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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.)
.
.
.
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.
Way to take the idiocy up to eleven.
The SAME people? Wow. I had no clue that, in addition to making games and having to leave their houses, Brianna Wu and Zoe Quinn were hard at work upending the metal scene. And despite watching all of her videos, even her pre-Kickstarter ones, I had not seen the slightest indication that Anita Sarkeesian had any knowledge of the metal genre, much less that she had taken the time to paint a big bulls-eye of SJW wrath on it.
The same people, huh.
That said, despite really not caring for the genre, if it turns out that these SAME PEOPLE have started a metal band (“The Literally Whos”, perhaps), I would buy every last one of their tracks.
Drat. Using a new computer and mixed up the “Name” and “Website” fields. Trying this post again (Dearest mods: please feel free to not let that other post out of moderation):
The SAME people? Wow. I had no clue that, in addition to making games and having to leave their houses, Brianna Wu and Zoe Quinn were hard at work upending the metal scene. And despite watching all of her videos, even her pre-Kickstarter ones, I had not seen the slightest indication that Anita Sarkeesian had any knowledge of the metal genre, much less that she had taken the time to paint a big bulls-eye of SJW wrath on it.
The same people, huh.
That said, despite really not caring for the genre, if it turns out that these SAME PEOPLE have started a metal band (“The Literally Whos”, perhaps), I would buy every last one of their tracks.
If Zoe and Brianna want to start a metal band I’ll help! Pretty sure this isn’t a thing that’s happening, though.
Time to flood the hashtag with photos of actual gates made of metal.
https://twitter.com/Bobcat665/status/543696704537513984
These tweets in particular are so hilariously transparent. They are DYING for Anita to notice them. They are begging for her attention. Why on earth would they @ mention her otherwise?
I honestly think Anita’s point-blank refusal to engage with drama is what makes her so utterly infuriating to GGers.
Metalgate? Oh waaah, now there’s one less place in the world where they can be heinous fuckknuckles and use gendered slurs and have their most vile, violent fantasies catered to, unchallenged.
Normally I feel sorry for any species whose habitat is shrinking more quickly than they can adapt, but not with these guys. I hope their iceberg dissolves and leaves them floundering in the sea. The 21st century is here to stay, fellas. Time to sink or swim.
@Kim – BRILLIANT!
Also this is apparently a thing that is happening:
https://twitter.com/Nero/status/544450047350681600
http://www.imgfans.com.br/i777/Humenhuk/Discografias/Download_-_CD_-_Massacration_-_Gates_Of_Metal_Fried_Chicken_Of_Death_-.jpg
Well, this isn’t a bad target for them. I mean, metal is EVEN MORE mainstream than video games. Heck, the only way they could potentially engage more people would be if they’d propose that Feminists are out to ban vanilla ice cream.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1boUYB9LFJY&w=560&h=315%5D
Re: the book – if anyone besides the Gators themselves are still interested in hearing about GamerGate by 2015, I’ll eat my hat.
And by that I mean I will eat something that is both edible and could conceivably be folded into a hat. A tortilla maybe. But I bet I won’t have to.
I’ve got about a dozen metal gates on the farm, I should spend the day taking pictures of them and posting them under the hashtag.
Metal gate
Rusted metal gate
Rusted metal gate with momma cat on it, etc.
(And of course there’s this)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eovuIfeH2k4&w=420&h=315%5D
Not metal, but industrial music: a couple of years back, Ad·ver·sary put this together to protest the racism and sexism of some of the bigger-name industrial acts:
Longtime reader, first time commenter etc.
Been alternately laughing and sighing about the #metalgate stuff all weekend. While it’s gratifying to see that reactionaries are being laughed out of the room by metal fans, and that the arguments about SJWs infiltrating metal are obviously threadbare (really, there’s never been any engagement with sociopolitical themes in metal?), it still makes me wonder about the faction of metal fans who could be convinced to react against perceived SJWs or whatever. There are of course the neo-Nazi and white supremacist black metal bands and fans, but they’re not a majority by any means. What I get frustrated with are the huge number of metal fans who claim an “apolitical” stance, which you can see reflected in that deathmetal.org article when it claims metal is “above left and right”. That position tends to end up favouring the status quo by default. They might dislike openly bigoted bands, but they’ll use free speech arguments to defend those people spreading hate. Or they’ll claim people concerned with social justice etc are “just as bad” or some equally asinine “truth is in the middle” statement. That kind of fan isn’t likely to support #metalgate, but they don’t help challenge the current reality of metal as a largely white, male, straight, cis etc etc space.
I’ve written a fair few blog posts on these issues- as a metal fan, I want the genre to expand and welcome more fans than the dudebro norm, and it’s difficult for me to understand how the mroe reactionary fans reconcile their exclusionary viewpoints with a metal ethos. On the off chance anyone’s interested, there’s a link to the first post of a series on this topic below:
https://shamelessnavelgazing.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/extreme-conditions-demand-extreme-responses/
Oh, wow, the whole thread can be basically summarized to this:
GG: Brothers! SJW are attacking metal too, join us!
Metalheads: Wtf are you talking about? No one`s attacking us, go away.
GG: Cowards! I expected more from you!
Metalheads: Wtf? Go away.
Yep, still happening. I`d say that the Kilkim Žaibu festival (http://www.kilkimzaibu.com/en/kilkim-zaibu) have become the biggest metal event in Baltic region during the last years. I haven`t specifically followed the folk metal scene recently, but I`ve noticed that new bands appear now and then.
Funnily enough, Zoe Quinn has a post on her blog about various types of metal:
http://ohdeargodbees.tumblr.com/post/83546162978/let-me-show-you-some-niche-metal
Babymetal has already been mentioned on the thread, but I think the polka metal broke my brains…
So much stupid and awful. I still have trouble accepting that there are people too ignorant to be embarrassed by being such racist, sexist, stupid assholes. Oh, humanity. You could do so much better.
http://i.imgur.com/DB3crjA.jpg
#MetalGate – protecting the children!
@catmara
The most popular band who can be listed as polka influenced is, i`d say, Finntroll. However, they still sound like metal not ska.
What in the nine hells… First the Gaters ruined my video games, now they want to ruin my heavy metal? Am I not allowed to enjoy anything?!? :'(
But it’s totally about ethics in journalism, right? It’s definitely not about trying to bait someone who disagrees with you into an argument so you can whine about how much you are being attacked.
/sarcasm