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.
Wow
It never ceases to amaze me just how wrapped up in their own little world Gamergators are.
Like, I know most people like to think that they are the heroes of their own story, but this is downright asinine.
skybison –
http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/adam/6997c11a9daecc864f0e63aa328158fd/tumblr_mlum31RdOW1rjxj9ko1_400.gif
All bad guys spring from the same source.
And the same good guys rise up to stand against them.
Shhh.
Shhhhhhh.
What they see whenever they “confront” an EsJayDubya:
We’re mocking them!
Mocking!
We control the world and they are our playthings!
Or so we think!
THEY shall show us – ah ha!
THEY shall BEST us despite ALL of our POWER!
.
.
.
.
.
OK, this is exhausting.
Even making fun of them is depressing.
I think the kid’s finally asleep, so I’m going to go do some Treehouse lessons or something.
I normally find GG hyperbole really amusing and interesting, in its strange and unique way, but this basically just gave me a headache (well okay, I already had a headache, but this made it worse). The sanctimoniousness of sections 2 and 3 especially. Like, as if GG had never heard of these people before, but now they must all collectively answer a Monomythian call to adventure and defend against the evil that threatens their way(s) of life… I’m trying to find a way to comically exaggerate their beliefs, but I just can’t do it – it’s already exaggerated past the point of satire.
They have everyone in Hollywood except Eli Roth.
I hate to break it to these chuckleheads, but Eli Roth considers at least two of his films feminist films.
OH NO THEY HAVE ELI!!
I love their passion! These comments work perfectly as the script for a fight for humanity-type movie. Someone with tech skills (ie not me) should make a series of #GamerGateStruggle trailers.
Or just make a documentary on these brave warriors’ struggles. It’s a lot to fit into one film, but 2 1/2 hours of footage should do it.
@mockingbird, how did you find my favourite selfie?? Captures both my shininess and my evil, game-ruining soul.
@ skybison
Well, it can be argued that the selection criteria for death was being a man of military age.
However as the alternative for women and girls was being raped it would be hard to argue the massacre was a feminist plot.
^ What Mike said.
Have you ever seen a commercial that was so bad that it seemed like one of those commercials that’s in a movie that intentionally exaggerates the most absurd aspects of commercials for comic effect?
That’s what GG has become.
There’s just really no way left exaggerate what they’re saying.
There’s Oppenheimer famously quoting the Bhagavad Gita:
If I had access to an editing program, I’d make make something suitable for GGers saying, “I am become Hyperbole”, because DAMN.
@Viscaria – 😀
skybison: “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.”
Thank you. The Srebenica comment was particularly ignorant and disgusting. (Saying a lot, I know)
At least, whenever they confront me. ;3
^ You gave them a lovely recipe for cake. I’m not sure what else they could possibly want.
@WickedWItch of COURSE Eponine is the villain! She’s trying to prevent Marius from hooking up with Cosette, who is, naturally, an HB10! MISANDRY! She’s probably also responsible for the suicide of Javert, and is TOTALLY NOT HOT YOU GUYS!
It’s funny how that when they’re trying to silence the people who speak out against GamerGate, then it’s all well and good, that’s just free speech, nothing to see here move along, but when people are trying to do something about them being assholes on the internet, suddenly it’s like DEFCON 1 – FREE SPEECH ITSELF IS BEING THREATENED, WE ARE ONLY STEPS AWAY FROM A NOVEL I DIDN’T REALLY READ AT ALL, BUT IT SOUNDS BAD!
I have been trying to parse the rather odd sentence from Neo_Techni. I have to say with what I know it makes very little sense Since Funimation doesn’t really censor animes but localizes them. Of course apparently for some people that is one and the same despite the fact that some things don’t work in other languages for any number of reasons. Funny thing is he or she would have had a more correct sentence if they had said 4Kids but that has been defunct for years now.
Holding an opinion that contradicts the dogma of radical feminism is harassment.
Voicing an opinion that contradicts the dogma of radical feminism is harassment.
Failure to provide a hearty breakfast for dogma of radical feminism is harassment.
Not continually streaming Kevin Smith’s 1999 film Dogma of radical feminism is harassment.
Not walking the the dogma of radical feminism twice a day is harassment.
@Paradoxical Intention
It seems like gators are in a desperate need for some sort of vision-correction. Although I’m not sure if eyeglasses would actually help.
Re Funimation:
There was some flap over the weekend about a jab at Gamergate included in an episode of some anime somewhere. It was just one line but all the gaterz had to fetch their clutching pearls.
I went and Googled it, and apparently one of Funimation’s new anime licenses, Prison School, has a line in the English dub where a girl asks if a guy is “some kind of #GamerGate creep or something”, and now it’s all “KEEP YOUR POLITICS OUT OF MY ANIME!”
You’d assume that the first ever movement based around fighting for freedom of speech ethics would some functional grasp have of world politics, human rights, and what actually constitutes free speech and/or acceptable adult social behavior, but ironically it has none of those things.
That Srebrinica comment was Just. Fucking. Sickening.
Goddamit, I want so badly to laugh at these dingleberries but they just end up making me feel queasy.
mistressoflarry, I definitely don’t want to take anything away from the accomplishments of Anita and Zoe; they’ve both done amazing things despite a level of harassment I don’t know how they’re able to endure. But Gamergate has ironically given them more influence than they would have had otherwise.
So basically complaining about one stupid line that most likely wasn’t even in the original Japanese. My, some people are rather sensitive aren’t they considering all dubs have had rather stupid lines once in a while, see most of the crap 4Kids did for any anime they did really.
@David
Hey, David, while you’re online, could you pop on over to the glossary and ban Dar? Aside from being a neo-Nazi, he’s just boring and spammy as hell.