Demonstrating the keen grasp of ethics for which they are so well-known, an assortment of assholes and trolls associated with #GamerGate and 8chan are eagerly sorting through the Ashley Madison data dump in search of people to smear.
The former #GamerGate bigwig formerly known as Internet Aristocrat, now calling himself MisterMetokur, helped to lead the charge on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/633820133065031680
https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/634074455485083648
Naturally, his Tweets on the subject received dozens of likes and retweets from card-carrying, hashtag-using #GamerGaters.
On #GamerGate hub 8chan, meanwhile, the anons of /v/ and /pol/ searched the hacked database for the email addresses of game developers, academics, media professionals, and anyone else they could think of.
Over on Reddit’s KotakuInAction, the regulars rejoiced in the discovery that Gawker writer Sam Biddle, a longtime #GamerGate bete noire, had briefly had an AshleyMadison account, which he (quite plausibly) explained he had used for research.
But not everyone on KiA accepted that explanation:
![g-divA nice grandson 18 points 3 hours ago With some writers, I'd totally believe it. But Sam? Yeah, not for a second. permalinksavereportgive goldreply [–]AntonioOfVeniceRuns /r/polygon Karma King of late April 2015 17 points 3 hours ago Sam Biddle deactivated his account because he didn't need it for an affair. Women are falling over each other to do it with this very attractive man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jtmFlUg56w permalinksaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]EddieDombrowski 8 points 3 hours ago Is that even a man? He looks like a child, how old is he? Acts like one too. permalinksaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]AcherosIs fake journalism [score hidden] an hour ago I can't tell if its the audio quality, or the song over him, or what...But he literally, actually sounds like he is mentally retarded. Like, I'm not even joking or being insulting. in that video, he actually sounds like he has downs syndrome. Guys...What if...What if we've been going after someone with downs syndrome this entire time?](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/biddle.png?resize=513%2C458&ssl=1)
It’s about ethics in using stolen data to humiliate enemies and make Down Syndrome jokes about them.
H/T — @srhbutts
so you defend these people who don’t respect their loved ones???
That’s perplexing.
This isn’t gamergates doing either. The hackers who retrieved the information did the work. Don’t try to shift the blame here.
Feeling bad for anyone in that family is kind of my default response to all that BS. Except for the parents, whose fault it all is, and Josh, for obvious reasons.
@Rui:
It’s spelled “shtick,” you schmuck.
Except for the bit where it’s actually proven that GG and 8chan are trolling this data. We’re not claiming they’re behind the hack, just that they’re trying to exploit it for their benefit.
*looks at the camera like I’m on The Office*
@marinerachel:
There’s probably a lot of pressure on her to stay under his headship and forgive him, so I don’t know that we can hold it against her if she does stay.
@WWTH:
Hear fucking hear!
@Alan Robertshaw:
How many of them made it into a presidential daily briefing that he ignored?
“In b4…”
Lol, okay, one, you’re not fucking using that right. You can’t be “in b4” something that would happen in response to your own post.
And two; fuck you- maybe try harder not to immediately come across as a channer shill.
@ Falconer
Probably hundreds; most of which will have lead nowhere.
And realistically, want can one do about “Bin Laden determined to strike”?
Intelligence work revolves around two key factors: intent and capability (most intelligence failures arise from either conflating the two or only concentrating on one). Bin Laden’s intent had been known since 1997. It was the capability that was unknown. Most people in the community envisaged a repeat of the 1993 WTC bombing. Short of monitoring every Egyptian in the US there was little else that could have been done.
A clue after the fact was the assassination of Ahmad Massoud on September 9th. A few people in the community were pondering “So what’s the significance of that?” 2 days later “Ah, now we know” (hence the very speedy realisation AQ-Central was behind the attacks)
There is sometimes an assumption, maybe we get it from movies, that the intelligence services are hyper competent organisations with unlimited budgets that can order a spy satellite to follow a particular individual at the flick of a switch, but the reality is they’re no different from the DMV or any other government agency.
9/11 was the product of decades of policy gaffes, both in terms of foreign policy and security. I don’t blame Dubya for it.
I ~do~ hold him accountable for the considerable expansion of the security state following the attacks, though, as well as the unconscionable and unsustainable military escapades that were to follow. (I also critique Obama for building on those policies, for that matter.)
Prior to 9/11, Bush was probably on-track to be a crony capitalist. We would’ve eroded a bunch of important safeguards on product safety and environmental controls, and most likely repealed a lot of important financial regs. However, in the aftermath of the attacks, Bush’s inner circle shifted hard to the right, and he followed. (This was always his biggest weakness–he didn’t lead, he just figureheaded for the cabal in power–Rumsfield, Cheney, Rice.)
@ freemage
Yup. A big problem with the consequent debacles was the need to justify everything in terms of nation building and the need to be seen to be promoting democracy etc.
The actual initial military operation in Afghanistan was one of the most successful ever in terms if its aims (remove the ability of foreign fighters to train there). Just a few hundred SF and intelligence officers achieved that in 3 weeks with almost zero friendly casualties. We should have pulled out then, leaving a message with the Taliban that we’d be back if they allowed it again.
Instead we got dragged into 10 years of internal Afghan politics. As Brits, we all knew the historical futility of that sort of enterprise.
The Iraq thing was a case of ‘too soon’. It’s no secret that the US was worried about Iraq; Saddam had made his intentions quite clear. But back to my point about ‘ability’; that’s where the screw up was. Unfortunately, after the cock up with the interpretation of April Glaspie’s meetings with Saddam, CIA were worried about being caught with their pants down again and so a false positive indication was almost inevitable.
That’s the trouble with intelligence work, well in the US at least, it’s like a pendulum.
Iraq 1990 – false negative
Iraq 2002 – false positive
UBL 2011 – nearly another false negative (CIA said that they were less certain about the Abottabad thing than they were about the WMDs; it was pretty gutsy of Obama to make the call)
It’s “ooga booga” and “schtick”, troll. Get it right.
And nobody here is scared of Gamergate; we’re laughing at them, and they’re not bright enough to tell.
It rhymes with “chic”. This fall, we’ll see soft pastel shades of Gamergate-mocking on the runways of Milan.
It’s not up to us to judge people. We don’t know their stories, we don’t know what’s going on in their lives. We don’t know them.
rugbyyogi made a good post about their experiences on the site:
So, rugbyyogi was on there because their spouse is an abusive asshole (and they’ve talked about this at length on various threads as well), so are they “disrespecting their loved ones”?
Someone else brought up a good point too: That not only are the “cheaters” being doxxed, so are their spouses and loved ones.
So happy to see that you’re willing to toss them to the wolves too just to get back at someone who “disrespects their loved ones”.
Nah, that’s courtesy. It’s also none of our fucking business and has nothing to do with anything. This is just people who want some dirt, and the Ashley Madison hack was a way to threaten and coerce Ashley Madison to shut down.
You know what I find perplexing? That you’re defending people who hacked private information, regardless of who they expose.
Today in “I didn’t even really read the title of the article…”
“#Gamergaters and 8channers Using Ashley Madison leak to go after SJWs and Game Developers.”
David didn’t claim that GGers/8Channers were responsible for the hack. Only that they’re using the information for their own ends.
Mayhaps next time you’ll read a little bit more carefully (and read some of the comments on the thread) instead of just knee-jerking everywhere in the comments section with your holier-than-thou nonsense.
You know, I’m seeing this more and more. The only way that this moron could claim to be ‘in b4’ anything is if he regularly indulges in time-travel, and was referring to his own timeline rather than the real one.
In which case… Worst. Timelord. Ever.
>>>so you defend these people who don’t respect their loved ones???
>>>That’s perplexing.
Stop it, you’re breaking my heart. Here are typical Gamergate “ethics”: a cynical manipulation of shallow moral principles in pursuit of a vengeful, pointless, and self-harming agenda. You don’t care about the “loved ones”. Their lives will also be destroyed.
Gamergate believes in ethics for everyone else. That’s bad ethics.
Good to see that the GamerGaters still have time to troll any article that mentions them by name. They’re like an Internet version of bloody Mary, but, you know. Uninteresting.
I see that most people are telling you that it’s spelled “schtick”, so I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate and say that “stick” would also work.
Anyway, I guess you’re visited this site because you obsessively search for the word “gamergate” and this posting came up? Reading one article won’t tell you what the site is like. Mr. Futrelle covers the whole misogynosphere, and gamergate is only a small part of that. He’s written articles about it, of course, but you’ll see that he has lots more articles about groups like “A Voice For Men”, and “Return of Kings”, and the “Red Pill” boards on reddit.
The reason Gamergate is being blamed for this is two-fold: (1) They confessed, and (2) the targets are game developers. If any member of the Bush family had been behind it, they would have picked a whole other set of targets.
@mewens
So you mean if I chant “Gamergate” three times in front of a mirror a whiny white neckbeard will come out and complain about women being whores?
Man, fuck that.
I’ve got to say, I’d prefer summoning Bloody Mary or Candyman over a gamergater. Although, perhaps a gger can be warded off by burning scented candles in an Anita Sarkeesian shrine.
@Alan Robertshaw
It’s been a while since I read Vincent Bugliosi’s Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, but as I recall it makes some pretty good points on the things you’ve been mentioning. If you haven’t read it, you might find it interesting. It’s a polemic, but it’s also his blueprint for how he’d get Bush convicted of murder in court. As he’s the guy who got Manson behind bars even though he didn’t get his hands dirty in the Tate-LaBianca murders, one gets the feeling he could have pulled it off, too.
Anyhow, it’s very much a book for legal nerds, but also fun for the general public because of just how pissed off he is in it.
(Bugliosi also once made fools out of an entire room of lawyers by proving, in under sixty seconds, that they weren’t thinking clearly about the Kennedy assassination when they expressed doubts on the official story:
BUGLIOSI: I can demonstrate that in less than a minute.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We don’t think you can.
BUGLIOSI: Start the stopwatch. We’re all lawyers, we know we have to look at all the facts. How many of you have seen JFK or read a book casting doubt on the official story?
*99% of audience members raise their hands*
BUGLIOSI: Now, how many of you have read the Warren Report? Not even the 20-volume version, just the short summed-up one?
*Crickets*
BUGLIOSI: I rest my case.
The best way to deal with a Kennedy conspiracist, by the way, is to refuse to discuss the case with them unless they’ve read all of Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History. If you read the whole thing and still aren’t convinced, fine, then we can talk. But not before. The added benefit is that due to the book’s size, they have to leave you alone for a few months to be able to read it.)
KIA is calling out people for doing this. It’s nobody’s business. There will always be jerks in any group that gloat over other people tragedies.
That doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that KIA would do. It would require a level of emotional maturity that they really don’t have.
What gives you the impression that KIA doesn’t enthusiastically approve of this? Did you check to see if the moderators have deleted the thread yet? If it’s still there, did you check to see the top-voted comments?
Checked KiA regarding this. The front page is, of course, mostly sneering about Anita Sarkeesian and whining about how oppressed they all are.
One thread with 100+ comments on this topic.
It’s full of “What? Us? They blame us for everything! It’s ONE guy, and he’d not even GG any more! It’s just /pol/!” On and on it goes.
Checked for any posts on an actual ethical question in gaming media:
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/251650/Dead_Realm_publisher_disregards_FTC_disclosure_guidelines_for_YouTubers.php
One post, with one comment.
And that comment is snarking about Gamasutra, not a word about the issue.
…ethics…
@Kagato: I thought it was common knowledge by now that Syndacate and SeaNanners were involved in the process of making Dead Realm. :/ They haven’t been quiet about it, and I’m pretty sure that not only their fanbases know, but the fanbases of their fellow ‘Tubers (which do overlap) would know about it as well.
I watched one of Nanner’s videos on it, and he talks (pretty excitedly) about the level designs and such to the people he’s playing with. It seemed pretty obvious that he wasn’t just playing the game, considering he talked about the development with the word “we”.
So, I guess Gamasutra wants them to disclose it on every video (which, honestly, wouldn’t be too hard. Even a note in the video description would be good) instead of just mentioning it and having it be common knowledge among their fanbases?
Eh, it sounds kind of nitpicky to me.
I think the issue is more that the FTC wants people to disclose on every video (or blog post, or other media) when they have a vested commercial interest in the product they’re promoting.
Social networks and Youtube are inherently fragmented; recommendations and sharing mean that individual chunks of content are regularly dropped in front of you without context, so people could end up watching Seananner’s Dead Realm videos without knowing more about him.
Whether or not it’s really a big deal in the grand scheme of things isn’t the point, though. This is exactly the sort of topic KiA/GG claim to be interested in, but they’re obviously not.
@ rabid rabbit
Cheers, I’ll keep a look out for that (I am a legal nerd so it’ll be perfect)
Had some dealings in international law so be interesting what his case theory is.
Good points. Though, like I said, it wouldn’t be too hard for them to start dropping a disclaimer in the video description. It’d literally be copy and paste.
And you’re right about this not being the point. But, then again, Seananners is a white cishet dude, so, I don’t think they really give a shit if he’s not being “ethical”. After all, it’s okay when they do it, but not when anyone else does it!