GamerGaters claim they’re on the side of truth and righteousness, but they sure do love monologuing like cartoon villains.
They claim to be shocked by alleged evidence of journalistic collusion, yet they happily plot strategies and “operations” together both in secret and in broad daylight. They claim to be about ethics, but regularly employ not-so-subtle subterfuge to try to disguise their carefully coordinated propaganda campaigns as spontaneous uprisings.
This week, GamerGaters on 8chan launched a new “operation” to win over the hearts and minds of the masses on Tumblr. And it’s as ethically bankrupt as anything they’ve ever done.
Operation Firefly, as it’s officially known, is an attempt to take the GamerGate “fight” to a “new frontier.” Tumblr. As the originator of the initiative explains it in a somewhat less-than-stirring manifesto:
In recent weeks the revolt has been getting bogged down in a stalemate. Useless drama and e-celebrity happenings are sidetracking us and sapping our strength. We’ve become demoralized and are losing momentum. …
Time for a new frontier, a new fight, a new chance to spread the truth.
Apparently, the GamerGaters are beginning to realize that their current strategy of being dicks to people on Twitter isn’t paying off quite as well as they had hoped.
While Twitter can be considered an important part of the movement, it is one of the worst places to focus our efforts. Too much time, energy, and attention is currently being wasted there. … The only things twitter is good for are out-of-context quips and angry outbursts.
Twitter is wearing us down, and it’s becoming a red herring/albatross around our neck. It’s time to use our limited resources where they will be more effective.
So they’re Tumblr-bound.
As a group we’ve done a horrible job at reaching out to others and spreading our message. That’s a problem. Instead of waiting for people to come to us, we need to go to them. That’s why we need to go to Tumblr. Going forward, only 25% of the people who are currently on Twitter should continue to post and debate there. 25% should redeploy to fight on Youtube and defend our home turf while the other 50% should go to Tumblr.
But isn’t Tumblr full of, you know, girls? Well, yes, but even this obstacle can be surmounted with some calculated pandering.
Most users on Tumblr are teenagers between 12 and 20, and most of them are girls. They are very interested in fandoms, anime, and other memes. … A good idea would be to use popular anime characters and pokemon to get the #Gamergate message out. Another idea would be to create crossover fanart with Vivian James in it.
That’s right: use an imaginary girl to win over the real girls. Just try to avoid being too logical, because, as everyone knows, girls don’t logic.
Tumblr enjoys appeals to emotion. While rational debate is important, make sure you are making it personal.
And remember to use GamerGate’s “female and minority” members as your shield! Oh, sorry, as your totally not a shield.
A major effort will be spent on pushing our female and minority voices to the forefront via #notyourshield. the goal is to discredit and debunk the narrative and shut it off at the source.
Operation Firefly doesn’t have to limit itself to the GamerGate hashtag on Tumblr. Go ahead and flood all discussions of vidya games with your propaganda. Just don’t make it too obvious, guys!
In order to be effective, you must also talk about Gamergate in other relevant hashtags, such as popular video game titles like “Mario”.
And make a bit point of pretending to be a victim. Sorry, not pretending. Authentically being a victim.
Tumblr is a different place than what you’re used to, so take time to lurk if you must. You are the victim in order to gain sympathy and support.
Remember to support your comrades!
Any time you see a pro-gg post, you need to follow the poster and reblog it in order to signal boost. This increases solidarity and cohesion. Build numbers and stay in contact with each other.
Just don’t lay it on too thick with your propagandizing, lest the Tumblrites catch on to the fact that you’re part of an invading propaganda army. Maybe reblog some kitten pics too.
It’s important to be a real person and not some faceless nobody. This means you should round out your blog by reblogging interesting content you like from other, non gamer-gate related things.
And try to lay off the scary skull imagery.
[T]umblr enjoys relatable and homely things. Consider when conveying your opinions to produce approachable and likeable art pieces. Look at the “art motivation” comics, high reblogged and non sexual fan art, cute stories and the like. …
Don’t be afraid to turn Vivian James into Hello Kitty or a pony.
When cynically setting up a throwaway blog to spread GamerGate propaganda, try to avoid looking too much like a GamerGater cynically setting up a throwaway blog to spread GamerGate propaganda.
[H]aving a profile say why you love video games, why you’re a decent person and concluding with “I am a person and I support gamergate” will show you’re human. … If you are making a new account, don’t choose a name that has anything to do with video games or gg.
Yeah, the “Tumblrinas” will never be able to figure out what’s going on.
Oh, and do your best to not make it too obvious what a hateful dickweasel you really are.
[T]alking like a cunt can be really fucking hostile even if it sharply nails the point. I get some of you guys enjoy the shitslinging language and the fuckyouisms of the prominent youtuber, but it’s not inviting. That’s not to say you have to read like a Disney script, but the language you use will be one of the deciding factors in who you appeal to.
Sounds like a foolproof plan!
On 8chan, some of the regulars put forth suggestions of their own.
CUTE KITTENS ASSEMBLE!
Meanwhile, another 8chan anon tried to convince the GamerGate invaders to ix-nay the ane-Bay memes, at least on Tumblr.
So, y’know how Bane is basically the mascot of GamerGate in the chan community? He’s a good fit: A brutal revolutionary and since he’s a Christopher Nolan character, he’s automatically a man’s man, which for some reason appeals to a community defined by their love of a sedentary hobby. …
Bane will not work on tumblr. He’s a bad guy. He’s all big and beefy and while some subset of tumblr’s mostly female audience will like him, most prefer dexterous pretty boys (hence the neverending love for Benedict Cumberpatch and David Tennant).
So what can GamerGaters do to get around the Bane ban?
[O]ur tumblr mascot needs to be Katniss. She’s in an upcoming movie which means even tumblrites with extremely short attention spans know about her. She’s a revolutionary fighting against a corrupt government. She’s a teenage girl which makes her easier for the average tumblrite to associate with her. On tumblr, GG is Katniss.
Uh oh, nobody tell Vivian James she’s got some competition.
So how is the invasion going? Well, if you go to the GamerGate tag on Tumblr, you will indeed see a bunch of GamerGate spam in it.
So by GameGate standards, I guess they are WINNING.
are MRA’s waging online propaganda wars like this, too?
Other problems they’ll have: no one really looks at the big tags as they are ABSOLUTELY clogged with unrelated crap, you can’t actually put a mess of tags on a post to make it visible (only the first sixish get seen by search), it is SIGNIFICANTLY harder to pull the dogpile anyone that is critical of them strategy they use on twitter off, and tumblr staff is far better than twitters at nuking abusive shits
Do these people not realize we can see what they post publicly? Or do they think this makes them look good in the eyes of the public?
Saw an early incursion (that someone linked to, since Tumblr’s good about only showing stuff from your own echo chamber (which I kinda like)), and the dude’s slinging ANTI-SJWRARGH rhetoric. His account was SNORLAXKIN.
NOPE, not an obvious troll at all. NOPE.
Actually, President Snow, the Mockingjay Rebellion is about ethics in gaming journalism
So…twitter is exactly the perfect place for them.
TIL that I’m a mythical unicorn for a whole new reason (never mind this lady business): I can chan and tumblr!
Was that… A hint of almost-self-awareness? Holy shit, I never thought I’d see the day.
Good post David, but you might want to put a NSFW warning on that green monster picture or remove it all together. I’m guessing you just didn’t notice he’s fellating himself because it’s a cartoon and not that well drawn?
So the avatar of “The Leader of Gamergate” is a troll licking its erect penis.
Charming. But truth in advertising.
I wish that avatar hadn’t been so large, I’d missed the image up to this point. Ask katz what I thought her original(?) avatar was… LOL
tumblr won’t appeal to their bullying inclination. New eggs on twitter can force themselves onto your timeline, but tumblr users won’t see GG angry rants unless they purposely Follow them.
A perfect echo chamber for their movement to go die in.
I know that tumblr is a vast and varied place, but there have been a number of GG-mocking posts filtering over my dash in the last couple months, and they seem to be pretty widely dispersed already. Do the Gators really think that tumblrites don’t already know their misogynistic asshat ways?
They are also assuming tumblr isnt already completely aware of their bullshit, I’ve seen multiple posts with over 10K notes mentioning GG being affiliated with antifeminists/racists/PUAs/other scum
Wait, wasn’t Bane played by Tom Hardy? Lots of women on the internet love him. He seems like a good guy in interviews and also, there’s this
http://photos.laineygossip.com/articles/tom-hard-puppy-27dec13-03.JPG
Man, I know this has been mentioned before, but nothing makes the clear lack of perspective these people have more obvious than the language they use. “Limited Resources”, “Redeploy”, “Defend our home turf”, etc. Even if GamerGate WAS completely legitimate, that language would still be outrageous. Its a bunch of people arguing about video games on the internet. It’s not a conflict, its not a battle, its not a war. Its video game websites. You can see why some of these idiots feel like death threats and terrorism are justified.
Gamergaters really have the planning capabilities of a generic saturday morning cartoon villain.
Something tells me this isn’t going to go very well for them.
“In order to be effective, you must also talk about Gamergate in other relevant hashtags, such as popular video game titles like “Mario”.”
I get the feeling this was written by someone who doesn’t actually know that much about videogames
It does explain a cluster of sock followers that showed up this morning. Fortunately Tumblr has an iggy button.
They’re going to try the strategy of being nice and posting kittens? Really? How long do you think they can keep that up before the urge to start screaming randome epithets takes hold over them (like Regan, in The Exorcist) and they just start uncontrollably spewing bile?
Also I’ve been on Tumblr, it’s a lot harder to start a hate movement on there and most of the time the only options a person is given, to respond to posts, is to like or reblog. A person has to very deliberately find and go to their blog, in most cases.
I can hope that maybe some of the people who attempt to jump into tumblr and then have to think about and avoid the slurs and bigotry that they usually indulge in might actually realize that ‘Hey screaming slurs and doing other awful things is kind of shitty!’
These are Gators, so I don’t have much faith in them having a lick of self awareness, but I can hope.
And c’mon! How popular is Pokemon among the demographic they’re aiming for? They don’t even know who Katniss is, they just heard of her through hearsay.
“yeah, cuz all the young whippersnappers on Tumblr are into the animae and the twilight!”
This is getting beyond ridiculous.
@WWTH: I think one important characteristic of these guys is that they are really unable to distinguish between fantasy (or creative products) and reality. They only know Bane, they don’t think about the Batman movies (or anything else they consume) as creative products involving actual people who have a different character in the real world. That’s why they can only see the world as a giant conspiracy (all the really dumb AAA-games they hold dear have stories revolving around conspiracy, it’s one of the most overused tropes in lazy storytelling), that’s why they talk like cartoon villains (because they see those guys as powerful, not as overblown characters in a deliberately overblown story), and that’s also the source of their pathos, lack of self -awareness and use of old propaganda.
And getting worked up into a frothy rage with other people in a frothy rage on 8chan is totes more proper internet use than girls looking at cute kittens on Tumblr.
Those Tumblr users aren’t real internet users.
The LOLs:
“In recent weeks the revolt has been getting bogged down in a stalemate.” Actually, it’s not a stalemate, the GG side is losing.
“Useless drama and e-celebrity happenings are sidetracking us and sapping our strength.” With GGers being the ones creating the drama and using e-celebrities.
“We’ve become demoralized and are losing momentum.” Good job too, couldn’t have happened to a more deserving pack of arseholes.
That troll is a frog lmao. There are TONS of frog meme memes on tumblr, at least where I blog. Anyways who do they think they are fooling? A lot of tumblr already knows who they are and what they are and that they are deluded turds. Also 3/4 of tumblr hates the Hunger Games series because of the white-washing of Katniss, so good luck with that (also… not a video game character or a video game playing character so it completely lacks relevance to their message but whatever).
Lol. Gators don’t understand how online spaces work. Do they think Tumblr is sealed off from the rest of the Internet and teenage girls never venture beyond their own dashboards? It’s so hilarious that they think this is some sort of virgin territory ready to be conquered, full of gullible children who will agree with anything as long as there’s a picture of Katniss Everdeen attached. It’s patronizing, but it’s also incredibly naive and shows exactly how incapable they are of understanding the culture outside their own echo chamber.
Like, if GG supporters literally need to be told that using homophobic slurs and ableist language is going to tank their credibility anywhere except their own cesspit of a messageboard, the future of the “movement” does not look so bright.