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.
These guys are rather facepalm-worthy with their over-the-top rhetoric. “25% of us should redeploy to YouTube! 50% to Tumblr! WE WILL FIGHT THEM IN THE HASHTAGS! WE WILL FIGHT THEM ON THE REBLOGS!”
I can see “The GamerGator” as a 4th-tier supervillian fighting The Tick and Arthur alongside Chairface Chippendale: “You don’t undertand, you big blue doofus, it’s about ETHICS IN GAMING JOURNALISM!” *snap*
tinyorc: Many of the hardcore GGers are awash in MRA/PUA stupidity so of course they think women and girls are stupid, shallow, vapid, and emotional.
Until Elliot Rodger’s manifesto and the ensuing discussion I didn’t really get how much they HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE women. They want relationships SO BAD but they’ve internalized these horrifically misogynist ideas. So it frustrates them when they are rejected, which fuels their loathing of women, which means they are more likely to be rejected, which further fuels their loathing…
You joke, bu they’ve already favourably compared their “Movement” to WWI, so WWII can’t be far behind.
*But.
Gotta hand it to them, coming up with a plan that almost rivals ‘trapping earthbenders in a quarry’ for its guaranteed failure.
But not quite. ‘The Last Airbender’ still sucks slightly more.
Bernardo Soares:
The more I read from Gators, the more this rings true for me.
A long time ago at this point, Anita Sarkeesian gave a TED talk about online harassment and cybermobs. Her key point was that the harassment against her was being conducted like a campaign in MMORPG. Because I wasn’t following the whole shitshow particularly closely at the time, I didn’t quite understand what she meant. But two years later, it makes perfect sense. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAxwsg9J9Q#t=38
The whole rhetoric of GG seems to have some sort of fundamental disconnect with reality. They’re not out to win to raise awareness or start conversations or delve deeper into difficult concepts: they’re out to “win”, where the definition of “win” doesn’t really matter, as long as there is a “mission” or an “operation” to get involved with. When it becomes clear they’re not “winning”, they try a different map (Twitter is too hard, let’s move on to Tumblr!) or change the game altogether (ethics! no wait, bullying! no wait, cultural marxism!) It’s the most bizarre mindset, but I’m not feeling very coherent right now and can’t quite articulate what I’m trying to say. But Sarkeesian’s video makes so much sense to me. Which is not really surprising, since there’s a huge overlap between Gators and people who’ve been harassing her since her Kickstarter launched. It’s all the same clowns, the only difference is they’ve got a hashtag now.
I have not read nor seen any of that series but I’m interested in knowing what was whitewashed exactly.
I’m not going to say that tumblr is immune to groupthink (because that would be a bald-faced lie), but this is exactly the wrong sort of thing to push on tumblr. Tumblr is far more prone to extreme acceptance than extreme rejection, and Gators are way too fond of being obnoxiously offensive to mask themselves properly.
They might gain some traction with the anti-SJs, but even that group is turning on people who advertise their bigotry too strongly. I predict even more echo chambers and a feeding frenzy of call-outs.
In the original novels, Katniss was described as having ‘olive’ skin, grey eyes, and dark hair. She was from a coal-miner’s family; the only fair-haired people where she lived were the merchants.. But the casting call for the movie explicitly requested ‘Caucasian’, despite the fact that the book described someone with more of a Mediterranean look.
There was a really big stink about this even before the first movie came out.
“redeploy” That’s rich. They think they’re an army instead of a loose group of sexist, misogynistic, racist asshats. I also love how the author has to plead with them not to post porn drawings of Vivian James.
And Bane… a man’s man. Fuck them. Bane isn’t Christopher Nolan’s, he’s a Mexican Luchador, with a drug problem and more amazing than that white washed hack writing job that was in the movie.
Oh, and a very long post going over this entire plan has been on tumblr for a few days, so we, uh, kinda knew they were coming and have our ignore buttons ready. :3
I love the not-very-subtle implication that teenage girls are stupid and shallow and oblivious in there, too. Way to not be misogynists, GGers.
@Rabukurafuto
It’s been a while since I read the books, but I’m pretty sure Katniss is described to have dark/olive skin and dark hair and is supposed to be a POC, but the movies cast a white actress.
Additionally, I believe, the movies removed Katniss’ hearing loss, Peeta’s lost/prosthetic leg, and the Avoxes, and is looked poorly upon for thus erasing handicapped people’s contributions and struggles. Though that doesn’t fall under whitewashing so much as erasure, really.
Granted, at least Rue, who was described as black in the books, was actually cast with a black actress, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Redcap:
Also, Tumblr is a difficult platform to “push” things on in general. You can’t really force visibility on Tumblr in the way you can on Twitter, by flooding the mentions of prominent users, etc. I’d say GG would get eaten alive by Tumblr, but it seems like they’re largely being ignored.
Thank you. I thought at first the whitewashing referred to Anita Sarkeesian’s supposed complaints about the last book (I don’t know for sure if she actually complained or not; I only heard she disliked it). I can certainly see why people would complain about casting a lighter performer. Now it annoys me that friends of mine get into the story from the films and ignore this issue after reading the novels.
Johanna Roberts:
Operation Firefly: “Guys, we really need to cool it with all the porn and hate speech if this is going work!”
Truly, a movement defined and driven by ethics.
@Tinyorc I know, I feel so ethically infused after reading that. Or is the word ‘disgusted’? Yeah, that’s the word.
Yeah, Katniss’ racial background was deliberately left up for debate (probably Middle Eastern or Mediterranean), but she sure as hell wasn’t white until Hollywood got to her.
Operation Firefly: let’s coopt the name of a show made by a feminist for our campaign (http://www.salon.com/2014/11/06/joss_whedon_every_time_im_confronted_with_true_misogyny_im_stunned_partner/)
Tumblr has a strong geeky fandom population — and geeky fandoms tend to already know about, and mostly loathe, GamerGate. Tumblr people tend to spend an awful lot of time on the internet, and so they already know what GG is about and have already formed opinions on it.
The only thing I can figure is that the gators have heard each other mock Tumblr users as brainless sheeple often enough that they’ve actually begun to believe it. Otherwise, I cannot fathom what they hope to accomplish. Seriously, if their usual assumption about Tumblr is that it’s one enormous SJW echo chamber, why does it seem like a viable idea join up expressly to fling misogynistic doodie everywhere?
That anthropomorphised frog appears to be blowing it’s self. That happened. Hmm.
Why does every. single. one. of gamergate’s “operations” involve them trying to trick people into supporting them?
Just wanted to give David a heads up that it looks like gamergate doxxed another person. Comedian by the name of Brock Wilbur. http://digg.com/2014/when-gamergate-hits-the-wrong-target
I’ve seen a Gamergate meme using a character from one of my favorite fandoms being posted on tumblr long before now – with notes that the Gamergaters probably aren’t the least bit familiar with the fandom (I suspect they only used a particular character because he’s purple and green). I suspect all of their efforts will end up having a similar reception.
@Johanna Roberts
Bane’s very background story in the comic is breaking more laws of physics and human psychology and physiology than Batman’s. He is a pretty goddamn ridiculous character, even for a cape comic.