Today, a quick quiz to see how closely you’ve been following controversies in the world of video gaming. Well, a quiz that’s sort of been shoehorned into a poll. The correct answer(s) come after the bump. Enjoy!
ANSWER: The only quote from Sarkeesian was the final one. The rest of the quotes come from disbarred attorney Jack Thompson, the infamous anti-videogame crusader who, in one of the more headsmackingly ironic twists in the whole #GamerGate saga, is garnering plaudits from #GamerGaters because he said a few negative things about Sarkeesian in an interview with Jordan Owen for the allegedly forthcoming alleged documentary The Sarkeesian Effect.
Here are a few Tweets I’ve borrowed from a Storify collection put together by the indefatigable @a_man_in_black.
https://twitter.com/JakALope044/status/534823156641312768
In retrospect, Jack Thompson doesn't really seem like that bad of a guy.https://t.co/gUnoRssTpZ #GamerGate #OpSKYNET #NotYourShield
— BenLuke (@ben_legion) November 18, 2014
https://twitter.com/VesuvianPrime/status/534821409810546688
https://twitter.com/Dyucks/status/534821715915046912
Can't you just smell the irony of Jack Thompson signing up against corruption? Maybe the media lied?#Solution6 #GamerGate #OpSKYNET
— Mr.Bones (@40KEKS) November 18, 2014
The things Jack Thompson is saying are reasonable. He just never upheld them as a lawyer. #GamerGate
— Jackie Brown (@GOBBBluth) November 18, 2014
https://twitter.com/Pugnodigranito/status/534825645550104576
https://twitter.com/thewtfmagazine/status/534826963706576897
Bobby K and Jack Thompson just go to show that people are more complex than how we demonize them. #GamerGate's been amazing, man.
— 華胥の亡霊 🍥 (@saigyoujisama) November 18, 2014
>inb4 this thread gets screencapped by man in black to prove we totes love jack thompson pic.twitter.com/HFRC1O0dCD
— zaratustra (parody account) 🍉 (@zarawesome) November 18, 2014
Boy, it seems like only yesterday that Sarkeesian’s enemies were comparing her to Jack Thompson in order to make her look bad. Oops, my bad. It was the day before yesterday.
For the sources of all the Thompson quotes, see here. Sarkeesian’s quote is from here.
GGers really are taking the view that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” a trope that is rarely true and only believed by the naive. Most people/organizations with multiple enemies are pleased when those enemies begin fighting each other, because this is the rational response almost all of the time. GGer’s take the unsophisticated-comic-book position instead.
Occasionally, though, the trope is true. Every now and then you really do want to ally yourself with a former enemy to gang up on the much more dangerous foe.
The fact that they hooked up with Jack Thompson, the guy who actually does want to get rid of video games and has taken actual legal and political steps toward this goal, to gang up on Anita Sarkeesian, who just says that video games could be less lazy and more inclusive, tells you exactly what they think is the more dangerous possible outcome.
GGers are actually telling us that they think destroying video games forever would be a preferable outcome to having female characters wear sensible armor and have agency. But GG is not about misogyny, nosirreebob. No misogyny there!
So they’d rather have their games literally taken away than confront a few sexist tropes, then?
– I didn’t mean to offend anyone
– I’m sorry *if* I offended anyone
– I love
– I have an friend/colleage/neighbor/spouse
–
– You misunderstood me
– My intentions were good
Rest assured they’ll find it…
Wow, these guys are making it really easy to discredit them. This is just another piece of evidence that this whole fiasco is only about hating women, if THAT’S the glue that holds these almost completely opposite positions together. Thompson literally despises gamers, but as long as he’s on board with hating their least favorite woman it’s A-ok. Keep burying yourself guys.
Sorry, formatting problems:
– I didn’t mean to offend anyone
– I’m sorry *if* I offended anyone
– I love [oppressed group]
– I have an [oppressed group] friend/colleage/neighbor/spouse
– [“compliment” about oppressed group, bonus points if objectifying, condescending or stereotypical]
– You misunderstood me
– My intentions were good
Yay! Julian car-Blanc-le (sorry, I’m not good at puns) won’t be stepping onto Briatain’s shores any time soon. 😀
This still doesn’t put our Home Secretary in my good books, though. >:( Still a nasty Tory.
The cognitive dissonance is strong with these GamerGits. It’s a wonder their heads don’t explode from it.
Of course that’s a big part of it. Compare the vitriol Felicia Day for mild criticism while Chris Kluwe was left alone even though he absolutely eviscerated them.
That’s not the whole story though I don’t think. GG is not about ethics in games journalism. It’s not even about games at all. It’s a loose group of reactionary right wingers who use the tag to rail against social justice. At first glance it seems inconsistent for them to embrace all these people who have expressed disdain for games and gamers. But it isn’t at all. Because this is about nothing more than a right wing circle jerk and any right winger is welcomed to the party.
Good news about Blanc. Now if we could only ban him from the US. Unfortunately, it takes a whole lot to be banned from this country. The only time I’ve heard of it was with people on terrorism watch lists.
– I’m being unfairly picked on and targeted.
– They’re conspiring/jealous.
– I did it because of my childhood/unrelated bad things that happened to me/my mother.
– Let’s look at the bigger picture here.
– Nobody’s perfect.
I mean, you read those tweets, saying things like “we have found people to be complex”, “we don’t demonize the way they do, see how we treat Jack”, and “Jack Thompson explains the first amendment” and you wonder how their heads do not simply explode due to the cognitive dissonance not slapping, but out right punching them in the face in their tweets.
I noticed in the poll results that a few people thought the Jack quotes were Anita’s. I’m guessing that means a few trolls took the quiz.
What the bloody hell does “based” mean? Why do they call it “vidya”? Why don’t Gamergate speak like normal people?
Non-Apology Bingo sounds great. 🙂 How about:
– I’m sorry people have chosen to take offense at this.
– I had NO IDEA that people would be SO SENSITIVE about this, guys!
– I didn’t think I would ever get caught.
– I’m sorry but it’s not my fault if people were dumb enough to follow my bad advice.
– I orchestrated the whole thing, but it totally got out of hand and beyond my control.
OR –> I’m the Leader, but I’m not responsible for the extremists in my group.
– I’m sorry that I had to do it, but it was totally justifiable and I still stand by all of it.
– I’m making this apology because *person in position of authority* told me I had to do it.
– Instead of making a public apology, I resign from my job, never to be held accountable.
Am I doing it right?
Tanya Nguyen: “Jack Thompson explains the first amendment”
I don’t know why, but the phrasing made me imagine a children’s picture book with that as the title.
Wait, we supposed to answer the quiz without snarky sarcasm? My bad…
*we were, that is.
So yesterday zombie Rod Serling crawled out of his grave and gave me an unexpected high-five out of nowhere. Now I know why because that is straight out of a Twilight Zone episode.
davidknewton:
Slang/memes from Reddit/4chan. I’m not sure if they realise how incomprehensible they sound to non-channers, but I think they like the fact that it makes them seem more like an exclusive club.
You know, like when children make up a secret code language and then point and laugh at other kids who have no clue what they’re talking about.
Oh, but you see, he voiced an antifeminist position therefore he automatically became Based Censor.
Thus Spake Zaradavidknewton:
Subcultures often use terminology as a way of distinguishing in-group from out-group. This isn’t inherently a bad thing on its own; it’s akin to the in-jokes that only you and your friends understand.
Cults and other extreme ideologies, however, tend to invent and redefine words as a sort of memetic inoculation against out-group thinking. “You’re worried that I’m throwing my life away, but that’s field thinking.” “The media won’t talk about white extinction because of their ethnomasochism.” “David called me a woman-hater, but he’s just a total beta. Probably getting cucked as we speak.”
The degree to which Gamergate indulges in this practice, and the implications thereof, are left as an exercise to the reader.
The “Literally Who” things reminds me of a girl in my class who used to get bullied a lot when we were around eight. A specific group of other girls used to make cruel jokes about her, deliberately within earshot – they loved trying to get a rise out of her because she was known for flying off the handle very easily. She would explode, the bullies would feign innocence, she would end up looking like the aggressor, etc. Classic pattern. Anyway, our teacher wasn’t stupid and got wise to this tactic and told the little shits to cut it out.
The bullies got around this sanction by inventing nicknames for Anna. They were all based on eight year-old logic, and therefore totally inane and usually born of some private in-joke. But anyway, it was still abundantly clear who they were targeting and Anna would still tearfully confront them from time to time. At which point, they would go into “GOD, you’re so vain, I can’t believe you thought we were talking about YOU, I’m going to tell teacher that you’re listening to our PRIVATE conversation!” So Anna would feel flustered and humiliated and powerless to do anything while these girls continued to tear her down under the masterful guise of discussing “Mrs. Banana”.
I feel like GammerGag, as a movement, has just about achieved the same level of reasoning and maturity.
@tinyorc & davidnewton: The slang is a good indication that most of the impetus for Gamergate is mob mentality. They’re putting on performances for friends for praise, rather than trying to reach outside the community to make a change.
That about the only intelligent thing I can say about any of this. This is like the communist party praising Joseph McCarthy. This is a black hole of cognitive dissonance, and I’m caught in the event horizon.
Completely off topic, but holy shit, State of New York, do you have enough snow?!??!! Are all the mammotheers there doing okay?
So the upshot is, we have no idea what “Based” means except that it’s positive? Gotcha.