GamerGate (because censorship is dumb)

Griffin Boyce griffin at cryptolab.net
Mon Oct 27 16:51:18 PDT 2014


Dāvis Mosāns wrote:
> GamerGate is not about that, you've read too much into some
> propaganda. I know only single such case about 1 game. And I haven't
> seen any harassers admitting that they do it for GamerGate or
> journalism, but IMO they're just trolls who like to use this
> opportunity. They like publicity (even if it's bad) and that's what
> they're getting. I'm not sure if you can imagine this mindset, but I
> can't deny that it must be exciting to read news story about death
> threats you wrote. It actually encourages to do it again. There's well
> know internet Rule 14 "Do not argue with trolls — it means that they
> win." so as usual - Don't feed the trolls.

   First of all, it is never *ever* someone's fault when random internet 
creeps stalk and harass them.  If continuing to have an opinion and be 
in an industry is "feeding the trolls" then you should seriously 
consider changing your views on the subject.

As for the rest, I'd like to quote Meredith Patterson:

"A person was cruelly emotionally abused. That person called out their 
abuser, and in overwhelming majority, a community which claims as one of 
its defining characteristics an opposition to gaslighting, siloing and 
all other forms of abuse rallied around the *perpetrator*.  Why did that 
happen?"

   By Newsweek's count, Brianna Wu and Anita Sarkeesian got nearly 80'000 
twitter comments in response to their views on GamerGate itself.  Eighty 
thousand -- that's more than all journalists and news outlets combined 
(including Kotaku).  Tell me this isn't about the ongoing harassment of 
women who have an opinion.  I don't watch AS's videos and find her 
conclusions to be quite thin at times.  Doesn't matter -- she has the 
fundamental right to voice an opinion.

   My favorite part of this whole gamergate shitstorm was when Marcia 
Hofmann pointed out inconsistencies and someone immediately said that it 
was the game devs' faults for having opinions.  They said it 
non-jokingly and completely without irony.  The underlying message is: 
"Censor yourself or be prepared to go into hiding."  That's no way to 
live and I won't support it.

   If you're serious about journalistic ethics, then you should be 
prepared to send letters and form protest around large companies.  If 
0.5% of EA's customers sent emails asking them to change policies or 
correct errors in their sales materials, their policies would change 
very quickly.


> Also if you've some recent examples of
> you're named large gaming corporation wrongdoings then tell them and
> I'll gladly share them with others.

   Well I mentioned EA's case, and that doesn't seem particularly 
thrilling to you.  There was the huge fiasco a few years ago around Kane 
and Lynch, and I would hazard a guess that GameSpot's editorial 
practices haven't changed.

   And if you don't want to be associated with abject harassment, then 
don't hitch your wagon to a cause that harasses people.  Form a group of 
sane people and pick a different hashtag.  I have literally *no* 
sympathy for sane people who aren't willing to use a different hashtag.  
They're sacrificing integrity in order to ride a wave of abjectly shitty 
publicity.

~Griffin

[1] http://chainsawsuit.com/comic/2014/10/15/the-perfect-crime/
[2] https://twitter.com/abditum/status/525624080826122241
[3] 
http://www.newsweek.com/gamergate-about-media-ethics-or-harassing-women-harassment-data-show-279736





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