I‘m on a brief blog hiatus, but I wanted to direct your attention to idledillettante’s definitive account of how Eron Gjoni, Zoe Quinn’s vengeful ex-boyfriend, not only launched what became #GamerGate but has shaped and directed it both in public and behind the scenes. And it’s all carefully documented with screenshots of Gjoni’s own words online — on 4chan, on Reddit, on Twitter, and on his own blog, often in direct violation of the restraining order that’s supposed to prohibit him talking about Quinn online.
Here’s idledilletante’s summary of the whole sordid story:
1. Eron knowingly promoted his tell-all blog post about Quinn on 4chan, knowing it was likely to cause harassment.
2. Rather than try to quell the harassment (As he might have you believe), Gjoni actually basked in the attention, to try and stir up even more agita against his ex.
3. Once confronted with his actions, Eron tried to distance himself from #gamergate, and move his involvement of Quinn behind the scenes. Unfortunately we have evidence of this string-pulling.
4. Eron’s fight against his restraining order is merely a continuation of the harassment he was already engaging in. If he wins his legal battle he’s likely to post even more private info about Quinn as a reward for his backers.
5. Gjoni has essentially ruined his good name in pursuit of this revenge quest. He knows this, and it makes him bitter that his plans to sideline Quinn in her own industry have backfired so spectacularly.
6. Gjoni sexually harasses women critical of him; especially when caught in a lie or backed into a corner logically. I find this a telling clue about his real attitude about women, although Gjoni claims to be a feminist.
But I suggest you read the whole thing; the details are creepy and revealing indeed.
It’s a shame this all comes down to spite. If both sides really were interested in the truth and so on, this whole mess could actually have some good come out of it. But by now that’s far too late.
[Mod note: this was amicably resolved on the first page of comments: there is no need to bring it up again.]
Both sides? The side that wants to kill her and the side that thinks she should not be killed? Where do you find truth between the perps and their victims?
It warms my heart knowing that abusive stalker Eron Gjoni ruined his own career (and hopefully life) just trying to be an abusive stalker. I hope he vanishes into obscure, isolated poverty and spends the rest of his life under a bridge, with no internet access, where he belongs.
Also not even slightly surprised that he sexually harasses women in a bid to shut them up while calling himself a feminist. He’s a poor woman’s Hugo Schweitzer wannabe.
Really? You’re going to throw around false equivalence “both sides” garbage when idlediletante has laid out in excruciating detail how this whole mess was propagated by a spiteful and vindictive ex orchestrating a hate campaign against a woman who was no longer in his life?
The overwhelming cry from those targeted by GG for four months now has been “leave us alone!”. GG doesn’t get to pretend there’s an equal and opposite hate movement opposing them. No matter how many MSPaint red lines are drawn over collages of stupidly innocuous interactions.
@Ira Shantz-Kreutzkamp
Ah, the old Golden Mean Fallacy. Why can’t the “side” that wants to help a vindictive narcissist destroy a woman and her family, and the “side” that doesn’t want to destroy anyone just compromise on a middle-ground solution? Because middle-ground = automatically correct.
What would make you happy, Ira Shantz-Kreutzkamp? Would you like to see Zoe Quinn and her loved ones just mildly destroyed? Maybe just irrevocably harmed and stalked for a few years until Mr. Gjoni has gotten it out of his system?
There’s no “both sides” here. Eron Gjoni is a shit, and Gamergate is a bunch of shits. Meanwhile, Zoe Quinn is STILL not safe from the death threats, the stalkers (yes, STALKERS, plural) and the dudes who think it’s funny and harmless (it’s neither) to give out her personal phone number as that of a burger-and-fries joint. One “side” is trying to live her life and do her work, and is having trouble with it, because the other “side” is cramming dead squirrels into her mailbox and sending porn to her dad.
Gjoni accused Quinn of spite, vindictiveness, acting crazy, etc and proceeded to write a blog which showed all these qualities and more. I am not interested in other peoples dirty linen, therefore Gjoni washing it immediately gets me hackles up.
@Ira,
Sorry, I don’t see that there are two equally culpable “sides” to this unrelenting shit storm directed against a woman whose “transgression” was dumping a bad boyfriend. It’s too bad she took up with this a-hole in the first place, but many of us misread potential partners’ characters, especially when we’re young… In the long run, she’ll be OK — but he will always be remembered as the vengeful stalker who devoted months to ruining his ex’s reputation.
Meanwhile Randi Harper’s become a target for the mob because she wrote a script that allowed Twitter users to auto-block Gators.
A Gator took a photo of himself outside her workplace, and promised he’d be back. Another suggested he should bring a knife next time. You know, to defend himself. Just in case.
There’s GamerGate, and there’s Everyone Else. I don’t mean that in the sense GG does, the “you’re with us or against us” way. I mean there’s people who subscribe to GG, and the general populace who is either unaware of GG or appalled at its tactics, impact and hypocrisy.
You can only use the phrase ‘if both sides were interested in the truth’ in the sense that one side already is, and the other isn’t.
I do have a certain amount of conflicted enjoyment in the idea that many of the people Gjoni meets for the foreseeable future will react with some variant of ‘oh, you’re that guy who. . .’. It’s not enough, but it’s something.
Reblogged this on J. B. Garner – Musings of a Starving Author and commented:
A bit political probably but I love to spread truth about scumbags.
Uh-huh. There’s two sides here like there’s two sides to the earth’s crust: one is habitable, the other is bathed in magma.
But, sure, feel free to- wait hang on
How in the hell does anyone read that account and then go, “But both sides!”
Ah, RIP my impromptu Condescending Wonka embed.
But seriously Ira, please do elaborate on the “good” that could have come out of Eron Gjoni siccing the worst parts of the internet on his ex. I’m all ears.
When I first heard about the Zoe Post I went and read it, and I felt a little bad for Gjoni. But, as time went on and more shit came out, I suddenly feel really happy that his life is being ruined because he’s a vindictive stalker asshole.
The idea that this whole thing kicked off because a bitter ex-boyfriend who claims to be a “feminist” aired out his and his ex’s highly edited dirty laundry in public and made outlandish claims that she was sleeping around for good scores on her indie game is baffling. It’s like a particularly shit episode of Jerry Springer: “My Ex is a terrible person who got the internet to harass me when he couldn’t!”
There is a reason why leaving an abuser is the most dangerous time for a woman. That is when the try to destroy us. Frequently they kill us. Gjoni is trying to get someone else to do it for him.
That Luke McKinney quote from the Cracked article, 7 Reasons “Gamergate” Proves Humanity is Doomed is more appropriate than ever.
QFMFT
http://i49.tinypic.com/28ind6q.jpg
(I’m going to get a lot of usage out of that reaction GIF today.)
Please tell me that was just really, really, reeeally badly worded and that you don’t actually believe there’s any sort of “Both sides” going on here.
Seriously, that’s kinda like saying that the truth behind 9/11 lies somewhere between terrorists and the Jewish Illuminati working with Reptilian Bush and Kenyan Obama on the orders of the Reverse Vampires.
I had to look up “reverse vampires” and loled when I realized that they were talking about Bunnicula.
I can’t believe no one has pointed out that actually, it’s about ethics in game journalism.
*eyeroll
@PoM
Today vegetables, tomorrow the socioeconomic stability of the West!
Ira, what the hell “good” comes out of men harassing, stalking, and inciting the rape and/or murder of women? That’s all this is about and it’s all it’s ever been about. Did you even read the article?
Kudos to idledilletante for all that work, too.
LOL! Greyskye you beat me to it.
Ira-maybe it was a poor choice of words on your part, but I simply don’t see how both sides can come to some sort of accord on the Truth (TM) in this situation. Unless victims of harrassment and stalking in any way are culpable for said treatment, which I am not one to entertain. There are the harrassers and the harassed. You can see the two sides are not equal in searching for some truth.
As much as I don’t get the “both sides” thing, I think the reference to “truth” puzzles me more.
Like, what truth are we talking about here? EG and ZQ are not on opposite sides of a philosophical debate. They are a bitter, stalkery man and a woman who slept with someone else when broken up with EG. There’s no “lets talk about this and see if we can reach a logical consensus on the nature of God and reality.” This is an abuser who is violating a restraining order in order to keep abusing a woman who doesn’t want anything to do with him.
What “truth” should we be searching for in this?
Has there ever been a more specious argument than “both sides”? I can’t think of one.