Last night, as you may have heard, the woman known to #GamerGaters as “Literally Who 2” pulled off a bit of a media coup, appearing on The Colbert Report for a brief interview by the sympathetic Colbert, who gently satirized some of the sillier “arguments” of the Gaters with a series of deliberatly obtuse questions. You know, his regular schtick.
When Anita Sarkeesian posted the picture above (well, a non-blurry version of it) to Twitter yesterday evening, thus alerting the world to her upcoming appearance on Colbert’s show, it set off a wave of panic and despair on 8chan’s /gg/ board, one of the central organizing hubs of the GamerGate “movement.”
Some declared it a disaster, the end of GamerGate, while others tried to rally the troops with melodramatic speeches. Still others set forth bizarre conspiracy theories about the evil SJWs who allegedly control the media.
There was so much amazing stuff there that I knew I had to start screencapping like mad.
And so, without further ado, here are the Top 22 Most Ridiculous Things Said on 8Chan About Anita Sarkeesian’s Appearance on the Colbert Report.
1) One anon advised the 8chan army on how to turn this truckload of lemons into lemonade:
2) This fella was a little less optimistic. Somehow I’m guessing a lot of his conversations involve bizarrely detailed exegeses of the sinister plots of Cultural Marxism.
3) This fellow suggested that 8chan might be able to lobby Congress for some legislation that would put an end to the SJW “gang.”
4) There were a lot of posts like this. GamerGaters just can’t help talking like cartoon supervillains.
5) This guy urgently warned fellow 8channers not to even discuss the highly charged issue of misogyny, ending his little speech with a bizarre kicker not only denying that 8channers had anything to do with the threats and doxxing that have driven Sarkeesian from her home, but flatly denied that the threats and doxxing even happened at all.
6) This fella lamented Colbert’s terrible betrayal, and the effect this would have on his late-night television viewing.
7) And this charming post reminded us one of the main reasons why GamerGate increasingly appeals only to trolls and assholes. (Note to 8channers: It’s the picture, derived from an anti-Semitic caricature, that’s the real problem here.)
8) This fella reminded his comrades that media figures like Colbert “never really cared sincerely about vidya [games]” anyway.
9) And we’re back to the rising fire.
10) More fire, accompanied this time by the howling wolves of … Twitter.
11) Winston Churchill famously proclaimed that brave British soldiers “shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” This GamerGate warrior will do the same, only with email and Twitter.
12) A lot of 8channers think that Sarkeesian is little more than the brainless puppet of Feminist Frequency co-writer/producer Jonathan McIntosh.
13) This melodramatic fella declared in despair that Sarkeesian had won, “sitting in the lap of a group more powerful, tenacious, driven and sinister than you could ever hope to be.”
Huh. I thought they were supposed to be on the side of Truth and Light. Why would GamerGaters hope to be sinister. Could it be that maybe they are the baddies after all?
14) And speaking of GamerGaters monologuing like supervillains …
15) This fella offered his comrades a “waifu to encourage you along.”
Wait, what?
16) This fella might be spending just a little too much time with the vidya games.
17) This commenter thought that the fact that Sarkeesian appeared in public showed that she wasn’t really scared by all the threats she’s gotten. CHECKMATE, SARKEESIAN!
18) More conspiratorial nonsense about Colbert and his alleged ideological puppetmasters.
19) THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAA!!
20) Uh, dude, “some newspaper” in this case was the New York Fucking Times, and it was more than a paragraph.
21) This fella hoped that this bitter loss would help to harden the resolve of “weak” GamerGaters.
22) And this guy brought a report from the far reaches of Upside Down Backwards Land.
GamerGaters, you are officially ridiculous.
“I completely get why she didn’t list three games.”
She didn’t list them because the question was basically like asking “Name three porn flicks that show oral sex.”
Mock them all you want, but look at how efficient they are at generating talking points and strategy.
Oh my god, this is the funniest shit I’ve seen in a while. What a poetic bunch, huh? LOL!
@Arnold Maynard
Ok, you didn’t see that but you did see the overkill and the drama right?
You read those and saw adults acting like they’ve just found out how close the enemy is and they’re going to have to go over the top at dawn.Some will make it and be stronger for the next battle, others won’t but their loss won’t be in vain . Their loss in this case meaning someone making a video or writing a blog post critical of their battle tactics or worse ACTUAL GAMES.
Come on admit it. Whatever you could or couldn’t see in those examples you at least felt a little incy wincy bit embarrassed for the people who wrote them – right?
The more I read this stuff, the more it seems that this group has just…not had some of the experiences I thought everybody had, in general. Or at least that were universal. I’ve seen people die of terrible diseases, that I loved. I’ve been critically injured. I’ve seen pets die. I’ve experienced wonderful things, too, but I’ve seen horrific things. People get beaten up for being different, racial abuse, and so forth – I’ve seen friends suffer these things. I have a friend with terminal cancer.
Is…the WORST thing these people can imagine Colbert talking to someone who critiques video games?
Have they just not really experienced life in general, or…something? Or are they so used to expressing themselves in terms of over the top peculiar aggression that it’s just become banal?
Jon H – exactly right. It’s like claiming that traffic isn’t dangerous and demanding on-the-spot proof that anyone’s ever been injured in a car accident. The utter obtuseness is the entire point (again, not like GGers understand even the basic premise of satire).
steampunked: Chances are, they haven’t. The demographic for this sort of thing skews very young…high-schoolers and college students. (And if they’re not that young, then they’ve led very sheltered lives.)
They see us as “warriors”. We see them as immature, bigoted chickenshits. I’ll take that trade.
These literally had me in tears. The one about SJW gangs and contacting you senator made my eyes water. What the fuck would you say to your senator? And what universe are you in where its the “SJW gangs” that are actually threatening people or ruining lives?!
Then I got to the over-the-top shit that someone would say to soldiers about to march into battle and commented to my partner “Holy shit, this sounds like something the Spartans would say (although not so cheesily) before going to die” and then….they went and did it. They actually brought up the Spartans and I nearly pissed my pants.
GGs why can’t you be like this all the time? Stop harassing women and threatening people and doxxing them! Just stay on 8chan or whatever and write the mos hilarious little screeds I have ever seen. If they weren’t such terrible people I would feel obligated to reward them for the laughs.
Arnold Maynard, this is a list of the “22 best things” they said about Anita going on Colbert. I don’t think David would add violence to a “best” of anything list. Perhaps try to “skim” or “search” the past month or even few weeks of entries and I am sure you will find what you are pretending to be looking for.
You’re welcome! 🙂
Ohmygod, the Spartan asshole doesn’t even realize it was the Spartans/Greeks that used the Phalanx. AHAHAHHAHAHAA
Oh, I’m so pleased they’re pissing their pants over Anita’s spot on Colbert. Colbert makes a point of mocking people like Limbaugh, by the by. He’d dig it here.
And gamerbros, thank you for providing all the material online any for show writer could possibly wish for. I’m thinking your tribe will become a “go to” during slow news days on shows like Colbert, Stewart and Oliver. Well, unless you call it quits.The posts David highlighted above — priceless. John Oliver’s people are probably reading them right now.
Who’s the asshole trumpeting, “She didn’t name three of the sexist games ever…” ? Dude, you’re sad, go home. News segments are timed, and she laughed because Colbert was in on the joke that a shit ton of games are sexist. Thank Colbert and Anita, duders. If you think long enough about what they did and said, you may stand a chance of pulling your heads out of your asses.
#6 Dude in the OP referred to his own “miserable life.” Yeah, Colbert really drove it home when he mocked a troll who posted to Anita, “No one will care when you die.” Colbert basically said, Who cries when hateful trolls die? Are they mourned? Hell no. No one likes them. They’re pathetic and bitter.
These cluless muppets are funny when they turn the hyperbole up to 11. I sort of feel a bit bad for them too though, I have no doubt the fear of ‘SJW’s are real to some of them. Sort of like being scared of the monster in the closet or under the bed, but still.
(I browsed 8chan last night as it was going on and I caught myself thinking: “Topkek”.
Staring into the void and all that, I guess.)
@leftwingfox
I read the article you posted as well as the Vox article it links to and color me shocked. They didn’t just take Stephen Colbert’s schtick literally. Apparently, they hadn’t been following Joss Whedon’s pre-Avengers career because they have no clue that this is the guy behind Buffy Summers, Faith Lehane, Willow Rosenberg, Kaylee Frye, Inara Serra, Zoe Alleyne Washburne, and River Tam. Or that his mother was feminist activist Lee Stearns, or that he sits on the Advisory Board of Equality Now.
Yeah, I browsed 8chan last night too. One dudebro wrote, “I was screaming so much at my TV I almost had to vomit.”
He also fails to realise that the Spartans lost the battle.
Hey you leaders of gamergate.Now that the battle is over* and you’ve counted your casualties.** Will you be handing out medals to your brave? Only I know of a really talented fella that made a super duper coin for avfm that can help you with the design. (I don’t know his details but I’m sure if you contact avfm they will tell you where to send the milk bottle tops to).
* That tiny bit where Anita Sarkeesian was on the Colbert Report is over.
**Counted all the adults crying and stamping their feet like a todler who’s had their blanky taken off them because it needs a wash.
Some of my favorite posts from Gamergaters on Twitter:
So I just saw Sarkeesian on #ColbertReport. Holy smokes. If triggering was a legitimate thing, I’m pretty sure I’m feeling it. #GamerGate
Seeing @anitasarkeesian on #ColbertReport tonight was truly one of my worst experiences watching television ever. #GamerGate
Before the show:
I bet all of #gamergate that #colbert is gonna destroy anitas claims
And after, from the same poster:
if the president gets involved with #gamergate and gets it wrong ta-boot. then I will just say F#@k it. it’s not worth living anymore
IF PEOPLE DON’T AGREE WITH ME ABOUT VIDEO GAMES LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING
In addition, they’re very angry that Colbert didn’t mention all the many women who support Gamergate. Like Christina Hoff Summers, Christina Hoff Summers, a cartoon girl they drew, and Christina Hoff Summers. Now they want Colbert to interview Christina Hoff Summers, which holy shit yes please.
I also love them posting 20-minute YouTube videos of beardy guys rambling about the evils of feminism and demanding that Stephen Colbert watch them to “educate” himself. Because he is totally going to do that.
The whole “we are the PCs, they are the NPCs” thing–I was talking to my husband (a gamer [meaning video games are his primary hobby] but NOT a gamergater–also, he’s not big on FPS so I suppose some people would say he doesn’t count) about how they dehumanize the people who disagree with them and treat it like a game, and he was saying that he thought this type of online harassment was similar to road rage–some people don’t deal well with the distance caused by technology and seem to forget that there are real people on the other side.
It also reminds me of this game trailer–another example of “PCs don’t always have the advantage”. [“We are not the flame! We are the moths, and we are doomed!”]
I also ‘love’ how they talk like everyone who is not a gamergater does not play video games and looks down on gamers.
Indeed. Even though some of us probably game more than all of them put together (with how much time they spend shitposting up Twitter, there’s no way they’d have the time for it, not to mention the many #Gits who’ve admitted to not playing and looking down on players…).
Oh no, a media personality didn’t say what you wanted them to say about you! Better doxx him!
I honestly can’t tell if you’re joking.
I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this, because last night I dreamed the Gamergaters were right. In the dream, I played the games cited in the Tropes vs. Women videos, and it turned out the shots were all taken out of context. In every case, only one level had sexist material, and the rest of the game was about women in T-shirts and jeans just going about their business. (Not that I think that would be a good video game, but in my dream that’s what most games were.) And all the games had female PCs. I thought, “Wow! I was so wrong about sexism in video games!”
Then I woke up.
I’m not kidding, this was an actual dream I had. I’ve got to stop reading making my husband read Gamergate threads to me late at night while I play original Mario Galaxy.
I love the title of PZ Myers’ post about this – Schadenfreude so thick you could cut it with a chainsaw. I haven’t even read it yet but I <3 that title so much.
#11 is undoubtedly the funniest. These idiots seriously believe they’ll be greeted as liberators? Ask them how that’s going in Iraq again.