So a couple of days ago, as you probably have heard, Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn testified at the United Nations about online harassment of women. The two, along with a number of other victims of/experts on online harassment also paid a visit to Google Ideas to share their thoughts on the matter.
This is, in essence, what #GamerGate has achieved over the past year: By launching an unprecedented wave of organized harassment, mostly aimed at women, the Gators have brought about a new awareness of the seriousness of online harassment. And they’ve given the women whose lives and careers they’ve tried most energetically to destroy an influence they never would have had otherwise.
Naturally, Gators have been losing their shit over all this.
And so, as a public service of sorts, I would like to share with you the 13 most ridiculously hyperbolic pronouncements from Gators I have seen thus far in response to Sarkeesian and Quinn’s recent adventures. (On Reddit, anyway; I have not (yet) ventured into the wilds of 8chan or the Twitter hashtag to collect further examples, and I’m not sure I will.) Major props to the folks in the BestOfOutrageCulture subreddit, who have been energetically and hilariously documenting the man-steria, and who found a number of the examples below.
1) “We are literally fighting to save the world from an international alliance targeting the most fundamental human rights.“
In a KotakuInAction post with more than 300 upvotes, someone called frankenmine declares:
Make no mistake, we are literally fighting to save the world from an international alliance targeting the most fundamental human rights. …
The problem is not the UN panel and report itself. The problem was not the Google Ideas meeting. The problem was not the Congressional hearing. …
The mere ability to get access to these platforms shows that McIntosh and his ilk is building up a progressively larger and more influential network fairly quickly. At the rate he’s going, he might be able to infiltrate actually influential organizations, at the corporate and/or governmental levels, fairly soon.
The McIntosh in question is Jonathan McIntosh, Sarkeesian’s video-making partner. Unable to believe that a mere woman could actually be in charge of her own life many GamerGater’s believe that McIntosh is the evil puppetmaster pulling Sarkeesian’s strings.
2) “Now GamerGate has to save the world from authoritarian, women-infantising control freaks?”
In another KotakuInAction post, this one with more than 1600 upvotes, _Mellex_ makes, well, basically the same assertion:
So now GamerGate is being mentioned in the same breath as the United Nations, and apparently KIA is at the forefront of stopping unnecessary government overhaul of internet protocol. What in the actual fuck? …
Ethics in games journalism: That’s what this was all about. And now GamerGate has to save the world from authoritarian, women-infantising control freaks?
These guys do an awful lot of world-saving for dudes whose greatest accomplishments basically consist of being belatedly banned on Twitter for harassing women.
3) “It’s amazing that it falls to gamers to play a key role in this pushback against authoritarianism.”
LEGALIZE-MARINARA gets a hundred upvotes for this comment, made in response to _Mellex_’s post:
It’s amazing that it falls to gamers to play a key role in this pushback against authoritarianism.
Not big upping myself. I ain’t even a gamer, and I’m pretty late to this whole thing, and nor do I think it’s fair that so many politicians have abandoned their responsibilities in this manner. But that’s the reality we’re faced with.
So humble, these guys.
4) “If they win, if they get what they want, they kill free speech. For good. And the foregone conclusion is THX 1138 or Demolition Man.”
Ok, I cheated a little. This is evidently a rant from 8chan, which I found reposted on TheBestOfOutrageCulture subreddit. It’s a bit tl;dr, so I’ve edited a little and bolded the best bits.
Media is a tool. And corporations like to co-opt every single format for one purpose; to sell you sub par shit that you don’t need.
And the biggest threat to that is your ability to have just as big a soapbox to criticize their product as they do to push it.
That’s why they want to take away your ability to say mean things on the internet. It isn’t about poor little Anita. It’s about poor little Pfizer. Anita is a patsy. She’s a tool. Get everyone to rush to the defense of the damsel, take away the right to criticize and now you’ve got people going to jail for saying anything but “Coke is it! Coke is the best! Disney is the greatest! Nike totally doesn’t rely on third world child labor! Apple is an ethical company!” …
SJWs are useful idiots, savvy at narrative with their communications degrees, with social access to trend setting cliques. Those SJWs are the innoculation against those in the media who might break the narrative. They got Patton Oswalt. They got Sarah Silverman. They got Louis CK. They got the video games industry under lockdown. They have everyone in Hollywood except Eli Roth. …
The final result? Draconian control of THE most valuable social tool since Guttenberg. …
Gamers are the only thing holding the line right now, and I’m telling you, we can’t stop. Because if they win, if they get what they want, they kill free speech. For good. And the foregone conclusion is THX 1138 or Demolition Man. Then we all have to live in the subways, or live like them. And we ain’t got the cash to live in the good parts.
Well, someone’s got a vivid — if somewhat derivative — imagination.
5) “Not being a cuck is harassment.”
In a r/KiA comment with more than 900 upvotes, SinisterDexter83 sarcastically suggests that Sarkeesian and her allies are trying to declare everything and the kitchen sink to be a form of harassment.
Asking for evidence of harassment is harassment.
Questioning harassment is harassment.
Criticism is harassment.
Disagreeing with the harassing tactics of radical feminists is harassment.
Holding an opinion that contradicts the dogma of radical feminism is harassment.
Voicing an opinion that contradicts the dogma of radical feminism is harassment.
Holding an opinion that contradicts the dogma of radical feminism without voicing it is an especially sinister, underground form of harassment.
Continuing to have your own opinions after you have been informed of the official radical feminist dogma is harassment.
Not being a cuck is harassment.
He continues on for some time in this manner, but, really, what can beat “not being a cuck is harassment?” It’s Peak #GamerGate.
6) “Corporate enterprise is pushing this brand of feminism to isolate countries and decimate societies for profit.”
More conspiracy-mongering from this r/KiA comment. Sarkeesian and Quinn are puppets of an evil corporate plot to “decimate the public” because apparently decimating customers is a great way to make money?
Google Ideas, a think tank in NY, allowed the harassment to get high profile…
Google changes their monetization and wants more profit…
A new narrative (which is old to us) is put before the UN to spread worldwide.
What people should realize is that we’re seeing the rise of the corporate feminist which is a different type of feminism. This thing was okayed by a think tank to influence rates of growth for corporate enterprise. …
People are focused on fighting SJWs, they missed the bigger story and the article… Corporate enterprise is pushing this brand of feminism to isolate countries and decimate societies for profit. They mislabel gaming to justify cultural imperialism (we’re telling you what to make for our sake) and enact corporate friendly laws that decimate the public.
I’m not quite sure how the evil folks at Google secretly convinced a battalion of angry gamers to send multiple death threats to Anita Sarkeesian over the course of several years, but I’m sure there’s some perfectly reasonable explanation for it.
7) “This is only the beginning. … If this … spirals out of control from here I could see a full blown revolution down the road.”
A comment in KotakuInAction, with more than two dozen upvotes, suggests that if Gamergate and other “free speech” movements like it don’t succeed, the masses might ultimately have to resort to revolution:
More and more it’s becoming evident that movements like Gamergate are necessary. If no one fought for the rights these people are trying to take away we probably would have lost them long ago.
I’m gonna make this prediction, so mark my words.
This is only the beginning. Between the authoritarian right and authoritarian left and whatever group has an agenda to push we’re going to start seeing more and more attacks on our rights.
Privacy and free speech are going to be constantly attacked and they’ll use whatever excuse they can to try and legitimize their cause. Harassment, terrorism, sexism, bigotry, criticism, you name it and they’ll use it to try and take away your rights.
Gamergate will just have been the precursor, eventually I think there’ll be more movements based around fighting for freedom of speech ethics. If this only spirals out of control from here I could see a full blown revolution down the road.
Well, of course you can. Because you clearly have no understanding of history and only a tenuous connection with reality.
8) “When the lunatic horde comes knocking, we stand up, stand strong, arms linked and spirits high, voices joined in harmony, millions of different pitches mingling into a rising crescendo of unity and strength.”
In an r/KiA comment with more than a dozen upvotes, Ferlion123 gets all inspirational:
Where do we go from here?
We go to our families and we go to our friends. We go on with our jobs and our lives. And when the lunatic horde comes knocking, we stand up, stand strong, arms linked and spirits high, voices joined in harmony, millions of different pitches mingling into a rising crescendo of unity and strength.
We will go on with our lives until the call comes, and when it does we will stand before the tide upon our shores and before our fires will they disperse. We will stand before any rush and we will not break or fall.
What we do is EXACTLY what we’ve been doing. We stand on our own legs, allies at our side, and we finish this fight.
Is this plagiarized from somewhere? I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure Ferlion123 means it all quite sincerely.
9) “Now we are the only things that stand between them and world domination.”
In an r/KiA comment with 70 upvotes, Neo_Techni seems to have a hard time telling the difference between anime and reality.
It started with censorship, and the censors won. It was inevitable that they’d get drunk on that power and try to censor the world. Now we are the only things that stand between them and world domination.
It’d make a great anime so long as funimation doesn’t get to touch 1984 it up
No, I’m not quite sure just what that last, er, “sentence” is supposed to mean either.
10) “I can imagine SJWs one day coming up with a reason to defend diseases from being cured.”
In response to a comment in which someone called deathonwingz suggests, at least half seriously, that “I get the feeling this won’t be over until we’ve cured cancer, stopped world hunger, colonized mars and done many other things,” commenter FiveThou writes
Now you say that, but I can imagine SJWs one day coming up with a reason to defend diseases from being cured. “Viruses are living things that share our planet. How dare you be so cruel to them.” “Don’t go to see the doctor – he’s only going to AIDS-shame you.”
11) “You weren’t necessarily sent to the gulags for criticizing Brezhnev, but you never worked again.”
Tigers_ suggests that the power of Sarkeesian et al is comparable to that of the Soviet authorities in the era of Brezhnev. I suppose we should give him half a point for not going with a full-blown Stalin comparison.
I’ve been wanting to find a way to address these issues in an entertaining and accessible fashion for a few years now. Real life issues hold me back, but there’s also the incessant fear of something like that destroying any hopes I have at a career of my chosing for engaging. It’s not like there isn’t a massive risk. You weren’t necessarily sent to the gulags for criticizing Brezhnev, but you never worked again.
12) “Think feminism doesn’t kill people? Fucking yes it does, Srebrinca was possible because of feminist mindset.”
Xyluz85, meanwhile, gets no points for reining in rhetorical excess with this comment, not specifically referencing Sarkeesian but made in the wake of her UN visit.
It’s not about the fear that they can win this, it’s more about how big the damage will be when the time comes feminism goes away. And it get’s more horrifing by the day. I learn more and more about this mindset, and what it does to people. Think feminism doesn’t kill people? Fucking yes it does, Srebrinca was possible because of feminist mindset, Haiti women-only food pretty sure killed some people, lynchmobs killing innocent people surley happend.
I think I’ll just end this post here.
Oh, wait, I almost forgot TREASON.
13) “Don’t listen to the leftist lies: both Zoe and Anita (assuming she is a citizen of the United States) have committed a felony by explicitly and directly lobbying foreign governments for the abolition of Net Neutrality and the “licensing” of internet content providers.
HonorableJudgeHolden provided “evidence” for this assertion in the form of a meme-enhanced “info”graphic.
This is the only Reddit comment or post I’ve quoted here, in this Gamer’s Dozen, that #GamerGaters considered too ridiculous to upvote.
If you want to see what Sarkeesian and Quinn actually said at the UN, here’s a video of their testimony, courtesy of Laughing Witch.
Do they think they’re playing Red Rover with the lunatic horde? Because, as a member of said horde, I can assure you that we’re not calling any of them over.
I hope blockquote works here/
“Assuming she is a citizen of the United States”?
If one of these dildo-brains asks to see Anita’s long-form birth certificate, I might never post again, because I’ll be laughing too fucking hard.
Anita has dark hair and a weird, foreign-y sounding name. Every one knows that Americans are blonde-haired, blue-eyed and named Jones. She must be an illegal immigrant.
Reading this list, I can see they still don’t know what they’re talking about.
Comment on David’s blog post:
Anita and Zoe are victims here of massive harassment to be sure and #GamerGate did a great job of convincing people online harassment is a real problem. But, I just want to say it was Anita and Zoe who fought back and spoke out who earned their own level of influence. Not everyone who’s experienced harassment has the tools, education, or ability to do that, it wasn’t given to them by #GamerGate, they did it themselves. And still, they’ll have to live with the trauma of the #GarmerGate expereience for the rest of their lives, I wouldn’t give GG’ers or their defenders any reason to maybe feel good about this if they ever change down the road and realize what pissants they’ve been.
These dudes need to stop treating life like it’s a AAA video game.
They’re the few, the embattled brave, who dare to stand up against the Ravening Horde / Fascist Doom / Horrific Swarm / What-have-you!
It is up to THEM with their skill, determination, cunning, loyalty, and ability to plan coordinated raids to DEFEAT THE INHUMAN THREAT THAT WOULD ENGULF ALL MANKIND!!! [dot…dot…dot…]
Even as those who they would save work against their efforts, blinded as they are by the machinations of the Devious Foe.
*hero hangs head in solemn recognition of what must be done*
*death and/or thrash metal opening cutscene*
Ferlion123 sounds like his just seen a really inspiring production of Les Miserables but somehow thought Eponine was the villain.
I’m having trouble understanding how they think they get to use all this revolutionary left-wing, anti-corporate imagery, in the cause of threatening indie creative women with rape and evisceration if they mildly criticise commercially produced computer games. They don’t seem to have realised what side they are on.
don’t forget they also achieved destroying the academic reputation of video games so that game archiving projects can’t get funded and more games will be lost to the ravages of time. Too bad we all suffer together when they shoot themselves in the foot. (I hope this comment didn’t read as pro gamergate in any way.)
LMAO.
@Meerkat – Or, at the very least, making it appear as if serious academic analysis and critique of video games as an art form is more trouble than it’s worth.
I see they’ve kept their sense of proportion, as always.
If only they could get this passionate about something that really did have an affect on American society, like the scandalous over pricing of life saving medication?
As it is I’m waiting for Davis Aurini to mount a defense of Martin Shkreli.
The self-importance on display is truly astounding. And my god, slippery-slope much? Apparently it’s only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Twitter enforcing its own terms of service to… whatever the hell that THX-1138 rant was supposed to mean.
I guess I admire their professed commitment to the principle of free speech, but I’m truly dumbfounded by their apparent inability to conceive of *any* middle ground between basic protections against harassment and the seeds of a totalitarian state. They *do* realize that First Amendment jurisprudence is already riddled with exceptions and qualifiers on things like incitement, threats, harassment, etc.? And yet the Republic still stands. It’s called “striking a reasonable balance,” kiddos.
On a lighter note, I searched the hashtag on Twitter and saw that some of them are now giving their hot takes on geopolitics, since the UN is now apparently the enemy. Whatever gets them reading the newspaper, I guess…
I… wow. Okay, first, Anita is Canadian, so she can’t really commit treason. Secondly, wow… I’m still confused on how these guys can go on thinking they’re the majority and not being able to see the damage that they’ve done.
Hello, I’m new here. Been reading for a few months, though. If you friendly-seeming people haven’t actually checked out the testimony Anita and Zoe gave, it’s pretty great.
@mockingbird
I’ve seen numerous comments from GGers which suggest that they can’t possibly lose this great battle for the culture, because of their wealth of strategic experience. From video games.
@Gamergate: Here, I found the Wikipedia article about radical feminism. Turns out, radical feminism is not just feminism that you find particularly annoying, but is actually a unique school of thought within feminism as a whole. Please enjoy the read!
It’s so funny that half these guys claim that Anita Sarkeesian is trying to end all criticism when… she is a critic. That’s what she does. Her criticism is what your lot is objecting to.
It’s almost funny how irrational it all is. I’d ask how they feel about Anita or Zoe’s freedom of speech or rights of privacy but I know the answer. Always misogyny . I mean talk about digging a hole guys, have you reached the center of the earth yet? Go do some WoW battlegrounds or something until you calm down. (No wow judgement here I have recently started playing again myself)
r/BestOfOutrageCulture is basically a collection of self-congratulatory nincompoops locked in the worlds most fatuous game of “Six Degrees to Feminism”.
I want to laugh at how they talk like badly written video game characters. I really, really do. But they’ve done so much terribleness.
Augh.
Re: “If she’s even American”
Well, to be fair (which these people don’t deserve) she IS from Canada. So they MIGHT be referring to that. Wikipedia says she “identifies as a Canadian-American” but I, personally, have no idea what her citizenship status actually is.
This will end well. I eagerly wait the results of their attempts to pressure the UN via the same methods they used with, say, Gawker and Intel.
@Viscaria – Feminists / “SJWs” to GGers:
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/12/123441/3609162-earth-mass_00417265.jpg
Also, according to that first person: Apparently neither the UN, Congress, nor Google have any influence?
^Well I assume she could commit treason against Canada…
Okay about the “Srebrinca” thing let me say this loud and clear: they killed those men because they were Muslims not because they were Men. It was driven by hard right racism and religious bigotry, not feminism. As a general rule of thumb people who have rape camps aren’t feminists.
Except…except that the Mass Effect series has better dialogue than they do.