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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.)
.
.
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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.
And calving off from this incident has been the tiny burst of #punkgate, where someone tried to warn Jello Biafra about the dangers of SJWs.
JELLO. BIAFRA.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAno.
I think it’s the combo of the Spin note AND the recent entrance of Draiman that made metal a new focal point for the kiddies – there wasn’t any real interest in it previously.
I have a fantasy of one of these muppets trying, at length, to recruit Henry Rollins to their cause. *giggle*
And if they want to kvetch about “cunts” invading metal, I have some sad news for them…women have been in it from the beginning. Remember Joan Jett? Or this Canadian icon?
This made me laugh so hard. Metal fans are stereotyped as being among the least accepting fandoms on the planet, hating most other forms of music and often giving allegiance to a particular band, being as exclusive as possible. I certainly have encountered some like that. At any rate, metal can be so aggressively hypermasculine and male-oriented that a movement to make it more inclusive would be welcome.
@Alex
Yes there should be more posts where the lines are. I’ve seen at couple of times here. Not sure what causes it. I find reloading the page usually sorts the problem out.
“tried to warn Jello Biafra about the dangers of SJWs.”
HAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahahaha!
As a metalhead of a few decades I find the possibility of “metalgate” in 2014/15 hilarious. The exchange of extremism and SJWs (?) is nothing new in HM, it’s been going in waves for decades with both sides never being completely off.
Whoever is clinging to this idea has never grown out of “OMG I’m such a rebel because my band sings of Satan and I’m wearing black” phase.
This whole MetalGate thing is absolutely hilarious, and just shows how desperate Gaters are for allies and any sort of relevancy. They are trying and failing (metalgate is being soundly mocked and/or ignored in the wider metal community, from what I have seen) to gain more traction, it is fantastic. Also, ill-conceived, considering the politics of most artists. Metal is one of the worst genres they could choose to try and invade besides punk (which would be even more hilarious, and they should totally do). XD
From what I’ve seen of this, for the most part, it isn’t actual metalheads being in this, just gators trying to recruit others. (And let’s keep in mind, the gators angry at SJWs for “invading their fandoms.”)
Here’s a post on /r/metal about this, and they clearly don’t think highly of it: http://np.reddit.com/r/Metal/comments/2p69pg/so_metalgate_is_now_a_thing_on_twitter/
Honestly, this can’t really catch on when it comes to metal, since, for the most part, metalheads are either left-wing and won’t mind discussing social issues or borderline-to-actual Neo-Nazis who will just view this as entry-level hate. And most of the heated arguments within the metal community are just silly things like which sub-sub-subgenre some band fits in or arguing whether some band really consists of metal (which really comes down to “This band could not possibly be ninja metal because I like ninja metal and hate this band!” or “This band HAS to be fart metal because I hate fart metal and I hate this band”). Now, Youtube comment sections, on the other hand…
@Cthulhu’s Intern: That /r/metal thread is amazing.
@ Bina
While Rammstein have in early interviews emphasized their social democratic politics (not very left, but left to the middle in Germany), their playing with fire (literally and in the sense of fascist aesthetics) creeps me out. In contrast to, e.g., Laibach, who have a very conscious aesthetic concept (whatever one may think of it), they just use Riefenstahl movies for their videos, have in recent times produced some pretty nationalistic crap (not Nazi, but, well, stuff about poor Germany being victimised after ’45 and so on, which by now is common sense in Germany) and don’t really care that they’re basically making pop music which Nazis can easily listen to.
Jello. Biafra. AHAAHAHA! I think I just startled my neighbours, I had to laugh so loud. Any answer?
Really? MetalGate now? I’d love to see these misogynist fools try this with punk rock, they’d be run out on a rail.
Both Green Day (Green Day is metal? Really doods?) and Disturbed have done political content, and I see no evidence that they have been forced into it by the PC patrol. But talk about a false premise — you can find plenty of political content all the way back in the earliest days of metal. Do they even listen to the lyrics?
o damn, I just spelled my own name wrong and have landed in moderation limbo. I’m posting again:
—
@ Bina
While Rammstein have in early interviews emphasized their social democratic politics (not very left, but left to the middle in Germany), their playing with fire (literally and in the sense of fascist aesthetics) creeps me out. In contrast to, e.g., Laibach, who have a very conscious aesthetic concept (whatever one may think of it), they just use Riefenstahl movies for their videos, have in recent times produced some pretty nationalistic crap (not Nazi, but, well, stuff about poor Germany being victimised after ’45 and so on, which by now is common sense in Germany) and don’t really care that they’re basically making pop music which Nazis can easily listen to.
Jello. Biafra. AHAAHAHA! I think I just startled my neighbours, I had to laugh so loud. Any answer?
—
Sorry to the mods, and please delete “Bernardo Soaes”
I mean, any answer from Biafra to this?
Silly boys. Now, if they’d tried to make #countrygate a thing, they might have gotten some traction.
No. Jordan Owen is not like Beavis and Butthead. B & B are actually entertaining.
Gamergaters trying to recruit Jello Biafra is even funnier than when they thought they were going to get Wil Wheaton and Joss Whedon.
I’m reminded of the time Paul Ryan claimed to be a fan of Rage Against the Machine and Tom Morello pretty much told him to fuck off.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-paul-ryan-is-the-embodiment-of-the-machine-our-music-rages-against-20120816
I’m glad to see my Jordan/Aurini as Beavis/Butt-head meme has caught on!
Heh…or Tom Petty telling Dubya that no, he could NOT have this for his campaign song:
@Bina: Or, to go even further back, the example of Reagan trying to use Springsteen’s Born in the USA when campaigning for re-election. XD
I have heard that David Draiman (of Disturbed) went GooberGrape a couple weeks ago. So that’s probably where this comes in, Draiman is #DefinitelyTheirShield
Defending free expression.
By labeling any instance of people disagreeing with us on social issues a “scandal” and harassing and intimidating them into silence.
Wait, BeanTownBorn is a Gater? That… makes the Twitter argument I had with him make a lot more sense.
Basically, he was pretending to be anti-GG and said something ableist. I called him out on it. Somehow he started railing against the ADA. I’d thought he was actually anti-GG… but that the reason for this was “hey, he could get his pet rant about those awful autistic people into this!”
Sorry about the OT. But. Apparently I spoiled a GGer’s attempt to goad those ebil SJWs into agreeing with bigoted stuff. Cool.