic market, in return for ideological brownie points.” Mediatic market?
This all seems like a really long-winded way of saying that #GamerGaters really hate it when anyone in the gaming media says anything mean about them.
But at least one of the readers of this manifesto was excited enough by it to pay this dude, who reads stuff out loud for money on YouTube, something like $350 to turn the manifesto into this video:
Well, let’s just say that my cats — fervently if a little confusedly opposed to feminism in all forms — were a bit more impressed by the manifesto, and this video, than I was. And they insisted on making one of their own. I promised I would upload it to the internet for them, so you can scroll up to the start of this post to watch it.
Sweetie Pie Jonus, the grey tabby, wandered off the script here and there, but as much as I hate the message of the manifesto I think she did a pretty good job overall. And she didn’t bite anyone in the process.
Here’s the whole manifesto, if you prefer that old-fashioned “reading” thing:
Why isn’t Pantz reading anything? What are you plotting…
I have been confronted by way too much wtf lately.
Gamergate has an official prayer, now? How… creepy.
Ooooh, I can help translate some of this!
“we are gamers”
this is a secret club for men and we’ll decide who’s allowed in to the clique.
“we are alive”
we thought that ‘gamers are dead’ was mean literally, because we aren’t very bright.
“we believe that games are an art form that should be allowed to flourish naturally…”
no one is allowed to have an opinion about a game that I don’t approve of. Talking about art ruins art. MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO AT ALL COSTS.
“we believe that the fifth estate…”
To reiterate, journalists are NOT ALLOWED to have dissenting opinions. Those who do, will be punished.
The rest is some overly florid speech that just repeats those last two points over and over again.
“we are gamers”
repetitive chants breed obedience
“we are alive”
we still don’t understand that “dead” wasn’t mean literally. In the name of the PC, and the Xbox, and the Playstation. AMEN.
I will always be amazed at the way nerds manage to use completely wrong big words
Fuck, reading that contrived bullshit was depressing. What a bunch of sexist dicks! “Trivializing gender,” so to speak! I’ve spent much of my whole life speaking out against precisely this type of cisheteronormative assholery and yet it never goes away. Never! It always pops up again in another form. Without fail! It’s like humanity is perpetually cursed, or something.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother? It would be easier to swallow a whole bottle of sleeping meds and just curl up under a rock, or something, waiting peacefully for the end to arrive.
“We believe misogyny exists” is about where even the kitties couldn’t keep me watching. BULLSHIT. Listening to them turn that word on its head for their own benefit made me want to punch my screen, kitties and all (no offense to David’s adorable kitties, and I would obviously never punch a kitty…or a screen for that matter, electronics are expensive). Not that they haven’t proved themselves lower before, but this for some reason got a big reaction out of me when things like seeing death and rape threats didn’t do much beyond trigger my gag reflex. Maybe the difference is just honesty. “We believe misogyny exists” juxtaposes pretty harshly with “[insert gendered slur/threat here because they’re so vile I would hate myself even for typing out a censored version] No such thing as misogyny!”.
Be yourselves, GamerGaters. Stick to your true values. You’re terrible at faking even a shred of humanity.
“Mercantilization of debased social justice”? Sounds like another way of saying “Jiggly boobies and bang-bang guns sell games to zit-faced chronic masturbators”.
Oh wait, that’s not what they MEANT to say, is it?
Oh boy. I think this mendacious piece of bullshit, with its pseudo-intellectual dishonesty and its dozens of dog-whistles to the privileged, might be what finally prompts me to cobble together a ranty ten-page blog post.
This is fucked. This right here? Is a bunch of assholes standing in a house BUILT by the fuckers threatening female devs with death/rape, trying to say “Oh, they’re not with us – would you like to read our brochure?”
You can’t whitewash a movement dedicated to attack with no higher purpose. And no matter how they dress it up, GG is simply an attack brigade – this is the story they tell themselves so they can believe they’re the “good guys”.
As a gamer, I’m ashamed that these people are falling for this crap, and that they’re so easy to manipulate.
So here’s a thing: Last night, for the first time ever, I tweeted my opinion that #gamergate is about misogyny. I’d never tweeted about the topic before, and I’m pretty much a nobody on Twitter; at the time, I’d sent maybe three tweets in the past year.
Within minutes I’d received replies and PMs calling me a “shill,” an “SJW,” and a “mangina.”
Within a few hours I’d received threats of violence and rape.
This morning I found waiting for me a direct message warning me that “femcunt toadies” would be hung just like Nazi war criminals.
But you know what’s interesting? In two dozen or more angry responses to little ol’ me, not a single person simply said “No, you’re wrong. This isn’t about misogyny and we don’t support misogynists.”
Very telling, isn’t it?
Doesn’t the bit about “social harmony” just smack of, “we like the status quo?”
Also how can you be against misogyny but for the status quo?
I must be boring compared to you, PN, or have insufficient followers to ping their radar – other than the three or four jerks whenever I use the hashtag (and it’s always two or three being abusive and one being “reasonable” – almost like it’s planned that way…) I hardly get anything on GG except the token condescending attempt to smear any prominent women in tech I mention by name.
It’s almost as though these guys care more about the public image of these women than discussing the issues they supposedly hold so dear. Funny that.
WTF. “Fifth Estate”? The media is the so-called Fourth Estate, and GGers claim this is about journalistic integrity!
The so-called “Fifth Estate” = bloggers, which is the stupidest thing in the world to dub an “estate.” It is a term that someone posited and some people use it, people who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground, but since GGers meet that criterion I’ll concede that this manifesto might have used this term correctly. Might have.
So this means that this idiot is either too dumb to know that journalism = the Fourth (not Fifth) Estate, or the manifesto is calling for blogs to be “transparent” and court the “trust of the public.” This is the stupidest thing I’ve heard yet today, and any additional stupidity that shows up before bedtime is going to have a long row to hoe to top this.
Is it EVER.
And yeah, how about that “social harmony”? Funny how it’s based on the unspoken notion that they don’t “hate” women, as long as “women know their place and stay in it”. Well, guess what? That, by definition, IS woman-hating. Because if you actually LIKE women, you don’t assign them a “place” or expect them to stay in it. You trust them to make themselves at home wherever they want to be, and welcome them if they happen to be where you are, right?
PoM: challenge accepted. Did you see my post in the other thread about how GGers are claiming Zoe Quinn’s going to launch a “false flag” attack and re-name gaming at PAX?
Yes, yes it is.
Nope. Which thread is it? I just woke up and haven’t had time to catch up yet.
Pocket Nerd ,
I’m sorry. That’s terrifying.
Hopefully, the more people amplify solidarity with feminists the harder it will be for these misogynists to terrorize women. They can’t spend their days sending threats to all of us. They cannot force us all out of our homes or off of the internet.
I’m off to fetch my GamerGoop Bingo Card. I suspect we’ll be seeing plenty of “Yabbut” trolls here today.
(And yes, online misodge bingo IS a real game, so nyaaaah!)
Here you go, PoM. And I’m sorry. 😉
I barely made it past the “social harmony ” statement.
At any rate, I voiced this in my head, as Zod’s opening speech from Man of Steel, only with less sense.
@strivingally
You know what that looks like? That looks like someone is planning to attack ZQ and is planting this information ahead of time so that when she does show up somewhere with bruises and cuts she won’t be believed.
So, evil, not stupid.
That manifesto. Wow.
…and they call women “Drams Queens”.
Such a self awareness fail.
Somebody should tell that guy that using a thesaurus to embiggen a ridiculous rant doesn’t make it sound smart and reasonable. What a big, pouty, bigoted shitlord he’s being.
Gamergaters so want us to believe that they are valiant heroes standing up to oppression by sending women anonymous rape and death threats.
How clueless do you have to be to think that could possibly make sense?
I considered that, PoM, but both the dramatic manner in which the revelation is supposedly going to be made (at PAX, which carries a lot of weight for gamers, but not so much for feminists, who are already not real impressed with the PA guys) and specificity with which the assholes think they can predict what’s going to happen, down to a particular word being proposed, make me think it’s more in the realm of “gamergater fantasy” than “discrediting in advance of actual violence” – like how Elam and co. keep concocting scenarios in which they’d be “justified” in hurting women. This one includes both harm to a woman and the thought policing feminist game critics are supposedly interested in enforcing, so it’s both fantasy and rationalisation.
@strivingally
Yes, but let’s pretend that it doesn’t happen at PAX. Let’s pretend it happens a month from now when ZQ is just out and about somewhere.
The story will become, “It didn’t happen at PAX because we alerted everyone and nobody would have believed her! But obviously she didn’t give up her plan, and look, we told you so! We told you she was going to assault herself and blame innocent white men!”
Pretty much at any point in the future, if ZQ is assaulted, it will be seen as confirmation that the “conspiracy theory” was totes true. And we know that some folks know where she lives and have issued direct and credible threats.