And when it turns out the group is predominantly crazies? If you need more than the tweets of one or two people:
- I saw a number of the posters involved reviewed here.
- MBD’s brilliant post here looks at what terms have actually been associated with #gamergate, and how very little shows up beyond the harassment of women and critics.
- To pick only from BB, death threats have been noted places like here, here, and here, with all sorts of citations in the articles and discussions. You can argue they aren’t credible, but it’s only going to reinforce your ability to ignore evidence.
That’s all it takes for something to be a disgusting hate movement, and yes, if you know that and still associate with it you’re endorsing that disgusting hate. If you care about corruption in video games journalism and don’t want to be a part of that, it’s really simple not to be:
- Use a different name. Even #realgamergate might do it, although you’d be better off using something entirely, given its history.
- Actually go after some examples of corruption in games journalism, and if anyone tries to make things about silencing women instead, don’t let them.
Really simple, and something it seems nobody can be bothered to do. That instead we get an endless parade of new accounts telling us to ignore the death threats and not paint everyone who is willing to stand with the people who sent them as bad guys is very, very telling.
