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.
GOBACK really needs to go back to the drawing board, because the current gameplan isn’t working out for him at all.
@Goback and how much time does #GG actually spend talking about those issues as opposed to who some woman allegedly slept with or the videos some other woman dared to make that they disagree with? There was a very short time before I really knew any of the facts that I entertained the possibility that they might actually be sincere in wanting to fight corruption but even for the most “incurious” person it’s not hard to see what they’re really about.
As a researcher, I was so disappointed when I realized so much of this isn’t general human nature, but rather specific 4-chan[‘s idiosyncratic belief that anonymity, groupthink, mass opinion, and shouting leads to pureness, brilliance, truth, and progress. That shit ain’t interesting, that’s just some tiny group of internet weirdos.
ADDENDUM: Not that it being interesting would make up for it being terrible, of course. It’s just not useful to try to understand mechanisms for terrible behavior that don’t come from things that effect big numbers of people.
Finally, I mixed up affect and effect and have to go die now.
Did Cernovich watch that one episode on Seinfeld on repeat? The one where the guys stop masturbating and become brilliant, while Elaine stops and becomes an idiot? Because “When you don’t mastubate, your senses are sharper. You become more in touch with your primal instincts” sounds like something straight out of that episode.
Cernovich might want to read the various studies (for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7820161) concluding that abstinence, yes produces greater sperm volume and concentration, but also produces decreased motility, increased senescence, and abnormal morphology.
In other words, the exact opposite of super sperm. But lots more of it.
Buttercup:
Well, that works in his favor as well. If his *gag* “super serum” isn’t that potent then it’s a lot less likely that someone is going to come around in 2-3 months wanting a paternity test.
An STD test is another story, because no guy has ever lied about being clean, ever…
Mildlymagnificent, this needs to be its own post. Or possibly engraved on a mile-high granite monolith at the center of the internet. Seriously it is the heart of SO MUCH toxic spillage that poisons the internet (not to mention much of meatspace). We as a species would do so much better if this was a lesson humans learned early.
YESS! Blockquote monster avoided! *fistpump*
NIOg, I totally agree. Mildly Magnificent hit the nail right on the head– That’s why I’ve written about Gjoni for as long as I have, screencapping all this shit he says.
And w0rdspinner; I hadn’t seen that thing about JuiceBro Lawyer. Just makes him look even more paranoid and crazy; that guy is certainly crazy.
Thanks everyone for reading. That article took a lot of research, spelunking into Gjoni’s reality distortion field. The hardest part was organizing all the information so that the reader wouldn’t lose track of which was is up.
Amusingly, he wrote on Twitter this morning:
https://twitter.com/eron_gj/status/541374495723102209
Conspiracy Theories? Hilariously Misquoted? In Eron-ese, that’s pretty much an ackonwledgment of a direct hit.
His next hearing is soon, I’m hoping he will actually face criminal charges for all of this.
Bizzaro sperm am Number 1.
Gamergate has no legitimate issues.
However, the people gamergate is attacking do have legitimate issues, including with corruption in journalism – after all, they were *already* criticizing them before gamergate existed.
So, the solution here is simple: Stop being a gamergater and join the very enemies of it, who actually are working for the very goals gamergate CLAIMS to have.
Note how gamergate completely ignores actual corruption in AAA, as well as awful practices. Example: Shadows of Mordor, the newest Assassin’s Creed, general EA policies, the issue with Early Access games…
Gamergate only focuses on small indy devs.
This is akin to a group TOTALLY caring for corruption among corporations…
…but somehow only was targeting tiny family-run stores in backwater villages that have 4 customers/day while giving exxon and BP a free pass.
I suspected Gjoni didn’t just post an account of a shitty ex on the internet and then oh no, look what happened, he never wanted any of this you guys. It’s good to have it confirmed so I can show other people proof that he engineered this.
Also, I wonder how big the overlap is between guys who brag about “raw dogging” and guys who howl so very loudly about women “oops”ing them into fatherhood for fabulous prizes.
“Hilariously misquoted” seems to be Gater-speak for “Quoted me directly instead of repeating my second-hand retellings”.
The whole point of doxxing is outsourcing attacks. “I don’t have the resources or the gumption to attack this person myself, so I’ll set all this information to the four winds in the hopes that someone angrier, more unhinged or more determined than I am carries something out against them”.
Ew is right. I wouldn’t want him fully clothed in the same room as me, much less buck-naked and having sex.
I was thinking more along the lines of General Jack D. Ripper and his Precious Bodily Fluids, finding a totally loopy mansplanation for why he felt tired after “the physical act of love”. As though a couple minutes’ rather intense exertion wouldn’t explain everything…
Liquid fucking gold, y’all! LIQUID FUCKING GOLD!
Why is this man not in prison for contempt of court? Violating a restraining order = contempt. His ass should be inside a jail cell by now.
Question: I wanted to let y’all know of this super-reasonable MRA edit to a law case article on Wikipedia… Is there a more appropriate place to send that than here?
If not, here it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham_v._Superior_Court_of_California#Procedural_and_factual_history
(I appended all of those “[citation needed”s to it. 😉 )
Exactly. It’s the worst sort of cowardice. Gjoni wanted to own Zoe Quinn, couldn’t control her, and felt he could recruit other men to control her. So he sicced a pack of rabid 4chan misogynists on her, then tried to step back and disown it when it got out of hand.
Hope he enjoys his handmade albatross necklace.
This is really consistent with all of EG’s other behavior. As shitty as he’s been, he seems to genuinely believe that he is not a bad person. So idledilettante writes a post, which EG reads and he thinks, Wow this makes me sound like a wanker, and his reaction is not to wonder if he is actually a wanker but to believe that idledilettante is, in some way, mischaracterizing him. It’s axiomatic to him that he’s not a bad person, so this post that makes him look like a bad person must be in error.
Will you let us know how it goes?
I wonder if it is ever going to come home to him that he is the baddie. I have been party to situations where that never happened. They just went on and on believing themselves to be dreadfully misunderstood.
“As shitty as he’s been, he seems to genuinely believe that he is not a bad person. So idledilettante writes a post, which EG reads and he thinks, Wow this makes me sound like a wanker, and his reaction is not to wonder if he is actually a wanker but to believe that idledilettante is, in some way, mischaracterizing him.”
Seems like S.O.P. with these assholes. When called on your abuse either blame the victim or some ridiculous shadowy conspiracy of your “enemies” .
Is it just me, or does Gijoni look like Roosh?
He does look like Roosh. Sounds like him, too.
I’ve said this elsewhere, but my dream for Gamergate is that “eron” becomes the accepted slang for a nightmare ex. As in, “Shit, I think that’s your eron’s car parked across the street. Do we need to call the cops again?”
@ Shaenon – that really would be the only good take away from this thing (and by ‘good’, I mean ‘not completely utterly horrible on all levels and also it serves the nasty little git right’)
“Eroning” could be the expression for recruiting random shitheads on the internet to be your personal army.
Look, dude, if you want to rub oil on your penis, be my guest. But everyone else doesn’t need to hear about it.
Coconut oil will give you soft skin, and it’s great for cooking at high heat. Also, a great ingredient in homemade deodorant. Protection against syphillis? Not so much, methinks.
And now I will not be able to use my coconut oil without thinking of this disgusting douchecanoe’s ‘super semen’. Blarrrrrrrrrgh must shower.
I hope if he ever does contract an STI, he tries applying leeches as a cure.
(though I sincerely hope he never, ever contracts an STI, because that would mean some unfortunate person had sexual contact with him, and I would never wish that on anyone)
Ok, never mind.
But it is kinda funny when I say something and get replies of “no, you’re wrong” and then have just what I just said written back to me. At least here I’m not bombarded by insults the way GG’ers do when I post to other sights or Twitter.
For the record, I am 100% anti-GamerGate and do not support anyone using that tag to any reason.
Yep, your poor communication skills are everyone else’s fault.
Also I think we should surreptitiously feed Mr coconut oil cures STDs other bad health advice, just to see how gullible he is.
Another thing: why should anyone want to have tea tree oil or coconut oil inside them? I sure as hell wouldn’t be agreeing to that.
The texture of coconut oil in particular is making this seem like a bad idea to me.
I’ve no idea what the texture’s like, but the idea of some dude wanting to shove gunk like that inside me is EWWWWWW.
Also I really dislike the smell of tea-tree anything.
Tea tree is a bit antibacterial, so I guess that’s where he was going, but sorry, dude, it’s not going to help much if you catch genital warts.
Does anyone remember the rape trial of Jacob Zuma, who went on to become the president of South Africa? Where he declared he did have (according to him, consensual) sex with his subordinate, who is HIV-positive? And then, asked whether he used protection, said yes, he had showered afterwards?
Zapiro, the most famous cartoonist in South Africa since the 80s, since then consequently depicts the president with a shower over his head:
http://www.nrc.nl/wereld/files/2009/04/05sep06x.gif
Tea tree oil is toxic if used in high enough quantities and can cause confusion, paranoia and hallucinations.
Hmm.
The idea that you can just wash off any STDs you come into contact with is depressingly common, but the coconut oil thing was new to me, I have to say. I mean, if you have dry hair, then by all means lather on the coconut oil, but it lacks that certain something in terms of STD prevention.
Thing is, you have some people who manage to learn this pretty early on – like, so early that they use proxies for romantic relationships rather than actual romantic relationships.
Then you have a fair number of people who figure it out sometime during adolescence.
Most of those who don’t pick up the lesson then get it sometime early on in their early 20s…
…and then you have people like this asshole who’ll probably engage in Molotov-cocktail throwing to the point of self-immolation well into crows-feet territory (or beyond – my Dad, nearly 60, is still like this).
In fairness, much of his “Army” is probably between the ages of 15-25. Their behavior’s still effing awful and 100% deserving of ridicule (and legal action, where necessary), but part of me’s like, “Well, they’ll learn eventually.”
The vast majority of their “leadership”, though – blergh. I’m thinking they just are what they are.
The hilarious[1] thing about Gjoni’s behaviour is that a (if not the) key criticism of women by MRAs or just good old-fashioned male chauvinist pigs is that women are emotional when compared to stoic level-headed men. They’re hormonal. Irrational. Bunny-boilers. And this is why they can’t be trusted with the reins of power.
Eron, you might want to check your stove, I smell rabbit stew.
[1] Warning: may not be hilarious, except in a sort of hollow-laughter-at-the-folly-of-our-species kind of way
Tea tree oil burns mucus membranes like hellfire even when diluted 50-50 with coconut oil. It’s potent and very, very irritating. I wouldn’t want it anywhere near my ladybits.
If he’s rubbing it on after intercourse….well, dude, STDs don’t observe the five-second rule.
I also cannot stop reading “Eron” as “Enron”. I think it’s the lying, deceit, and colossal-public-fuckup factor.
Coconut oil and tea tree soap will normally protect you from STIs if you restrict your sexual partners are Mrs Palm and her 5 lovely daughters.
On ethics in games journalism – ethics in any form of journalistic review is always suspect: reviews of new cars are always slanted in favour of the major manufacturers; book reviews in newspapers have always been on a scratch my back basis; movie and theatre reviews are another hotbed of dubious practice.
In other words if you are dumb enough to believe the the release reviews of anything then you are a snow white innocent who should be shut in your mothers basement for your own protection ….
… Oh … wait …
schwadevivre:
Their idea of what constitutes a “biased” review appears to boil down to “they said something I didn’t like about this game I like.”
https://twitter.com/tomlommel/status/526897318662897664
If you’re a 20-something dudebro and have no interest in feminist critique, why do you care what Anita Sarkeesian has to say about them?
Wanting all game reviews to agree that game X is awesome and perfect—or more accurately, ignore that game X has problematic content—is the exact opposite of creating a healthy gaming industry. You’re either choosing to exclude writers with different perspectives, condoning editorial interference in games reviews and analysis, or both. That’s not promoting ethical journalism, it’s creating an echo chamber.
@Jay Elmore
It’s actually not that simple, because I’ve seen GGers complain that Gone Home got some great reviews even though it is (in their opinion) not a very good game. It’s not that they want all reviews to be 10/10, it’s that they want reviews to follow their personal tastes.
I’ve seen so many #Gaters complain about how “Unfair” and “Biased” it is that Assassin’s Creed 4 got terrible reviews even though the game flat-out doesn’t work. They just want AAA titles to get 10/10s and indie and non-Pokemon Nintendo titles to get 0/10s regardless of anything else, with Bayonetta 2 being the sole exception (and I’m positive that they’d have filed Bayo under “Lulz Nintendo suxx0rz” if it weren’t for Polygon’s opinion).
See, M? It really is all about ethics in game journalism!
(In opposite land, where ‘ethics’ means ‘pandering’ and is a very good thing)