The We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive continues! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.) Thanks!
With interest in their pet cause waning, #GamerGaters have been casting about for something that might give their little movement an infusion of energy and new supporters. They got a temporary boost a month ago from the ridiculous concoction that was #ShirtStorm, but that didn’t last.
And now, as you may have heard, they’re trying again with yet another contrived controvery called #MetalGate.
On Friday, a writer for Death Metal Underground warned fellow metalheads that “the same people who intruded into the gaming industry despite a striking lack of actual contributions” have now decided to take over the world of heavy metal music.
His proof of this Social Justice Warrior invasion? A Spin article mentioning – and celebrating – what it described as a recent “increase in conversations about racism, politics, and feminism” amongst metalheads. And a 2006 Washington Post article suggesting that metal was getting more “socially conscious.”
No, seriously. His entire argument relied on an 8-year-old newspaper article and a single sentence in Spin.
But apparently that’s all it takes to create a #Gate these days. #GamerGaters, desperate for some sort of continuing cultural relevance, are hanging onto the new hashtag with the grim determination of, well, I was going to say this guy
… but the dog is pretty adorable, and he seems to be really enjoying himself.
But, anyway, #MetalGate is now a thing.
GamerGate celebrities Mundane Matt and Sargon of Akkad have already posted YouTube videos on the subject; bumbling Sarkeesian Effect co-creator Jordan Owen has weighed in with a nearly hour-long lecture on the subject in which, among other things, he explains at length why he is not comparable to Beavis or Butthead. (Well, obviously; Butthead is a lot less obtuse than Owen.) Fortunately, he’s not in a bathtub this time.
Roosh’s Return of Kings blog – a kind of bellwether of manosphere opportunism – has posted its own guide to the alleged controversy, prophesying that
The SJWs will likely try the same excessive tactics with metalgate that they used on gamergate and shirtgate, and they will get the same negative reaction from the masses. The harder the SJWs push, the more Average Joe is repulsed by them. Their unfounded optimism and willful naivety will be the death of them.
[For even more ridiculous reactions on Roosh’s video game blog Reaxxion, see this post of mine.]
Over on Twitter, meanwhile, outraged metalhead #Gamergaters and neoreactionary Manosphereians and other easily outraged asshats are busily posting tweets about the evils of SJW influence in metal; the Tweeters include some names that will be familiar to long-time readers of this blog:
Oh lovely, now #metalgate is a thing – guess being one of the most accepting groups of people on the planet isnt enough for some people
— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) December 13, 2014
I would like to see all kinds of groups standing up in solidarity with GG, daring the SJWs to do anything about it. #gamergate #metalgate
— Fidelbogen – gab.ai/Fidelbogen (@fidelbogen) December 14, 2014
#MetalGate #GamerGate aren't about metal, games, fem-supremists want to kill any semblance of conventional masculinity in society that's all
— Rollo Tomassi (@RationalMale) December 14, 2014
https://twitter.com/Reyeko_/status/543918108944367616
https://twitter.com/runsonmagic/status/543803519837671425
https://twitter.com/voxday/status/543733247122100225
Some other, er, highlights from the discussion.
(CONTENT WARNING: Slurs galore.)
.
.
.
https://twitter.com/beantownborn/status/543639435179745281
#MetalGate
Troll/10. You retards can't touch metal, we aren't afraid to call a cunt a cunt. Cunts.
.— PewpSchute (@ThePewpschute) December 13, 2014
https://twitter.com/CactusTheLynx/status/544059034676895744
So long as you're not a cunt metal heads will like you. If you're a cunt you'll get called out for being a cunt. Don't be a cunt #MetalGate
— Emily Galiette (@TheGrlThatDates) December 13, 2014
https://twitter.com/genophilia/status/544165045123694592
https://twitter.com/SiliconNooB/status/543697727251427328
The desperation could not be more obvious. Sorry, fellas, but this one isn’t going to take off.
Hell, even #GamerGate’s most famous hanger-on is dubious, asking
Is #MetalGate real or a joke
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) December 13, 2014
If you can’t even convince Milo to believe – or pretend to believe – your bullshit, well, you’re kind of screwed.
I like that one of them posted Green Day, the metalest of all metal bands.
Um, are there supposed to be blank lines under “Tweeters include some names that will be familiar to long-time readers of this blog:”
and “Some other, er, highlights from the discussion.
(CONTENT WARNING: Slurs galore.)
.
.
.”
and “Hell, even #GamerGate’s most famous hanger-on is dubious, asking”?
Because all I can see are lines.
they are SO scared of living in a world where women are outspoken and have opinions.
Never mind. They showed up as soon as I posted that. lol
So I read the phrase
“the same people who intruded into the gaming industry despite a striking lack of actual contributions”
And thought it was about GamerGaters. It’s easy to forget that despite their TARGETS being developers, critics, and journalists, about video games, they think of themselves as the ones providing ‘actual contributions’.
There have always been socia Justice messages in Hard Rock and. Metal. Remember a little song called “War Pigs”.
C’mon, when you have to start manufacturing stuff out of whole cloth to be outraged about, in order to continue being outraged, you’ve lost before you even started.
Also, as someone pointed out to him, the guys in Green day have been known to dye their hair.
@Ikeke35
Tell that to fundamentalists. Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter, Satanic Panic; it can be a winning strategy, at least for a time.
Oh FFS. So if I say I’d enjoy Cannibal Corpse or Dying Fetus more if their lyrics never included very graphic fantasies about raping and murdering women, I’m just trying to suppress a legitimate expression of masculinity?
I wonder how they would react if an all-female band like Severed Heaven were to write the same kind of lyrics about men?
Chaltab: Yeah, that’s an interesting distinction. So far, they ve only managed to contribute the ability to play a game, and talk about playing a game.
Okay,and some faux-outrage about…somthin’, somethin’ in journalism ethics. (Hell if I know.)
Sorry, that was a response to tomtom, I forgot to refresh first.
I especially like Ryan calling people “f*gg*t fuckfaces”. Has he even HEARD Mann Gegen Mann? I bet if he has, he probably thinks it’s about fighting.
Vox Day listens to Disturbed. Ha ha. What a dork.
Here’s a Windhand video. Note the awesome female vocalist. Obviously part of a sinister plot to take over the last refuge of manliness.
… Hasn’t metal been about “SJW” causes since, like, its inception? All anti-war, counter-culture, fuck-the-status-quo? Isn’t that the whole point? Then again, can’t really expect the kings of shallowness to read the fucking lyrics once in a while…
So I guess Reyeko missed the memo that Jack Thompson is one of their “allies” now.
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/11/19/super-fun-anita-sarkeesian-pop-quiz/#more-14481
Also, now I want to swipe my brother’s System of a Down collection and give them a listen again.
So, MRA now stands for Metal Roarin’ Asshat, too?
Bonus.
The death throes of a bunch of desperate bros I would guess.
Actually it’s about ethics in SJWs are infiltrating industries to make them less bigoted, those fucking—hang on, what was I talking about again?
If any of these fuckwits start clinging to Rammstein because “German = Nazis = Good” without realising that they’re actually further to the left than I am, I’m going to headwall myself unconscious.
Relevant, maybe?
I think that TotalBiscuit is mocking the #Metalgate idea by the way. If you read his other tweets on it it seems like he’s cyber rolling his eyes.
As an avid fan of trance, house and dubstep I can’t offer much on gators and metal music. Games is one thing, I know games, but metal music ain’t my cup of tea at all. Y’all have fun now. Mock them good!
*lurks*
Suddenly that Mitchell and Webb “Are we the baddies?” joke is on a whole new level.
Oh! Better still:
Stick around for the misandry at the end!
This is really personally disappointing to me because power metal fans are some of the friendliest people I know, and it’s terrible to see people attaching their hateful words to it. It’s becoming a slightly less unknown genre but it’s still not exactly popular, and bands like Blind Guardian and Sonata Arctica which get Queen-sized crowds in Europe play very small venues in America and there’s a great sense of camaraderie among the people who go there. If this takes off, they’re going to completely cock up the image of people who listen to metal just like they did with games.
Here is some 80s motivational music written in 2014 for you all. Keep on standing strong!