By David Futrelle
Porn actress Mercedes Carrera was enthusiastically embraced by the Gamergate crowd after she spoke out in favor of the journalism ethics movement misogynistic harassment campaign in its heyday back in 2014.
She was regularly celebrated on Kotaku in Action, Reddit’s main Gamergate hub, won lavish praise from prominent Gamergates like Mike Cernovich, and even made an appearance in the star-crossed Gamergate “documentary” The Sarkeesian Effect. She once described herself as “the waifu #GamerGate deserves.”
But it wasn’t only Gamergates who embraced her and her reactionary, antifeminist politics. As Jared Holt notes in an article on Right Wing Watch, Carrera
was the subject of glowing articles from right-wing media at the time, landing flattering features at The Daily Caller and Breitbart, and appearing on programs hosted by right-wing media figures who supported Gamergate, including Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and Infowars personality Paul Joseph Watson.
The Daily Caller piece was especially effusive in its praise. “Carrera talks fast and thinks fast,” gushed writer Patrick Bissett.
She sees patterns and connections far quicker than the average person, an ability she attributes to her Asperger’s syndrome.
The article concludes by declaring that “wherever the name Gamergate is mentioned, the name Mercedes Carrera won’t be too far behind.”
Now that she and her porn director boyfriend Jason Whitney (known in the business as Daemon Cins) have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexually abusing a child under the age of 10, many of the people who became her fans because of Gamergate are channeling Mariah Carey, pretending that Carrera was never really a big part of the movement and “wondering” why anyone is even talking about Gamergate in 2019 anyway?
The charges against Carrera are serious indeed: she and her boyfriend are accused of repeatedly abusing her 9-year-old daughter over a four-month period. Police say they found evidence corroborating the girl’s accusations during their search of the house, alongside meth and two loaded handguns. Police also say there may be more victims.
Carrera, in a statement, has proclaimed her innocence, saying that the accusations are a ploy by the girls’s father, and Carrera’s ex-partner, to gain custody of the girl. “The charges are absolutely false and horrifying,” she wrote, “and a last ditch effort to keep me from contact with my daughter for the rest of my life.”
While many of her longtime fans (or perhaps now former fans) are holding out hope that she’s telling the truth, their support for her has been largely limited to bland restatements of the phrase “innocent until proven guilty.”
They are a little less inhibited when it comes to denying that she was ever really a big-name Gamergater at all. Which is utter nonsense
During Gamergate, and for several years afterwards, the regulars on the Kotaku In Action subreddit frequently celebrated her as a woman “who gets it” in threads with titles like Mercedes Carrera drops a couple of truth bombs and Mercedes Carrera tells SJWs to F OFF!
One of her fans in the latter thread raved:
Another added:
Now, though, many Kotaku in Action regulars are acting like they barely know who she is.
These are all from a single thread; there are more.
Meanwhile, alt-lite conspiracymonger and former Gamergate celebrity Mike Cernovich — a Pizzagate promoter with a long history of baselessly smearing his opponents as pedophiles –has got to be even more embarrassed by his friendship with alleged child sexual abuser Carrera, whom he described in a 2015 blog post as “highly intelligent,” “strong and smart ,” and “thoughtful, intelligent, and fiercely independent.” (Cernovich could probably benefit from an editor, who might have removed a few of these redundancies.)
Now that this “thoughtful” woman has been arrested for allegedly doing the exact same horrific thing that Cernovich regularly accuses his opponents of doing, he has said not a word on the subject — and seems to have deleted any past Tweets he sent her way, though you can still see her side of the extensive discussions they appear to have had.
In his Daily Caller profile of the now-accused porn star, Bissett declared that “[p]ersonal responsibility is a defining motif for Carrera, and one she returns to repeatedly during our conversations.” Apparently Cernovich and Carrera’s many other former Gamergater fans don’t take personal responsibility any more seriously than Carrera herself seems to.
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@Ariblester: I wasn’t commenting on Mercedes’ appearance, I was commenting on her character…or more accurately, her lack thereof.
@tohka:
I remember that, too. And how nauseating it all was. Definite stench of blatant pandering about it all. They were never on the right side of anything, though, so I don’t see why they try to paint themselves as “cool guys” now by disavowing this all-too-predictable poo-pile of awfulness.
In fact, at least two trolls on page 1 have tried it (and failed at it) already. Still all about that “ethics in harassment of Zoe Quinn — uh, I mean game journalism” shit. Which no one ever actually believed, either here OR there.
Bet they used to whack off to her videos on a regular basis before they learned this about her, though.
(And I wouldn’t put it past them to do so even harder now. Secretly, of course. Because if there’s one sure takeaway from GamerGate, it’s that you can never underestimate the shittiness of men who are all about the bouncing boobies, and the racism, and the senseless violence against women, and the Nazis as good guys in videogames…or “journalism”.)
@Chris Oakley
Yeah, because Mercedes cars are known for their impeccable character, and DeLoreans are known for having none. /eyeroll
Bryce –
“The power/entitlement argument doesn’t adequately explain [child sexual abuse]…”
The fuck it doesn’t.
I’m glad we had this talk.
@Bryce
Oh, it’s obvious? Why, then I’m sure you have no issue showing some data. For all of your claims, including a list of these mystical “biological factors” and “a higher libido being subject to greater levels of maladjustment/sadistic perversion”.
@Bakunin
Actually yeah, DeLoreans do have a reputation of being poorly built shit machines stuffed with piles of drug money.* They were always better in looks than in any substance. They were heavy (and therefore slow), the doors were a mechanical nightmare, the engine sucked, and the unpainted stainless steel body were about all that it had going for it.
@Chris Oakely
Your joke took me a full 10 minutes to make *any* sense of. And honestly I probably only got that far because I personally knew someone who owned a Delorean in high school, and knew the obscure enough car reference that I think you’re making. At least explain yourself next time.
*DeLorean (the man) was caught on tape trafficking cocaine. Rumor has it that he was doing it to fund his failing car business.
@oxytosin.
You are making arguments people make to down play or excuse the abuse that others do. Stop it. Men are not naturally violent, and woman are not naturally shrinking flowers that needs someone else to make them be bad. The same goes for Bryce or anyone else that thinks that biology makes people abuse. You are a human being with free will and able to make your own choices, that includes really shitty thing.
Just to address the trolls directly (I know, I know):
One, I’ve seen the dumb list “both sides” list that gets circulated by Gamergate apologists every time a Gamergater gets caught being terrible. That list can be twelve thousand names long; my opposition to a movement predicated on the sustained harassment and gatekeeping of women and POCs does not hinge upon the personalities involved. The issue for Gamergate is that its very nature as a harassment campaign requires big-name figureheads to aim the campaign at the appropriate targets. It needed a Milo to focus it on Leslie Jones, as one example. Sure, in the early days, the Chans were able to settle on the quote-unquote “Literally Whos” as the prime targets, but the laser-like focus required the kind of clout that only a prominent name could provide. Otherwise, it would have burnt itself out in 2014 and never been spoken of again. The same can’t be said of a reaction to said movement: since opposition to Gamergate is a wholly reactionary stance, it was one that any of us could come to individually and express in our own way.
Two, I’d like to break Jim’s troll comment down because it highlights the difference between those for whom social justice is a critical part of our value system and those who do not:
No, you misunderstand why we’re highlighting her Gamergate ties. As Innuendo Studios very astutely put it in their own retrospective of Gamergate, being a creature of Chan culture as it is, those that championed Gamergate are so bereft of a social conscience that rather than address abuse (regardless of who is on the receiving end and how it manifests) on its own merits as a systemic problem, it just becomes an accusation to weaponize and point in the direct of a targeted enemy. Anonymous channers and Twitter trolls can’t be held to account for the memes that they cook up (such as oft-repeated Sarah Nyberg accusation) and the lie spreads faster than the truth, so it does its job effectively enough, even if there’s nothing to hang it on. However, the Gamergate mob has Cried Wolf so often that whatever modicum of plausibility you had that you actually had concerns about the well-being of others was rapidly burnt up, and as I concluded in the first point, since Gamergate hinged on its big names to focus the harassment campaigns, Carrera’s Gamergate ties are germane to her attitudes towards others.
With this in mind, it’s absolutely possible (I’d argue necessary) to conclude that anybody who occupies that political space doesn’t actually care about abuse victims. So feel free to dispense with the gaslighting attempts.
Oh, I’ll bet.
This right here is the critical component. The rest of us here were not shocked and I will explain why. See, when somebody who is ostensibly an ally of social justice is revealed to be an abuser (*coughHugoSchwyzercough*), that represents a betrayal of what they had loudly proclaimed to be the value system they held. We take that betrayal very personally, hence why these people are often made personae non gratae by the rest of us fairly quickly (again, look no further than Hugo Schwyzer). Mercedes Carrera, on the other hand, like many who occupy a niche in the alt-right, not only make it clear that she isn’t interested in that value system right out of the gate, but that she was willing to exploit it for her own personal gain. If you’re willing to do that, crossing that boundary to become the abuser isn’t that big a step, hence our lack of surprise that this story came to light.
No, the harassment campaigns made Gamergate the bad guys. This is just another example of those with a cavalier attitude towards abuse being publicly exposed as an abuser.
But as a concluding thought… I always got the impression that you guys knew that you were the villains in any internet drama. I mean, Channers, spammers, trolls, they all pride themselves in their nihilistic detachment to everything (in the case of 8chan, up to and including exploitation of children), so you folks tend to embrace your niche as “the bad guys.” So why the backpedalling? Is it merely optics or is there actually a line you won’t cross? Personally, I’d bet the former.
@Ariblester, I am glad that you got the thrust of what I was saying! I was indeed claiming that our guest was generalizing that women are unable to create or perceive without being guided to their beliefs by someone else.
He’s saying that women are sheep.
I feel confident in claiming this because it’s a common thing for MRAs to say about women, and he was being a little coy about it by couching it in indirect language. He was trying to sneak an insult in.
I don’t think that your interpretation of his statement is correct – well, no. You’re right, but I think your interpretation is inappropriate.
One could assume the interpretation that assumes the least malice. That’s yours, it’s the narrowest and most specific. Mine’s more general. When dealing with trolls I think it’s important to cast the net wide and catch the full implications of what they’re saying, not the smallest. Don’t just hit them with the hammer – drop the anvil on them.
You are quite welcome to your interpretation, though!
@Bryce
(The power/entitlement argument did explain it, though, little did he know)
I’m gonna science at you for a moment here, my duck. It is unreasonable to start talking about biology in this case.
To be glib, positive claims require positive evidence, and you don’t get to say “Y is caused by X” without showing evidence of { Y -> X ^ !Y -> !X }. Otherwise your position is just assfax, an unsupported hypothesis. Worthy of testing? Perhaps! But until that test happens, no, it’s not reasonable to assume it. Until then, we take the null hypothesis. Which is “an unknown confluence of factors resulted in the behaviour.”
Bryce post makes me eager to coment on a topic that I didn’t want to comment on.
First power/entitlement argument: Can I say that this is less unconfartable than it is in the nature of men.
I would add that not caring about others/low empathy is another element that abusers share.
About pedophiles (I can not believe that I am writing that): Not all kidabusers are pedophiles, as far as I know most aren’t. And while pedophilia is an ilness, people who have that still know that if they do somethink to children this is wrong and they can try to get help. Dosn’t make them less guilty if they hurt children. (And now I really feal bad, writing this)
To go to a somehow lighter note: Yes, gamersgate doesn’t need any asociation to look bad, it has managed that a long time ago. (Is there a prominent GG which doesn’t make the group look bad?)
And yes I know it is all about the ethics in reading the right books (no that was Puppygate) no wait in drinking milkshakes (no comicsgate)…
You all beat me to it, but …
True! *GamerGate* made Gamergaters the bad guys!
I didn’t read @Bryce as intentionally trolling. I do disagree that there is necessarily a biological explanation and not a social explanation for men being more likely to abuse than women.
@Curious_Diversions
I assumed trolling because of the use of “male” and “female” and the general dog-whistle-y tone. Might be wrong, but I’m guessing Bryce was aiming for a very specific set of implications.
Think: “men invading women’s spaces”, “fetishistic male predators”, that kind of stuff. I can’t say for certain, but the post feels like a pretty standard set of dog-whistles.
…Smear attacks bascially.
I was found being abused by my father at age 5… and, just for good measure, he threatened to kill me in fron of the family.
When I went out with him a few times as a teenager (against my mothers wishes; I wasn’t told about this until 21) it wasn’t hard to see there was something wrong. He’d frequently bring up sexual topics in a way that was frankly gross, and not in the kind of off colour joke way you commonly hear from other men.
I’m sure a sense of entitlement, a desire to assert power and degrade increases the likelihood of offending, no argument, but some sort of pyschiatric disorder is highly likely as well. Viewing children, particularly young children, in a sexual way isn’t normal.
@Bryce,
I’m sorry if I was more forceful or aggressive than needed in my previous post! Mea culpa. I’m full of cortisol today, and should’ve bottled it better. You’re right that that’s not normal, and it’s gross and awful.
(I had similar childhood experiences, though not featuring a gross father; you have my sympathy <3)
We have no reason to assume biology, though. Plain old poor-socialization can do that. Frankly, the nature/nurture debate is long dead, the answer's always "that's not a coherent question".
Either way we can all agree- gross and awful!
Bryce: I am sorry, too. I got the complete wrong vibe yesterday.
Not saying more to not hurt. I can’t imagine how hart it is, when the monster is someones own father.
@Bryce: apologies, sympathies, and solidarity. Guess I need to learn more caution around my own trauma responses.
High serotonin leads to violence? I thought serotonin was one of the snuggly brain chemicals! Is there any way in which neurochemistry will not surprise and often disappoint me?
This is the statement Carrera posted on XBIZ:
“Last week, my husband and I [were] arrested on charges of molesting my nine-year-old daughter, the absolute worst crime I can imagine. The charges were filed by her father, my ex-partner (a fundamentalist Christian). He is trying to take custody of our child from me. The charges are absolutely false and horrifying, and a last ditch effort to keep me from contact with my daughter for the rest of my life. I am so worried for her. Her life is shattered. Life will never be the same for any of us. We are struggling to make sense of this nightmare. This is a no-bail offense, so we are stuck in jail until we are cleared. We are facing decades in prison and do not even have money for a lawyer. We do not know what to do, but I ask that you all know me for who I am, and know that neither I nor my husband would ever, ever do anything like this to any child, let alone my beloved daughter.”