Here’s an interesting post by someone claiming to be a former GamerGater on Reddit explaining why they left the, er, movement and helpfully summing up a lot of what’s wrong with it. At least when it comes to GG’s rampant hypocrisy. Take it away, turbonerdsupreme!
It was a mixture of things really, but I think the starting point was Milo’s “You take your tits out for a living tweets” to Liana K. Basically what gradually convinced me GG wasnt about ethics (journalistic or otherwise) was the bayonetta affair, and their sheer hypocrisy.
They claim to be fighting for Journalistic ethics, while supporting and championing highly unethical journalists like Milo and Pinsof. It’s also important not to forget the Bayonetta affair where they tried to pressure a publisher into pulling a Gerstmann, and dropping advertisments on a site that gave their game a bad review. THEY LITERALLY TRIED TO BRING ABOUT THE SECOND COMING OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS EXAMPLE OF CORRUPT GAMES JOURNALISM IN HISTORY.
They denounce journalists like Leigh Alexander, being rude to people on twitter, while joining in with and celebrating the outright bullying, abuse and harassment of Milo “real professional journalist” Yiannopolous (i’d hyperlink an example but there’s way too many of them to pick just one, this guy is really scum, google it)
They attack Anita for not providing good value for her kickstarter money, while supporting, glorifying and No I’m Spartacusing, someone who scammed around $15k out of people using kickstarter as well as the obvious scam that is the Sarkeesian effect. [Although good news is Sarkessian effect stuff is starting to be voted down sometimes on KiA] They also welcomed the support of the Amazing Atheist a known scammer
They mock Cheong’s neo-nazi past, while having Davis “white nationalist on paper” Aurini, Milo “Iron Cross” Yianoppulous/Wagner (seriously what the fuck is wrong with this guy), the Holocaust denying King of /poll, and Stormfront among them. Not to mention their propagating of anti-Semitic /pol/ memes and frequent use of Jew as a slur.
They Call Chu a rape apologist (a completely bullshit accusation), all the while endorsing Roosh “No never means no” V, and Mike “Why Should I care when women are raped?” Cernovich. [Although to be fair support for Roosh has met some opposition]
They get super mad at Sarkeessian for supposedly not even liking video games, all the while championing Christina “Still hasnt actually played any video games to my knowledge” Sommers, and Milo “Are you noticing a reoccurring theme here yet?” Yianopoulos.
They claim they want politics and politically charged thinktank funded academics out of video games, while supporting Christina “works for a rightwing think tank” Sommers.
They claim Anita is the new Jack Thompson while supporting Jack “The Old Jack Thompson” Thompson.
They claim Milo Yianopoulos has redeeming qualities as a human being, while being frequently exposed to his tweets, articles, and videos. While admittedly this is not hypocrisy it does show extremely poor judgement.
In conclusion the majority of GGers show such a massive double standard in their treatment of progressives and social conservatives, that it is impossible to construe it as anything other than a thinly veiled right wing socially conservative movement, with no real care for journalistic ethics. That is why I left.
The links scattered around in there are pretty illuminating.
H/T — A Division by Zer0
Is it too soon to feel a faint hope for humanity?
Wait, they support Jack Thompson?!?!
Yes, I could see where someone (especially someone who isn’t all that plugged into online feminism) could get sucked into Gamergate, especially since there are genuine problems with gaming media–and when that media helps you decide if you are going to plunk down $60 (or whatever a console-type game costs now–I am not a gamer) that is kind of personally important.
Which is funny, because Zoe Quinn released her game for free, with a request to donate to a charity for depression, so you don’t have to guess if you’ll like it and potentially be out some cash. And yet she’s the scandal they are concerned about.
Oh. i missed the previous story…
Derp
I reckon this is the point when those people who actually care about game journalism are realizing that GG is not about that at all, and they are being used. Better late than never, I suppose, but I hope nobody expects me to give a standing ovation because someone finally got half a clue and broke up with GG, but managed to never once mention the misogyny of GG as a reason in their breakup essay.
I’m not going to lie. I read a lot here but rarely comment because the posts make me despair for the future of humanity. I have a daughter. This is the world she’s going to make her life in. So I despair. But, like a bad train wreck, I can’t look away from Manboobz/Mammoth.
This is the happiest post I’ve ever read here. I am, for a change, not despairing. There are thinkers out there. They do have critical analysis. It is possible to change their minds with facts and shit.
Thank you, David Futrelle! Thank a metric tonne for this!
I found this linked on the cat vs. paper army video:
It’s very telling that these right wing movements always have to disguise themselves as something else to gain any traction.
This is my second favorite Vivian James art (second to the one Katz, I think, did about the SJW commando squad):
https://twitter.com/TFYCultMarxists/status/533651780803239936
This is an amazingly good post. Good job, turbonerdsupreme.
I’m not on board with this being a super-special-shiny-keen post. This post says, “GG didn’t do the things for me I thought it would do and I have a sad.” It does not say, “GG is full of misogynists whose only goal is to attack and silence women and that’s why I’m not behind it.” I come away with the impression that this ex-GGer was (and is) totally fine with the rape and death threats, so long as Jack Thompson and CHS aren’t under the tent trying to take away this person’s video games.
Baby steps, PoM. It takes a while for the GG conditioning to wear off. 😉
It says something about the State of Things Today that any sign of ‘I used to be completely disgusting, now I’m only mildly objectionable’ is heralded as the sign of better things.
Yes, it does, and yes, it is.
I think the comment above is the kind of thing that happens when someone steeped in ordinary misogyny and sexism comes across MRA-type misogyny–they are kind of okay with it, or not attuned enough to care about it if they hear about it, but get confused when the raging sexists are unable to do anything productive. Gamergate is even worse, because they have a paper-thin non-sexist justification–that they don’t do anything toward, because they don’t understand it.
And by “comment above”, I mean the Redditor in the OP, not Robert.
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have called it a “great post.” It’s VERY heartening to see someone stepping away from GG, and the post is very good at calling out the hypocrisy, but POM is right that it doesn’t really address the absolutely pervasive misogyny of GG.
PoM: ” ex-GGer was (and is) totally fine with the rape and death threats,”
The poster wasn’t explicit about that, but they didn’t think much of Roosh or Cernovich. “They Call Chu a rape apologist (a completely bullshit accusation), all the while endorsing Roosh “No never means no” V, and Mike “Why Should I care when women are raped?” Cernovich”
Which IMHO suggests they probably aren’t a fan of the rape and death threats. Of course, someone could go to Reddit and ask.
He does come out against rape apologists and their apologists. So there is hope…
I’m not accustomed to giving out hearty back-slaps of congratulations for baby steps.
Sharing an umbrella with literal terrorists and Nazis who threaten to rape and kill women wasn’t enough to get this ex-GGer to edge away from the movement. Nope, it took Jack Thompson, who as far as I’m aware has never threatened to murder anyone, coming in out of the rain for this person to go OMG enough is enough! I’m not going to defend Jack Thompson on the merits, but I think it’s safe to say that he’s not a spree killer waiting to happen. It says a whole lot that the terrorist spree killing threat was apparently A-OK by this ex-GGer but Jack Thompson is a bridge too far.
Also, how about that Mike Cernovich (see BoingBoing link)? It really speaks to his opportunistic nobodiness that I never heard of him until a couple of weeks ago, thanks to here.
I wish I still hadn’t, BTW. I can’t imagine anyone even liking him a little bit.
Then why wasn’t this posted to Reddit a week ago when Roosh started up his GG website? Why didn’t this GGer get out when Cernovich came on board?
If these things were offensive to this ex-GGer in any meaningful way, it wouldn’t have taken Jack Thompson to get this person to quit the group. This person would have been out the moment Cernovich hopped onto the bandwagon.
My substantial post to youtube video ratio is getting a bit high. Have some kittens:
@Policy of Madness
I absolutely agree PoC..this post is legitimately worth looking at..but lets not “sue for peace”..if I’m using the term correctly.
wordsp1nner – can you repost the Vivian James commando squad? I so want to rescue the poor kid.
BTW, any lurkers who may be reading this…do you notice how much us mean, intolerant feminists and feminist allies are celebrating over a single person turning away from the dark side, even if their “reformation” is lukewarm at best and for all the wrong reasons?
http://pierre.thecomicseries.com/comics/35
(If you haven’t read the rest of Pierre… do it.)
And I was right–it was by our own talented Katz.