Over on Twitter, a small army of #GamerGaters and their pals have shown up in my mentions to assure me that the only reason Anita Sarkeesian was attacked after offering her opinions about the Marysville shootings was that it was somehow inappropriate for her to discuss the possible causes of the shootings so soon after the shootings, and so, naturally, people were angry at her.
And angry people, I guess, just can’t help but send rape threats and call women c*nts! There’s nothing misogynistic about it at all!
Well, this is an argument, I guess. Too bad it’s not really borne out by the facts.
Because, the thing is, Sarkeesian gets harassed pretty much every time she says anything.
Case in point: Last Thursday, she announced that Twitter had, after much delay, officially “verified” her account. As you might imagine, she’s had to deal with innumerable malicious impersonators. Now people will have an easy way to confirm it’s really her posting.
It’s hard for me to see how this could be considered controversial. Yet here are some of the responses she got to her announcement:
https://twitter.com/richardcranium_/status/525480407798939649
https://twitter.com/EnglishToff/status/525559860969373696
Later on, in response to one of her comments about the Marysville shooting, another of her non-fans managed to work a snide reference to her verified status into his harassing Tweet:
https://twitter.com/Bworth69/status/525817761558437889
So, yeah. Anita’s haters don’t just hate her for having opinions about video games and school shootings. They pretty much hate her for verifiably existing.
PS:; Oh, that guy complaining that it’s in “incredibly poor taste” to discuss the possible causes of a shooting on the day that it happens? He apparently thinks that posting this is in good taste:
https://twitter.com/AlrightAnon/status/526453952993570816
All this anti semitism reminds me strongly of Eric Cartman. These guys are embodying him perfectly, in more ways than one.
Is everyone *shocked* at this though? That image is honestly tame for /pol/, which is pretty much #GamerGate ground zero.
Is DD Allin channelling GG Allin the shock rocker from the ’90s? Because if so, this also is telling.
Oh OF course these jerks are anti-Semitic too. But please, tell us again how it’s about ethics in journalism? And are feminists really the ones acting like Nazis here? Reeeealllly? Because I’m pretty sure we aren’t the ones using 1930’s hateful Jewish caricatures to attack people who disagree with us.
@weirwood
OH GOD THAT IS ADORABLE. *melts into a puddle of talking-kitty-flavoured goo*
What the GGers don’t seem to understand is that by any reasonable measurement, they’re not a “movement”, they’re a mob.
There’s no obvious leadership to the group and they seem to be willing to claim anyone who says they are a GGer. But who decides who is a real GGer or not? Does Vox Day, who posted the other day that anyone who rejects GG is out of the “real gamer” club, count as a GG leader? I’m sure he is by a sizeable portion of self-identified GGers, but then there’s probably an equal number of self-identified GGers who will say he’s not. Are the people who hang out in r/KotakuinAction and 8chan/gg real GGers? They plaster the GG hashtag/logo all over and purport to have intro material for people curious about what GG stands for, but there’s an awful lot of whining and frothing at the mouth about “SJWs”, and I’m not sure what standing for social justice has to do with ethics in journalism.
They want to stand for everything and nothing at the same time. They aren’t about harassment but they keep talking about the same people and groups (ZQ, Anita, Gawker) and are vocal about these people being “driven out”. Adam freaking Baldwin, the one who coined the GG hashtag, has been after Zoe Quinn* from day one of this mess and he’s still considered a poster child for GG. They talk about protecting the “gamer” identity but several of their vocal supporters have derided gamers as being losers and slobs in the past. There’s an awful lot of frothing in KiA and 8chan/gg/ about minorities and LGBTs but I’m sure some GGer will come along and explain that there are just a few bad apples, not understanding that the whole proverb is “One bad apple spoils the barrel” and means that if one part of the group is rotten, it can spread to the group as a whole. Oh, and #NotYourShield so checkmate, SJWs!
*No, wait, she’s “Literally Who” because GGers think that if they don’t actually use the words “Zoe Quinn” then no one can figure out who they’re talking about; it’s the mindset of 6 year olds who, when they’re told not to take a cookie off of the table, cover their eyes and try again because they think you can’t see them. That joke works so well, they have a “Literally Who 2” and “Literally Who 3”, too!
https://twitter.com/DishonourableYT/status/526692290983895041
Does this tweet strike anybody else as being sexually harassing? “I would have sex with you if you agreed with me, but you don’t, so you’re missing out on this wonderful prize.”
Telling people it is tacky to talk about people being murdered by people of your demographic is tacky. We’re being told not to talk about white men murdering women and black people with guns not because it is disrespectful to the victims, but because it is inconvenient to the people who approve of the culture that continues to allow people like them to murder minorities.
Oh man, you guys should read the tweet conversation under that. It’s depressing. Two people have a reasonable debate about GG, albeit the pro guy uses all the same old excuses, then someone joins in at the end claiming to have doxxed them both.
THIS IS WHY THE WHOLE BARREL IS ROTTEN IN THE EYES OF THE PUBLIC.
I don;t find it harassing but I do find it wrong on so many levels.
1. I bet the artist would not prove of how that strip is being used.
2. Who wants to make out with guys who support rape and death threats toward women. I don’t want those pieces of shit anywhere near me. Misogyny isn’t cute or sexy. ‘Gaters can keep all that “lovin” to themselves. It isn’t a hot commodity.
FALSE ALARM. He was just trying to correct spelling. I have NOT had enough coffee this morning and I am actually sitting in a Costa writing this.
I’m going to shut up now and order a flat white.
We Jews are some busy folks, I must say
I’ve just come out of a Costa :). Chai lattes are not, at least, about ethics in games journalism. They are about cinnamon.
Actually, the anti-semitic cartoon reminded me of an old Soviet-era anekdot:
An old Armenian man is on his deathbed. He calls his sons to his side.
“My sons!” he whispers, “My sons, I entreat you, safeguard the Jews!”
“Why, father?” ask the sons.
“Because,” the old man replies, “If they kill all the Jews, we are next.”
Nicknamenick: But these are not intellectual people and are virulently antagonistic towards anything having to do with the mind. I know this because I’ve met a lot of these people in comic book and TV show fandom. These same people pride themselves on being so incredibly smart because they understood the plot of their favorite science fiction movie but their analysis of Pop Culture hasn’t moved beyond comparison of the minor details of their favorite subjects.These are the kind of people whose sole argument about comic books doesn’t extend beyond which superhero can beat up which superhero.
It’s not that they are incapable of thinking, it’s that they are incredibly lazy thinkers. They will very happily go their entire life in a pleasant daze of “stuff that makes them happy” that they don’t ever have to think too deeply about or consider the wider applications of anything they enjoy. The also think that that’s the way all Pop culture should be.That all of it should be completely divorced from cultural analysis.
So not only is common feminist consepts trolling, but also being a feminist at all and having a twitter account is also trolling? Wow. Do they know what trolling means? Do they know anything about feminism? How can it be so difficult for them to find out what words actually mean?
If I was going to find out what femism is about, my first choices would not be to watch a 2hour rant by Dudebro_666 on YouTube called ‘Why feminists sucks lol’ or read a Tumblr blog called ‘All cishetwhitemen must die!’ by Sparklesunshinerainbowpony. I know the idea of being critical to sources is unfamiliar to a large part of the internet population, but still the lack of will to do even a minimum of proper research on any topic or read or watch anything that doesn’t confirm their own opinion is mindblowing. They think they’re in some kind of war with feminist, yet they can’t even be bothered to research their ‘enemy’, instead they attack their own idea of what their ‘enemy’ should be like which is based on their own fears, shit some rando said and screenshots with red lines drawn on them. And to top it off, when they have a chance to talk directly at their ‘enemy’ they don’t even try to argue or debate anything, they just vomit slurs all over the place.
I just *throws up hands*
Not related to this post, but today on The Red Pill, a Red Piller warns his bros about “White Knights”, those terrible, traitorous men who won’t even let you sexually assault their friends (link is the discussion thread on The Blue Pill subreddit):
http://www.reddit.com/r/TheBluePill/comments/2kg0yq/beware_of_white_knighters_people_who_say_things/
P.S. Some TRPers also seem to think that an appropriate response to a guy trying to intervene to prevent a sexual assault from happening is to physically threaten the guy, or even get into an actual fistfight with him, because according to TRP, at that point you “have nothing to lose”.
Anoia: Well, in a word…Yeah!
These people aren’t the slightest bit interested in having an actual discussion or figuring out that words have meanings. They think you can take a word and slap any meaning on it which suits your argument. And I use the word argument loosely.
Their entire philosophy of discussion comes from the movies they watch and videogames they play. That philosophy is winning. And you must be willing to say or do anything to win the argument. It’s not even about being right. It’s about marking the other person as a loser. They really do think life can be approached as if it were a first-person shooter. If they have to switch the goalposts every time they open their mouth, or just make up words and meanings and scream racial slurs, then that’s what it takes to WIN. Words don’t have meanings to these people. Words are simply ammunition to take down your arch-nemesis.
It’s the result of entire generations of people raised on anti-intellectualism. I’m not sure this is even it’s final result. There may be some worse iteration of it in a few more years.
Do you remember that movie “Idiocracy”? FGS, don’t watch it, if you ever want to hold onto the dregs of respect you have for humanity. I started watching that movie, thinking it was going to be funny and it was for about 20 minutes, after which, I just wanted to cry because I can see that happening right now.
Re: Idiocracy
Nah, that fear pops up every hundred years or so. There’s supposed to be an identical 18th or 19th century satire where the same thing happens.
Whether or not the original author would look at our world and think it’d come true is debatable, I guess, but the basic premise is false. Having lots of babies doesn’t actually do as much for the odds of your genes making it, else all organisms by now would always have lots of babies.
Funny, when I watch that movie again (I guess I still think it’s a little funny despite this) now what I can hear is a long conservative dog whistle about minorities sounding quietly in the background, because that’s usually the shape that particular argument takes. Mike Judge has demonstrated himself to be enough of an asshole recently that I’m not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt anymore.
I may have to go back and watch it again even though, after about 30 minutes, I hated the movie so much, I never finished it.I do remember a lot of PoC int he movie, so I’ll go back and listen for that dog whistle when I gin up the nerve.
When I was watching that cartoon he had on TV a few years back (King of the Hill), I definitely felt some disturbing messages in it but I wasn’t savvy enough to articulate why I was feeling that way.
Oatmeal is misandry!
Bringing back hoop skirts? As long as it’s just a fashion statement, and not a requirement, I think it would be great. Why? I live in Texas, and can tell you from experience that a hoop skirt is just about the coooooolest clothing I have ever worn. Whenever you walk, your skirt swoooshes up some cool air from near the ground, and you get this chimney effect with it, so that your whole lower-half is much, much cooler, without the need for air conditioning. Shorts may seem cooler, but with the sun beating directly on your exposed skin, it’s really FRIGGIN’ HOTTTT! Plus, I sunburn like a lobster.
The only issue with hoop skirts as a fashion statement is that people need to learn the trick of moving in them, and especially of sitting down. Although, it’s a simple trick to put your hands down at your sides to hold the skirt down, while you sit, and then you’re fine. Still, wardrobe malfunctions are easy to have, and it’s always a good idea to wear clean underpants.
Now, if people were to, say, dictate that “ladies” must wear hoop-skirts at the office? NOOOOOOOO.
I would, however, like to see the return of hats, in general, for all. Why? Because I have such a hard time finding a good, pretty hat. And if hats were more fashionable, in general, there would be more available at my local stores.
I mean, I even like fedoras and trilbies. They do look nice. It’s the jerks underneath that have given these poor hats a bad name.
And hats are excellent ways to regulate the body temperature. Controlling the over-heating or over-cooling of the head actually can make the rest of the body more comfortable by several degrees. So, if you’re standing at the bus stop, and the sign is the only shade around, stick your head in that tiny bit of shade, and you’ll be cooler. But with a hat, your head is already shaded!
Completely OT, but I just had to share this. My mother was watching Criminal Minds, and noticed that Mandy Patinkin is the star. So, she quoted that famous line to me:
“Hello. My name is… So and so! You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
OK, my pain pill is tarting to cick in, and I’m off now.
OKS, before I go, I have to steel a story.
Once up on a time, some of the women aft met church were going to do a little skin about Christmas, and we were putting on costumes to leook like Jews in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth.
I turned to my friend, and said, “Do I look Jewish?”
She smiled, and nodded, then said, “DO I?” I shrub bed.
She said, “Because I am Jewish.” She was born Jewish, and converted to Christianeity, as an aleut. I didn’t know, because I never consiered any of that whole “looking Jewiesh” thing. I was talking about the clothes. Neither now if us knew if our costumes looked authentic, though.
aleut? ADULT.
LOL, spelle chicker.
OK, can’te type. Going now.
Yes. I know. That’s what I said.
Yes, and so have I.
Again – yes, I know. I’m quite familiar with all that. I pretty much said the same thing about how their enjoyment is largely mechanical.
Well, yeah, that was the point I was trying to make before…