If you grit your teeth and do a search for #GamerGate and #Ferguson together on Twitter, you will find Tweet after Tweet from worried #GamerGaters earnestly imploring their comrades not to make any connections between the two hashtags. Why? Because they know that those who cross the streams are likely to Tweet things like the following.
This what happens when #GamerGaters try to make sense of what is happening in Ferguson.
#GamerGate is more relevant to me than Ferguson because, well, I'm not a black Missourian, but I am a gamer.
— Jason "Rabbit" (@Klohinx) November 25, 2014
https://twitter.com/SHREKFLEX/status/537070193311494144
https://twitter.com/fireye47/status/537088458406125568
I feel for #MikeBrown's family and supporters, but most of all, I feel for #Ferguson liquor store owners tonight.
— Izel (@i_z_e_l_s) November 25, 2014
You have to be understanding about the #FergusonRiots. After all, don't white people riot every time a black suspect is acquitted? #Ferguson
— Izel (@i_z_e_l_s) November 25, 2014
https://twitter.com/Noin007/status/537095206630199297
#Ferguson is a great example of how SJW mindset just leads to irrational behavior #GamerGate
— Shota Loli Trap (@ShotaLoliTrap) November 25, 2014
SJW's looting and setting fire to stores, yeah you're really showing you're "peaceful". #GamerGate #Ferguson
— Shota Loli Trap (@ShotaLoliTrap) November 25, 2014
https://twitter.com/PKtheHedgehog/status/537104422472400896
https://twitter.com/PettanPettan/status/537105479030173696
#gamergate #ferguson HA! pic.twitter.com/kOyS6DlH53
— EthicsGate (@Ethics_Gate) November 25, 2014
https://twitter.com/MaxSkyFan/status/537184055004266496
https://twitter.com/PettanPettan/status/537197193501765632
https://twitter.com/PrestariumRetar/status/537273589616365570
https://twitter.com/ItalyGG/status/537276021096329217
https://twitter.com/triumfantloser/status/537290714896674816
Oh, and yes, these are all genuine #GamerGaters; check out their timelines for proof, and you’ll also see some of the terrible racist crap some of them have been tweeting and retweeting.
Oh! A Storify:
https://storify.com/betakateenin/white-people-riots
My, how Vivian James’ boobs seem to have grown in that once icon. I guess if she’s their daughter they can make things like that happen.
On topic – gamerdudes, just stop. Nobody wants to hear your asinine thoughts about actual problems. Go sit at the kiddie table and be quiet while the grownups are talking.
The PR dudes tried so very hard to coordinate the mob into not being horrible people, but they just. Can’t. Help. Themselves.
Dear GamerGoober,
SJWs DO NOT support rioting. EVER. Disliking a verdict != agreeing with rioting. And remember this before you try to make comparisons between this fact and SJW condemnation of GG death threats; it was actual members of GamerGoober that made death threats, and it is not actual SJWs rioting.
-Sincerely,
An evil SJW
Speaking of white kids rioting, I was in college in Massachusetts when the Red Sox won in 04. Yeah, that was interesting. They even smashed a statey’s car up when they showed up. It was fairly small and contained, but AFAIK it never even made the papers. It’s sort of like there’s some sort of bias going on here…
That’s a meme called “Mega Milk” or “Titty Monster”, traced over a hentai comic panel.
@cassandrakitty:
That… erm… that would be a trace. Of a hentai book. Designed to look like Vivian. Don’t ask.
darn, ninja’d.
#GamerGate is more relevant to me than Ferguson because, well, I’m not a black Missourian, but I am a gamer.
That probably applies to a lot of people, self included. Difference being? Our comments on how it doesn’t affect us as personally are less flippant and more expressing empathy and acknowledging that we don’t know how it feels to be in the middle of it.
I looked through that guy’s twitter to see what else he said, in case there was anything that made it less awful in context. The tweet right after that one:
Talking about how oppressed you are on your high-end smartphone #sjwproblems #AntiSJW
It got worse. And then he started complaining about how haters are taking his words out of context.
With that being said, I am of the belief that it is better to allow a guily man to go free than to lock an innocent man in jail. I know that this wasn’t a trial, but the forensic evidence against him was inconclusive and the witnesses contradicted one another. If there isn’t decent evidence, they shouldn’t indict him. As they say, there’s what you know and what you can prove. Yes, OJ went to trial, but remmember that there was some pretty strong evidence to make a case against him.
I’m not saying that the decision was good, but that these processes are in place to protect all of us. It doesn’t change the root of the problem; racism and viewing black people as inherently violent and criminal.
*guilty, damn phone.
Of their “daughter”. Nope, these guys aren’t creepy at all, why would anyone think that?
Well, well. What have we here, standing at the intersection of Racism and Sexism?
Uh, frankly, it’s the POLICE who are the savages, because it’s never a riot until they show up. Ever notice that? Demos are always peaceful until cops arrive to break heads and provoke a riot.
But what am I saying? This is another of those white ‘winger idiots who probably have no clues about how KKK-ridden the Ferguson police are.
As for comparing GomerGoop to Ferguson, yeah, it’s kind of dumb. After all, a bunch of whiny, petulant 15-year-old white boys trying to lynch “girls” and non-whites out of gaming is not at all comparable to a bunch of whiny white thugs in uniform shooting black kids with impunity.
[/sarcasm, in case needed]
Hyatt, yes, exactly. I’m not even American, let alone having anything but basic humanity and language in common with Mike Brown or any of the other black kids murdered by police, or their families, or the protesters – but damn if I don’t care about murder and racism and massive, mind-boggling, systemic violence and injustice, because those things MATTER and fucking useless dudes hating women for criticising elements of their fucking stupid games do NOT.
I’m not even going to touch the issue here; I’m just focusing on the grammar.
Jenn, the conjunction you use with “compare” is fundamentally important to its meaning, no matter what your dictionary might say. “Compare to” means to claim that two things are similar; “compare with” doesn’t carry a claim to similarities or differences. For example, if I were to say,
“#GamerGate’s attitudes toward minorities has been compared with that of Hitler,”
I would simply be saying that someone at some point considered both GG’s and Hitler’s stances on minorities and how they were similar or different. However, if I said,
“#GamerGate’s attitudes toward minorities has been compared to that of Hitler,”
I would be saying that someone has claimed a similarity between GG and Hitler. If you want a word specifically meaning to talk about how two things are different, try “contrast with”, as in,
“#GamerGate’s attitudes towards minorities has been contrasted with that of Hitler, in that Hitler was mostly concerned with Jews, Roma, and Slavs, whereas GG also displays hate toward other racial minorities, women, and trans* people.”
Also, arguing that what’s happening in Ferguson isn’t relevant to you because you’re white is a pretty epic misunderstanding of the social dynamics underlying the whole thing.
Jane Wrote:
It’s even worse than that. “Trap” is chan-speak for explicitly sexualised male-to-female crossdressers. At which point I’m afraid my brain must once again shut down in self-defence. Seriously, why does every post on this blog do that to me?
I’m fine with unusual fetishes (so long as the ‘underage’ bit stays firmly in the realm of drawings), and I even accept people being open about them (it’s healthier than repression), but you don’t get to name yourself after them and then expect to have reasonable conversations with other human beings. That’s like wearing a shirt proclaiming your love for diddling sheep and still expecting people to take you seriously.
Yup. Because it ignores who has the power to change the dynamics the most (and it ain’t the black folks).
Really? I thought it pretty perfectly encapsulated the underlying social dynamics.
In general, naming yourself after the type of porn you’re fondest of consuming seems like a bad idea. In the context of chan culture it seems perfectly reasonable, though, hence the problem whenever the denizens of those spaces crawl forth into the public realm.
Ah, more GamberGoobers trolling. Too bad I’m late for work and can’t stay to have fun. For extra lulz, compare Jennifer’s ridiculous “but the dictionary says…” to André’s “waaa, why won’t people believe that we’re sincere and there are only a few bad apples and here’s another totally not-biased explanation of what #Not YourShield is because I still think we can dupe people and blah blah blah.”
@deutschefolkhero:
What?
(Starts singing)
One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same…
(I refuse to sing the rubber ducky song on this thread no matter how absurd the comments get. The idea of being in the bath with a gamergater is just too disturbing.)
This is just sickening.
I can’t even.
Cthulu’s Intern:
But that’s about sports. Sports are important to a community and whether a team wins or loses causes a lot of excitement for its fans… They need an outlet. It’s totally understandable. Can you really consider the thing in Ferguson on the same level as sports?
Also, none of those riots reflect white people as a whole. There are lots of ways we can other those folks so they’re Not Like Me(tm).
what it comes down to is that cis white men are individuals, but people who are not cis, not white, and/or not men always exist as an undifferentiated group defined by whatever deviation from the cis-white-man standard seems most relevant at the time. also: not-cis-white-men never have valid reasons to be outraged. they’re just looking for reasons to be upset.
only the outrage of cis white men is legit, existing for rational reasons, so obvs video games are important but state-approved murder is nbd.