Our colleague here at FtB, Tauriq Moosa, had enough of the nonstop harassment on Twitter, and has left the medium. This is a real loss; his was an entertaining, humane, and vigorous voice, which is probably why the #GamerGate goons targeted him and did their damnedest to drive him offline. And they claim to be on the side of ethics…while Tauriq’s greatest crime was to write a balanced review of a game (he liked it, and also stated some of its problems with race) which prompted all these people who say they are trying to improve ethics in game journalism to stomp all over him. They couldn’t come up with any actual ethical issues, and really just didn’t like a review that treated a game as less than perfection.
You can learn more about the harrassment at The Mary Sue and Inquisitr. There is now a hashtag, #IStandWithTauriq, which the gamergaters are proudly trashing — they’re calling him a racist, comparing him to Hitler, making rape jokes, and when I checked in earlier, some vile scumbag was flooding it with racist cartoon porn, so be warned. As always, there are piles of gg assholes disingenuously claiming there was no harassment, under a hashtag that revels in flinging shit and immediately disproves their innocence.
Once again, I am appalled at how miserably repugnant some people can be.
Once again, I expect very little out of ‘people on the internet’, and once again they disappoint. I know the internet allows a ‘small but vocal’ number of awful people to seem bigger than they are, but it’s horrible to watch these people tear down anyone decent.
I play computer games, have done for more than 2 decades. I don’t refer to myself as a ‘gamer’ though, just because I’d hate to be confused with this ‘gamergate’ mob of dickheads.
Once again these Gamergate goons demonstrate who the real censors are. How many people has Sarkeesian, Wu, Quinn or Moosa stopped from saying what they want or creating art that they want? None!
“Ethics in journalism” my arse!
This time the gamergaters won. They chased an intelligent, insightful commentator off the intertubes for the crime of having a different opinion than they do.
QFT
@PZ
Unless you lower the bar for what constitutes harassment to be disagreeing with and criticizing someone’s opinions, that’s entirely untrue. This is somewhat ironic, given Tauriq’s stance that games shouldn’t be exempt from discussions.
You, and others here, have been quite a lot harsher with people whose writings you didn’t quite like. FTB ain’t exactly sunshine and ponies, you certainly don’t spare the vitriol, so yeah it’s funny/sad to see that the tone of writing of those in GG would fit right in the atmosphere you’ve maintained here.
Once again, the target the Gators choose to harass isn’t a games journalist.
Ansatz#4
Except, is that when you post your drivel here, and we respond here, or do we chase after you in RL and threaten you there like you do? Context is where you #gamergates show you are nothing but low-life bullies, incapable of being disagreed with anywhere and everywhere.
ansatz wrote:
So, you’re going to go with “what they were doing was fine, and you’re terrible because you’re just like them”? You might want to just choose one of those two sides.
@ ansatz:
There’s a vast difference between a private blog and a public platform like Twitter. Said difference should be very, very obvious, but just in case, I’ll point out that Pharyngula* commenters don’t, in my experience, publicly swarm, attack, and harass people they disagree with in other forums to the extent that those people choose to abandon those forums.
* Please do note: FTB != Pharyngula. Some bloggers here have extremely strict tone restrictions.
ansantz @ 4:
Ah yes, the good old “your academic conference discussing games is the same as a bunch of bullies JAQing off on twitter” argument which is always trotted out to justify gators spamming conference hashtags with hate speech and dead dog pictures.
There’s a huge difference between addressing the elements of someone’s writing with which you disagree in a specific forum and ad hominem attacks on social media, but that might be a little too advanced a distinction for a group still grappling with what the word “ethics” actually means.
Fucking hell. Ansatz, have you even bothered to look at the hashtag? There are literal nazis harassing him; people are throwing porn around; you’ve got people making up nonstop lies. The content of the hashtag itself is sufficient to demonstrate that gamergaters are terrible, awful people.
If you are going to defend gamergate again, or consider yourself a gamergater, get the fuck out of here right now. You’re part of the a fever swamp of bullshit, and I’m not going to put up with you.
Seriously. OUT. Now.
If it wasn’t for the relentless harassment, I’d be a lot more amused with how regularly gators throw around “identity politics” as a point of condemnation given most of them got on-board the shit-train when they felt their “gamer identity” was being threatened.
@Nerd of Redhead #6
Indeed, because that’s exactly what happened.
Oh wait no, that’s not it at all.
And thank you for demonstrating my point beautifully Nerd, I knew I could count on you.
@ck #7
I’m making the observation that many here engage in behaviors that they ostensibly decry.
To be fair, it might not be hypocrisy, it could just be a double standard based on the judgment that those people deserve it so it’s totally fine to do it to them.
To paraphrase something I read online:
When you do it, it’s calling people out.
When they do it, it’s harassment.
@PatrickG #8
I’ll first make a note that you didn’t really object to the meat of the matter, which is that behaviors that’s deemed deplorable for GG is being utilized quite extensively here.
Instead you decided to make a point on the public vs private nature of Twitter vs Pharyngula, with the unfortunate implication being that it’s ok to do it here because . . . not a lot of people read it?
In anycase, that point is irrelevant to me, so I’ll address the bolded part. See, here what gets me. There’s an assumption that what happened was a deluge of horrific threatening extreme messages were thrown at Tauriq, that as you say a swarm of people viciously attacked and eviscerated Tauriq, a la Jon Stewart style except the conservative version, because of course GG is a rightwing hate group who just love to hate.
When all that really happened was Tauriq wrote an article that people took offense to (ha!) and they talked about their offense (double ha ha!) with their twitter pals.
So to that, I’ll repeat myself:
ansatz @ 12:
You left off “and then started shouting angry shit at him en masse”, which, y’know, makes a huge fucking difference if you’re not being disingenuous.
I hadn’t realized Tariq was writing for Polygon. So, I’m wrong in #5. They actually did manage to target a game journalist for once.
Fuck. That. Noise.
If anyone around here still doubts the ethical wasteland and shameless dishonesty of those who march behind the GamerGate hashtag, look no further than the obtuse, disingenuous dissembling of ansatz. Dude’s practically a posterboy for sealioning, Freeze Peach and Two Cokes™.
If all the braying GG chorus did was disagree with people’s opinions, GG would barely even be a topic of conversation – after all, there’s nothing new about game reviews not being reflective of every single gamer’s experience. There’s a reason GG’s become infamous for and synonymous with online abuse (even within its own ranks – see below!), and it’s not because they respectfully disagree with people’s critiques of video games.
Fun fact: after John Oliver’s recent segment about online abuse, which included interviews with Wu and Sarkeesian, the GG mooks erupted in a fucking Roman orgy of defensive (and offensive) tweets, despite the fact that GamerGate was not mentioned by name in that segment one single. fucking. time.
I’ll just say that again: despite not being mentioned a single time in a story about online abuse, legions of GG bannermen nonetheless implicitly claimed responsibility for the unending stream of violent threats and abuse launched at two women in gaming. It’s like sticking your foot in your mouth before shooting the fucking thing right off.
As I said elsewhere at the time: “It is better to remain silent and be thought an unhinged, brittle little rageboy than to engage your keyboard and remove all doubt.”
Ansatz is now banned. Likewise with any other sleazy gamergaters who show their lying asses around here.
Just one example of the slime. These people are inexcusable.
Now banned, Ansatz wrote:
“I’m making the observation that many here engage in behaviors that they ostensibly decry.”
Yes, I notice how full of doxxing, stalking, death threats, and shock pics these forums are…
[/snark]
I forgot to address this bit before:
If that wasn’t the intent, then why did these “friends just talking” feel the need to add #gamergate to their private conversation? They all know full well that it’s the equivalent of firing up the bat signal, only with a giant turd instead of a bat.
Maybe because, oh I don’t know, they wanted people to pile their hate onto him? Just asking…
@ ansatz, 12:
No. Just no. Points:
* This community is currently involved in a discussion about how to avoid problematic behaviors. GG actively promotes problematic behaviors. I should know, I read and reported GG’s vile “strategy” documents on GitHub a few months back. GG isn’t exactly operating in secrecy here.
* You still fail to acknowledge the difference between 10-20 people being “deplorable” in a private forum (to people who actively choose to engage in a specific forum), with many, many more people being “deplorable” in a public forum, regardless of whether they choose to engage. Do try to appreciate the question of accessibility here.
That’s a pretty apt summary, don’t you think? Anti-gay, anti-non-white, anti-woman. Sounds pretty “rightwing hate group” to me. Almost definitional.
No. They started a mob campaign of vile personal attacks. In numbers, and sustained, with no other goal than to shut a person down. With the desired result that someone has chosen to no longer engage on a major platform.
Now, we should look at why this has happened. We should look at the ideas being expressed. I, for one, am happy to have the KKK, the Family Research Council, or similar organizations treated this way — because of their ideas, not because of their personhood. Even if said shaming is “deplorable”. Some behavior should be shamed unremittingly.
That’s not the case here. Nothing Tauriq has said warrants this kind of online assault (you HAVE read the commentary you are supporting, right?), so proudly flagged with the #GamerGate tag.
By the way, this will be my last response to you. I’m not going to waste any more time engaging with odious ideas, and I’ve got better things to do. Those dishes won’t wash themselves, and others here are quite capable (indeed, more capable!).
May Thor smite PZ for my failure to refresh.
The hashtag demonstrates exactly how GG works: Hunt somebody off and then badmouth them, flood the hastag with rape porn and if you dare to post there, you’ll get a dozen of them or so in your mentions, with the rape porn.
BTW, here’s one of the shiny examples of legit criticism GG’s engaging in, according to people like ansatz Assorted content notes for rape and racism
Also, Supporting Tauriq makes you a racist
Yeah, PZ washed the dishes. You really shouldn’t leave them sitting in the sink for a week, though ;)
“This is a real loss”
That’s probably the only thing I disagree with. Not because of Tauriq, mind, but because twitter can go die in a fire.
As for GG, they’ll simply claim it’s unassociated trolls, false flag operatives or whatever. Anything to have their cake and eat it, too. They are GG, but they’re not a movement or an organization. Thus, they are not responsible for what their members do, as nobody speaks for anybody else. But the supposed wins? Those are due to GG! Those are something to take credit for.
As for the game itself? I haven’t played it. No clue whether his criticisms are valid or not. Nor does it matter, this harassment response isn’t justified in either case.
Saganite
Oh stuff it, will you? So you don’t like Twitter, you don’t care for Twitter, you hate Twitter, whatever. We get it. But stop acting as if your opinion was somewhat universal or relevant. You may not have noticed, but lts of news is getting spread on Twitter now. Especially news about marginalised people who don’t get airtime elsewhere. Ever heard of #BlackLivesMatter? #DistractinglySexy? #EverydaySexism?
@15 Hank_Says: I’m familiar with Freeze Peach and sealioning, but what’s Two Cokes?
Saganite @ 25
This sentiment needs to go die in a fire. A medium that provides a voice to millions who would not otherwise have one, which allows average people to tell influential people what they think, that allows people on the front lines of places like Ferguson and Baltimore to get out their accounts of what’s going on before it gets diluted to oblivion by mainstream media is not something that needs to go away.
Von Krieger @ 27
Tu quoque
I’ve never seen Two Cokes before but I’m guessing that’s what Hank_Says was going for.
#26 and #28
At least other social media like facebook allow for more extensive posts. Twitter is a piece of shite that leads to endless bite-sized flamewars, like this GG stuff. Does it have its benefits? Sure. I still wish it was replaced with something less awful, though. I looked at the GG things. They base much of their shit on Twitter’s awfulness, taking their little screenshots of posts that, like everything else on that service, are way too short, too easy to take out of context, too full of little talking points instead of arguments. Not to mention the harassment platform it provides. So, yes, it can still go die in a fire and be replaced with something better.
Presumably something not used by humans, cos from where I’m sitting the same argument could be made for all forums online. Long form text ones and not. Like all those forums if you foster a good group of people, via following and blocking, then you can have some very productive conversations.
re Seven of Mine:
While that’s all true (and I agree with it), Twitter is also a for-profit company run by a bunch of folks who only barely give one damn about harassment, abuse, and coordinated brigading on their platform. The social value of the platform to its users and to public conversation makes it that much more useful to harassers, because they get to poison a space of real importance to their targeted victims.
QFT.
To put this in perspective, prospective publishers (I didn’t do that on purpose) for basically all types of books want the author to have a Twitter account these days. As my manuscript creeps up the process, I’m wondering at what point I’ll have a conversation to the effect of “I don’t feel comfortable using this platform because of its vulnerability to abuse.” Maybe I’ll make it and just never use it.
And the people getting harassed just aren’t doing it right, I guess. Victim blaming in defense of Twitter. Gross.
Pteryxx @32
Absolutely. You’ll get no disagreement from me that Twitter does an appalling job of dealing with abuse and harassment.
Saganite @ 30
None of this shit is anything these people wouldn’t do if Twitter didn’t exist. Twitter needs to get its shit together, absolutely. But it’s not the platform, in concept, that’s the problem.
If there were no twitter, the bad people would just all go to Reddit and 4chan and YouTube comments and make THOSE places awful instead. /s
re Twitter:
metaphor time: Twitter is a high-school cafeteria, where groups of people self-segregate onto specific tables in specific areas, and freely discuss all sorts of stuff during lunch. Occasionally food fights happen, where food is flung at each other between tables. So, yeah, sh*t happens and those kids should be better behaved, but really, is the proper response to shut down the cafeteria and force every kid to each lunch at home? I would advise, the homelunch option be exercised by those who want to avoid the possible melee, but to make it mandatory is overreaction.
Gamergates attack men now? And I here thought it was exclusively against women…
It also irritates me a lot to see how “race” is still a thing. Or is it much more of a thing in the US than in Europe? There was that woman in the news some time ago who “identified as black” and was considered “too white” or something. That makes as much sense to me as to “identify” as green-eyed. WTF.
Saganite @30
You do realize on twitter people can include links to “more extensive posts”, right? My feed is full of people from all disciplines and areas. They often post about something they have written or something they like and have a link to an article or study. If it’s something I want to know more about it I can click it, if not I can move onto the next tweet easily. I can filter out a lot more information a lot quicker than I can on facebook or other feeds. Is it the perfect platform? No, but if you are going to wait for the perfect platform you are going to be waiting for a while.
Does Twitter need a much better harassment policy?
Absofuckinglutely.
I don’t know, are the rape porn pics still up? I blocked the asshole, so I can’t see, but seriously, that shit belongs banned, especially on a platform where kids can see it.
Is Twitter worse than other places?
Nope.
At least you don’t have to send them your identity like with FB. Oh, wait, I don’t use FB. Do you hear me telling people who are fighting against that policy and who have been harassed that FB can just drop off the planet as if that would solve the problem?
No you don’t. Because that’s victim blaming (it’s the platform, it’s shit anyway, your fault if you use it).
Yep, you can have interesting conversations on Twitter, see links to interesting articles and get your daily dose of kitten pics. You can also get harassed. Quickly.
So, since we currently only have shitty options, how about letting people choose which shitty option they want?
And actually, I’m sick and tired of the discussion. Every time there’s a post about harassment on Twitter the same people spout the same “it’s Twitter” crap. We’ve been there, we’ve done that. Yes, we heard you.
prae@38, if you don’t think “race is still a thing” in your corner of Europe(or wherever it is you are) you’re rather naïve. And I assume you’re referring to Rachel Dolezal. Her problem is that she has claimed to be African-American when there is no proof she has any AA ancestors.
timgueguen@41: Well, racism is definitely a thing over here. But to me it seems, that in america there is a lot of that “racial identity” and “racial culture” stuff and that it’s considered quite important. I remember seeing some sitcom where a rather black and a slightly dark-ish women talk about “those whites” or something, for example. Or, back then there was some drama about Obama’s birth certificate, I was quite irritated by the presence of the “race” fields on it. Also, those stereotypes about black guys and watermelons, white girls and starbucks, or asians and math, which seem very weird for me, but are apparently common sense in the US?
Saganite @30:
Both Giliell and Seven of Mine have explained the importance of Twitter to multiple social justice causes in the last year and you continue to disparage it and call it shitty?
Without Twitter, the world would not have known so much of the shit that went on in Ferguson during the protests. Have you read the Good morning America thread? That’s the original thread PZ started to discuss the events of Ferguson (and the wider issue of racism in the US). Look at that page and you’ll see how much information was put out by activists via Twitter.
Yes, there are limitations to Twitter, but that does not make it an inherently bad platform, and given that it provides a platform for *all* people to express themselves and share news immediately (no matter their socioeconomic background), it has proven to be an incredibly important one.
Shorter me: stop dissing it bc you don’t like it.
If anything us folks sympathetic to Twitter users should be pressuring Twitter-the-company to respond to harassment brigading on their platform. #distractinglysexy was a response to something a specific Nobel Prize-waver said but it didn’t target that person or even mention him most of the time. Moosa on the other hand is being targeted *as an individual*, specifically to swamp that individual with a flood of abuse, and secondarily to toxify the hashtag supporting him and his allies. The harassers’ aim may be to shut down a larger discussion, but they do it *by* publicly targeting individuals.
You are bothered by me “disparaging” Twitter? Like it’s a person or a movement or anything at all laudable in itself? Twitter movements may or may not be laudable, people on Twitter may or may not be laudable. But the thing itself?! It’s a social media cesspool designed to be as superficial and short-hand as possible. I guess only that website with the 6 second video clips is worse in that regard. And, no, of course I’ll continue to diss it because I dislike it. If I didn’t dislike it, I wouldn’t diss it, after all. Conversely, why do you let your appreciation of it lure you into defending it?
I’m slightly confused about what’s actually happened. Tariq Moosa has left Twitter, but has not been hounded “offline” I hope? He still blogs, yes?
@45 Saganite, a haunter of demons
Shorter…WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH! I don’t like Twitter and take my time to say crap about it WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH! WAH! Yes, it does good, but….WAH! WAH! WAH! Would you like some cheese to go with that WHINE!
@47
Great job, Donnie. Very persuasive. So it’s that old “if you don’t like it, don’t say anything about it”-bull, huh? You know, I probably wouldn’t, if it wasn’t so damn ubiquitous these days.
Saganite, thank you for taking a discussion on the awfulness of gamergate and turning it into a back and forth about twitter.
Saganite @45:
Am I correct in thinking you were responding to my comment @43? You didn’t include a nym or comment number so I’m not certain.
BTW, I’m not on Twitter. I’ve waffled back and forth between signing up for it, but I lean towards not, bc I tend to be verbose and the 140 character limit is too constraining for me. My main point in disagreement with you is that you’re criticizing a platform that has been hugely beneficial in bringing information to the masses. These masses would not have had access to that information. Without that information being sent out over Twitter by people on the ground, there would be a great deal we wouldn’t know about the events in various protests over the last year. That’s no small thing.
Are there limitations and issues with Twitter? Certainly. And no one has claimed otherwise.
But there are also huge benefits, and your criticisms don’t appear to acknowledge those benefits.
As for my use of disparage, I was using it with this definition in mind:
A “back and forth” takes more than one person, #49.
Rowan @49:
Crap. I’m sorry I contributed to the derail. I’ll take it to the Mended Drum for any further discussion so that this thread can get back on track.
@#50
Sorry, forgot to put a number when I replied. Yes, that was towards you.
Look, I’m not saying Twitter is all bad or doesn’t have value, but a) I hate its design for short messages, b) it allows tons of people to pile on top of each other, c) its freaking everywhere, but most importantly I don’t want to falsely credit a faceless corporation with the effort of actual people. You’re right that there are exciting and great movements that employed Twitter. The Tunisian Arab Spring comes to my mind. But crediting Twitter for that, is like crediting a megaphone for how inspiring a demonstrator’s message was. That same megaphone is used to annoy, shout people down, harass etc.; I don’t get why it’s heralded as this amazing thing. More importantly, I don’t believe that the aforementioned movements wouldn’t have come about using other means, chats, messengers, boards or whatever, if Twitter didn’t exist.
It’s a tool and a pretty shoddy and annoying one at that, so why give it all that credit?
Saganite, go beat your tune in the Drum. Stop derailing this thread. Yes, others contributed as well, but you brought it up first.
I’m disgusted that ansatz thinks racism and rape jokes are just ‘disagreeing’. It really does epitomize the entire GG group. Good job guys, you just keep proving you are awful people.
@42. Wow, that’s a lot of questions! If there’s a US embassy near where you live, they might be able to give you detailed explanations but here’s a quick summary:
Race in the US is important for economic reasons. Basically the monied classes use racism as a tool to keep the members of the working class fighting against each other, instead of uniting against their common enemy. It’s a pretty crappy basis for an economic system and we keep talking about changing it.
In order to keep racism working, we needed to define a “non-white” as “any person with a non-white ancestor.” That’s why probably why the light-skinned women on your sitcom identified as non-white. In recent years this definition has become demographically unsustainable and we’re going to need to do something about it if we decide to stick with a racism-based economy.
The “black guys and watermelon” is an ancient stereotype from I think the 1800’s. No one uses it any more, unless they want to signal that they’re the kind of racist nitwit who isn’t welcome in polite society. Starbucks is associated with young urban hipster-professionals; it doesn’t have any particular racial or gendered connotation. “Asians and math” is a more modern stereotype; the implication is that “Asians” are good at rote learning but lack creative skills. Basically it’s just as ignorant as the “watermelon” stereotype but it’s more socially acceptable to say it. I don’t know why.
I think that’s everything…
If you believe the kind of open racism represented by the watermelon stereotype is no longer happening, you should consult Your Black Friend about it, Chaos Engineer (@55). Or better don’t; it’d just be another microaggression they didn’t need.
I also stand wtih Tauriq.
I never entered Twitter for exactly his reason.
Sensible decision.
chaos engineer @55:
As CaitieCat pointed out, the watermelon stereotype still exists.
With regard to the stereotype of Asians and math, I think it’s a form of benevolent racism.
@Ryan Cunningham
How did you read that into my comment? Anyway, both productive conversations, the good parts of Twitter, can co-exist with the nasties and harassment. In fact for many it is worth putting up with the bad to get the good from the platform, it just becomes a different equation when GG focusses on you. They swarm en mass spinning constant tiring lies to wear down their targets until they quit. I was following up on the comment from @Giliell that there are indeed some very good things about Twitter, things worth fighting the harassholes for.
I didn’t express myself well – I know the watermelon stereotype is still used, but from where I stand it’s no longer part of the mainstream of “socially acceptable racism”. By that I mean that if a politician gets caught posting it on Facebook and needs to notpologize, he can’t get away with “I’m sorry if anyone was offended”; he has to do a full-blown “Those words don’t reflect my true beliefs” before the mass media will forgive him.
On the one hand it’s a distinction without a difference, but on the other hand it’s sort of heartwarming to see things moving out of the “socially acceptable racism” class, even at the current glacial pace.
@27, Von Krieger
Yup, Seven of Mine is correct @29.
Two Cokes™ is what I call the tu quoque fallacy:
Also known as The Rubber and Glue Gambit, or “Fuck off, you are and so’s your mum.”
I figured that with their tireless defence of assholery, the Freeze Peachers could stand to be better-hydrated.
The commenter at 42 was probably reacting to a widespread internet meme wherein the various sweetened and flavored coffee concoctions Starbucks serves are taken to be catering to a stereotype of a “basic white girl” as a hyper-conformist, materialistic consumer of overpriced “trendy” products, mostly clothing and food and drink items. “I can’t even” being this stereotype’s catch-phrase.
Chaos Engineer, on the subject of the reaction to and the perceived racism of the watermelon bullshit: I don’t think it is seen as beyond the pale to the degree that you are suggesting it is. Though you are right in that there is a strong reaction against it. It is another case where people rely on others’ ignorance of history in order to try to add a thin level of plausible deniability, to try to make their explicit, overt racism seem a little more like normal, everyday, implicit, casual racism. And it is also a case where potentially well meaning people do accidentally stumble into making an insensitive joke without fully grasping the odious, racist reference they are making.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_stereotype
[Note: Daniel Handler is the author of the “An Unfortunate Series of Events” book series]
That is all to say….the response is rather mixed. Some strong opposition, but no real consequences usually.
——————————————————————
I am somewhat disappointed that ansatz was banned. They were an entertaining and ridiculous little sideshow wrapped up into a single person. Every gamergate post, they could be trusted to come prancing along and sing their song of No True Gamergator, and then “look at these one or two Bad Anti-gamergators”. And they would just repeatedly deny or just ignore all facts that were inconvenient, they would use every possible argument they could, usually contradicting themselves, to present Gamergate as Teh Good Guys, and would essentially be the single greatest and most accurate representation of the entire non-evil segment of Gamergate. Which is to say, they were an obstinate, dishonest, clueless asshole, but probably at least they weren’t doxxing, harassing, rape threating, SWAT-ing, etc. Ansatz did a great job of illustrating, to borrow a phrase from an ex-FTB latter day gamergator, “Why We Laugh At Gamergate”.
But they had been doing the same old song and dance for too long. And the dismissal of the harassment going on was even more blatant than usual for ansatz. Guess we are gonna have to point and laugh at different gamergaters. Such a shame, since they are so hard to come by. (Oh god, I wish my sarcasm was the actual reality of the situation).
@62: yeah, something like that. “White girl starter pack” and similar memes. I interpreted it as as racist as the watermelon stuff. And well, it seems to be accepted enough in that pictures like a black guy next to a pile of watermelons with a caption like “can’t stop laughing” get a lot of upvotes on certain meme sites. Of course it is very much possible that my image of america is rather distorted because of the internet.
@ Saganite
Continuing with your analogy, you’re advocating banning megaphones. We’re telling you that’s absurd. Because it fucking is. Nobody is crediting Twitter for the content of messages. Get your head out of your ass.
@ #64
“Banning megaphones”; or rather, banning Twitter? Like, legally or something? Because I said that Twitter can go die in a fire? That I’d wish it was replaced with something better? If you were to honestly adress what I said, then you should probably have inquired whether a ban was what I meant by those statements. But since you clearly aren’t, I guess we don’t need to bother.
Now then, I’ll grant Rowan their wish. While my one line statement in #25 was so blown out of proportion by these responses, I’m actually not particularly invested in discussing the lack of merits of Twitter. I’m still kind of confused by how much people seem to care about my strong dislike for it, but that’s about it. So rather than take this nonsense to another thread, I’ll just stop responding about it on this one.
A lie often repeated does not become truth by repetition #GamerGate
Please elaborate, Ricardo. What is the lie? What is the truth?
Yes Ricardo Lima, what lies, by whom, and for what purpose? We are well aware of the #gamergate lies. They haven’t changed in months.
Let me guess,
Don’t ask Ricardo Lima for details – it might interrupt his funky flow.