Today is Veterans Day in the US, a day to honor those who’ve served in the armed services. That is, real soldiers, who have fought in real wars.
As one person with a silly name but a good point wrote on Reddit:
There are many examples of military-themed calls to action and propagandizing in [Kotaku in Action, the main GamerGate subreddit] used to rally their users into a virtual “battle” against ideas that they don’t agree with. …
Today, take a step back and remember that very real people fought in very real battles and answered very real calls to action for their country. Today should serve as a sobering reminder of not only those who served, but also how ridiculous [GamerGaters] sound when they pretend that this is some type of war they are nobly fighting for when there are those who actually serve bravely for their country.
GamerGaters love comparing themselves to soldiers fighting a war against, well, whatever it is they think they’re fighting a war against.
Their propaganda, much of which is made for internal consumption, is drenched in military imagery — some taken from video games, some from real life and real military propaganda. The ridiculously bombastic GamerGate video I posted here yesterday mixed game imagery with documentary footage from World War II.
It’s true that most of this military-themed GamerGate propaganda is intended, at least in part, as a joke. (At least I hope this Starship Troopers reference is meant ironically.)
But it’s also clear that a lot of GamerGaters take these “joke” memes and over-the-top rhetoric a lot more seriously than it deserves to be taken. They really think they are fighting some sort of noble battle for truth and righteousness.
Today, GamerGaters, try to have a tiny bit of perspective. You’re not fighting Hitler. You’re not breaking down the Berlin Wall. You’re not fighting for the future of civilization against the barbarian hordes.
What you’re doing is harassing women (and some men) and sending emails designed to punish online publications for daring to criticize you. It’s not a war. Hell, it’s barely even activism. It’s closer to a collective tantrum — though unfortunately, one that’s doing real harm in the real world.
When you compare what you’re doing to real war, you’re insulting those who fought in real wars.
Below, I’ve pasted in a bunch of #GamerGate graphics, found on 8chan and on Twitter. There are countless more just like these out there. And they are an embarrassment.
@btomdarga: >_>
(>’-‘)> <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'’-‘)> <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^ <('-'<) <('-'<) ^(' – ')^
Well then, he should be telling that to his own side. They’re the ones who started misogynist hate campaigns against Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian and others. Don’t tell women and our allies that our response to gendered harassment should be niceness and civility. That’s so fucking offensive.
And not all KKK members are racist right? If you cast your lot with harassers, people are going to assume you side with them. If you care about ethics and integrity, act like it. Don’t use a title that has been tainted.
@troll
Is a “Narative” like a narrative but based on observable and provable reality instead of assfax?
Seriously, when the guy who gets held up by your buddies as a beacon of “For ethics! Against harassment!” has furthered the lies about Zoe Quinn and her sex life, said that the death threats against Anita aren’t credible because she’s still alive, complained at length about “SJWs” and been accused of and caught out taking bribes and not declaring other monetary interests… Maaaybe the “Narative” has something to it.
Why are #Gaters so afraid to own their shit? Why do their half-assed non-denouncements always boil down to “Well I didn’t say that! #NOTALLGAMERGATERS” and not “Holy shit, X is an asshole, sorry everyone”? What ever happened to personal responsibility?
M – personal responsibility is a trap laid by villainous SJWs to hinder the work of the Wise and the Great. Every tweet that supports the Narative is a false flag; every cool, calm and collected rational account of unethical games journalism* is Twoo GG.
*Find them, collect them, trade ’em with your friends!
It wasn’t me it was him, we are a faceless mass that doesn’t bear collective responsibility but you had damn well better be sure to listen to our individual points!
Thus Spake Zaraweirwoodtreehugger:
It’s also worth pointing out 8chan sees an occasional poster saying “Guys, I agree 100% with the need for better ethics in video game journalism… but can we cool it with the insults, threats, and harassment? That just dilutes our message and makes us look like assholes.” The poster is then quickly dogpiled bother others calling him a shill, mangina, homosexual, beta, et cetera, et cetera because FREEZE PEACH and damn it we’ll insult, threaten and harass women whenever and however we want.
The GG majority has spoken and they see the misogyny as a feature, not a bug.
PTSD can come from stalking. When you’re getting telephoned or tweeted death threats from people who know where you live, that’s stalking. It’s not an effing PRANK at that point, mmmkay?Doxxing and harassment? No, it’s stalking, and worse, the persons stalking you are unknown. Meaning almost anyone you encounter could be your prospective killer, yes?
I have had agoraphobia and PTSD symptoms since 4. So…hypervigilance and agoraphobia is really exhausting, the nervous system isn’t designed to be run at that pitch for long periods. I know that really well.
I have not been stalked, though.
At that point you are receiving signals that someone out there ACTUALLY wants to kill you, it’s not just an illogical fear.
In this case, you don’t know who that person is, so everyone is suspect. If you take the threats too seriously, you become exhausted, if you do not take the threats seriously enough,you DIE. Or worse, get people you care about killed.
I can’t think of a situation much more likely to produce hypervigilance and phobias, or nervous exhaustion.
AND ONE MORE THING!!!
Those little hemorrhoids don’t get to appropriate the fall of the Berlin Wall, ok? They may be too young to remember it. I’m not.
Oh, y’all are so damn adorable! You’re trying to figure out the right code words to say! Unfortunately, you belong to a movement that’s nothing but a shitstorm of petulant, entitled douchnozzles who can’t think themselves out of a fucking paper bag even if the directions were written right on it.
presence of a twitter hashtag
*WHOOP*WHOOP*WHOOP* New talking point sighting – set your decoders to A1B8 for instructions. In the event you hear this phrase, you are in the presence of a gamergater. Should you encounter this phrase, please use The Official Feminist High Council Rules and Guidelines for Arguing With Assholes on the Internet manual, Chapter 6, rule number 1752A.122.b. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words, everyone. I did a lot of critical thinking during my last enlistment, and decided not to stay. Now I’m an anti-imperialist, anti-war activist. 🙂
Been lurking for quite a while. You’ll probably see more of me around these parts.
@nolan
Read their logs. The first two things the movement did was spamming 4chan and setting up a campaign to discredit and silence Zoe Quinn by republishing nude photos of her. And let’s not forget that the allegations leveled against her were insubstantial all along and have nothing to do with how corruption in the video game industry works on top of it. Devs don’t sleep with reviewers in exchange for good press, that’s a fact.
I’m not going to argue that there are probably a whole lot of people unaffiliated with GG harassing Zoe Quinn, but that the folks at GG clearly were in a hurry to join hands with those folks is an observable and documented fact.
Pocket Nerd: Most GGer who are for “more ethics in gaming journalism” are still OK that big games companies give money or free expensive products as bribery for journalists. What they don’t want is that people dare to think outside of the(ir) box when it comes to video games, whenever it is an indie game dev’ or a journalist. I mean, they never went to action when the Doritos-gate was on every major independant gaming website two years ago or when Ubisoft gave free samsung tablets to the journalist when promoting watch_dog or when Warned Bros was literally monitoring youtube reviews of Shadows of Mordor. Gamergate is a big, bloated bag of wind, hypocrisy and misogyny.
Hi MissyL, I hope life’s treating you well. Are you a kitty lover as well?
@pallygirl, my partner and I have both a huge dog and several cats. We love animals! That’s one of the things I appreciate about the comments here – all the kittars.
What’s really funny is that I’ve never advocated for or against gamergate, I didn’t even know what it was until a couple weeks ago. I just like up bring up the indisputable fact that no one entity owns a hashtag, see #McDStories if you need an example. I just like to comment on this crapfest because I prefer accuracy over sensationalism.
There is no GG headquarters coordinating the actions of everyone attempting to use that hashtag.
Oops I mispelled narrative in my first post.
Kitlers, anyone?
http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigmiaow.pl
Don’t some sjw claim to get PTSD from twitter? Yeah we really know who trivializes veterans help someone said something mean on twitter now i have shell shock!
Thus showing you have zip for clue.
PTSD is related to traumatic events (hence the T in the name). It doesn’t require violence, it requires something which creates fear; and fear which cannot be resolved. Anonymous death threats, delivered in a credible way (and the nature of swarm attacks and doxxing makes this easy as fuck to make happen) is provably capable of causing PTSD.
That you mock it, one presumes because such the people affected are, “enemies” means you are making things worse, by pretending the actions of the sort of asshole who will sponsor, trivialise, excuse, and otherwise support such attacks says more about you than you probably wanted to reveal.
re PTSD/Shell Shock/Battle Fatigue: One of the things which pissed the Brits off about the Australians is they refused to put their troops under direct authority of the Brits, who thus were unable to shoot an of them for desertion (Canada did so allow, and so the British went ahead and shot some of them, “pour encourager les autres). To the (slight) credit of Britain, they did, recently, pardon the victims of all the desertion courts martial from WW1, which doesn’t mean they weren’t killed.
Wellington (who was more than a little of a hard ass) said, “it’s not a question of if the soldier will run, but of when”, and then went on to say the question was what they did after. With care, understanding, etc. they could be returned to the line. In the entire peninsular campaign he had bare handful of executions for desertion (I think the only way in which a deserter was guaranteed to be shot was if taken “in arms” [i.e. actually fighting] for the other side; of which there were a couple of dozen who did so, and were caught).
Because combat is ungodly stressful. Having people actively trying to kill you sucks. It sucks more when it’s impersonal. That’s what made the artillery of ww1 so devastating (esp. to the Allies, who built shit trenches, on the theory that they were “temporary” and really good ones (such as the German’s built) would sap the offensive spirit of the troops), they were completely random, and there wasn’t even the sop to the psyche of shooting back; which is a comfort, even when you don’t really have a target (which is why fire discipline is so important, and so hard to train).
re Armistice Day: I have (well had) a grandfather who fought in WW1, another who was in WW2. My dad was in the Marines from ’64-’68. One of my uncles was in the Army from ’66-70. I was in the Army from ’93-’09. All of us were shot at, at one time or another.
None of us was ever quite the same after.
Which isn’t a plea for sympathy. One (and no offense to anyone here) we didn’t (any of us) do it for anyone but ourselves. We each had our own reasons, and our own motives.
To quote a WW2 Bomber vet, “it was a million dollar experience you wouldn’t pay a nickel for”. That pretty much sums it up. I saw things both horrid and sublime. Did things both meaningful, and pointless. I can make a bed so tight a half-dollar will bounce. I can polish shoes to the point one can shave in them.
Both of those were useful training tools, and are completely needless skills to have acquired (the habits they instilled, those were the important part of the learning, but I digress).
Every year, as 11 Nov. rolls around I get sort of cranky. I try to march in the parade, because it’s good to be with other people who understand why I am cranky. I thik the last two stanzas of Wilfrd Owen’s Aplogia pro poemate meo* sums it up.
I, too, saw God through mud—
The mud that cracked on cheeks when wretches smiled.
War brought more glory to their eyes than blood,
And gave their laughs more glee than shakes a child.
Merry it was to laugh there—
Where death becomes absurd and life absurder.
For power was on us as we slashed bones bare
Not to feel sickness or remorse of murder.
I, too, have dropped off fear—
Behind the barrage, dead as my platoon,
And sailed my spirit surging, light and clear,
Past the entanglement where hopes lie strewn;
And witnessed exhultation—
Faces that used to curse me, scowl for scowl,
Shine and lift up with passion of oblation,
Seraphic for an hour, though they were foul.
I have made fellowships—
Untold of happy lovers in old song.
For love is not the binding of fair lips
With the soft silk of eyes that look and long.
By joy, whose ribbon slips,—
But wound with war’s hard wire whose stakes are strong;
Bound with the bandage of the arm that drips;
Knit in the welding of the rifle-thong.
I have perceived much beauty
In the hoarse oaths that kept our courage straight;
Heard music in the silentness of duty;
Found peace where shell-storms spouted reddest spate.
Nevertheless, except you share
With them in hell the sorrowful dark of hell,
Whose world is but a trembling of a flare
And heaven but a highway for a shell,
You shall not hear their mirth:
You shall not come to think them well content
By any jest of mine. These men are worth
Your tears: You are not worth their merriment.
*I have some reservations/disagreements with this analysis, but then there aren’t any of this poem I really think catch all of it, and this one does a pretty good job of setting it into the context of Owen’s life/work.
On the whole “PTSD from Twitter” thing: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/a_statement_from_cfis_management_committee/
A short excerpt:
Nolan: However it hurts the narative to accept that Gamergate is composed of different individuals with diffirent opinions and different actions. You are stereotyping, assuming that the presence of a twitter hashtag is all you need to know about the individual and their causes.
Yanno… when someone joins the Klan, or the John Birch Society, or a Truther community, that tells me a lot about them.
If a group they belong to becomes such a place (e.g. the way the NRA changed from 1980 to the present) and they don’t leave, that tells me something too.
The ONLY thing a Gator can do which would leave some doubt from which to benefit, isn’t preaching civility, but actively; steadily, calling out incivility, and reporting abuses to relevant authorities.
Because the “movement” is hopelessly corrupt, and was from the get go.
@pecunium: I get cranky on November 11, too. This year I’m extra cranky because I’m trying to get care from the VA and it is (shock and surprise) failing me.
@Nolan: You lay down with dogs and now you want to whine about having fleas? ROFLMAO.
@blahlistic
I don’t know if you saw this, but elsewhere they have been posting pictures of MLK’s march on Washington. I guess the next thing is the photos from the ’68 Democratic convention.
Meh.
You keep calling it a movement, the only people that considered it a movement have long since departed. The only ones keeping this tag alive are the ones you disagree with and yourselves.
Specifically WeHuntedTheMammoth Constantly plasters GG response articles to the site when in reality GG is done, the stragglers are idiots that can be ignored because they won’t and it (GG) has lost all meaning.
However as we all know the moderator thinks I’m a misogynist and is dumping my replies so this conversation is essentially over for me. Dissent isn’t tollerated here, I understand.