#GamerGaters have been spending a lot of time lately trying to convince the world that they’re really quite reasonable people, actually, and that the “movement’s” reputation as a hotbed of hateful bullying is undeserved.
Today on 8Chan’s /gg/ board, for example, one enterprising anon announced the start of “OP FIREHEART,” a combination of “Operation Firefly + Operation Lonely Hearts.”
Operation Firefly, you may recall, is GamerGate’s attempt to flood Tumblr with Tumblr-fied versions of their standard propaganda. Operation Lonely Hearts is a more recent “op,” an attempt to hijack a new meme started and spread by people critical of GamerGate, in which Twitterers and others replace their avatars with heart-shaped icons to indicate their support of a diverse gaming world open to all. GamerGaters have appropriated these heart-shaped icons and are using them to spread their own terrible message.
Op FireHeart aims to take these GamerGated hearts to Tumblr.
The weheart.io heartpix we made are amazing and powerful. But we can take them one step further, and use OP Firefly to help them spread on Tumblr and Social Media. They are the type of post that Tumblr can’t get enough of. They’re artsy, fun and minimalistic.
Here’s the plan- we make a lot more of those memes, but we use popular anime and vidya characters along with people from superwholock /homestuck /mlp etc. Include hot guys and gals and load up on those pop culture references.
See guys we like anime so therefore we can’t be all bad right? NO ONE WILL SEE THROUGH THIS CLEVER RUSE.
Really, anything can be made into a fireheart meme. Pictures of food, alcohol, parties- make it fun and spreadable.
We post the images in those tags (where the character came from), with one simple message underneath: #Gamergate loves you. It’s a show of support and outreach, nothing else- but it will make a lot of neutrals curious.
Even aside from the fact that this propaganda campaign is, you know, transparently cynical and obvious – if you’re going to try to dupe the world it’s generally a bad idea to let the world know about it first – there’s one giant problem with Operation FireHeart and the RebuildInitiative and all of GamerGate’s attempts to win the PR war by pretending to be nice, and that is: WE CAN SEE YOU.
Evidence of your bad faith and bigotry is everywhere; you can’t wash it away with a letter-writing campaign or heart-shaped anime avatars.
Oh, you want evidence? Well, look no further than this thread from yesterday on 8chan. After one anon posted screenshots of an actual polite Twitter conversation they had with a woman GamerGaters have been going after lately, the thread quickly degenerated into a transphobic nightmare after one anon declared that the woman in question was “a man, baby.”
Some, er, highlights of what followed. Oh, and Trigger Warning for some really horrible transphobic crap.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that heart-shaped anime avatars aren’t going to dig you out of the hole your’re continually digging for yourself.
Oh, but there’s more.
That last comment is what passes for a “moderate” voice in this thread. It helped to inspire this, er, debate.
There’s not enough perfume in the world to make this shit smell sweet.
For more on this thread, and on “reasonable” GamerGaters, see “Polite” GGers – A Case Study, an excellent Storify of some recent Tweets from @alexlifschitz, which is what alerted me to this toxic thread.
And in other depressing news, some 4channers — remember them? — are launching a new “op” of their own … designed to drive trans folks to suicide. See here and here for more details. (Neither is a link to 4chan.) I can’t even.
If you MUST suck shit, please do so offline. Nobody online is interested in your shit-suckitude.
Sorry if I got the goddess’s name wrong
http://imgur.com/0GITZfh
And, it’s fruitloopsie with another winning meme!
For those playing along at home, here’s how a civilised society deals with Internet trolls – jails their asses!
http://m.bbc.com/news/uk-29678989
Hail Facepalming Durga!
For anyone who has been affected by the suicide of a friend, they know what it’s like to spend hours silently churning through memories of every conversation they had with them, or every unkind or thoughtless word or action that ever passed between them, worrying that even a tiny smidgeon of the pain they felt had been caused by them. That kind of grief is horrible.
To think that there are these vile shitgoblins, hundreds of miles away, deliberately conspiring to chip away at the self-esteem of some stranger, someone precious to someone… It’s sickening.
What right do they have to say these things? What right do they have to lie, and bully, and jibe, and threaten and abuse?? NONE. It’s not even covered by Free Speech, because their human rights are meant to protect them from that kind of hatred. In lots of places, it’s considered a crime to encourage someone to commit suicide.
Fuck you, Liberbarbarian.
These shit-stains get off on it, knowing trolls like you will defend their right to do it.
Where is the fucking line exactly? Each isolated “mean thing” said on Twitter doesn’t amount to enough evidence to make someone “responsible” for the death. The bastards KNOW this. That’s why they operate en masse. They know that there is not enough to call out each individual for the death they have caused, they can absolve themselves of guilt because there is a sweet cushion of plausible deniability between their actions and the very real and permanent consequences, that keeps cause and effect far removed from each other. A cushion you are helping hold in place for them, you miserable abuse apologist.
Harassment is death by hornet stings, death by a thousand million pinpricks, death by a rain of arrows. It is deliberate and it is torturous and each sting, each prick, each arrow, is a senseless act of violence.
I am so fucking DONE with people defending these disgusting, monstrous evils in the name of “freedom”. I want to the Internet to be free from fear and hatred.
@AltoFronto, best post ever.
AltoFronto and others,
David did get back to me and said that troll is banned. So at that bullshit won’t be in this thread anymore.
Thank you!
Thank you, weirwoodtreehugger.
Sir Bodsworth:
I’ll have two ethics onna stick, thanks.
Good riddance to that halfwitted troll.
My biggest mistakes were not heeding the transphobia warning and reading at 3 in the morning when I’m already depressed.
I’d ask if these shitlords could sink to even more terrible depths, but I am afraid posing the question would be seen as a friendly challenge of their skills(?).
Being part of a mob that is trying to drive someone to commit suicide should be a crime. In many jurisdictions, it is a crime.
Bit late responding here, but what is it with people like libtroll thinking co-ordinated harassment = “saying mean things”? TB said similar bullshit last week, it seems to be a common talking point for anyone pro-GG.
As AltoFronto said (great post by the way), where do we draw the line here? When someone is getting 200 “mean things” posted on their feed a day? When someone actually commits suicide over it? When someone actually goes to their front door and threatens them?
Why is an asshole’s right to harass someone more important than protecting people from harassment?
In my experience, the only ones who think this shit shouldn’t be taken seriously are the ones who know they’re part of the problem. They’re usually the ones taking part in the harassment who know they’d probably have the cops knocking on their door if the police started taking this stuff seriously. They’re the ones who only harass people on the internet because there are no repercussions, and they don’t want to lose that privilege.
In short, they’re horrible, horrible people.
Regarding Bill Kaulitz: They know he’s a guy, but he’s 4Chan’s idealised example of a “Trap” (which is their word for a feminine man or trans woman that they want to “Bang”) and something of a meme there as a result. Yeah, even when they like a transgender person, they’re still transphobic.
I’ll get to the rest of this disgusting mess later. I’m not awake enough to even yet.
In fairness, I didn’t know who he is, either (or that that picture’s of a person who identified as a man), but I was wondering why they ripping on was very pretty person.
I mean, there he looks like the very bision of pretty, goth anime.
What the hell are their standards?
Vision*
And
Why they were* ripping.
*sigh*
*goes to get coffee*
Oh, feckin’ gods:
why they ripping on *someone I thought* was very pretty person.
http://coffeenate.shareist.com/uploads/funnycoffeecat_1313_97_l.jpg
*reads my last “correction”*
*throws purring cat off of my lap to get coffee*
re: People have agency therefore harassment is meaningless good fun HURR DURR:
I guess, then, that talk therapy is useless to prevent suicide.
Oh, wait: http://m.newser.com/story/199051/effective-suicide-prevention-method-talking.html
re: lilibertarian (or whatever):
I like to imagine that s/he’s a libertarian librarian, tucked away at work in a publicly-funded space while pouring over Ayn Rand’s writings and scouring like-minded blogs, completely unaware of the irony.
It’s probably not true, but we all have stories that we tell ourselves.
@libarbarian
If the best defense you have for something is “well, it’s not TECHNICALLY illegal”, maybe you should rethink whether it’s worth defending.
NOT A CULT! NOT A CULT! NOT A CULT! NOT A CULT! NOT A CULT!
Also I’m shocked by the “we’re diverse!” … *20 post thread involving lots of slurs* effect
Gamergate brings you LOVE!
http://i59.tinypic.com/zy7c44.jpg