#Gamergate, the war on nerds, and the corruption of the left and the free press

[MagickMan]

Oh its amazing you believe all that shit, but you gamergaters really are stupid people. I guess when you are a fuckup who has never accomplished anything that you'll latch onto anything.

What a well formed rebuttal, riddled with concise thought-provoking counters. :\ That's exactly what I've come to expect from you stupid aGGro cunts.

 

[CitizenKain]

What a well formed rebuttal, riddled with concise thought-provoking counters. :\ That's exactly what I've come to expect from you stupid aGGro cunts.

Its only what you deserve. If I thought you were worth talking too like a normal person, I'd bother.

 

[MagickMan]

Its only what you deserve. If I thought you were worth talking too like a normal person, I'd bother.

Bitch, please. You'd slap your own mother and call her a whore if she disagreed with your politics. That's what you social justice pricks are like. :\

 

[Victorian Gray]

The utter lack of self awareness continues to amaze the world at large.

 

[werepossum]

I had to stop right there because I was dying of laughter.

Hey, TWO very useful things about Gamergate!

Oh its amazing you believe all that shit, but you gamergaters really are stupid people. I guess when you are a fuckup who has never accomplished anything that you'll latch onto anything.

Perhaps you can detail for the class all the amazing accomplishments of Anita Sarkeesian or Shanley Kane or Sarah Nyberg. Face it, you have allied yourself with the ultimate in fuckups who achieve nothing.

 

[blankslate]

One of the better statements about this or a statement about this that resonates with me more than most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLe6AGluGRo&t=20m3s

I believe this; when someone tells me, as a journalist "All of those people over there are evil assholes", uh I get my antenna up and I don't believe it.

Because I don't believe the word "All" ever. It's like in politics all democrats aren't assholes and all republicans aren't assholes.

When someone tells me "all gamergate are assholes" that's easy to disprove all I have to do is find one person that isn't and I found a number that weren't

In fact, the most interesting thing I found about gamergate and anti-gamergate is that the most reasonable people on both sides of that debate have more in common with each other than they do with the assholes in their own movement(s)....

also a random comment.

Ask 5 people, you will get five answers. Most gamers are still there playing games and have nothing to do with gamergate, nor do I believe their games will change any more than society as a whole does.

It will be interesting to see how people look back on this in a few years time.

As for me. I just want to play my games watch my movies and listen to my music. As I've said before...

The boogeyman(woman) or boogymen(women) didn't succeed in censoring and watering down movies or music and more diversity in the movies and music being made didn't change the ones I enjoy or prevent new ones from being made and if it is tried with videogames that will fail too.



....

 

[Exophase]

One of the better statements about this or a statement about this that resonates with me more than most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLe6AGluGRo&t=20m3s

Good comment, thanks. I agree there's a lot of insight in it.

The boogeyman(woman) or boogymen(women) didn't succeed in censoring and watering down movies or music and more diversity in the movies and music being made didn't change the ones I enjoy or prevent new ones from being made and if it is tried with videogames that will fail too.

I agree with this as well.

I would say there are big boogeymen(women) on both sides. One side frequently believes that the other side is going to destroy freedom of expression, ban videogames, and ruin all-around ruin gaming with what basically qualifies as glorified blogs pushing a particular opinion. The other side frequently believes that the first side preventing women from entering game development, being gamers themselves, are making any given women in gaming a target for abuse and and are all around filling them with justified fear and regret.

 

[KMFJD]

what was the tldr on Ooorooo's wall of text? who/what are we supposed to be pissed of about?

 

[ElFenix]

I still have no idea what the heck this is. Is there a cover-up involved?

 

[werepossum]

One of the better statements about this or a statement about this that resonates with me more than most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLe6AGluGRo&t=20m3s

also a random comment.

As for me. I just want to play my games watch my movies and listen to my music. As I've said before...

The boogeyman(woman) or boogymen(women) didn't succeed in censoring and watering down movies or music and more diversity in the movies and music being made didn't change the ones I enjoy or prevent new ones from being made and if it is tried with videogames that will fail too.

....

Agreed, and that's what most gamers want. But we should remember Australia; it CAN happen anywhere, if the SJW voices are the only ones heard. Especially if the progressives manage to get hate speech laws passed so that only their views may be safely expressed.

what was the tldr on Ooorooo's wall of text? who/what are we supposed to be pissed of about?

Several things. One of the loudest anti-Gamergaters has been outed as a long time pedophile; anti-Gamergaters are mostly still voraciously defending her and the Gamergaters are attacking her as representative of the anti-Gamergaters, or at least of the radical progressives' bizarre habit of raging at the sensible and defending the indefensible. Some other loud anti-Gamergater has been outed as transgendered, so now that particular battle has shifted to whether this outing represents gaming being a hostile environment to transpeople. (That might seem like a reasonable discussion except that the gaming site run by Gawker, who delights in outing homosexuals, is on the pro-hostile environment side; evidently in their minds it's perfectly okay to out someone as homosexual but not as transgendered.) And the particularly virulent anti-everything white supremacist who claimed to have taught Shanley Kane to be an effective troll rather than a general asshole and hot mess has been busted as aiding and/or being ISIS AND has been outed as writing for many publications on both sides of the extreme political spectrum - sort of a general King Troll for hire - so now the anti-Gamergaters are screaming that he is a REAL conservative and/or Gamergater, and the Gamergaters are pointing out that he has written just as many far left vitriolic pieces under his various personae. (Seems you really can make a living being an asshole-for-hire. Who knew? Although PSA - the FBI takes pretending to be ISIS VERY seriously.)

As far as being pissed, if you haven't yet picked a side it's probably wisest to simply be outraged that you aren't outraged.

 

[werepossum]

I still have no idea what the heck this is. Is there a cover-up involved?

I'm still trying to figure that out myself, but it has "gate" on the end of it so we know it's serious.

My take so far:
1. Dude caught his indie game developer girlfriend screwing around with a member of the gaming "press".

2. This pissed off a bunch of people who were pretty much already pissed at the gaming media for poor journalistic integrity and unethical practices, such as writing a half-dozen articles about how great is a particular game without ever once mentioning that the developer was in fact the reporter's roommate.

3. Gaming press fought back by accusing the attackers (who evidently rallied behind one particular web site, ezine, Youtube channel or perhaps magic mirror called Gamergate - I'm still not clear on that) of being misogynistic basement dwellers who hate homosexuals, transexuals, and apple pie.

4. Battle royale ensued with progressive social justice warriors on one side and more traditional liberal/libertarian/apolitical people on the other.

5. Mainstream press weighed in by quoting the anti-Gamergate press rather than actually doing any reportage.

6. Conservatives gleefully joined in by attacking their strongest opponents, the progressives.

7. Attacks quickly escalated to doxing (of which I learned based on this kerfuffle), bomb threats, and widespread censorship. (The censorship was only on behalf of the SJWs, but the bomb threats, doxing, and general assholery was pretty evenly distributed - although the mainstream media only reports it when it's against the SJWs.)

8. Cut off from any organized press coverage, Gamergaters began organizing around Youtube personalities to get out their message as well as writing letters to manufacturers of gaming and general computer enthusiast products pointing out the worst of the behavior. This led to a LOT of lost advertising income as manufacturers don't usually want to advertise on sites which proclaim their customers to be scum of the Earth.

9. As a result of the above, several gaming and culture media entities discovered that they didn't actually hate gamers at all and reformed, whereas other gaming and culture media entities doubled down, deciding that pushing Social Justice was too important to compromise for ad revenue. As a result, the gaming and culture media entities have divided into more or less three camps - one with those such as Kotaku and Polygon who have enthusiastically embraced Social Justice Warfare, a smallish group who actively support Gamergaters, and a very large group who fervently wish this particular minefield had never been sewn.

10. Some smaller independent journalists have been drawn to this debate, culminating in the Society of Professional Journalists' giving a forum to Gamergate. Due either to the radical progressives' total lack of legitimate arguments or their being unwilling to lower themselves to the same level as misogynistic basement dwelling losers (that seriously is the argument), no one on the anti-Gamergate side was willing to show up, so predictably the Gamergate side came off as very rational - until it had to be evacuated due to multiple bomb threats, anyway. That pretty much silenced them as far as the SPJ coverage, but you can't stop ideas with bomb threats.

If I had to make a single statement about this whole affair, it would be stolen from something I read online:

I would really like my interests to be covered by a media that did not collectively hate my guts.

 

[ElFenix]

Wait, so gamergate is a group? Whose side are they on? And why do they not understand that the -gate suffix is not for groups but for incidents?

 

[werepossum]

Wait, so gamergate is a group? Whose side are they on? And why do they not understand that the -gate suffix is not for groups but for incidents?

Yup. Technically Gamergate is everyone who rallied around the #Gamergate hashtag - I just don't know WHY it's Gamergate. They boycotted advertisers in/on publications and sites, exposed a bunch of ethical violations among the gaming and culture press, and generally fought back. It's like David and Goliath - assuming David and Goliath were surrounded by trolls anyway.

 

[Aikouka]

Wait, so gamergate is a group? Whose side are they on? And why do they not understand that the -gate suffix is not for groups but for incidents?

At least from what I understand, the people were not originally referred to as "GamerGate". #GamerGate was the hashtag that was used to tag tweets about the uncovered issues in gaming journalism. Eventually, the name "GamerGate" was used to refer to the group of people that were using the hashtag, and it was changed from representing a scandal to representing people. I can't be entirely sure without looking at old media reports and such, but I believe it was mostly the media that kept using the term (without the hash '#') to refer to the group of people.

Also, wasn't the term originally created by Adam Baldwin?

EDIT:

I think one of the biggest takeaways for this whole debacle is how big of a cluster fuck it is. We've got people that believe in two defined groups, but in reality, there's really no such thing as a GamerGate group, or an Anti-GamerGate group. Now, you do have people that will claim to be on one side or the other, but the issue is that anyone can make the same claim regardless of whether they follow the same ideals or actions of their other fellow idealists. Want to stir up controversy? Post some scathing remark/threat and toss a "#GamerGate" hashtag at the end. All of a sudden, you've added to GamerGate's growing negative campaign.

Also, one thing that grinds my gears whenever I peruse this thread is the ridiculous amount of drama. I'm pretty sure there's less drama in a high school depicted on a soap opera than in this whole GG vs. Anti-GG thing. Most people seem to have given up on the idea of presenting any sort of facts and/or arguments and simply given in to ad hominem attacks on each other in some wanton attempt to discredit their opponent.

 

[ElFenix]

Iow, its a group like #blacklivesmatter is a 'group'

 

[werepossum]

Iow, its a group like #blacklivesmatter is a 'group'

I think that's a good analogy. Both groups have some good, ethical people trying to make valid points and improve things for everyone (but specifically themselves, 'cause that's how people roll) and some bomb slinging trolls (i.e. making Internet death threats or taking over Bernie Sanders' rallies.)

 

[Exophase]

Iow, its a group like #blacklivesmatter is a 'group'

Exactly right.

 

[werepossum]

At least from what I understand, the people were not originally referred to as "GamerGate". #GamerGate was the hashtag that was used to tag tweets about the uncovered issues in gaming journalism. Eventually, the name "GamerGate" was used to refer to the group of people that were using the hashtag, and it was changed from representing a scandal to representing people. I can't be entirely sure without looking at old media reports and such, but I believe it was mostly the media that kept using the term (without the hash '#') to refer to the group of people.

Also, wasn't the term originally created by Adam Baldwin?

Wikipedia thinks so. It's a lot better than "quinnspiracy" anyway.

Honestly, I thought it was simply the same old "poor little us" middle class white millennial boys in their moms' basements for the longest, because, well, that's what everyone knows, right? And online gaming IS a cesspool of misogyny, racism, sexism, and pretty much every other "-ism" and "-ogeny", right?

Still haven't really done all my due diligence, but I've read a ton and listened to a lot of Youtube. The Gamergaters really impressed me at the SPJ's Airplay.

And well said on your edit.

EDIT: On drama, one of the amusing things I've learned in my reading is that while at the moment it's progressives calling gamers freaks by using the tag "Gamergaters", wasn't too long ago that the GOP used the same tactic and hashtag to discredit a woman running for a state senate because she played World of Warcraft. Gamers embracing the right as a common defense should remember that standing side by side with the right to oppose the SJWs also exposes your nice juicy back to the daggers of that other group that feels we are freaks. The anti-gamer part of the GOP are not our friends any more than are the Social Justice Warriors. Pick your poison, but don't believe that the enemy of your enemy is necessarily your friend. Sometimes it's just that he finds you convenient to kill last.

 

[Sulaco]

Its only what you deserve. If I thought you were worth talking too like a normal person, I'd bother.

Who, exactly, do you talk to like a "normal person"?

Almost every single one of your posts on this forum is a drive-by style antagonistic insult barrage with little of substance beyond casting aspersions at an individual or group you disagree with.

 

[werepossum]

Who, exactly, do you talk to like a "normal person"?

Almost every single one of your posts on this forum is a drive-by style antagonistic insult barrage with little of substance beyond casting aspersions at an individual or group you disagree with.

The term "normal person" means someone who agrees with literally everything the Social Justice Warrior spouts. The Tea Party also uses this term, so we can conclude that normal people constitute roughly 10% of the population and are divided into two camps which hate each other even more than they hate everyone else.

So why be normal?

 

[justoh]

is gg still a thing, outside of this thread?

 

[MagickMan]

Search the hashtag on Twitter, over even just in Google. It's larger now than it's ever been, and even though it's made great progress in cleaning up the media and exposing the SJ/Progressive agenda, it has a long way to go.

 

[brycejones]

it's made great progress in cleaning up the media

Please be specific.

 

[fskimospy]

Search the hashtag on Twitter, over even just in Google. It's larger now than it's ever been, and even though it's made great progress in cleaning up the media and exposing the SJ/Progressive agenda, it has a long way to go.

If it's bigger than it's ever been how come nobody seems to care about it anymore?

 

[CitizenKain]

Search the hashtag on Twitter, over even just in Google. It's larger now than it's ever been, and even though it's made great progress in cleaning up the media and exposing the SJ/Progressive agenda, it has a long way to go.

In other words, its accomplished nothing except to be the butt of jokes.

At least you people have stopped calling so many bomb threats, that is an improvement.