#GamerGate and #OpSKYNET, and why I consider it today's most important social movement

Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago to Culture
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I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
However, I assure you, for those who get through it, you will be as excited as I am.


Some of you may have noticed that I have been absent from this board for a bit.
Some of that was getting ready for a new project.
Some of that was researching the #GamerGate movement.
There are a lot of references that I have included below: take the time.
Some of the references use strong language, note that.


Simply put, #GamerGate is a grassroots uprising of video gamers who are demanding ethics in video game journalism.
Supporters of this movement use the twitter hash tag #GamerGate to identify themselves and their twitter posts.
On the surface, #GamerGate probably sounds like a non-issue.
But it is not - it is huge, it is important, and it is not going away.


For the record, I am not a video gamer.
I am, however, very interested in Liberty movements.
To me, #GamerGate is a grassroots opposition movement to our Ruling Class Marxists who have decided to co-opt the messaging of games.
This is what got me intrigued about #GamerGate in the first place: #GamerGate is a Liberty movement, even if its supporters might not fully realize it.


I started coming to this realization when I saw *striking* correlations between the Tea Party and #GamerGate uprisings.

Here are just a few:


1a) The Tea Party wants fiscally responsible government.
For this they have been demonized by the Ruling Class and the media as racists and bigots who are just short of terrorists.

1b) #GamerGate wants ethics in games journalism which they believe to have been co-opted by what they call Social Justice Warriors (SJWs).
For this they have been demonized by the SJWs and the gaming media as sexists and misogynists who resort to online threats and intimidation.


2a) The Tea Party is constantly portrayed by the media as being over, dead, or irrelevant.

2b) #GamerGate receives the same treatment from gaming media.


3a) The Tea Party discovered that the media was colluding against it in the now infamous JournoList.

3b) #GamerGate has found the same media collusion in a private chat group called GameJournoPros.


4a) The Tea Party is deeply concerned over corruption and oppression from a Ruling Class which is pushing an agenda of Cultural Marxism.

4b) #GamerGate is deeply concerned over corruption and oppression from Social justice Warriors who are pushing an agenda of Cultural Marxism.


What is interesting is that neither group realizes fully yet that they are fighting the same battle against the same people.


Although there are flashes of that realization:
“I used to mock right-wingers when they raged about biased liberal media and feminists. Mea fucking culpa.”
http://twitter.com/eudaimoniarick/status...


The online gaming community is absolutely on fire over #GamerGate, and I believe with good reason.

But to be fully understand #GamerGate, it is necessary to become familiar with two people: Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian
Both women are central to the issue, and both women have been the targets of harassment concerning it.


Who #GamerGate thinks Zoe Quinn is:
"Quinnspiracy Theory: The Five Guys Saga": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5-51PfwI...

Who the Main Stream Media present Zoe Quinn as:
"GamerGate Zoe Quinn: 'I have a folder called those who left'": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nVDjIX7h...

A #GamerGate response to harassment against Zoe Quinn:
"RANT: #GamerGate - Zoe Quinn, Journalism, and Anita Sarkeesian": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D6EAmH53...


Who #GamerGate thinks Anita Sarkeesian is:
"REFUTING ANITA SARKEESIAN's 'Damsel in Distress: Part 2'": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25o0EZiog...

Who the Main Stream Media present Anita Sarkeesian as:
"The Colbert Report: Gamergate - Anita Sarkeesian": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L_Wmeg7O...

A #GamerGate response to harassment against Anita Sarkeesian:
"Anita Sarkeesian vs Marilyn Manson": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H1PkyVzR...


So, with that background, we now come to #GamerGate proper.
Here are two very good video synopses of the #GamerGate movement:
"GAMERGATE! Gamer's fight back! Guest video by TheInvestigamer!": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCExXie1X...
"The Evidence and History of #GamerGate": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEMdf8D0l...

#GamerGate spawned a second twitter hashtag #NotYourShield.
#NotYourShield represented "minority" gamers who supported #GamerGate
"This is #Gamergate (What Media Won't Tell You)": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QERu2Y2i1...

#GamerGate spawned a third twitter hashtag #OpSKYNET.
#OpSKYNET is best describer here:
"WTF is #OpSKYNET? (and its relation to #GamerGate)": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or5se6xZL...
Here is the reaction I received on twitter when I identified with #OpSKYNET: http://twitter.com/eudaimoniarick/status...
48 retweets, 61 favorites, and about 80 follows from one tweet.


As far as #GamerGate is concerned, what happened to them, what happened to Matt Taylor at ESA, and to some even what happened to Brandon Eich at Mozilla are all connected.
They correctly see it as the same battle against the same forces.
http://twitter.com/themanclaw/status/533...


As further proof, these are the two pieces by SJW Games Journalist Chris Plante which were mentioned in a previous link:
1) "GamerGate is dead": http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/30/71319...
2) “I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing”: http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/13/72138...


GamerGate supporters are serious and they are not backing down.


Lastly a pro #GamerGate piece in Breitbart:
"THE AUTHORITARIAN LEFT WAS ON COURSE TO WIN THE CULTURE WARS... THEN ALONG CAME #GAMERGATE": http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Londo...


Some of the oldsters like me might have been asking themselves, "Where are the young-bloods who will raise up and carry the standard of Liberty when we tire?"
I humbly submit :
They are here;
They are #GamerGate;
They are #NotYourShield;
They are #OpSKYNET.


Your comments are welcome.


All Comments

Previous comments...   You are currently on page 2.
  • Posted by LetsShrug 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Okay... yes, I just talked to my son, who I've had busy researching, and he just said the same thing-ish. My son has ignored a lot of this hoopla, but has just taken the time to get it straight. Thanks euda. :) he also said gamer gate gets bad press because trolls are reeking havoc.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The hashtag #GamerGate was first used by the actor Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb from Firefly).

    I believe he was using it generically.
    But because he is on the side of the gamers, it has been adopted by the gamers.

    So #GamerGate supporters want ethics in journalism.
    And #GamerGate detractors believe that gaming is a community of violent, maladjusted, misogynist, white, hetero, cisnormative, bigots who live to harass women and therefore the entire community must be reformed.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Once again, you add nothing to the discussion other than distraction.

    Ms. Day's account is anecdotal at best.

    It reveals nothing other than
    1) she decided to enter a shitstorm while it was raging
    2) she was shocked that a shitstorm is, in fact, a shitstorm
    3) she decided to react with fear and prejudice against people she never met over the shitstorm.

    I am sorry about what happened to Ms. Day, but it is not the point about what is going on.
    What happened to Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesin was worse.

    But you know that already.

    I am asking you a second time now: go troll elsewhere.
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  • Posted by khalling 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    what kind of a woman would I be if I shied after competing on this board and was told "bite me" cat fights are the worst. jus sayin
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You have some of it correct.
    The gamer community found out about Zoe Quinn's relationships with gaming journalists, and assume a quid-pro-quo.
    At the same time they were being subjected to Marxist Deconstruction videos from Anita Sarkeesian.
    Both women started receiving vile threats.
    Both women blamed the entire gaming community.
    The gaming community pushed back.

    That's the 100 mile high overview.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If you're interested, and you have the time, process in order each of the links in this post's head.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It's has to do a lot with what EitherOr said: complete anonymity and no accountability.

    Some get to talking smack a bit to big.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 5 months ago
    I'm a geek who never got into games. I don't get any of this. I write mostly positive articles that sample me their products and work with me to answer their questions. I don't get what all the fuss is about.
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  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 10 years, 5 months ago
    "But for the first time maybe in my life, on that Saturday afternoon, I walked towards that pair of gamers and I didn’t smile. I didn’t say hello. In fact, I crossed the street so I wouldn’t walk by them. Because after all the years of gamer love and inclusiveness, something had changed in me. A small voice of doubt in my brain now suspected that those guys and I might not be comrades after all. That they might not greet me with reflected friendliness, but contempt." -- Felicia Day "Crossing the Street" here: http://feliciaday.com/blog/crossing-the-...
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  • Posted by IndianaGary 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I can't believe that some guy can get so overwrought just because he got beat by a "girl" that he'd tweet such a misogynistic message. He REALLY needs to get out more.
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 10 years, 5 months ago
    I talked to my son about this at length and here's what I've learned, or what I think I've learned. ha ha
    Gamer Gate was started, or involves the two idiot women you refer to in your link...their movement was to keep gamer journalism honest...BUT then they went wayward, corrupt, kick backs for sex, and femi-nazi. So the #gamergate is used to speak out against them and their dishonest and corrupt ways which includes censorship. Is this correct or incorrect...because I was under the impression that #gamergate WAS the movement for honest journalism and to stop censorship. omg..this is crazy confusing.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thegopoundsalt, for future reference, that is what we call a *ZOT*.

    Thank you, board mods.
    I didn't even have to ask.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I love the Telegraph, but I keep hitting their 10 articles per month pay wall.

    Maybe one day when I have disposable income...
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Paglia's take on #GamerGate would be interesting.
    Although I could probably already guess what it would be.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    EitherOr, thanks for your take on this.
    The issue is really big, and you are right, it is not clean cut.

    I've still been researching it and a few other things I found.

    1) Anita Sarkeesian: Sarkeesian's master's thesis in communications was exposed in a viciously mocking vid by Thunderf00t.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szfhRRxJN...
    If he's presenting fairly, her thesis (and by extension the masters she received) is a freakin' joke.
    A masters on watching TV shows with only one very small chart of actual data?

    2) Zoe Quinn a.k.a Chelsea Van Valkenburg a.k.a. Locke Valentine: I decidedly cautiously to look into a claim that Quinn did softcore porn. I was able to find another name she supposedly went by before calling herself Zoe Quinn (Chelsea Van Valkenburg), as well as a stage name she supposedly used in softcore porn (Locke Valentine). Now, none of this proves anything, and I certainly wouldn't disparage anyone from entering or leaving a career in porn. However, it does lend credence to the claims that she uses sex as a manipulation skill. For me it also calls into questions her claims in the BBC interview that her ex-boyfriend "revenge porn-ed" her. If pictures of her existed online from a free-will softcore porn career, and those pictures pre-existed the vengeful ex-boyfriend, I'm not sure what she's claiming. But then again, I didn't see the pictures the ex-boyfriend supposedly released, nor do I want to.

    As far as #GamerGate being a Liberty movement.
    I don't think they consider themselves one.
    My claim is that:
    1) they have recognized that someone is co-opting their hobby
    2) they have correctly identified that "someone" as Cultural Marxists
    3) I believe that what they have identified as "Cultural Marxists" are actually the "Ruling Class" which Dr. Angelo Codevilla describes (I rail in favor of Codevilla often)
    4) I believe the Ruling Class is purposefully co-opting games because it is a medium which they do not yet control.
    5) So in #GamerGate's fight they are, accidentally or not, knowingly or not, a Liberty movement.

    Of course, you are free to disagree with any of this.
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  • Posted by khalling 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    hey eitheror, long time no see. there are nasty people everywhere. and I don't game, but I do have a social media presence. and yea, I take lots of abuse as a strong woman with strong opinions. The ones who say "suck my ***" which has happened on this very site, btw, I have either sloughed off because of their otherwise valued contributions or wrote off as losers. Do I think it's a coordinated attack on women? not so much. Frankly, I've heard women say much worse and DO much worse. I direct you to the two women who decide to upend a McDonald's as a man cautions them to tone it down and then is pummeled with fists, kicks and thrown chairs and tables. I certainly don't hear a bunch of women in the armed forces or retired from the armed forces whining like these banshees do. gaming is mostly a man's world, but their rules don't get to rule-women making their own games can attract followers. Hopefully you have a few out there or will-I remember well you working with others in the gulch to develop something sometime back. I'm waiting for Camille Paglia to weigh in. :) good gaming!
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  • Posted by $ EitherOr 10 years, 5 months ago
    I've only been commenting in the Gulch whenever a (rare) gaming post comes up, sorry about that :)

    TL;DR - GamerGate is partially good. Journalism is not what it used to be. Sexism (bullying) is bad. Let's not fall into the trap of polarizing the issues at the expense of crippling the industry.

    Thanks for linking those sources - I've been mostly ignoring #GamerGate and its affiliated tags, but your organized list was a nice summary. I've been a gamer for 16 years. I'm also female. I cautiously support #GamerGate, but I think by celebrating it as a Liberty movement against SJWs you miss some of the finer points. Here's my thought on the multiple issues involved:

    Anita Sarkeesian: This woman annoys me to no end. Whether her youtube channel is her actual opinions or a persona put on to attract an opinionated following (similar to Steven Colbert) she plays the part well. As a caricature of a feminist, she is an easy ally for SJWs and target for GamerGaters. She cherry-picks. Yes some games are sexist. So are some movies, books, television shows, and music.

    Zoe Quinn and video game journalism ethics: Because, um, we are in an era of completely ethical and unbiased journalism? *sarcasm* I'd say that by having a large-scale scandal, video game journalism has graduated and become just as unethical and despised as any of the other more traditional genres of journalism. As for the articles labeling Gamer Gaters as "white sexist virgins in their parents' basements" and the like - those titles got a lot of clicks for the respective sites. Controversial and polarizing issues generate a lot of web traffic. Sounds like the writers and web editors were doing their jobs.

    Sexism in video games vs. sexism from the people playing them: HERE is where I caution against glorifying the GamerGate movement. Yes, the SJWs are out there trying to make everything about feminism and if you play or support a game Sarkeesian has denounced then you are automatically a misogynist. On the other hand, those supporting GamerGate seem to be pushing the sexism issue under the rug, because it has long been championed by embarrassments like Sarkeesian. However, I'm telling you here that sexism by players IS an issue, albeit a side issue, but one that needs to be dealt with before the industry can move forward.
    Gamers make sexist comments because they're anonymous, and there are no repercussions. Here in the Gulch there is the downvote - to identify and publicly shame trolls or bigots and lessen their role in the discussion. In the gaming world - and by this I actually mean IN games, not on forums - there is little to no mechanism for punishing bullying players. And oh do the claws come out when they think no one can touch them.

    In case you're about to call this BS...
    When I play Xbox, my avatar is female. When I play competitively online, win OR lose, afterwards I often receive comments. ALL of these comments are initiated by the other player, btw. Some say "good game", but more than half are incredibly sexist. The *nicest* of which has been "Suck my ****." I screenshot the comments, then make sure to click the "report this player" option in their profile. Unfortunately, Microsoft (which makes the Xbox) is slow or does not respond at all.
    Though from Kotaku (implicated in the Quinn scandal), this account tallies with my experience: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/08/microso...

    So this is the internet, everyone is a jerk because they can be. Just ignore it. BUT...

    On the other hand, when I play the game Starcraft on my computer, my avatar is a tiny image of a male game character. The worst comment I have received is "wow man you suck."

    The future of video games: Legitimate art form. Also form of entertainment. On par with films and books. I've found games with more compelling characters, story lines, and art than most movies in theaters today. In the way that "film buffs" are not confined to one demographic or genre, neither are "gamers". You over there, playing Angry Birds on your ipad, are a gamer. So is that kid down the street who plays Call of Duty 10 hours a day. So am I.

    Oh god I wrote too much. My point: rallying behind GamerGate is a call for ethics in journalism, but also derails the forward progress of gaming as an art and mass entertainment by polarizing an industry that on the whole was doing just fine before this blew up. The Zoe Quinn debacle should be something we look back on as a small event in the development of gaming culture, not the start of a war.
    And hijacking #GamerGate as an excuse to vilify SJWs further fuels the right/left polarization upon which politicized media sites thrive. Just saying.
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