We Hunted The Mammoth
Now that the CDC has, perhaps prematurely, given the go-ahead for vaccinated people to dispense with face masks outdoors, you might think the anti-maskers would calm down a little. But the fact that some people are continuing to wear masks despite the new CDC guidance has kept many of the anti-Maskers boiling over with anger.
On Sunday, Elle magazine posted one of the strangest stories I’ve read all year, describing how business crime reporter Christie Smythe left behind her job and her husband to pursue a relationship with one of the men she covered on her beat.
The streaming site Twitch, in an attempt to reduce harassment on its platform, announced earlier this week that it would be banning the abusive use of the terms “incel,” “virgin,” and “simp,” three favorite epithets amongst the asshole set. So far at least one streamer has been temporarily banned for using “simp” as an insult.
Incels don’t just talk shit about women online. Some of them act out their misogyny in real life. A few, like Elliot Rodger and Alek Minassian, resort to murderous violence; others take out their hatred of women in more subtle but still deeply unsettling ways.
Tennis star Novak Djokovic got himself booted from the US Open on Sunday after he — accidentally, it seems — hit a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball, sending her sprawling to the ground clutching her neck.
By David Futrelle
Men’s Rights “Activists” are the least activist activists I’ve ever met. Oh, they’re noisy enough, but for all the noise they make about the supposed injustices faced by men, they won’t lift a finger, or open their wallets, to do a single thing that might actually help real men in real pain.
By David Futrelle
Last week, game designer and Gamergate nemesis Zoe Quinn publicly accused indie game developer Alec Holowka of being abusive during, and vindictive after, a brief relationship the two had some years ago. Several others stepped forward with similar accusations.
Now the story has gotten sadder and uglier: Holowka has reportedly died by suicide. And those we might call the Eternal Gamergaters have taken to the internet en masse to accuse Quinn (and in a few cases, Holowka’s own sister) of causing his death.
By David Futrelle
I recently appeared on the Australian radio show Stop Everything to talk about the poisonous legacy of Gamergate. (You can listen to the archived episode here.) So I thought I would expand a little on some of the notes I made for myself before doing the show, and get into a little more detail on some issues I wasn’t able to talk about during the show itself.
By David Futrelle
If you ever wonder why online gaming culture is such a complete shitshow, it’s not because it’s dominated by angry teenagers who think it’s fun to call other players “f*ggots” and possibly even send SWAT teams to their houses. These people could easily be banned, No, the real problem is that so many adult gamers either don’t give a shit about the rampant harassment or think it’s actually pretty cool.
