Watch out, Milo Yiannopoulos, you’ve got competition! #GamerGate has a new journalistic champion — and this one, like Milo, seems to have come straight from central casting, a virtual embodiment of every snooty reactionary preppie stereotype from every bad 80s movie.
A libertarian think tanker and erstwhile journalist with the unlikely name of Mytheos Holt, this new contender has one great advantage over young Milo: as you can see in the photo above, which I have not photoshopped in any way, he appears to be made entirely of wax — which means that unless someone accidentally sets him near a heater he will last forever.
Mytheos’ first intervention in #GamerGate comes in the form of a long opinion piece in the right-wing e-rag Daily Caller that attempts to recast the GamerGater struggle as a glorious resistance campaign to an ongoing #WaronNerds by “Far-Left Feminists And The Media.” Mytheos, who looks so much like an archetypical tormenter-of-nerds, might seem an unlikely GamerGate champion, but he’s a gamer, too, and his piece has been embraced warmly by the GG masses.
Commenters in Kotaku in Action, Reddit’s most influential GamerGate hangout, describe his piece as “excellent,” “insightful,” and “incredibly well researched.”
“Time for #WarOnNerds to start trending,” writes one enthusiastic commenter. “Welcome to the next level, Mytheos,” adds another, “we’re the only people in the history of ever to beat Social Justice, and this train has no brakes.”
The enthusiasm for the article might at first seem a little strange, given that Mytheos starts out by comparing GamerGaters to … a British teenager who earlier this year stabbed some girls in the face:
On February 11, 2014, the Daily Mail reported on the case of 19-year-old Ryan Walker, a thin, bespectacled “wimp” by reputation who, upon being bullied one too many times by some neighborhood girls, attacked them furiously, stabbing one in the face and bashing the other’s head against the pavement. …
And so it was that half a year before it began, #Gamergate was explained.
But the rest of Mytheos’ post reaffirms most of the GamerGate mythos: that it is a fight against corruption, not a campaign terrorizing outspoken women in gaming, and that it actively roots out the harassers in its midst. Above all, Mytheos argues that GamerGate, however rough it might be around the edges, is a justified rebellion against the Social Justice Warrior oppressors.
Mytheos’ indictment of the (alleged) evil leftist nerd-tormenters is as histrionic, and as utterly divorced from reality, as any GamerGate manifesto pasted into a bad infographic:
Along with their furious denunciations of the gaming press, the movement also appears to be fighting a new culture war — one against a new, radical and dangerously illiberal left which marinates in a hideous quagmire of resentment, smugness, vacuousness and contempt for free discussion. This movement prefers the vile ochlocracy of the Twitter mob … celebrates the Maoist public shaming of doxxing, and seems incapable of distinguishing between a .gif and an argument.
In case you’re wondering, ochlocracy means “government by mob.” It pays to increase your word power!
Make no mistake, when it comes to #Gamergate, both the SJWs and the gaming press are facing a backlash that is not only thoroughly warranted, but of their own making. …
America’s nerds are fighting back against what they rightly see as ages of persecution and dismissal by an extreme left wing fringe that they believe has co-opted the very press they used to trust and used it as a weapon of oppression despite claiming to speak for the oppressed. …
Their case is historically next-to-impossible to dispute.
Well, at least until Mytheos actually tries to make such a case. His alleged proof of the ongoing oppression of nerds by the SJW?
- TotalBiscuit, YouTube blabber and “moderate” GamerGater, has been “flamed” by GamerGate critics
- Sam Biddle of Gawker made a couple of joking Tweets declaring that “Nerds should be constantly degraded and shamed into submission.”
- Aaron Sorkin once described the dudes of Silicon Valley as “a very angry and deeply misogynistic group of people. These aren’t the cuddly nerds we made movies about in the 80′s.”
- The Nice Guys of OKCupid blog
Mytheos leans pretty hard on #4, devoting more time and energy to railing against the “feminist cruelty” of the Nice Guys of OkCupid blog (and those who were amused by it) than he does to the alleged “journalistic corruption” that is supposedly the real reason for GamerGate.
Indeed, aside from mentioning Biddle’s Tweets and taking a few swipes at Valleywag, the Silicon Valley blog that Biddle used to work at, Mytheos offers no real critique of journalistic corruption at all. NiceGuys of OkCupid, by contrast, gets more than 600 words, as Mytheos stands up (sort of) for the honor of a group he describes as
dumpy, white, awkward looking men whose primary crime in their profiles was expressing either insufficiently feminist viewpoints … or simply of being sad or angry about their lack of romantic options.
Yep. Mytheos does indeed seems to be suggesting that GamerGate is fundamentally driven by the resentment of “dumpy” white dudes who can’t get a date.
In a lot of ways, his argument is a cruder, and crueller, version of an argument I made about Men’s Rights Activists a few weeks back. In my post, I asked if
the rage that drives so many MRAs come from the same dark place in the psyche as the rage that so many romantically and sexually rejected feel towards their exes? …
Think of the fury many divorced MRAs feel towards their exes and women at large. Think of the self-pitying rage of “nice guys” MRAs in their teens and twenties who feel they’ve been unfairly “friendzoned” by stuck-up women. …
The self-righteous rage of the rejected is a dangerous thing. It’s dangerous when it’s directed at individual women. And it’s dangerous when it’s directed at women at large.
The continuing debacle that is GamerGate, which after all was called into existence by one dude’s long diatribe against the alleged evils of his ex-girlfriend, seems to reinforce this point every single day.
It’s just strange to see a supporter of GamerGate making a similar, if more simplistic, case — and being applauded for it by the very guys he describes so patronizingly as angry dateless “losers.”
NOTE: Make your own Mytheos Holt #NotYourShield memes here! And post them in the comments below!
@FifthInterval:
I will admit, there’s a bit of DIY zine charm to the Chick Tracts, but what benefits a man, to charm with form, yet horrify with content?
It’s certainly telling. Particularly because you are outraged at…other people being outraged…
A lot of Sarkeesian “critics” and GGers really love to deflect the issue of death threats and harassment, acting as if those aren’t a big deal, and make it about how others are making them “feel bad.”
Well, what the fuck did you expect?! When you do things like harass and doxx others, especially women (one being accused of sleeping her way “to the top”), or justify them – of course people are going to call out your shit and probably call you mean names. That’s what happens with that whole “free speech” thing.
It’s kind of hard for me to give a shit about someone’s feelings when they don’t care enough to consider how victims of harassment or doxxing feel.
*boogies ’cause tonight I play two more hours of I6 Castle Ravenloft*
It’d be more, but, you know…
http://i.imgur.com/kWx7ebF.jpg
and
http://i.imgur.com/sfd0URG.jpg
They are oddly compelling, I can see how people predisposed to think that Satan lurks in every corner might find them convincing. Think of it as a gift for storytelling wasted on stories that make no sense at all.
Because being against social justice is such a righteous cause!
Gotta love how GibberGrubbers are still revving the triumphant tone engines after even their meager “accomplishments” (the ad pulling) got rolled back. They think they’re going to beat social justice by personally attacking a handful of indie developers and journalists? Oh golly. I thought we were dealing with an all-powerful conspiracy here.
Aw, chunky little kid legs are so cute, I always want to squeeze them. Why does he have his trouser leg rolled up, though?
I’m a little disappointed that this is a parody, at first I thought Chick was playing with fire and Marvel’s legal department:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii295/jqpublique/ChickFF01-701.jpg
This story hits way closer to home than I’d wish.
@cassandrakitty: I hadn’t noticed that! We just got out of the car when I took those pictures, I guess it got pushed up against the car seat, or maybe when I picked him up.
Those flowers are right outside their nursery school, and since it got down to near 20 here last night I’m worried that they died.
… Anybody got cloudiah’s email?
I thought you were training him to be a Mason! Either that or he’s curious about the wonders of frostbite, because it looks damn cold there.
I think we were a bit overdressed, but the low that morning had been about 34.
And nah, I’m training him to cosplay as a Regency toff, with pantaloons and leggings.
Thus Spake Zaratemporalstorm:
Butbutbut male genocide is TOTALLY A REAL THING that some woman, somewhere, sometime, ACTUALLY ADVOCATED, maybe probably it’s entirely possible! So mocking it just demonstrates how misandrist modern feminist-dominated society is! Also, death professions! Male disposability! WHY ISN’T THERE A PROSTATE CANCER AWARENESS MONTH? ::ragesplode::
Shoulder pads? Check. I haven’t seen ones that big since, oh, about 1990 or so. And that was when WOMEN used to wear them. I hated those with a passion, and the manufacturers were putting them into everything — blazers, coats, even blouses and sweaters. You’d end up wearing two, three or four layers of them easily. I used to rip them out. I probably still have a bag of ’em hidden in the sewing-room closet somewhere.
And what the fuck is it with all these right-wing pseudo-journos and their silly costumes, anyway? Used to be just Tucker Carlson with his stupid little bowtie; I used to wish someone would wind it up and make him buzz around the room like a toy airplane. Someone must have told him he looked like a twit, because he’s since traded it for normal ties. Unfortunately, his “reporting” is still fact-free and jejune as hell. Then it was James Fucking O’Keefe and his “black” pimp drag. He’s still at it, apparently, although he swapped the ratty fur coat for a fake ‘stache so he would look 40ish. And now it’s this guy, who’s obviously all empty suit and unlit cigar. I guess it’s all that these guys deserve anyway, since they probably voted for Dubya (All Hat, No Cattle) Bush. Or their daddies did, more like it. And they themselves think that putting on a trilby (and calling it a fedora) will magically turn them into Humphrey Bogart.
Or hose, for that matter.
@Falconer Such littles sweeties.
Well, better that little kids are a bit warm than too cold, but they will tend to try to undress themselves if they feel like they have too many layers on.
@Bina: Oh god, I haven’t thought about Bow Tie Boy or James Fucking O’Keefe in ages. Last I heard, J. F. O’Keefe was legit on the receiving end of attempted rape charges.
@ Bina
Did you ever cut the shoulder pads out of things? I did with cheap stuff that I knew my mom wouldn’t be too angry if I ruined.
Once that trend died I think they repurposed the exact same foamy inserts for use as the push up part of push-up bras.
@randomavatar
I laughed when I read that sentence in the op. “Take that, justice!” is something No Heart, the Care Bears villain, might say.
It does kind of seem like the following sentence should have been “Mwah hah hah”.
Oh, loads of times. I left them in the jackets and coats because (a) those were structured and (b) the padding was between the shell and the lining in most cases, but took them out of blouses and sweaters all the time. Usually they were just tacked in with a few stitches at either end, so all it took was a couple of snips of the embroidery scissors. Some were actually sewn to the shoulder seams, though, and took a seam ripper to get out. My mom never liked them either, so she was totally behind me on that one. As long as there was no damage to the outside of the garment, getting rid of them was never a problem.
And LOL, yup, the WonderBra came along right in time to use up all the foam rubber that would otherwise have gone to waste.
Ah yes, the dildo-boat incident. His fiendish plan was foiled because the woman he was trying to “seduce” didn’t take the bait. He did get fined, though.
Well, they’re right about the “this train has no brakes” part.
@Bina, actually I read an account where he was working with someone on some project, set up a meet in a house (converted out of a barn, don’t know why that stuck with me), and tried to pressure her into sex. I can’t recall if he tried to drug her or not, but I think she got away, or he left in a huff.
Yup. Unfortunately it’s filled with toxic sludge. And as Alpha pointed out at the very beginning of the thread, it keeps ramming into its own caboose.
(Funny thing, though…here in Canada, at any rate, cabooses have become vanishingly rare. I live near both the CN and CP tracks, and have hardly ever seen any. Trains are getting bigger, but their crews seem to have shrunk.)
Her name was Nadia Naffe, she worked with him on the dildo-boat incident, then he roofied her and abandoned her in a renovated barn on his parents’ property.
Here’s a typically-breathless Wonkette piece about it.