Over the last several days, the #GamerGate hashtag on Twitter has been speckled with self-contragulatory Tweets by Gators boasting that they have “found Anita’s harasser.”
Who, this guy?
No, not Thunderf00t, although the YouTuber’s obsession with Anita Sarkeesian is getting a little out of hand.
According to the #GamerGate Internet detective squad, Anita’s real harasser is a Brazilian “journalist” who has been spamming people who’ve posted in the hashtag with links to badly written articles on his website alleging all sorts of unsavory things about game critic Anita Sarkeesian. When one of his accounts is shut down for spamming, he starts another one and spams again.
But he doesn’t just spam: the #GamerGate detectives have also posted numerous screenshots that seem to show the spammer, using several separate accounts, Tweeting graphically violent rape and death threats aimed at Sarkeesian.
If these screenshots are real and not part of some cynical frameup, and if #GamerGaters have identified the right culprit, then, congratulations, guys, you have found one of Sarkeesian’s most active harassers.
But that’s not actually what they’re taking credit for. No, if you look at their Tweets, they claim to have found “Anita’s harasser” — singular — as if there is only one of them.
@maddoxrules We even found Anita Sarkeesian's likely harasser, yo. Of all the ironies? He's a games journo. Reported to FBI. #GamerGate
— Chríss (@Chriss_m) October 16, 2014
@themojowire In fact, we traced down Anita's and (possibly) Wu's harasser and all we got was more misogynist articles + #/StopGamerGate
— Something witty. (@codeGrit) October 16, 2014
@DrBobbyFlavor @BlackIsInYo @CBCNews
And what were Anita's own people doing while #GamerGate was tracking down her harasser?
I want to know— Supperdude9 (@Supperdude9) October 15, 2014
@femfreq That's the thanks we get for tracking down your harasser for you? You're one classy lady, Anita #GamerGate http://t.co/p8ZGjWIx3L
— bubblesort1 (@bubblesort1) October 13, 2014
https://twitter.com/GARlosengen/status/522790768272875521
There are literally dozens of tweets like these, and the ulterior motives of the tweeters could not be more transparent:
1) To deflect attention away from the massive wave of harassment that Sarkeesian has been facing ever since she first announced her “Tropes in Video Games” series.
2) To deflect attention away from the harassers in their own ranks (from senders of threatening messages to “activists” like Thunderf00t and the Sarkeesian Effect duo who seem to devote themselves full-time to tearing her down).
3) To cast doubt on the reality of the death threats that shut down Sarkeesian’s scheduled talk at Utah State University this week because, hey, it was a dude in Brazil who made the threats. (Never mind that there’s no evidence of this, and that the writing style of the Utah State threat bears no relation to the awkwardly worded articles of the Brazilian journalist, for whom English is clearly a second or third language.)
4) To make journalists, particularly games journalists, look bad, though the “journalist” in question has a lot more in common with anti-Sarkeesian rumormongers than he does with any of the games journalists targeted by the #GamerGaters
The sleazeball “journalist” in question may indeed be a harasser. But for #GamerGaters it’s clear that he’s more important as a convenient scapegoat, and an excuse for them to carry on as they have, without any real self-examination or remorse for the harassment their “movement” has inspired and enabled.
If they really want to to catch “Anita’s harassers” — plural — they might start by looking in the mirror.
Nathan and Policy: Absolutely necessary to understand the difference between civility and being a good person!
With the risk of this turning into my first offering to the block quote monster…
[blockquote] This is no different than the #NotYourShield graphic they posted a ways back (still don’t understand what that hashtag is supposed to mean. Shield for what?). [/blockquote]
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’ve been racking my brain over this one for a while now. I’ve googled it, I’ve taken a peek at tweets and YT vids using it, and I still don’t get it. Sometimes I’m not even sure the people using it get it, TBH. If it really meant what most seem to claim it does, shouldn’t it be directed at the GGers rather than used BY them? Aren’t they the ones throwing (violent) hissy fits over people daring not to be white CIS men taking over gaming?
Damn it! Am I supposed to use normal tags rather than [] perhaps?
Yes.
> and <
Thanks Fibinachi
I hate the blog format generally, so I almost never comment anywhere.
Happens to all of us
The blockqutes get you if you rush
If you take it slow, though
We’ll never know
‘Cause by the time we scan your lines
The post is out of mind and quire behind
So figure its better you trigger
A coding fault or two
Than we don’t hear the lovely words from you
:b
In news that I’m sure will shock nobody, Roosh V and Dean Esmay have both been publicly endorsing GamerGate. Misogynists try to jump onto a misogyny-powered bandwagon and ride it for all it’s worth. Gross.
I’m ashamed to admit that I used to like Thunderf00t, back when his channel used to purely be about the science that could be verified. Then he started painting with a broad brush Muslims, which was when I unsubscribed, and now it seems he’s moved on to feminists.
You’re not the only one… though when someone pointed out that he had obsessive bullying tendencies even then, I felt a bit dirty for even liking him during his science “phase”. Think of how he compulsively made videos about vfx, it’s a lot like his obsession with his current “enemies”.
On a more on topic line of thought, I agree with the assessment that this guy is essentially a scapegoat and a lizard tail. I think this fella they knew about pre USU, because I remember someone going on about how gg was reporting this guy every time he popped up with a new account.
Secondly, I feel as if I have only seen two GGers that I feel are even remotely close to being in GG for non-harassment reasons. I still feel thay were kinda harassing in that 1. they came along when a gger mob came along and 2. they badgered the person they felt was being unfair (by which I mean thwy continued posting over and over trying to get the person that was “being unfair” to acknowledge them).
Thirdly, my observation of gg interactions with nongg people reminds me distinctly of crows mobbing. Some random person on twitter writes anything with certain words in it and up will pop a gger. Xe will post something and add the hashtag and in will pop others. They all post repeatedly until basically the thread dies or they are blocked. Not saying all interactions that I’ve seen are bad, just that it reminds me of the unrelenting nature of a mob of crows. They never seem to care too much about responses to them(many will keep going when it is clear the op isn’t responding) and they always seem defensive (well, when they are not belligerent). Many times it seems not to be a conversation so much as a talking over. It almost never feels like a genuine attempt to converse or discuss things.
There’s a YouTube series I follow that’s a gaming talkshow. The host is pretty cool, always upbeat, and usually steers away from big controversies. Just yesterday, he uploaded a personal vlog about GamerGate, where he calmly extended quite a lot of benefit of the doubt to the participants, acknowledged their right to dislike and criticize any critics (even naming Sarkeesian) that they choose, but still maintained that the movement is too tainted to be helpful.
Unsurprisingly, it has received more dislikes than probably the rest of his videos combined.
The comments are filled with people demanding proof that GamerGate has EVER been tied to misogyny, which is blowing my mind. Dudes. I watched it happen, all the way from Gjoni’s first post.
It’s like coming up to the scene of a hit and run. A yellow car was hit five minutes ago by what dozens of bystanders describe as a blue pickup truck with a #NotAllTrucks bumper sticker. A few blocks away, a blue pickup truck is found bearing the sticker in question, wobbling away from the scene. Its front bumper staved in, yellow paint is streaked across it, and its tires match the skidmarks at the scene of the accident. “That’s the truck,” the bystanders say.
“Oh yeah?” demands the driver. “Do any of you have video evidence of this so-called ‘hit and run’, hmm? I DEMAND PROOF. I NEVER CONFESSED TO ANYTHING.”
“Dude… we all just saw you do it. Literally five minutes ago.”
“That must have been my cousin. He looks like me but isn’t me and also happens to drive a blue truck with a #NotAllTrucks bumper sticker. I don’t condone hit and runs and even told my cousin one time that he’s a jerk. STOP PERSECUTING ME. (And by the way, he’s right that yellow cars are evil and ruining traffic and don’t even know how to drive.)”
This last comments remind me, I have a question for anyone who would like to answer it: is it a bad idea to ‘throw back’ some of the gendered tone policing, gaslighting and derailing that some trolls or similar use?
I’ve used it a few times (e.g., asking them to ‘not get too emotional, I’m trying to have a civil conversation’ when throwing tantrums about being shouted at for being sexist and that kind of stuff), said with some snark that generally goes undetected and I’m not quite sure it is a good strategy.
On the one hand, maybe feeling a small sample of what oppressed people usually get would make them more sensitive to their shitty attitudes. On the other, since they don’t notice the irony they may get all ‘so is it only bad when men do it both sides are bad feminists are meeeeean’.
I keep getting that argument from #GG people, but not one docummented link, Storify, screenshot or log to show how it happens. It’s funny that ZQ and Anita keep getting called fakes despite recording everything, and we’re supposed to take your word for it when you say that BOTH SIDES!!! HAVE BEEN DOING IT!!!
@Sarah
I don’t think it’s bad at all to point out how a dude is being highly illogical, you know, when he is being illogical … which is actually most of the time, because most people don’t know a lot about logic and don’t use it properly. I have been known to tell a guy that he’s too excitable for me and I can’t have a reasoned conversation with him until he calms the fuck down.
However, I will not tone-police, and it’s a fine line between, “I can’t talk to you while you’re raving,” and, “I don’t like the tone you’re taking with me.” When I can’t find that line, I’ll just stick with pointing out the logical flaws.
I really don’t think gaslighting is ever appropriate.
What better to try it on once more than this, eh? =D
@Sarah –
I would say that yeah, that’s a bad idea. Trolls who aren’t in it purely for teh lulz rationalize their behavior under the idea that their target “deserves” it to one extent or another. Trolling a troll because they deserve it, or will be educated by it, or need to know how it feels for a change, is pretty much pulling from their playbook. Nobody wins.
So you’re actually mad that they helped to catch the harasser? What the hell is your problem? You say it’s bad when gamergate doesn’t do anything about the harassment, it’s bad when they do something about the harassment… what do you want from the people?
I regret calling those I interacted with “generally good”. I shouldn’t have. The GG movement itself is not “good” by any stretch. I’m sorry for that.
Johanna Roberts…
I’m so fucking sorry you’re dealing with that. It actually pisses me off that they can be so nice to me and so terrible to you and the other women speaking out.
I’m not trying to defend them exactly because I don’t really want to. I probably should have used scare-quotes when I said “good” in that post or, better yet, not used the word at all, because I only mean it in the basic sense that not all supporters of a fascist dictatorship are out their oppressing people, but they are still culpable as long as they support it.,, so, not “good”, really.
Policy of Madness…
I think your analogy works as well as mine, actually. I do think these people are misogynists. I could buy, at least temporarily, that they’re either ignorant (although that excuse is completely unjustifiable… if you’re still ignorant of what GamerGate is, then you’re only so willfully at this point) or suffering from, basically, what I’d call “defend-your-own” syndrome. Like with otherwise well-meaning Catholics defending the Vatican’s tendencies (at least, under the last Pope) to protect those shitty priests. I guess it’s also prudent to mention that one of the GG-supporters I talked to over Twitter and had a pleasant conversation with turned against GG when reading about Anita cancelling her talk and seeing the general response to it from his side. That disgusted him and woke him up to what GG really was. I did ask what took him so long, but he never responded.
So… you know… at least one good person… or… yeah…
vaiyt…
@ForemanErik is a GG supporter who posted on his twitter feed a screenshot of an email he received that included his personal home address and threatening to emasculate him.
I’m sorry I wasn’t clear in my original post. I should have said then that I don’t think it’s both sides. I think the harassment Anita, Zoe, Brianna, and others are experiencing is absolutely coming from pro-GG supporters. I do think the letter that ultimately led to Anita cancelling her talk came from a GG supporter. And I believe this because the evidence is obvious. The GG hashtag is filled to the brim with misogyny, shaming, harassment, and worse. Reading some of their Twitter feeds is disgusting.
I don’t know who’s doxxing, harassing, and threatening… well… one GG supporter that I know of. However, based on the content of #StopGamerGate2014 and the twitter feeds of so many posting there, I don’t think it’s anyone directly affiliated with it. I don’t think it’s anyone truly wanting to support Anita, Zoe, Brianna, and so on. In fact, while I’m loathe to be a conspiracy theorist, I think the “trolls trying to make us look bad” conspiracy put forward by several GG-supporters makes more sense here. While I’m not saying that whoever is doing this to GG supporters is a GG-supporter themselves (although it would not surprise me), I do not think they are anti-GG either, because the #StopGamerGate2014 side has been nothing but calling this shit out and trying to get it to stop.
Such doxxing and threats are GG MO, not anti-GG MO.
I should also note that @ForemanErik is the only one I’ve seen who’s actually shown proof that he was targeted. So another reason it’s not “both sides” it’s because I can see that it happened to only one GG supporter, while it’s clearly happening to way too many on the anti-GG side. That’s definitely not “both sides”.
My thoughts about the so-called “good” GG-supporters are this: at best, they are unjustifiably ignorant of the basis of their “movement”. At least one person I interacted with, mentioned above, would fall here, but did ultimately abandon the GG movement after Anita’s latest death threat. I desperately wish more the so-called “good” GG supporters would do the same thing, but of course most really aren’t “good”.
At worst, they are misogynistic liars trying to put a “nice face” on what is something that, ultimately, is really disgusting and needs to stop. I know why I had the experience I had. It does not forgive nor excuse those I interacted with, nor does it help the GG movement as a whole. It is ultimately a hate movement and needs to be stopped.
So no. Definitely not both sides. Not by a long shot. It’s obvious, to me, anyways, what the “good” side is here, and it’s not GamerGate.
My previous post was not worded well for what I was trying to get at, and I’m sorry for that. I wasn’t trying to pull a “both sides”, but I did, and I cop to that. I don’t think it’s “both sides” at all, and never meant to say that. I am sorry I did.
Um… I should also probably add that I don’t know the extent of @ForemanErik’s involvement with GamerGate, if he’s just a Twitter follower or posts on 8chan and the IRC where this shit started. It wouldn’t forgive the threat he received, but either way he’s supporting a misogynistic harassment campaign, so… yeah…
I’ve had some pretty positive talks with Pro-GGers as well. I try to talk with them on an even keel, being polite and calm, and though they say enraging things to not engage in it and just remain as ‘neutral’ as I can.
But here’s my conclusion: The “good” ones are EXTREMELY misled. They refuse to see the harassment part, they insist that’s not GG. GG is only about ethics, and link me to pages showing that they get harassed too, like that somehow negates what’s been happening to Brianna, Zoe, and Anita.
I’m actually talking with someone now, I’m trying to explain that VGS didn’t call GGers ISISL members, but that they were comparing them to villains. Still wrong, I admitted, and VGS effed up by saying something that ignorant. I then said that GG has become a group of misled people ignoring the harassment their predecessors imposed on women.
Their response:
“predecessors gave women?” There has been 0 link between #gamergate and harassment towards women
I was gob smacked.
But of course they are. They’d rather wipe their asses on women than for them. But remember that “mainstream” conservatives were always in on the thing: Adam Baldwin came up with the tag, and Milo what’s-his-face took it to Breitbart. I’m waiting to hear it from Rush Limbaugh and Fox & Friends. If the Republicans succeed in snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory this coming US election, watch out…
Remember, the Newtown massacre never happened. The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy told me so.
Denialism is central to the right-wing mentality for a reason: when you identify wholly with the traditionalist status quo and the status quo is on the losing side of history (see: marriage equality), it hurts like hell…
You didn’t read it, did you?
They did not catch THE harasser. They maybe “caught” ONE of the potential harassers who’s been threatening Anita, Zoe, Brianna, et al, and then threw themselves a little celebratory party and said “see? We’re stopping the harassment! Here he is, this single brown male! He’s the one! Now will you shut up pointing out the fact that our movement is based on misogyny?”
That’s not catching a harasser. That’s creating a scapegoat.
So you’re actually mad that they helped to catch the harasser? What the hell is your problem? You say it’s bad when gamergate doesn’t do anything about the harassment, it’s bad when they do something about the harassment… what do you want from the people?
I don’t know what you mean by ‘catch’, but if you think that guy is the only one doing the harassment, you’re stupid even for GG-er standards.
If you really need it spelled out, what we say is bad is all the harassment the gamergate is responsible for, by its members and supporters. What we want from you is to stop harassing people, stop condoning the harassment by those in your “movement” , and stop denying that harassment and misogyny is an essential, constituent part of it.
Dang, ninja’d and blockquote-eaten at once. 🙂
I like the word ‘scapegoat’
Wow. Thunderf00t has a video asking if the threats are “real or fake” from *two days ago* ?
I mean… what? This guy is slow. And unless the video is short and says, “of course they are real, you sillies” then he’s the creepy kind of delusional.
Let’s stop bringing race into this. It doesn’t matter that the Brazilian guy isn’t white. Not to mention that I don’t see a name up there, so for all we know he IS white. There are plenty of white people in Brazil, you know.
fgsfds: So you’re actually mad that they helped to catch the harasser?
Re-read the post/comments.
We are annoyed (and bemused) that they (and you) pretend this is the Sole Source of the harassment Sarkeesian has been getting (for more than two years), esp. when there are other, identified harassers of long-standing the GG crowd is happy to embrace.
It’s the hypocrisy, stupid.