onetimeusername

Let me start with the sound "ugh." I'm a huge Idle Thumbs fan and have been for a long time. I'm writing under a separate account because I think I'm going to draw a lot of ire with this comment. I think you guys have really gone to a point of excess with this Sarkeesian/games critique discussion, and I want to bring a little bit of critique to the conversation because I think this episode sounds like an echo chamber of people who are so committed to a particular set of beliefs that they're not making reasonable critiques of their own positions. As evidence of this, Chris is basically calling critics of Sarkeesian and others neckbeards (particularly with the anime avatar remark), asking for Campo Santo and Idle Thumbs to be boycotted along with other game studios that have had some role in defending Sarkeesian, and insinuated strongly that he would like to hit people who disagree with him. Jake and Sean seemed to agree. Sean also went to great lengths to praise Sarkeesian's supposedly mind blowing work. I think you guys are so wrapped up in this whole mess that you're not recognizing just how little value Sarkeesian is providing. She's pointing out gruesome things that happen to women in games, and you guys are losing your minds over it as if this is causing scales to fall from your eyes. You're also pretending like people want to silence her because she is bringing this critique to light, because her critics are misogynists. In reality, games are brutal generally, and Sarkeesian is just cherry picking examples that fit her agenda without providing the necessary context to actually understand what these tropes mean. She'll point out a woman who is brutally murdered in Red Dead Redemption, but totally ignore an equally brutal killing that happens to a defenseless male character in the same game. Same for Assassin's Creed, where almost all of your victims are male, yet she picks out the few women who are brutally killed. Those two games just happen to be very brutal, and pointing out that some women are killed in terrible ways while ignoring all of the men killed in terrible ways isn't interesting or beneficial critique, it's a hack job. Violence against women isn't especially used to create realism, violence generally is. Then Sarkeesian draws her inevitable critique for this cherry picking at the expense of gamers, and people are shocked. I think it's terrible to threaten or harass anyone online, but it's not like Sarkeesian's experience is unique. Almost every personality online draws some flak, particularly those who are controversial. At this point I honestly think Sarkeesian revels in the hate, because it's what makes her relevant. If she wasn't being attacked, I doubt she would have nearly the following she does now. I think she uses this to draw sympathy, which results in people exclaiming how valuable her work is, when in reality she's just cherry picking and providing almost no insight whatsoever. I think you've been suckered, and it's painful to watch. Chris, you talked about how you've worked hard to develop your ability to critically analyze your beliefs, no matter how deeply they are held, and if necessary to change them. I think that's precisely what is called for here.