The GamerGate Thread

[PeterPiers]

This is a horrible thing that a one of our members did on his own time, which misrepresented the subject of the photo. The Gamergate movement, as a media watchdog movement dedicated to truth in journalism, does not, can not, and will not condone the types of irresponsibility and falsehood an internet prank like this conveys

But they have done that, or at least I get that from the very article you posted, where it says "It’s natural that the majority of Gamergate supporters want to disassociate themselves from blacktric and TW, as their actions contradict claims that the group is committed, exclusively, to promoting clear disclosure of professional and personal relationships between members and outlets of the gaming media."

(and then right on the following sentence it shows that the writer doesn’t really believe in that dissociation, already undermining it)

Because causing someone to be accidentally labeled a terrorist by the authorities is the absolute pinnacle a bully troll could hope for.

Or because they got scared that their joke blew up in their faces and feared retalation. Not noble, but not unreasonable.

I’m not saying it was a good joke. Good God, no. This action may be small in scope, but many a shameful act in human history has started similarly. So yeah, those guys did something they shouldn’t have, then ran away with their tail between their legs. Not really defensible.

It’s the bit where it starts to leak over GG that’s the issue. And it comes back to the argument I think we’re going to see again, where Hanon goes “GGers should do something about this, speak out, if they’re ever going to have any credit as an organisation”, and varpoware goes “GG has tried, but every time they do people point at them and go “AAAARGH! GAMERGATER!!!111!” and run away in the opposite direction, shouting warnings.”

Sorry if I’m being reductionist, guys, but the argument is kinda stuck in a loop. This incident just emphasises that.

[vaporware]

This is not the correct response for a legitimate movement/organization.

It’s not an organization. Phrasing like “one of our members” and “on his own time” kinda misses the point: there are no membership rolls, everything is his own time, and there’s no spokesman to deliver a message like that anyway. He shares interests and beliefs with other people; that doesn’t mean he represents them, or vice versa.

That’s like the guy yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.

No, it’s more like all those people who fail to realize Onion articles are satire. Someone photoshopped an image to make fun of someone who he’d been fighting with; you can argue that it was crass and juvenile, but that just means he was responding in kind. The image itself posed no threat to anyone. The media may have done so, however, when they declined to do even the slightest research and embarrassed themselves by treating someone else’s crude joke as criminal evidence.

The story is, a Gamergater smeared someone publicly on the internet. Which is what Gamergaters insist they don’t do. “Innocent photoshop prank posted for all to see” got out of hand. Which is what Gamergaters insist they’re not about…

I think you’re mistaken about what they insist they don’t do. There are plenty of GGers who are more than happy to insult the people who’ve been insulting them, or to post goofy images making fun of them. That’s quite a bit different from what they’re usually accused of.