Problem Machine

Thinking about it -- Wouldn't the premise that any mocking or vilification of GGers merely sets them in their ways, taken to its logical conclusion, suggest that we should never disagree with them at all?

Honestly, with people so self-righteous that they take any concession as weakness, that they take any outreach as a victory, what the fuck is the problem with trying some lighthearted ribbing? There's nothing harsher in these jokes than I would give to a close friend who I thought was acting a bit silly, and yet any position that isn't 100% sympathetic to their deluded and disastrous beliefs is doing harm to the discourse? FUCK. THAT. How many GamerGaters have you converted with your outreach program? How many victims of their harassment have you given a moment of comfort or joy? At least I'm doing something, and you can disagree with my methodology but fuck you if you question my motivations here and fuck your tone policing horseshit. I respect Gamergaters as fucking human beings, and as human beings I will tell them when they are being goddamn idiots, the exact same way I would tell my friends, because I don't think they're a bunch of babies. They're grown fucking men and women who should know better. And if the fact that someone is having a giggle at their expense is what prevents them from having their grand realization that "oh wait this is actually a hate group" then that's really fucking unfortunate, but I posit that anyone who would be tripped up by that technicality was probably not predisposed towards such an epiphany in the first place.

There's always going to be people like this. The only way we can control the size of these subcultures is by shaping the fabric of culture that forms them.

In the short term, on an individual basis, perhaps. In the long term, my hope is that it makes such positions untenable in the future. Also: Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. These jokes mock nothing they should hold dear: Just empty and abusive practices. Just disingenuous dodges. If they can't shed the things I target without shedding their identity, it shows how shriveled and mean that identity is. If they can't admit they were wrong and made a mistake, we won't get fucking anywhere regardless. If they can't laugh about their mistakes, they'll never admit those mistakes were made. As it is, I would appreciate it if you would regard this as a difference in opinion of how to approach the problem of healing a poisonous culture, rather than mere self-indulgence, because I assure you I put a lot of thought into what I was doing.

That suggests that there's something fundamentally broken about the way we educate.

To clarify, every single fucking one of those jokes was intended to illustrate a dishonest rhetorical method that GGers have been using. They're meant to make these methods a ) common knowledge and b ) laughable. To say that highlighting the absurdity of their methodology is some kind of attack is an absurdity on par with those that I have been mocking. It's not a matter of lolol look at these dummies: It's a matter of highlighting the gaps in GG logic and turning them into something we understand and can control. I'm more than a little angry at the idea that this is some kind of fucking bullying. Criticism is not abuse.

I am not ATTACKING them except by the same logic that claims that Anita Sarkeesian is ATTACKING games by criticizing them.

Yes. I do. I want this movement to be ridiculous. I want it to be insupportable. I want it to be ludicrous. I don't do these things without thinking about them.

I respect that they're people, but they're also people who are doing real harm to other human beings out of stupidity, gullibility, and stubbornness. This has gone on for long enough that there's no reason to be patient with these people any more. I respect their humanity, but the decisions they've made are hugely harmful and make me deeply sad and angry. I don't think it's necessary or desirable to hide that.

Excellent, I'd love to kick off a trend Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: What about all the light bulbs YOUR side is changing!? "Knock knock" "Who's there?" "#GamerGate" "#GamerGate who?""#GamerGate who?""#GamerGate who?""#GamerGate who?""#GamerGate who?""#GamerG Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: Actually it's a myth that all GamerGaters hate light bulbs Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: Three: One to change it, one to say it changed itself, and one to say it's not about the light bulb Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: Ad hominem!

I made it up but it wouldn't surprise me if someone else made it up first

Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: FUCK YOU IT'S FINE THE WAY IT IS Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: One, but he'll say it was ten of them "Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Interrupting GamerGater" "Interrupting Ga--" "IT'S ABOUT ETHICS IN GAMES JOURNALISM" "Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Literally" "Literally who?" "IT'S NOT ABOUT HER"

Fuckin' seagulls. I'm starting to dislike every animal with the ocean in its name. Is that profiling?

"Did she, in fact, steal the money? Will she not give it back? We explore these questions and more!"

Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: One, but they all claim the lightbulb did it to itself Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: What evidence do you have that it was a GamerGater that changed the lightbulb? Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: That's not funny! Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: GamerGate is opposed to burnt out light bulbs! Q: How many GamerGaters does it take to change a light bulb? A: Trick question, GamerGaters can't change anything.

Well there's also the mass exodus of women from games writing and development which impact we'll probably never know the full extent of, but yeah whatever fuck the 'intellectual snobs'.

It's tricky in a situation like IT where there's no telling what they're going to talk about on any given week's cast. Like, i've been listening to Video Games Hotdog, and each week they have the assignment game and you know there's going to be spoilers for that game and they'll probably avoid spoiling anything else. Myself, I'm moderately spoiler averse in that I like to get the unique experience of discovery, but I know I'll enjoy it anyway if it's good. From my perspective, it sucks to be blindsided with spoilers: Almost more because of the betrayal of trust than because of the material damage. I think if a podcast isn't going to accommodate for spoilers, it should at least accommodate far enough to say that discussions on the podcast tend to be spoiler-heavy.

I think there's a case to be made that people overidealize the joy of newness and discovery to the exception of craft and deeper significance, but it still seems super weird to me to say that it's a problem that people respect their perspective enough to accommodate them.

Okay but Idle Thumbs isn't a podcast specifically about Alien:Isolation, it's a general gaming podcast. I usually don't even look at the list of games discussed, and for people who listen to it through a feed the list probably won't even be visible. It sounds a lot like complaining about people being considerate, which seems odd to me.

Yeah that's it. It's something that's precious because it's a fragile experience that you only get to have once. Some people will value that experience in particular more or less than others, and as you observe the particular qualities of the piece may emphasize or deemphasize that aspect of the experience, but it's an aspect that can be taken away by careless actions of another. Now, one could say the same is true of experiencing a work in any arbitrary circumstance, but it's not for us to declare what the most interesting or worthwhile aspect of a piece of entertainment is for someone else.

Yeah that's true, but spoilers aren't actually about spoiling the experience of enjoying something, they're about spoiling the experience of discovering it.

http://geekfeminism.org/2014/10/23/why-were-not-talking-about-gamergate/ Man. Fuck.

Not really.

That's kind of what happened with the Germans, except we never saw the counterexample plant