"we're inclusive and accepting!" says #gamergate, before drawing racist caricatures of women they dislike. pic.twitter.com/zbFnWBOmdn
— Sarah Nyberg (@srhbutts) November 1, 2014
The other day, I posted a screenshot of an 8chan comment featuring the drawing above, a crude caricature of Anita Sarkeesian that’s a not-very-subtle variation on a racist and anti-Semitic cartoon that originally ran in a neo-Nazi newspaper.
Here’s the original, in all its crapitude:
Let’s face it! That is one fucking awful cartoon.
Now, if that picture — or at least the grinning fellow on the left — looks familiar, it’s because he’s been that’s turned into a meme (“Le Happy Merchant”) that’s proven popular with 4channers and Stormfronters alike.
Given that GamerGate itself has its origins on 4chan — and in an IRC channel populated mostly bey 4channers — it shouldn’t come as a complete shock that #GamerGaters, some of whom refer to Sarkeesian as “Jewkeesian,” have repurposed the image into a caricature of one of their most hated foes. Sarkeesian isn’t actually Jewish, but for whatever reason this doesn’t seem to faze her anti-Semitic non-admirers.
GamerGaters like to claim that this sort of bigotry “isn’t what GamerGate is really about,” and that anti-Semites and other bigots are fringe elements in their movement, if not “false flagging” feminazi shills trying to make GamerGate look bad. Here, one GamerGater makes that point with as much sarcasm as he can muster:
https://twitter.com/JakALope044/status/525839519161917440
This would be a much more convincing argument if GamerGaters weren’t so quick to excuse and/or explain away the anti-Semitic imagery every time it rears its ugly head.
Here’s one active GamerGater who wants everyone to know that, actually, it’s about ethics in game journalism.
https://twitter.com/SlushStuff/status/524266371069517824
But she has a pretty unusual notion of what “not hate” is, given that she posted this picture several days later:
This lovely little drawing combines the racist caricature of Sarkeesian with another bit of neo-Nazi propaganda that’s been floating around the internet for a while, and which had already been repurposed as an anti-Muslim comic. In other words, @SlushStuff has posted a mashup of a neo-Nazi cartoon that’s already been used in another bigoted mashup.
We can’t blame @SlushStuff’s glee in posting this on her ignorance of the sources of the cartoon in question; she’s well aware that the picture is based on anti-Semitic propaganda. She just thinks this isn’t a problem, because reasons.
https://twitter.com/SlushStuff/status/526342650375704576
https://twitter.com/SlushStuff/status/526396368609615872
Then again, @SlushStuff doesn’t seem to have a problem with straight-up racism either.
https://twitter.com/SlushStuff/status/521793824621088770
This is a common reaction amongst GamerGaters when confronted with this particular work of, er, art. When srh, who tracks GamerGate bigotry on Twitter, posted the tweet at the top of this post, here are some of the reactions she got, in a seemingly unending discussion that extended over hundreds of tweets. (These aren’t all successive tweets; see here for the whole thread.)
Yep. That’s right. A guy whose avatar is a white dude in an American Indian headdress (comedian Jim Norton, FWIW) is lecturing people about what is and what isn’t racism.
At this point I “noped” out of reading the rest of the thread before my head exploded from all the nonsense.
GamerGate claims to have an anti-harassment squad, but when someone posts caricatures of Anita Sarkeesian that are not just inspired by but probably literally traced from Nazi propaganda, these are the guys who show up.
To quote the robot bartender in The Fifth Element, do you want some more?
Here’s more.
After one anti-GamerGater posted a screenshot of Mary’s post featuring Sarkeesian painting fake threats on a wall, one #GamerGater had this response.
Here yet another GamerGater claims that the caricature is mocking Sarkeesian, so therefore it can’t be anti-Semitic:
https://twitter.com/NappalmSam/status/526385714968428544
Oh, wait, is this yet another GamerGater making the same terrible “argument?” Why yes, it is:
I ask #gamergate why they are condoning/reposting Ann anti Semitic cartoon. They respond: Jews Are Not A Race pic.twitter.com/Ef1mhYw6Dy
— Joshua Idehen (@joshuaidehen80) October 26, 2014
And, oh, it gets weirder. Here a GamerGater responding to a critic who was pointing out an instance of GamerGaters using “Le Happy Merchant” in an infographic … by suggesting he was “Jew-shaming.”
https://twitter.com/emvarez_dota/status/526379494580695041
And here’s a GamerGater who uses “Le Happy Merchant” as his fucking avatar … accusing Sarkeesian of anti-Semitism. And spelling it wrong.
I could keep going, but after this, is there any point?
Bottom of the barrel, consider yourself scraped.
EDIT: Added more info on the source of that second Sarkeesian cartoon.
The worst thing about you socks is how much you stink of feet.
It is literally an anti-Semitic cartoon from A. Wyatt Mann. It would take you less than ten seconds to google that, ‘Saul’.
I find the notion of any actual Jew not recognizing the vicious and hateful Mann caricature for what it is to be… improbable beyond belief.
It’s almost as if…it’s almost as if some neo-Nazi or generally shit-stirring douchecanoe is hopping around from site to site copying and pasting random shite that doesn’t actually address anything being said…
…I wonder what it’s like to be that bored and bitter…
You don’t seem to understand what “literally” means. A. Wyatt Mann did not draw a cartoon of Sarkeesian, because she is not Jewish. Or do you think anyone who looks a certain way must be a Jew? Or do you think all Jews look the same? Perhaps both? There are so many kinds of racism going on with you people it’s not easy to track them all.
This was bound to happen once Stormfront joined the gamergator team of racist misogynist asshats.
I’m pretty sure anyone posting in the comment sections on WHTM has forfeited the right to accuse anyone else of being “bored and bitter”. Just saying, this place is an angry echo chamber slash circle jerk.
Again, “Saul,” the argument that racism is only racism if someone recognizes it as such is old, old, old, old, old. You are not original. Your argument is not valid. You can hide behind a Jewish name, but: that doesn’t make you Jewish; and, if an actual Jew were to make this same argument, it wouldn’t be rendered magically valid by that person’s genetic background.
Go home. Hug a puppy. Stop stinking up the Internets with your socks.
You’re right; it’s a line-for-line precise copy of an anti-Semitic caricature, but with different hair and a color pattern applied to the clothing.
Do you honestly believe this is a winning argument?
Screencap away, Saul. The only thing you’ll show to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, is how badly you can mangle what’s actually being said. Then again, I’ve no doubt you can use this little conversation to harden the resolve of your fellow assholes.
Saul, why do you think they used an almost photocopy of an anti-semitic cartoon to get this point across? I’m actually curious.
Isn’t it lucky for us minorities that we have Policy of Madness to explain to us what we need to be offended by, since we’re too stupid to figure it out for ourselves! He’s the White Savior we desperately need!
Your messiah complex is disgusting. That goes for all of you.
It is important that the GG trolls pretend they are completely ignorant of what their cohort has been screaming at her for the past two years.
Oh, right, I meant to say something about the screencap thing. What is it about gamergaters that makes them believe the opposite of reality when it comes to their public image and representation in popular culture?
Consistently, gaters present arguments and ‘evidence’ for their beliefs that serve only to further convince the rest of the world that they’re precisely what their detractors claim them to be.
Screencaps of this entire thread would only hurt gamergate. So much so that I’d expect any screencaps to immediately lead to the ‘real gamergaters’ disavowing obvious troll Saul, as well as the original cartoon, as more ‘false flag’ attacks carried out by third-party not-true-scotsmen.
But that seems to be the gg modus operandi: acquire gun, aim gun at foot, pull trigger, repeat.
Know how many actual Jewish adults I know who are as completely ignorant of the history of anti-semitism as “Saul” pretends to be? Zero. Ze-Ro.
This sock is stinking up the place. I wonder if we could have clean up on aisle five. They have no entertainment value whatsoever.
LOL, “Saul,” laying it on this thick is why it is so obvious at word-one that you are a sock! I mean, FFS, have you ever in your life actually seen someone introduce themselves on a blog comment board? Friendly or hostile? It’s not done this way! Real people don’t talk the way you do!
You get an F for effort and also an F for execution.
isidore3, why do you think they used the same “Oppressed Gamergater” meme Brianna Wu used to mock them as a meme to mock the people who were mocking them?
Spoiler alert: because this is the Internet and that is how memes work. They’re repurposed and recontextualized constantly.
The fact that someone even needs to explain this is a testament to how culturally illiterate you people are, unless this is actually all just a circle jerk of confirmation bias. I’d put the odds at 50/50.
I confess the false flag claiming the false flag cartoon is a false flag was kinda funny for a sec.
@DavidFrutelle
I THINK they have access to your database, or somehow, they got access to your database and got a copy. I think they got a copy because there’s not the same amount of comments.
I can’t test it though, because I need the real link for figure out. But, BUT, if they have the same slug, is very probable that’s the reason.
I think you should contact your providers first for tell them this. Far I do know the databases have security measures for avoid been accessed by different domains which is not yours, but I have no idea how wordpress do this.
Ah, the old “If you see catch my racism, that makes you the real racist” argument. You’re a lazy troll, Saul. Come back when you have something we haven’t heard a hundred times.
Though I do love you you GGers seem to honestly believe that disagreeing with a single woman/poc/minority means you must hate all women/poc/minorities. Which is why you keep making socks of women/poc/minorities so you can cry “you disagree with me bigots!” when you come around saying you don’t think blatantly racists/sexist/etc things are racist/sexist/etc. It’s embarrassing how clever you all think you’re being.
I’d say there are certain things you can’t decontextualise though. Explicitly racist images being one. The cultural and political underpinnings run too deep.
I do appreciate when gater trolls try to use the language of social justice, though. It’s cute. It’s like they’ve found a google translate option for jerk-to-sjw. It’s not quite right; it lacks the proper cadences and phrasing. But it’s nice to see them making the effort; one hopes that the necessity of being exposed to social justice ideas in order to attempt to parrot the language will, ultimately, rub off on them and make the world a marginally better place.
Saul, you’re talking in circles a little bit. I’m not talking about the Le Happy Merchant one, I mean the other one. I’ve never seen that one, I don’t think it’s a meme. Why would they choose that cartoon to get that point across? Why not make another cartoon without the stereotypes and the connection to anti-semitism?
Delurking to ask who here has heard someone refer to themselves as “us minorities” in serious conversation? Anyone?
Oh, isn’t it cute! Little troll is trying to cargo-cult us.
Whether you personally think Nazi cartoons are totes cool or not, has no bearing on what your #GG friends are doing, that is, repurposing Nazi propaganda to attack Anita Sarkeesian. She’s the one being attacked, not you, so why do you think we give a shit about your feelings?