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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.
A lot of Rammstein in recent years has sort of veered away from the leftish political side of things and is now just about silly things. (P**sy? Really guys?). But there’s a lot of other awesome German metal bands who are more political. Megaherz is a good one. But I’m pretty sure they would all recoil in horror if they knew how their music was being latched onto.
I really love Tom Morello. He made a point to show support for all of the protesters during the mass protests in Madison that took place in 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359209/Madison-protests-Rage-Against-Machine-guitarist-calls-Scott-Walker-Mubarak.html I took part in a lot of those protests as well, but I hadn’t heard he was going to be there until after the fact. Sometimes, there is just no justice in this world. *shakes head sadly*
I’m very into Rise Against, another very political rock band, and I actually felt kind of betrayed when Tim McIlrath didn’t make a similar gesture.
Anyway, I just want to add my voice to the chorus of others pointing out how metalgate misses the message of metal and the counter culture almost entirely. They think that since they like some metal they can’t possibly be mainstream in any way, but misogyny is pretty mainstream, bros. In fact, it’s straight up part of the institution and ingrained in the social hierarchy. It is PART OF THE SYSTEM! If they want to be counter culture so badly, they’d do well to pay attention to the critique of the standard culture. Which they fail to do.
Just wait, sooner or later Roosh will claim the only reason metal dudes wash their hair is because evil women force them to.
I think this is hilarious. They were all pissed at SJWs for invading “their” space despite having no interest in video games, and now they’re… invading someone else’s space despite having no interest in metal.
@kittehserf: I thought that WAS the reason metal dudes washed their hair. Have I been operating from next week’s Evil Feminist Agenda?
“I wonder how they would react if an all-female band like Severed Heaven were to write the same kind of lyrics about men?”
They would be hiding behind the furnace in their parents’ basement, holding on to their ‘nads, wailing and yelping piteously.
I can’t even type a coherent comment on this. Maybe it’s my fever-addled brain, but just… Wut?
There’s literally nothing there. No suddenly-popular feminist critics of metal, nobody lobbying against the genre, nothing. Just an 8-year-old article that had a throwaway line. And yet #gamergators (which I guess have all spontaneously discovered their long-held love for metal, while smugly prophecising that Anita will do the same) are all railing against the social justice infestation that is totes real y’all.
And then Jorden Owen makes an hour-long video about it. Based off of Mundane Matt’s video, which was 7 minutes long, and still about NOTHING.
*fizzle* O_O
Does one of these guys seriously have his Twitter avatar be Homura Akemi wearing a fedora?
@canuck_with_pluck, in fairness Rammstein *are* the band who wrote a song based on/inspired by a children’s cautionary tale.
@kittehserf: you were being excessively kind in choosing the element of personal hygiene Roosh would be attributing to evil feminist oppression.
I hope it is ok to put this here but this is a gamergater repenting [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2cBt9QM5Iw&w=560&h=315%5D
I hope this cheers you up a bit.
Oh, my people, why must you be so humorless? Just when people were starting to laugh with rather than at death metal folks.
Also, Vox’s little review of Disturbed sounds like something some TV pundit in a suit with no interest in metal would write. It’s so awkward.
@canuckwithpluck, well, maybe some of ’em do! 😀 I would like to believe that at least some of the dudes do hair cair ‘cos they are, well ::looks around nervously:: clean.
@GrumpyOldMan, well, it doesn’t have to be scalp hair Doucheyboy’s talking about. Though I imagine he thinks* men having long, appealing hair is oppressive all by itself, somehow.
*for a given value of “thinks”
So, if Jordan Own isn’t Beavis or Butt-head, does that mean he won’t provide us with a vastly superiour spin-off (Daria)? Drat.
Wait, the “gate” in metalgate was someone suggesting that metalheads treat women like humans?
How fucking desperate are these dickheads?
And now I’m watching Jordan go on a huge rant about libertarianism and how SJWs totally hated Bioshock Infinite because they’re all cultural marxists who think the state should be god and blah blah blah and I’m just going…
Nothing of what you’re saying conforms to my reality of Social Justice. What strange world do you inhabit?
Also, I just want to reach into the video and shake the guy and force him to reveal exactly who is saying the things he says they are saying. Because he’s like “Social Justice Warriors are saying *this* and *that*,” and he has no source or anything so he’s basically just making it up off the top of his head.
They used to call this sort of self perpetuated feeding frenzy a circle jerk. Now that it has been popularized by the corporate media I do not know the current term of art for making shit up about something you misunderstood and having a hissy fit over it. Trolling, I suppose.
He spends… like.. 10 minutes quoting various social justicey metal songs, and then says that “these are the real social justice issues, things that you social justice warriors don’t deal with.” Then he says something along the lines of “I agree with these issues (which include racism, sexism, homophobia, etc) and like that bands are making this kind of social justice music, but if the bands I quoted started saying “we’re gonna do social justice warrior music, and run all our music past the social justice warriors,” that’d piss me off.”
@thebewilderness:
These days, it’s basically run-of-the-mill political rhetoric…
I suppose you are right. It is just so odd to me that they do not even pretend any more. They support injustice. Which is bad enough, but they are so effing self righteous about it I find it shocking.
I really wanted to fix this quote for them:
“The Gaters 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 Gaters push, the more Average Joe is repulsed by them. Their unfounded hatred and willful ignorance will be the death of them.”
Is First Contact going to result in Star Gate?
kirbywarp:
“Nothing of what you’re saying conforms to
myrealityof Social Justice. What strange world do you inhabit?”FTFY
They are actually just hooked on drama, aren’t they? Anything to stir the pot and make people as unhappy as they are.
They wanted to warn Jello Biafra about teh ebil SJW? Hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaahaha *ohgodicantbreath* hahahahahahahahahaha *reachesforventolin* hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Oh Praise Bootsy!
Please let these asshats start #Punkgate, cause I’ve always wanted to die laughing!
Also, please let them try to warn the surviving members of the Grateful Dead about teh ebil SJW. (I should probably feel ashamed of myself, but apparently, I am evil)