I am, and continue to be, a massive nerd. I spent my college years enjoying LAN parties and staying up all night for the latest video game releases rather than going out to frat parties, and these days I still enjoy a good game. Something that has recently been detracting from that enjoyment of games is a little thing called “GamerGate,” and while you might think that it’s a gamer-only issue the fact is that it’s starting to seep into the realm of firearms as well. But there’s more to it than that, and in fact the people who instigated the GamerGate situation and gun control activists have a whole lot in common. . .
There are always two sides of an argument, and GamerGate is no different.
On one side are the gamers, who are concerned about journalistic integrity in games reviews. GamerGate kicked off when allegations arose that a female game developer slept with multiple game journalists (and some who reviewed her game), and demands were made that the situation be investigated. The response form game journalists was to ignore the story, then try to ban anyone who talked about the story, then try to dismiss the story — a response that didn’t earn them any points from the gaming community. The outrage over the initial revelation has shifted to a broader outrage against game journalists for a perceived attempt to cover up the event and a string of retaliatory articles published by game journalists trying to shame the gamers into submission.
On the other side are game journalists and a group of hardcore feminists who believe that all mainstream video games are anti-woman and that all “gamers” are misogynists by default. The rising demand for an in-depth look at the allegations of a game developer sleeping with game journalists was seen by these groups as proof of the evils of gamers and their woman hating ways, since they believed it was an attempt to persecute a female game developer. There has been an increasing focus on gamers and their perceived misogynist ways over the last few years from these feminist groups, led by a well-funded video series which sets out to prove that video game players are evil misogynists and that video games should be changed, and fueled by cherry-picked tweets that “prove” the misogyny prevalent in the group.
The set pieces might be different, but there are some pretty strong parallels to the gun control movement at play here.
The biggest argument being thrown against the gamers is that they are misogynists. Opponents use violent scenes from video games taken out of context to prove their point, cite long-since debunked scientific articles in their crusade against violent video games, and generally don’t have any proof to back up their claims. But the media perception — oppressed women fighting back against their oppressors — is one that gets a lot of sympathy.
That same tactic is being used against gun rights folks. Last year Robert was booked to appear on CNN to talk about something gun related, and the very first thing that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence used to try and silence Robert and his opinion was calling him a misogynist. It’s the go-to weapon for gun control extremists, trying to paint the opposition as uncaring woman-haters — and its super effective.
It’s why Gabby Giffords is trying to position her anti-gun super PAC as an organization fighting for woman’s rights instead of fighting against gun rights. It’s much easier to demand that the civil rights of nearly half of the American population should be curtailed if you claim to be fighting against domestic violence against women, since it’s a position that few (if any) could argue against without seeming like a wife-beating woman-hating scumbag.
The Violence Policy Center is following in Giffords’ footprints. Their recently released “report” entitled “When Men Murder Women” is more or less specifically targeted at this same emotional reaction. Here’s their own words on the subject:
Domestic violence harms far too many women and families every day, and our elected leaders simply aren’t doing enough to stop it. When Men Murder Women helps others learn the truth about lethal violence against women. And it reveals how we urgently need new laws to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.
The facts speak for themselves. When Men Murder Women found that 93 percent of the women killed by men are murdered by someone they know, and the majority are killed by an intimate partner. The most common weapon men use to murder women is a gun. In 2012, there were 1,706 women murdered by men in single victim/single offender incidents. That’s 33 victims a week and more than four a day.
The picture they paint — that defenseless women are being murdered by evil men and need to be protected — is an emotionally compelling story. However, their solution to the problem is devoid of any rational thought. Instead of focusing on protecting women by giving them the tools to defend themselves, they debate in favor of complete disarmament. That situation would only make things worse for women, since given the physical disadvantage women face in altercations such as this the only thing that can help turn things in the woman’s favor is a firearm. And the Violence Policy Center wants to take away that vital tool, leaving women yet more vulnerable, all in the name of protecting women. By arguing that their position is designed to “stop gun violence against women,” though, the mainstream media accepts it at face value and demonizes anyone who opposes them.
Moms Demand Action uses the same tactics, employing an army of women to do the bidding of Michael Bloomberg. The positions and opinions put out by Moms Demand Action would be laughably easy to dismiss if they came out of the mouth of the super-wealthy white male Bloomberg, but the “soccer mom” persona that the group has cultivated makes it nearly unassailable. Anyone who opposes their viewpoint or calls them out on their BS is instantly branded as being “against women,” and their opinions easily dismissed. Branding someone as a misogynist is an easy way to get a large percentage of the population to ignore their opinions, and by using a group of women as his evangelists Bloomberg enjoys the ability to have his opinions puppeted to the media with little to no opposition.
Time and again, we’ve seen that the gun control groups only win where facts and logic are outweighed by emotion. A certain member of my family even believes that Robert is a misogynist (since that’s what the Huffington Post told her), and therefore disregards every opinion that he has. If you lose the emotional argument for these people, there’s no way you can battle back no matter how impressive your facts. Calling someone a misogynist — especially when you’re an established female authority figure — goes a long way to destroying the emotional credibility of the opponent, no matter whether or not the allegations are true. And as we already know, gun control activists don’t care one bit about getting the facts right.
The problem for both gun owners and gamers is that the oppressed woman fighting against the misogynist patriarchy — no matter if she is actually oppressed or not — makes a better story for the mainstream media. It’s much more appealing to run a piece about Gabby Giffords’ futile attempt to stop domestic violence (despite focusing on the smallest fraction of that violence) rather than running a piece about some firearms instructor actually teaching women techniques to stop all kinds of domestic violence permanently. And for the low information voters who use their emotions instead of their brains, the emotional argument always wins out.
It’s much more appealing to run a piece about Gabby Giffords’ futile attempt to stop domestic violence (despite focusing on the smallest fraction of that violence) rather than running a piece about some firearms instructor actually teaching women techniques to stop all kinds of domestic violence permanently.
I’d argue that it’s also much less effort for journalists to run a piece about Gabby than to try to coerce their brains into using logic, reason and analysis.
It’s not even running a piece about Gabby but running a piece by Gabby (or her supporters).
Too much “news” today is just PR put out by paid shills.
William Randolph Hearst allegedly said: ““News is something somebody doesn’t want printed; all else is advertising.”
A variant often attributed to George Orwell is: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.”
They both are probably truer today than they were when they were said…
Who are you?
I get it.
BTW — are there female firearm developers interested in sleeping with male firearm reviewers? You know, just curious. No specific reason.
Crawl back into your cave, man.
Not sure to whom you are referring to – aren’t emails associated with every posting? Mine is real.
Ban men!!!!
On the video game topic, why is there even a problem? Women have been campaigning for decades for the same sexual liberties they allege men have, all the while trying to erase any kind of taboo on public sexuality while maintaining that abortion is a woman’s right, though it’s nobody else’s business or decision (according to the women). There are so many contradictions in the expectations, it’s laughable.
Either we hyper-sexualize our culture and allow women to be objectified, or we take sexuality seriously as a private issue between consenting adults (and place the expectation that it’s appropriately confined to marriage) if we expect young men not to objectify women. It can’t go both ways.
The above is my assertion based on logic. The real issue is one of morality, i.e. biblical standards and personal accountability. The same can be said for guns and gun control. We can’t continue to push “if it feels good, do it” and “I’m doing what I feel is right.”
This. +1000000000
I’m sorry, how is premarital sex a morality issue? I don’t give a damn what the Bible says, who is being wronged when consenting adults have sex outside of marriage?
And from a logical standpoint, if you’re going to make that claim, how is that different from the claim that gun ownership is immoral? In both cases, no one is being harmed, yet one is supposedly immoral?
However, the rest of what you said is brilliant. I’d never actually considered the relationship between rampant objectification (that feminists use as proof that men are awful) with totally open sexuality (which, as you said, feminists have been campaigning for for years). That was really well said, thank you.
Don’t confuse feminists and post feminists. One group fought major brutal battles for every inch of parity, were beaten and arrested for the right to work and strive as hard as any man. The other sells their gender out for the privilege of a slightly nicer gold cage.
“We don’t need the government telling us what to do! But we do need a 5 thousand year old book written by desert nomads to.”
Towel heads no less! Don’t we hate those people?
These anti-everything types have an audience of circle-jerkers.
Don’t pay them no nevermind. Join the GOA! (Gun Owners of America)
Yes, they look at a small slice of the pie–women who are killed. Let’s look instead at the number of women who are physically abused every year without being killed, and what are the weapons of choice for this abuse. I suspect we will find that the vast majority of physical abuse is by fists or blunt objects, not guns. And I also suspect that the reported numbers–undoubtedly much lower than the actual numbers–are well over one hundred thousand per year. There is a reason that today (at least in California which takes spousal abuse very seriously and mandates reporting of suspected abuse) patients are asked by hospital staff on admittance whether they have been the victim of spousal abuse. Again, this is a social issue, not a gun issue.
Ban fists! Gun owners for common sense fistin…. (nevermind) laws!
I can’t believe that a woman — a member of the greatest, most perfect gender ever self-created — would sleep with a mere man in order to get ahead. It was obviously rape, caused by rape culture, global warming, George Bush and the Republicans. No more “she was asking for it.” No more “boys will be boys.” No more “due process.” No more.
I also don’t understand all the hate for misogynists. They are licensed in almost every state and nothing can work out the kinks in your back like a good miscoge. Although I’m not too sure about those Swedes . . . .
You’re skipping the whole part where a faction of the gamers are doing things like publicly posting addresses of people and openly threatening to assault, rape and murder women.
Not “allegations,” actual open threats posted on public forums and Twitter that have been well documented.
And you’re skipping over the whole part where the bulk of “doxxing” and harassment has came from a single, click-baiting wannabe journalist in Brazil named Mateus Prado Sousas (Celebrinado) He’s already been caught, claimed responsibility, and nobody can get the police in Rio to do shit about it. He’s already had about 3 dozen accounts shut down on Twitter. Keep in mind there was just a similar false flag by Rantic media re: Emma Watson a few weeks ago. This is apparently a marketable thing.
It’s not just a single guy, anyone who followed the story on Reddit knows that full well.
And yes, there are plenty of misogynist psychos who do intersect with the gamer/nerd community somewhat. And those guys have their own forums and such, where you can go and read all the hate that they post. Going by that alone, I would expect hundreds of people at least partaking in that online stalking.
Also see “Dark Enlightenment”, MRA, r/theredpill/, MGTOW, and “love shy”.
I didn’t skip that.
The point I’m trying to make is that the same thing is going on in both cases — an entire group of people is being defamed because of the actions of a very very few. All gamers are being called misogynists because of those few bad actors, and all gun owners are being painted with the same brush for the same reason. It’s an easier story for media outlets to pick up and more emotionally appealing, so it’s the one that wins the day — no matter the facts.
Feminism is the leftmost pillar of liberalism and liberals hate guns. Never forget that. Thats your real connection here.
Gamergate is all about feminism trying to infect one of the last male dominated spaces…videogames.
You obviously don’t know what the hell you are talking about.
You missed how one of the anti-video-game feminists was ranting about Utah’s concealed carry laws?
They hate guns.
“Feminism” is like “patriotism”. It means many different things to many different people.
Yet another article that redirected my Android phone to Play Store. Come on TTAG, get a new ad provider already.
We’re working on fixing that right now.
I have had stalkers and restraining orders issued in the past, I have had people show up on my doorstep when my personal information was HARD to get. To have my location revealed to the world would give a entry point for any mentally ill person who has fixated on me, and allow them to show up and make good on the kind of threats I’ve received that make me paranoid to walk around a convention alone. I haven’t been able to stomach the risk of being afraid to get out of my car in my own driveway because I’ve expressed an opinion that someone on the internet didn’t agree with. — Felicia Day
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/23/7047647/felicia-day-response-shows-why-good-gamergate-is-still-hurting-people
Dear Felica Day, instead of just playing with make believe guns, perhaps if someone showed you how to defend yourself with a real gun, you would be less afraid and would not need to leave your home in fear of your safety.
One of the mantras repeatedly heard on this site is to avoid intentionally putting yourself in stupid/dangerous situations and places. Ms. Day is facing the prospect of finding her home turned into one of those dangerous places by a real, if minority, population within the larger gamer population who have no qualms posting egregious statements, actual death threats, and personal, private data of those they disagree with. Gamergate isn’t news because of the original “controversy”, which frankly few cared about. It’s news because it brought out the whackos in force, and crazy makes good copy. Unfortunately, crazy also ruins lives, and I don’t think it’s fair to respond to Ms. Day’s legitimate fear, apparently borne of life experience, by telling her to arm herself. That potentially treats the symptom for her, but doesn’t begin to address the actual problem, either for her or for others on the receiving end of the online nutjobs (regardless of the side of the gamergate issue they come down on).
I don’t think it’s fair to respond to Ms. Day’s legitimate fear, apparently borne of life experience, by telling her to arm herself.
So Ms. Day should not arm herself?
That empowers her how?
What exactly is the fix then? The only other possible solution is a complete withdrawal from public life, give up career self expression and all. If you think there is anything remotely practical in trying to change these offenders through laws or public shaming you are fooling your self. You can not have these people arrested realistically and the police WILLNOT protect you or anyone else. They can either investigate a failed assault or a successful one. IMO she should not change a thing about her public voice, never kowtow to threats continue to report to the police (for documentation at least) and obviously make reasonable precautions for an actual assault. Including possibly a firearm. The thought process of ” xxx is bad, the solution is for those people to stop” is the worst kind of lame.
While I believe she should be armed (i believe almost everybody should be that faces such threats), you are right in that it doesn’t solve the problem, only the symptom.
Counting on them just being actionless cowards is a fallacy too. you never know who might cross the line and venture into crazy territory to make themselves infamous. people are demented.
The entire thing is nonsense and I really don’t think it has any place with 2A issues. Part of the reason it is so controversial is because the allegations that “started all this” were picked up early on by extremely misogynistic websites. Subsequently radical feminists and leftists have piled on as have prepubescents. It is now just people whining for or against feminism.
Games are games and guns are guns, I play games too and this whole thing bothers me but it really just needs to die. Gaming journalism is about as legit as gun journalism.. Zumbos and such. It is just promotional BS, it will never have “integrity.” Gamers and gunnies have to rely on organic reviews from sources similar to TTAG.
Anita Sarkeesian’s publicity stunt in Utah brought it to a lot of people’s attention, unfortunately.
Remember when you diminish “gaming” you are diminishing the largest recreational media industry in the country. It is bigger than movies or television.
I sincerely believe that controlling the narrative in gaming is an extremely powerful tool. You need to ifght to make sure no one does, because it could be used to steam roll other cultures. If advocates of the second amendment ignore it,and ignore what is going on you might as well grab a shovel and help dig the grave of the second amendment.
This. There was a moment in the late 90s when gaming of all kinds was on the verge of going anti-gun, and it was _terrible_. There were even a few Tabletop RPG manuals with anti-gun rants in the rules themselves!
I think Fug underestimates how much it’s helped to have people grow up with neutral or pro-gun video games, and how badly it would hurt us to have the left dominate that part of the media.
The problem seems to be among the internet gaming bloggers as well. That seems to be part of the protests.
Well said.
It is my opinion that Kotaku, Gamespot, and numerous other gaming media outlets are like news outlets and gun review magazines: they are dying dinosaurs that are obsolete and, frankly, not as credible as independent bloggers, youtubers, etc.
The sooner people realize this the better.
and it doesn’t help when there is a hobo knife fight going on, and several main stream gaming media outlets generalize all gamers as gamersgaters and/or misogynists. It wont help their credibility at all. The thing about hobo knife fights is that they are ugly, bloody, and there are no good guys. There are also no victors and one loser: the human race.
Personally, if somebody makes rape threats, steals personal information, harasses me, that is grounds for retaliation. As in FBI cybercrime retaliation and civil lawsuits.
Pray somebody wouldn’t decide to pay my home a visit to follow through with one of the rape threats…
Yep. I’d prefer all the gamergate people and the Anita people to solely hash it out on Twitter so I don’t have to keep hearing about this stupid stuff.
I like games but I’m more concerned with playing them than figuring out who is sleeping with whom and whose boyfriend is making false or real accusations, etc etc. as if the games reviewing magazines could be trusted anyway.
And the sooner we all stop paying attention to whatsherface the sooner her irrelevancy should become obvious. I’m thinking of Anita S…whatever but that could apply to some of our MDA friends as well.
I am of the opinion that a feminist would approve of any tool that would allow her to stand tall by herself, so I will never ‘get’ feminists being against firearms.
I’m also not really understanding the other posts regarding biblical this-or-that or down-talking ‘if it feels good…’ with regard to this issue; it seems to be a conflation tactic. I could care less if one is male or female; as long as one is sapient one should be held to the same standard when opinions are formed, good or bad.
Mm.
So there’s a bunch of leftie feminist activist types who are trying to pressure videogamers- stereotypically, socially awkward sorts who don’t particularly care what people outside their subculture think of them- to conform to what the activists think is acceptable behavior via social pressure.
Yeah, let me know how that works out. Or don’t, I can probably guess.
Journalists getting into a collective snit about . . . integrity? Wow, earning one’s coin as a muttering rotter must have changed since I was acquainted with a better class of the ink-stained wretches. Basically, you’ve got a bunch of gamer reviewers arguing about getting freebies. But, Nick, a not very well concealed secret of print journalism anyway is that, for a lot of writers in the “buff” mag business, the WHOLE THING is about getting freebies. Or, at least, it was back in the day. The car mags writers (C&D, R&T, Motor Trend, Sports Car Illustrated) ate, slept, and breathed freebies. Advertisers paying big bucks sorta expected to get good copy and the biggies were rather lavish with free stuff, stuff they never asked for back, and stuff that just magically appeared at around Christmas time or when a new model was coming out. There were cars to drive, expensive trips to take, largess of all kinds handed out with reckless abandon—so long as the good ad copy continued to flow. So, now we have GAMER REVIEWERS talking about journalistic integrity because a game developer decided to have sex with some reviewers. Nick, we’re talking about COMPUTER GAMES for cryin’ out loud. They don’t even have engines! Sigh, I guess things have changed. In my day a program developer having sex with reviewers would have been called a pool party.
Okay. So. I used to be really in with the group that started Gamergate, I’m glad I’m not anymore because that was when I was a really confused, messed up kid. Don’t let anyone tell you differently, Gamergaters are misogynistic assholes. This whole thing started because they found drama surrounding a game dev (who admittedly has bad behavior) surfaced when her allegedly abusive ex boyfriend made a 9000 word blog post about how horrible of a person she is. In this post, this ex boyfriend said she slept with five men in the game journalism industry. The gamergaters decided to make this an issue about “game journalism” but rather than going after the journalists, they sat around and started trashtalking this woman, calling her a slut among other things, and started harassing her. In the wake of this, at least 8 women have been harassed, several have had to flee their homes due to threats. This article blatantly shows a bias of showing the issue through the lens of a gamergate believer, vastly misrepresenting the beliefs of the feminist side of the issue, showing them in a light that they’re just playing the victim card when the largest point about the feminist approach is thinking more about your behavior that you do automatically and the implications of it. So that makes it difficult for people to get behind at first, that’s what’s difficult for me now and that’s what was difficult for me when these guys harassed Anita Sarkeesian when she first surfaced.
I’d greatly advise never mentioning Gamergate in a good light around here again unless you want to be associated with the group who has a member or members that made a threat to start a mass shooting and target feminists if Sarkeesian gave a speech.
So I’d greatly advise never mentioning Gamergate in a good light around here again unless you want to be associated with the group who has a associated with the group who has a member or members that made a threat to start a mass shooting and target feminists if Sarkeesian gave a speech.
-Hand tipped. Better watch what you write, freedom of speech is only a constitutional ammendment. Also the real strategists of Gamergate are going after the journalists through e-mail campaigns to their advertisers. These feminists don’t buy games, so let’s play “follow the money” and see if they are gonna be successful… I’m betting not.
This article is well-researched, and I enjoyed reading it. Thanks Nick, for the food for thought
Freedom of speech is freedom from government oppression, it does not pertain to private actions or reactions to your speech. You are free to say things like “let’s gas the Jews”, for example, but people will treat you accordingly, and it would be stupid to complain that your freedom of speech is somehow violated when they do.
You are absolutely correct actually, im glad somebody else is making sense here.
That is why I haven’t picked sides (and ive read all four cracked articles about this debacle and the comments).
Nobody is arguing that Zoe is a “great person”; her previous behavior and actions against aspiring female developers is most damning itself, not to mention her exes texts, which highlight her as an emotionally abusive, manipulative person (and him as an opportunistic scumbag)
Asshattery aside (and Zoe and Anita ARE pieces of work), that doesn’t justify the stealing of personal information, the rape threats, and the numerous acts of fvckwittery byutter cowards empowered by the anonymity of the internet. That crosses a line that doesn’t need to be crossed to make a point.
So what do you get? you get people with legit concerns about corruption in the gaming media (and there is substantial corruption, with Gamespot being the most obvious example) who are lumped in with the fvckwit crowd i mentioned above. The narrative gets controlled.
You also get feminists who dont pick sides, who acknowledge that zoe and anita aren’t exactly the best representatives to feminism, that are lumped in with man hating harpies and/or labeled by the fvckwit crowd mentioned above as “white knights”.
Dear god. my head hurts.
I wish TTAG would have not stuck its nose in this type of ugly business.
You… were a kid like 2 months ago? Wow, you must have grown up fast…
Or maybe you didn’t?
I got confused by that too… maybe he means he was involved earlier in the pre-existing subculture that spawned this whole thing
No, I broke off from this crowd a couple years ago. This whole thing sprouted from the video games board on the notorious 4chan, and they’re actually behaving worse than they did a few years ago when I was really in with them. They were the ones who harassed Anita Sarkeesian in the first place. They’re not great people out to have some campaign to stop corruption. They saw an opening and wanted to fuck with somebody they already didn’t like. Now she’s had to flee her home.
“d greatly advise never mentioning Gamergate in a good light around here again unless you want to be associated with the group who has a member or members that made a threat to start a mass shooting and target feminists if Sarkeesian gave a speech.”
She made up that threat.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/15/Feminist-Nixes-Speaking-Engagement-To-Protest-Utah-State-University-s-Pro-Gun-Policies
The University said the “threat” was, and I quote, “later determined not to be credible”.
“Between the threat and the determination that it was not viable, Sarkeesian learned that law-abiding concealed carry permit-holders were allowed to carry guns on campus so she canceled.”
Why are taking as the gospel truth the words of a gun grabber?
I didn’t follow the gamergate bull because that’s what it is, on all sides. The thing that gets me the most is the claim made that the female dev slept with a gamer jurno original came from her *ex*.
I mean, come on.
Interesting thesis at PopeHat, h/t Instapundit:
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/197063/
Thats all a bit too convoluted for me, but I do think modern Feminists have been taken for a ride, and put up wet, used and abused by Progressivism v2.0. History repeats,
http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sp/0910/lse/lse1.html
But then I suppose anything said by an OFWG is automatically discredited, so I’ll defer to the most astute observer of culture I’ve read:
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/camille_paglia.htm
Anyway, no wonder the progtards are pissed. The POTG get all the hot babes.
http://www.amazon.com/Hands-Off-My-Gun-Defeating/dp/1455584347
Halfway through…a good primer and example for more smart young women.
Moms Demand Action uses the same tactics, employing an army of women to do the bidding of Michael Bloomberg. A group you cannot even find during the NRA convention in Indy is an army?
Who cares about any of this? If gamers are so good at strategy and tactics, I’m sure they’ll eventually figure out their vulnerabilities, those of their radical feminist opponents, and figure out how to get to the next level.
I myself learned of feminism by reading Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex.” I was somewhat amused to learn many years later that, according to two of her closest friends, Simone used to hunt down simple vulnerable teenage virgins to bring home for the amusement of the ugly Sartre, who would deflower them. In my experience women are much more prone to abusing other women than they are to physically harming men.
Objectify? Women simply have different criteria as they objectify the ideal mate: they put wealth and power somewhat higher than beauty when they seek partners. Men? Sufficiently beautiful women make it impossible for a man to think sensibly about wealth and power…even their own. GamerGate? Mexico has sunk into being a narco state, the Middle East is destabilizing faster than a teenage boy experiencing his first rejection in love….and we’re supposed to care about GamerGate?
I know this is getting a little off track but they say a gun is most commonly used for these murders. Probably true, but I’m willing to bet that exsanguination caused by a high speed projectile is largely overshadowed by blunt force trauma with a number of different objects used. Just a hunch, not that that matters to them anyway. Another bet I would make is that a gun would be far more effective against defending themselves from such methods of attack…
Don’t date assholes.
I have been involved in GamerGate for about two weeks, coming from anti #Gunsense and Pro #WomenAgainstFeminism
Feminism/Gunsense/Misogyny assusations are important linkages I have posted about here many times- It seems it is now coming together like the perfect storm w GamerGate
Check @femfreq Tweet from today about the shooting at the HS …
I just did. I wish I didn’t. (My blood pressure does not thank you)
Any sympathy I had for Sarkeesian evaporated instantly upon viewing that.
I bet she doesn’t even realize how much of a hypocrite she is.
Jesus christ, not fvcking here.
Gun owners and 2nd amendment supporters, stay the hell out of the shitstorm that is “gamersgate”.
There are no good guys in this struggle, just a bunch of raving lunatics. Those who are rational will get lumped in with one of the two groups.
There is a reason why gamers got generalized (not saying that generalizations ever work or that they’re justified. They’re intellectually lazy), and that is because there was a vocal minority made rape threats, rallied around Zoe’s ex-boyfriend who committed despicable behavior (even though zoe WAS emotionally abusive. Its obvious), stole personal information, and committed all sorts of tomfoolery over the safety behind their computer screens, like big mouthed cowards.
Im not saying the other side is better. By the POS obsolete, dinosaur gaming media alienated ALL gamers, calling them the neckbeard crowd, calling all of them misogynist, etc, they pissed off a large number of video gamers that had no horse in this race. Bad news for various video game media organizations that are losing their relevance to youtube, bloggers, etc.
Zoe and Anita aren’t innocents in this either, but that is another argument.
So in a nutshell, if you want to not get covered in shit, stay out of this mess. TTAG, you KNOW BETTER!
I can’t pretend to be a hardcore gamer but I’ve been following Anita Sarkeesian’s work since her crowd-funding campaign and you characterization of the feminist critique of video games seems like an over-essentialization at best and a strawman at worst.
How can anyone call gamers anti woman? At least on Call Of Duty Ghosts, one can create a female character. So where is the sexism?
Here in Essex country NJ we found over 95% of domestic murder was committed by persons who already have serious criminal records, including violent felonies.
What Gifford’s et al won’t say is the simple truth that violent criminals on the streets and US homes killing people could be ended tomorrow with appropriate sentences for violent crimes
I’m such a bad ass gamer my Dark Souls II swordsman can power-stance with dual scimitars.
“I don’t share the general view that the above Tweet indicates that left-leaning political pundit Kirsten Powers’ is an ignorant slut (term used as a humorous reference to the Saturday Night Live sketch)” – Robert
Yeah, why would anyone think Robert is a misogynist when he can’t get one sentence in without calling a woman who disagrees with him a slut.
As long as things like that go unchallenged I see no reason why they’re wrong to say the gun movement is anti-women.
Agreed.
We need to vigorously challenge the misogyny that creeps into gun and 2nd Amendment discussions.
The reason that the gun-grabbers and the anti-gamers call you stupid or misogynist or whatever is NOT because they have a valid point or that they have a story to tell.
It’s the exact opposite. These people are bigots, pure and simple, and because they cannot win on the facts, the only thing they have is ad hominem attacks.
“and it’s super-effective” I see what you did there.
Comments are closed.