There’s a long and informative Storify by A Man In Black on YouTube, Patreon, and the Rise of the Professional Victimizer. There are people who make a very nice living out of cranking out videos that harass particular women – Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian to name two.
AMIB says thunderf00t is the top worst at this.
A Man In Black @a_man_in_black
Phil “thunderf00t” Mason is a scientist and somewhat (in)famous blogger/vlogger from the freethought/atheist community.thunderf00t makes videos about science and anti-feminism, and has long attacked Anita Sarkeesian.
His videos usually range in the low six digits for views.
He’s cashed in on attacking Anita Sarkeesian, however. He has two videos from last July attacking her, at 500K and 300K views.
As of July, he was also making more than $2000 per Patreon video, which he releases about twice a month. http://web.archive.org/web/20140724073308/http://www.patreon.com/Thunderf00t …
A nice little earner. Four grand a month for trying hard to ruin a woman’s life.
Thunderf00t released a #thequinnspiracy video titled “Quinnspiracy and does ‘maybe’ mean no?” on Aug 23, bringing his audience with him.
People like thunderf00t’s audience are a large part of why #gamergate is about harassment.
A guy’s gotta eat.
This is just a tiny slice; I recommend the whole thing.
It really is always projection with this lot, isn’t it?
“Rage blogging”, “clickbait” …. Supposedly you are all in it for the money, it doesn’t take much critical thinking to see the flaw in that.
No, no. You see, the fact that Ophelia’s blog doesn’t get enough hits to justify the claim that she’s doing it for the money is PROOF POSITIVE she’s doing it for the money. You see, she’s JEALOUS of successful bloggers who make more money than her and rage-blogs her click-bait articles in a vain attempt to get in on the action. The fact that TFoot’s videos get so many hits is proof that his opinions are right, and so he DESERVES the money he gets from the hits.
Prosperity Gospel: Not just for theist anymore.
I didn’t realize hate paid that well. If you can build up enough mindless followers, say by taking on soft targets, then you don’t even need to come up with good arguments. At that point, all you need is to sound sincere while leaning on your past accomplishments.
themadtapper #3
I am convinced.
I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
If you have one…
If that ‘subscribing to newsletter’ is still even a thing…
I was one of the people cheering wildly at Blizzcon yesterday when the CEO of Blizzard backhanded the gamergaters:
http://kotaku.com/blizzard-ceo-addresses-gamergate-saga-in-everything-but-1656029155
Marcus #6
That makes me really happy. One of the reasons I love World of Warcraft (apart from just being addicted) is the way characters in positions of power and authority are just as likely to be female as male.
Hj @4,
A very wise person (hint hint) recently warned us about the dangers of dehumanizing others, and we took that sage advice to heart. That’s why we feel obligated to urge you to carefully reconsider whether your use of terms like “mindless followers” is appropriate and consistent with the values we all seek to espouse.
We know it’s tempting to resort to language or reasoning that relies on or includes denying the full personhood of our “opponents” (for lack of a better word), not least because we are struggling to fight that tempation ourselves. But that tempation must be resisted, because that is the way of justice and compassion.
Not only is the term “mindless” demeaning and dehumanizing, in the sense that you are denying the existence of another’s mind (an attribute generally considered fundamental in terms of making us who we are as beings); but it also could cause splash damage to anyone with less mental-health-privelage.
We are Plethora @8,
If I say a man is a careless driver, am I saying he has no cares whatsoever, or that he never exercises care? No, I am saying he does not exercise enough care while driving. I suggest that “mindless followers” bears a similar interpretation, i.e. that they do not think enough about the implications of their following.
I think this interpretation is the more credible one. No-one is likely to say that someone with the ability to use the internet has literally no mind.
I also think that your last paragraph is a red herring. Again, no-one thinks that people with mental health issues have literally no mind.
aziraphale @9,
Very good points, your interpretation does make sense. Apologies, as we did not intend to suggest this was about literally lacking a mind or physical brain.
Nonetheless, we still would contend that using such language and imagery tends to make it easier to view others as less than; it leads in the direction of dehumanization rather than of compassion and empathy, no matter how slight in magnitude is the effect. It paints the picture not just of those who haven’t bothered to think through the implications of their views and actions carefully enough, but rather of those who, in some way, lack the ability and/or necessary tools to do so. “Mindless,” afterall, is not a term that describes a lack of action, but rather a lack of some thing.
Not that they literally lack a mind, but that they lack some thing essential that prevents them from thinking clearly and carefully enough or that causes them to be hopelessly credulous and susceptible to exploitation. That is why we mentioned the possible negative connotation from the mental illness perspective as well.
It’s absolutely mindblowing to me the reach this has had.
aziraphale @9:
That was precisely what I had in mind, the opposite of “mindful.” Some, probably many of Thunderf00t’s followers do not think deeply about what he’s saying. They’re relying on him to be an authority on a subject they don’t understand that well, because it saves them the time and effort needed to become educated on the subject.
There’s nothing wrong with this, per se; we mindlessly rely on engineers and scientists all the time, from trusting the chairs we sit in to the proper interpretation of Quantum Field Theory. The problem comes when your authority is guilty of quote mining and dodging the point to attack a person’s character, to the point that even a cursory examination reveals they lack the knowledge they claim to have.
We Are Plethora @8:
“Mindless” can be an insult, if you mix in some dehumanization or slurs. But all humans are mindless to a large degree, and when approached from that angle it fails as an insult. My bad for not communicating that clearly.
A Man In Black @11:
Honestly, a lot of us didn’t realize how much hate had been monetized. I think this is a new thing, brought on by the internet; communication has gotten extremely cheap and far-reaching, making it even easier to earn a living by doing nothing more than sharing your opinions. It’s an important observation, and you deserve major kudos for alerting us to it.