Grimnir Mäyräparta · @GRIMACHU
10th Mar 2015 from TwitLonger
Fisking This.org
#Gamergate - The This.org article is available despite the site being down, via the RSS feed - http://feed.this.org/all_this
I'm just going to go through it making points and refuting parts line by line. You should read this alongside the article. Quotes from the article in "quotes".
1. "The feminist battle for Gamergate victory isn’t done".
Gamergate isn't really about feminism. It really is about ethical issues in games journalism and looming issues of censorship and other problems. Feminism is incidental, in that it is one source/cause of the ethical and censorial problems that Gamergate tackles. So to characterise it as a feminist battle is disingenuous at best - though understandable since figures like Sarkeesian and Wu have tried to hijack and self-insert into the controversy and to make it about women in tech.
2. “So you’re harassing women … for liking video games. Huh.”
No, this is the false narrative. It may be shocking to some but women are just as capable of being corrupt as men. Calling bad conduct into question is not harassment, calling women's bad conduct into question is not sexism.
3. "The article was published right after Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist critic best known for her YouTube series “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games,” cancelled an appearance at Utah State University after she received an anonymous threat of a shooting massacre..."
This was considered obvious trolling and some markers - including linguistic analysis - suggested it was written by a woman. The threats did not mention Gamergate and were not considered credible by the campus, the police or any other authority involved. Again, it's disingenuous to suggest this was anything to do with Gamergate or to imply it was credible.
4. "Sadly, Sarkeesian has long been the target of sexist attacks—ever since she first launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 to support the series."
Sarkeesian has been the target of _trolling_ since long before Gamergate. Again, connecting this to Gamergate is disingenuous. Sarkeesian's only link to Gamergate issues is via the ideological corruption in the media which uncriticially promotes her message. She's also a known con artist and does not engage in debate, at all, over any of the alleged issues she raises. Groundless criticism, con artistry and censorship of dissent has indeed pissed people off, but trolls are always going to troll and this really has nothing to do with anything in GG.
5. "Even former avowed Gamergaters have hung up their trilbies and abandoned their positions as everything became more extreme and untenable—or they suddenly found themselves on the opposing side of the harassment campaign."
There is no harassment campaign. At least not by GG. There's investigation, criticism, exposure, argument - some of it vociferous - but no harassment has been credibly linked to GG and GG has been subjected to the same treatment (though the media is oddly silent on this aspect). The quoted stands are against harassment and threats, not against Gamergate which - again - is about ethical and censorial concerns.
6. "Quinn has since gone on to found Crash Override Network, an anti-harassment network that attempts to help victims of Gamergate rebuild their lives and careers after the threats, doxing, and sabotage..."
There are no 'victims of Gamergate' unless you count people on all sides who were hit when trolls smelled the blood in the water. Quinn's appropriateness to advise anyone on dealing with harassment is minimal and the only person perhaps less suited is Randi Harper - who made the blockbot - and who is also now going to engage in 'anti harassment' actions. The irony being that both Quinn and Harper have positively been involved in harassment. There's little or nothing either can do other than to reiterate standard advice, or to contribute to extremely dangerous echo chambers for ideologues who are already horribly extreme.
Summary
In short, this article really has nothing to do with Gamergate (which really is about ethical and censorial concerns). It is about harassment and women in technology, which are worthy subjects to discuss, but in their own arena and without Quinn, Sarkeesian or Wu's attempts to use it for self-promotion.
Gamergate won't be over until Gamergate's ACTUAL ISSUES are discussed. Constant deflection and misrepresentation is only going to keep the anger and outrage that fuels it going. We need to find reasonable AGGro people who are willing to engage without this level of misrepresentation and without trying to make it about things it is not IF we're ever going to see any progress.