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Anita Sarkeesian’s assorted haters frequently demand “proof” that she’s really been harassed. Sarkeesian regularly provides proof, in sickening detail; her haters resolutely ignore the evidence.
In a blog post yesterday that everyone concerned about online harassment should read, Sarkeesian documented yet another example of what she’s had to endure ever since she started expressing her opinions about video games on YouTube, looking in detail at the wave of harassment and threats she received this past July after 4chan trolls and other haters spread around “screenshots” of phony Tweets deliberately designed to whip up hatred against her.
The phony Tweets — so obviously fake that one of them contained more characters than Twitter even allows — made it appear that Sarkeesian had responded to the death of Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata by declaring him a “male supremacist” and saying she was “glad he’s gone” from the game company.
Sarkeesian’s haters are hardly the only ones who’ve used fake Tweets and fake quotes in order to unleash hatred upon their enemies online. As I’ve documented here, A Voice for Men’s social media director “Janet Bloomfield” used fake quotes attributed to feminist writers Jessica Valenti in an attempt to smear her; on at least one occasion she’s posted fake Sarkeesian Tweets as well. (“Bloomfield” was banned from Twitter for this sort of targeted abuse; she’s now attempting to get around the ban by posting under her real name Andrea Hardie.)
In the case of the fake Iwata Tweets, Sarkeesian made clear that she hadn’t posted them — saying it was “disheartening” that people were using the “sad event” of Iwata’s death to whip up phony outrage against her.
But it didn’t matter. Because, as Sarkeesian points out, many of those attacking her knew all along that the Tweets were fake.
They just didn’t care, because their goal was simply to discredit me and to generate so much animosity against me that I would stop speaking critically about video games.
A Twitter user who tracks GamerGate found the origin of the attack on 4chan and shared proof that the harassers knew they were spreading misinformation. They were the ones doing exactly what many of the harassers they spurred on accused me of doing: callously using a man’s tragic death as an opportunity.
They seized it and turned it into a weapon to use against me.
Some harassers knew, others were tricked, but the end result was a cybermob of hate that lasted most of the week.
Sarkeesian ended her post with several dozen examples of the harassing and threatening Tweets that were sent to her that week. Here are a handful of the more striking ones.
I left out a number referring to Sarkeesian with the c-word because, as I write this, it’s 9 AM, and way too early for that sort of crap. Unfortunately, Sarkeesian has to face this kind of harassment every single day.
Kind of like how they are always going on about frozen peaches, but whenever someone has some of their own and uses them, it’s some egregious moral failing of the government or “effics” as Falconer so wonderfully put it?
Like Mockingbird, I wouldn’t know who Anita Sarkeesian was if it weren’t for GamerGaters. She seems like a really, really strong, kickass woman.
Thanks, GamerGaters, for letting the world know about an extremely courageous woman, Anita Sarkeesian!
Sometimes when I get caught up in the emotion of a cause that I believe strongly in, I worry that I could succumb to some of the same cognitive biases that I see in the people I disagree with – I start to wonder if maybe I’m the baddies and just don’t know it?
But then I remember that I’m not a garbage person that hurls slurs and threats and tells people to kill themselves for disagreeing with me, and I’m pretty comforted.
The “ethics” argument was thought up by people on /pol/ as a way to have an “honest/legitimate political concern” cover so sites wouldn’t automatically ban GGers for harassment.
Sort of like how many far right groups use denial and conspiracy theories to try to look moderate and keep people from figuring out how radical they are.
So, I *always* count characters when I see a controversial tweet that people claim has been “deleted but we saved a screenshot.” Literally EVERY TIME that happens with Sarkeesian*, I come up above 140. EVERY TIME. I think the channers targeting her make their forgeries extra transparent on purpose for the extra “lulz” of having motivated marks fall for it anyway.
*I’ve seen at least four, and I think there are more I’m not remembering individually.
@Cerulean (Miss A)
Ah, I had almost forgotten about those. And upon inspection, it’s hilarious to see the asshats in the comments try to defend things like “Oh wait, it’s actually about Zoe harming the Fine Young Capitalists project”…. which 4channers blatantly admitted to donating money to just so they could shield themselves from criticism about their movmenet. Or as they put it “provide the chemo AND the cancer” while they cackled like the cartoonish villains they believe themselves to be.
@zoon echon logon
I had an argument with a ridiculous gator who tried to claim “look, Anita is saying that there shouldn’t be any more anti-hero male protagonists!!!!!!!!” followed by a link to a tweet.
Her tweet actually said “can we stop with the brooding sexist dark anti-hero male protagonists?”
When I pointed how adjectives work to this guy, he went on a huge tirade about colored pencils in a pencil box… I think he was trying to accuse me of splitting hairs? it was as hilarious as it was ridiculous.
I actually knew of Anita before she started the Tropes Versus Women thing. I like her vids alright. I thought it was a nice idea to have a video series concentrate on video games, and I wish I had money to donate to her during that time, especially when the assholes came out of the woodwork to insult her and shit.
Adjectives are super-hard for trolls to understand.
I feel so bad for the bullshit she has to put up with. The people who genuinely fell for that ploy… wow.
It’s kind of ironic how these “vigilant for Iwata” folks try to make themselves look good by saying she needs a bullet in her head for something she didn’t even say. My parrot has more sense and empathy than these shitheads ever hope to have.
Speaking of Gamergater shit stains: http://www.theestablishment.co/2015/11/18/gamergate-alison-prime-trolling/
The story is about a month old, but I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet. Basically it turns out one of GG’s biggest female supporters- one frequently held up as a shining example of an ideal gamer girl- is really a massive sock puppet hoax.
Color me shocked.
Pandapool
Yeah, same here, I’d watched a few of her smaller Tropes vs women that weren’t about video games, and usually liked them. I was glad she was doing an expanded one on video games specifically. But then everything changed when the fire nation at… I mean internet harassers attacked.
What always amazes me is how much status they give her. They assume she is some supreme general of feminism, when she simply had a cool youtube channel about how media in general treats women. Even now, she’s well known because of the abuse, but she’s hardly the leader of feminism they believe she is.
@Tessa
Like, the Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor and/or the Buffy versus Edward Cullen was the first one for me I think. And then the Lego vid came out and I was like, “Yeah, I’ll subscribe.”
And she is a face of feminism now. One of them. It’s sort of a 1989 Batman sort of situation, you made me, I made you, because without GamerGate, Anita wouldn’t be a face, and without her being so vocal about her abuse, GamerGate wouldn’t be as visible.
Well, there’s still Brianna Wu and Zoe Quinn but you get what I mean.
but remember: it’s all about ethics
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…
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Nope, couldn’t keep a straight face
I hate that anyone can even calls it “gamer *gate*” as if the evils of (cough!) unethical video game journalism can some how be compared with the evils of corruption at the highest level of government. Since it seems to be mainly about victimising a handful of scapegoats, personally I prefer “gamergoat”. While the harassment is a serious matter, it’s the only thing about the goatees that I can take seriously.
The use of very obviously faked content reminds me of the smear-job they’ve been doing on Bahar Mustafa recently.
I vote that Falconer’s “effics” join the ranks of “freeze peach” as excellent internet shorthand.
I second Kootiepatra’s suggestion.
Does anyone else wish the tells would just vanish into the “deep Web” and be gone from the regular Internet for good? I know I’m not the only one.
Anita talks about harassment, MRAs demand proof.
Anita shows the harassment, MRAs tell her to toughen up, everyone gets harassed.
MRAs get called on their bullshit, they cry about all the harassment they receive.