Anita Sarkeesian cancels Utah campus appearance after threats of a "Montreal-style massacre"

HURHUR GAMERS ARE NERDS.

Oh wait, someone actually felt so fucking afraid for her life due to gun rights assholes and gamergate assholes that she refused to speak on a topic close to her heart.

FUCK GAMERS ARE VIOLENT UNCONTROLLABLE SOCIOPATHS

They do not get a write-off as some harmless basement dweeb if they are successfully intimidating people into silence. That is deeply fucked.

Where are the cries of censorship now, I wonder. Well, not really wonder.

11 Likes

As I was saying in another thread, when we were getting death threats, we were dealing directly with the FBI.

My suggestion was purely in support of anyone, like Sarkeesian, that may have a reason to fear those in close proximity.

1 Like

… possibly where the fundamentalists of each side fuck it up for everyone else in those groups.

1 Like

If you go to NIH main campus as a visitor your car may be searched. I was there in the winter and they searched my trunk. Luckily it was not full of shit but there was an iron shovel with a flat square blade (spade) that I keep in the trunk for chopping ice etc. The guard took the shovel over to his supervisor before returning it to me.

I’m not so sure about this - my understanding is that in some states a private venue cannot ban weapons on the premises with the reasoning being that such a ban would violate the individual right to bear arms. I’m not if this is the case in Utah but it seems to be; in Utah churches, for instance, are explicitly allowed to ban weapons but only if they file that notice with the state annually. Presumably without that explicit exemption in state law, private businesses cannot ban firearms.

EDIT: Actually, it would seem that carrying on a Utah campus is explicitly permitted under law, as it is in six other states, so there’s no way to ban guns from a venue. At least that’s how I read it.

1 Like

Surely you´re not suggesting that violent games are the cause of these threats?

2 Likes

Random thought. Ballistic vest (and possibly a kevlar helmet). Won’t help much against rifle round (the lower ballistic classes at least, without ceramic inserts), but rifles are not exactly concealable and handgun ammo has low enough power for the lower-class vests to withstand.

Wouldn’t address the underlying sociological issues of the threats but would make actual delivery of the threat much more difficult.

Plot twist: most GamerGate supporters play only Candy Crush Saga and 2048.

1 Like

Actually, there are often open carry folks at Obama events…
The pro-open-carry folks like to include this link every time that someone mentions the odds of a black man not getting shot while open carrying…
Man carries assault rifle to Obama protest – and it’s legal - CNN.com

There is this caveat:

The individuals would never have gotten in close proximity to the president, regardless of any state laws on openly carrying weapons, he said. A venue is considered a federal site when the Secret Service is protecting the president and weapons are not allowed on a federal site, he added.

Not a twist to the plot, but the actual plot: GamerTaint has nothing to do with gamers, gaming press, or anything related to it.

1 Like

I don´t pretend to understand what Gamergate is really about and to be able to make sense of it all, nor do I care enough to work my way through the whole mess, but with everything that´s been coming out of it, isn´t it time for any sensible part of it to start over? Give yourself a new name and try to strictly inhibit anything that is or could be constructed as misogynist right from the start so everyone can focus on the real message?
Anyone who believes that any good can still come out of the convoluted, burning trainwreck that is Gamergate right now is delusional.

6 Likes

I am not an expert, or a hard-core-gamer, but from what I understand, this woman has been accusing some gamers of being misogynists, and some nut-job gamers have been reacting like a baby that has had their candy taken away. The woman in this case is NOT doing anything wrong, other than stirring up some controversy. I have not read her stuff, but would not be too surprised to find that some minority of gamers are misogynists.

2 Likes

Mod note: Moved some posts. This topic is not about gun control.

6 Likes

You know, if she showed up in full riot gear to give her talk, that could be very educational in and of itself. If the only way a woman can speak publicly in the U.S. requires protection from being killed – wearing a Kevlar burka, as it were – then why not draw attention to the very real danger of being-outspoken-while-female by doing so?

12 Likes

Minor correction. The reporting newspaper, The Standard Examiner, is based in Ogden; Utah State University is located in Logan, Utah. It was Logan “Cops” (or most likely the USU campus police) rather than Ogden police that were involved. Lot’s of “O’s” and “G’s” but very few “OG’s”.

Source: I’m in Ogden 45 min South of Logan.

Unfortunately, when we stop doing things we love or start doing things we’d rather not because of a terrorist threat, then terrorism has won a victory. In this case, USU could have done better…

2 Likes

Well, I hope the gaming industry will try harder not to cater to terrible people, but considering that sexism is a problem in pretty much every tech-related occupation, I’m not too optimistic. Maybe Gamergate will burn itself out, maybe some people will (deservedly) get arrested, but it would be nice to have some lasting positive change come out of it all.

I sincerely don’t understand how or why you guys operate your comment boards the way you do. Why shouldn’t we talk about gun control here, especially when it’s directly involved with the subject. Why do the comments need to be limited to one subject in the first place? Yes, it’s also about feminism, lets talk about that too, but that doesn’t change the fact that Sarkeesian canceled her appearance because of the police and their handling of the open carry laws, It’s right there in your article!

4 Likes

I agree the gaming-press angle is a red herring, but you don’t think all these misogynist jerks and psychos who are oozing out of the woodwork are males who feel threatened because people like Anita Sarkeesian dare to criticize macho/misogynist gaming culture?

They want their shooter games, and they want them with cheesecake and other forms of objectification of women. They start foaming at the mouth when anyone even suggests that this is not a healthy aspect of their pastime, presumably because in their minds the suggestion inevitably starts a descent down a slippery slope and everyone is eventually forced to play Sleepless in Seattle: The Game.

And then, with great clouds of irony whooshing over their heads, they argue their point that the typical depiction of women in games is not unhealthy by releasing a torrent of misogyny ranging from adolescent bullshit to horrifying threats.

4 Likes