Hey Glenn,
you using any of these blocky botty thingees you wrote about? And, if so, how effective has it been in regards to keeping the worst of #germergoat at bay? (and by worst I mean this WARNING type of worst)
I don’t think I’ve ever blocked anybody before gamertaint, but since this heated up I’ve instablocked dozens who’ve casually dogpiled really shitty comments a-la that last link.
Which is why I’ve refrained from making any references to the Matrix and, er, it’s “sequels”
“officially worse than Wil Wheaton”
Not yet. I think there are multiple more configurable versions coming, and I’d like to hook up with a group of people I know instead of the current setup. I’ve been blocking like crazy in GamerGate for people who reply with hostility or won’t shut up with their replies and it’s covered most of the most frequently posting jerks.
I think this is my favourite one so far.
So I was analyzing the comments on Boogie2988’s videos, and the first 25 subreddits on KotakuInAction, and I saw the signs of what I’ve been expecting to happen for some time now.
As so often happens with political movements, gamergate is going to destroy itself in a quest for purity as militants war with, and push out, the moderates. Gamergate is almost there.
What happens when one of gamergate’s heroes, Boogie2988, asks for cooler heads to prevail:
Simonbelmont09: Boogie, I respect your rationale but I wonder if Jim over at Internet Aristocrat is right about you. It feels like you’re backpedaling.
What happens when one of gamergate’s heroes, Total Biscuit, writes something like this: “Is this about ethics? Then talk about ethics. I call on them to reject false and misleading labels such as ‘SJW’. The concept of social justice is ridiculously complex and it seems that people have wildly differing opinions and interpretations on its very meaning. Do not engage in hypocritical behavior. If you do not wish to be labeled, then do not label. Argue points, concepts, ideas, do not argue against the ‘SJW’ strawperson.” [Note how he even uses the term “strawperson”. What an SJW.]
Plenty of disagreement (which is telling), most of which is civil:
pat82890: By not taking the SJW seriously, this will be just as bad as cancer. The journalistic corruption is a huge malignant tumor, but the SJW floating around just injecting their ideology into stuff that has nothing to do with it is going to keep creating more and more “tumors.”
SubcomandanteCarlos: And this is where I deviate from many people here and elsewhere on the SJW issue. I stand by my belief that SJWs are a problem in gaming.
Echelon64: Trust me, this is not deviation, many of us on GamerGate want good ethics in game journalism and for the SJW scourge to frankly be purged.
Zaiik: Yeah, there’s been this recent trend of implying that the two are somehow entirely separate. Pretty much the only issue we have that was not directly caused by SJW’s and opportunists that use them as weapons taking over the GJ “scene” was publishers paying for positive coverage. With all the shit we’ve uncovered these last two months, that’s like mid-tier on the list.
evil-doer: journalistic ethics is just one small part of a bigger problem
azriel777: I am with TB on MOST things, but at odds with him about the SJW which are a plague on everything they touch. I do not understand how he can say ignore it when you can clearly see what it has done to other groups and the damage it has done to gaming.
Then there’s this:
OleAndesen: avoid calls to moderation even if its from TB, these SJWs need to go.
kiwikku: I think so too.
Let’s follow this last redditor for a bit:
kiwikku: if the decision has been made “official” by a purported leader or spokesperson of gamergate, this could prematurely end the movement before any real change has chance to take root. Suggestions for dialogue from a side that is losing are skillful attempts at co-option. While I believe that Total Biscuit means nothing but the best, his move towards premature dialogue will ultimately do far more harm than good.
catpor: I disagree. The Escapist gave dialogue, and did Good™.
kiwikku: What might you suggest? (I want to burn them down too)
Here’s where it gets juicy:
jlw1812: I nave no interest in that. theyve been insulting and arrogant the entire time, except the escapist. if they ever appologize or want to “dialogue”, itll be totally insincere.
kiwikku: Don’t know why totalbiscuit is so eager then…
[note the use of ellipses to imply something nefarious]
JRBelmont: Do you honestly believe any “dialogue” will be anything but more of the same?
kiwikku: I do. That’s why there is no way i can support it, but TB keeps taking about it sooo…
[again note those ellipses]
kiwikku: I do note a sharp uptick in shilling and concern trolling lately.
[Allegations of “concern trolling”: the classic way of smearing anyone who doesn’t engage in black-and-white thinking]
It’s about to happen. The purges are coming soon. How long before they find the videos I linked to earlier that show TB’s political correctness?
Let me ironically quote that redditor:
kiwikku: This is exactly how movements die.
It’s just a matter of time now. The antifeminists are about to make a power play for the movement, I think. If I had to guess how this goes down, someone, quite possibly Internet Aristocrat, “breaks the story” [sorry, I got there first] about Bain being an SJW. And then the purges will begin in earnest.
Edit: added link.
I feel like I just read a first hand account of spoiled meat on its way through a sausage mill.
I guess that Quinn has been busy :trollface:
Yup, you’ve nailed it.
These are a nice celebration of gamergate’s choice of targets and tactics, but I’d also like to recognize that their apologetics have had their own flavor of coherency, with lots of repetition. Could this be a first hint at the new future of on-line discourse, and where will that take us?
That was coming to mind in a discussion I was just having, in which someone suggested that by engaging in “easy mockery”, the left was missing an opportunity for education about feminism. I disagreed with that, but at one point, the person I was arguing with drew an analogy with leftists shouting down an apolitical person for naively expressing support for a repressive government. I responded with, “What’s my apolitical friend doing at a political rally?”
But, it occurred to me that there’s a blurring of categories in the context of social media. My counter-analogy was that using the GG hashtag is like attending a political rally. But using a hashtag isn’t exactly like taking a bus downtown to a rally at 1 PM. When are you consciously joining a movement, and when are you not?
And given some of the dynamics – sockpuppets, Twitter bots, etc., and deliberate disinformation campaigns – I’m reminded of the nightmarish scenario towards the end of Charles Stross’s Accelerando, in which moves and countermoves in digital communications and social organization have converged and occur so rapidly that it’s practically impossible for a human being to figure out what the sides are anymore.
Well, FoolishOwl, apparently Stormfront has sided with Gamergate, in order to stop the Jews from destroying video games and the white birth rate. So that’s one side…
And on a completely unrelated note:
this comic [which continues] might be interesting. But the forum software shows the first part instead of the link, so:
http://pepperonideluxe.tumblr.com/post/101061454652/a-comic-about-seagulls-if-you-feel-like-this [Maybe this will work?]
