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Roderick

Feminism

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I kind of think that calling assholes "sociopaths" is probably a bad idea and a trend I see on the internet that concerns me...its painting people who have actual mental conditions as villains or monsters and I think it does a disservice to everyone to throw it around like that and shows a lack of empathy from those of us who aren't sociopaths when we do it...so it bothers me when people do that in a way.  I will admit that I don't know enough about the condition to discuss it in a useful manner, but I also feel that means I REALLY shouldn't throw that term around as an insult or descriptor for abusive behavior in general.

 

I remember seeing a guy on an internet forum who was actually real sociopath discussing his issues with having trouble with empathy getting treated horribly by people who couldn't understand that it wasn't just some choice he made to think the way he did.  He wasn't being an asshole...he was saying that he had difficulty with empathy and had to actively work on dealing with that in his own way and he wasn't a bad person.  The reactions to him really made me cringe and I don't know if I threw the word sociopath around before that to describe bad behavior...but afterwards I really tried to make sure I didn't.

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Yeah, I think people reach (in a somewhat ableist way, and I'm trying to correct this myself) for medical terms to describe straight-up assholes, in a vain effort to stress just how much of an asshole they're being.

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It's also just easy to collapse the other person into a "type"  with predetermined tendencies in an effort to dehumanize

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I painted my nails on my left hand. It sure does feel different when I grab a few dollars out of my wallet to make a purchase. If any of the men in here are bored, I recommend painting the nails of your left hand. It may not be a feminist act, but it can feel like one some times.

Simple acts like cutting food or urinating in a public bathroom send disonant signals into my mind and make me think a lot about gender-roles, masculinity, and femininity throughout the day.

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In today's I fucking hate misogynist gamers news, Zoe Quinn (developer of Depression Quest) was victim of a hateful blog post by an ex-boyfriend that led to a 4Chan campaign that got her doxxed and her/her close friends hacked. They got her home address, her phone number and of course now random internet manbaby scum are calling her and one person actually showed up at her house.
 
They're doing this under the guise that Quinn slept with a lot of game journos to get special treatment, along with some other shit that even if it was true doesn't come close to making her deserve the shit they're giving her. One of the journos, Nathan Grayson, basically asserts that it's bullshit. TotalBiscuit talked a lot of shit that seemed to be fed to him by 4Chan, so I guess read that if you want to hear what "ethics" garbage they could be talking about. But seriously, it's barely worth your time. In either case, Quinn posted this response saying she basically won't publicly talk about her sexual life, which is only something mangamers would demand a woman talk about.
 
Phil Fish said some good shit about this. I feel like my level of rage is similar to his. Also, he's been on my wavelength about Ferguson too, check out his crazy Twitter feed. Close friend of Zoe Jenn Frank has also had a lot to say about this.

 

I'm so fucking ashamed to identify as a gamer when shit like this happens. How could my passions parallel these fucking insane MRA piles of garbage? This is seriously reaching levels that I can barely tolerate. I had an argument the other day in the comments of a Polygon article where I said it's a shame that women in particular get harassed in the games industry, even famous-y ones like Tomb Raider's Rhianna Pratchett and Camilla Luddington in the recent Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity bullshit. Of course, someone had to respond asserting that men were harassed about that too, which I think is entirely a distraction because who cares? I don't care to convince a MRA warchief that women do have it worse no matter how much men also get it. I don't care to present evidence because it's all right in front of us in shit like this.

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I said this on twitter as well, but this horseshit coming on top of all of the Ferguson stuff is making me so angry I actually feel nauseous and lightheaded. Our culture is so fucking poisonous.

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Jon, I agree with you 100%. Nonsense like this makes me not want to be in the games industry anymore. Phil Fish, he can fly off the handle sometimes, but he's absolutely right to call out the bullshit. I respect that guy, it's distasteful to start a campaign against someone personally just from what you can glean off their twitter, or indeed some anonymous tumblr. Puppygames wrote a good article about the dark side of being in the indie spotlights, it made me feel as bit better yesterday in light of this, and after being hit with some hate myself.

 

On the one hand I feel like it's good to talk about it, even just in a sort of support group kind of way, although I doubt it will make a change, but on the other hand I'm glad at the Idle Thumbs forums it's only a small mention somewhere, and not a hot thread on the frontpage.

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Whoa, wait a second. Let me get this straight. People are claiming that the maker of Depression Quest has unethically gotten favorable reviews by having sex with reviewers? If that's what is happening, then..I'm just really angry. I'm really angry. I shouldn't type anything besides that I am angry. It's ok to be angry, it's just not okay to act on it. I'm really angry.I'm really angry.

 

If this is what is going on, then I'm very angry right now. Maybe this is not what is going on. I'll go make some coffee and come back. 

 

Edit: It occur to me that people may think that I'm upset with the maker of Depression Quest. This is not the case. I am very upset with the misoogynistic shit-bags fucking idiot fucking dickheads who are attempting to slut-shame someone.

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I saw a suggestion on Twitter that people who support Zoe play Depression Quest today (it's free) so it'll hit the Steam Top 100. I'll be playing it for the first time when I get home.

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Part of me wishes the ex and every one of these spiteful little monsters could be victims of their own creepy and frightening Internet hate campaigns, but I don't imagine that would fix anything. Still, it's hard not to crave justice.

 

 

I saw a suggestion on Twitter that people who support Zoe play Depression Quest today (it's free) so it'll hit the Steam Top 100. I'll be playing it for the first time when I get home.

 

Count me in. Although expect all manner of shitty reviews and tags on the game page. I imagine it was already subject to a fair amount of that, though.

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My favourite part of this were the 4channers on Twitter claiming that this whole thing was a false flag conspiracy cooked up by Zoe Quinn:

 

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I was delighted to find such a clear and obvious example of why 4channers are fuckwits.

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I can't believe how sheltered I have become. I really can't believe this is happening. Is Eron Gjoni a real person? I have a hard time believing that someone would publicly be so incredibly immature and pitiful.  I understand why someone would think the entire thing is a conspiracy; would anyone really date this guy?

 

I don't know what to do.  The terrorists are winning. Is there a way to control who plays your game? Could DRM be used to make it so that these people (who think that a woman can't have consensual sex with as many people as she wants AND be successful for completely different reasons) can't ever play a game I make or enjoy anything I ever do? I want to kick them out. They have lost their privileges. The should have thought about how much they enjoyed playing their games before they promoted misogynist hate-speech. I want them all to get tagged with a steam-badge that can inform me that the only attention I should allow them is my attempts to explain that women exist as equals. Steam needs a misogynist badge that you can only get from being fucking useless.

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FWIW:

 

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I'm not going to delete any of my posts here because I trust you guys, but don't go off on social media defending her or keeping her name going around. As much of an outrage as this is, she's also a victim that deserves some privacy too.

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I can't believe how sheltered I have become. I really can't believe this is happening. Is Eron Gjoni a real person? I have a hard time believing that someone would publicly be so incredibly immature and pitiful. 

 

I don't know what to do.  The terrorists are winning. Is there a way to control who plays your game? Could DRM be used to make it so that these people (who think that a woman can't have consensual sex with as many people as she wants AND be successful for completely different reasons) can't ever play a game I make or enjoy anything I ever do? I want to kick them out. They have lost their privileges. The should have thought about how much they enjoyed playing their games before they promoted misogynist hate-speech. I want them all to get tagged with a steam-badge that can inform me that the only attention I should allow them is my attempts to explain that women exist as equals. Steam needs a misogynist badge that you can only get from being fucking useless.

Calling these people "terrorists" isn't going to help the cause and neither would DRM.  One, that's huge hyperbole that, considering the deaths in Iraq, Syria, et al, is kind of disrespectful.  Two, barring people from things would only make people angrier and what's more, it's not right.  What needs to be done is silencing the hate speech.  I'm partial to Extra Credit's idea of auto-muting people who have a history of hate speech or blocking them from communicating.  That way, these people still have the right to play their games, even on multiplayer, but also have their hate BS removed.

 

Link: 

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Calling these people "terrorists" isn't going to help the cause and neither would DRM.  One, that's huge hyperbole that, considering the deaths in Iraq, Syria, et al, is kind of disrespectful.  Two, barring people from things would only make people angrier and what's more, it's not right.  What needs to be done is silencing the hate speech.  I'm partial to Extra Credit's idea of auto-muting people who have a history of hate speech or blocking them from communicating.  That way, these people still have the right to play their games, even on multiplayer, but also have their hate BS removed.

 

I agree with those thoughts with two caveats.  The first is that simply silencing people doesn't do anything to change their minds and in fact would probably drive even further into their own thoughts.  It's similar to the "don't feed the trolls" idea in that ignoring them doesn't mean the problem goes away.  What really needs to happen is to foster understanding, but I recognize that this is not likely to ever occur.

 

Secondly, I liked the idea that a game had (Titanfall I think?) where they didn't block cheaters from servers, instead they created cheater only servers and anyone who was a known cheater got shunted there so that they were forced to deal with others doing the same shit to them.  Except I don't think that would work in this case because it would just create a monster that feeds off of it's own bullshit.

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Calling these people "terrorists" isn't going to help the cause and neither would DRM.  One, that's huge hyperbole that, considering the deaths in Iraq, Syria, et al, is kind of disrespectful.  

 

Well what is the word for trying to silence people or make them do things by threatening bodily harm?

 

Edit: I found a good replacement, Mobbing. Sorry for belittling the suffering of others.

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I agree with those thoughts with two caveats.  The first is that simply silencing people doesn't do anything to change their minds and in fact would probably drive even further into their own thoughts.  It's similar to the "don't feed the trolls" idea in that ignoring them doesn't mean the problem goes away.  What really needs to happen is to foster understanding, but I recognize that this is not likely to ever occur.

 

Secondly, I liked the idea that a game had (Titanfall I think?) where they didn't block cheaters from servers, instead they created cheater only servers and anyone who was a known cheater got shunted there so that they were forced to deal with others doing the same shit to them.  Except I don't think that would work in this case because it would just create a monster that feeds off of it's own bullshit.

I definitely see your point about the uselessness of "don't feed the trolls." I do think auto-muting may act as a social pressure though.  Getting that auto-mute would be a scarlet letter showing that you're a d-bag.  Maybe if there were a way to then get rid of that mark, people could be trained to not be such jerks.  I'm also afraid shunting all the jerks into a jerk-server would only cause them to reinforce each other and then have their bile spill into other games and the community at large.  

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I prefer Frederick Douglass' advice on dealing with people who clearly have all the facts but refuse to listen, personally:

 

 

Scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

 

Because change, real change, won't happen if we have to play whack-a-mole with these fuckers, because they can always go somewhere else and they'll never have to really look at what they've let themselves become. They expect civility, and they won't respect it. Anger, they can handle. But mockery? The people who make dreadfully serious videos intoning they should be 'expected' are not the kind of people who take kindly to those who think they deserve only ridicule. They blew up because people started watching My Little Pony, for Pete's sake. I've seen them on imgur get their hackles up because people conflate /b/ with 4chan, as if hanging out at Walmart all the time doesn't make you a Person of Walmart, even if you're there for the bargains. Their sense of humour is stunted and warped, and that is their weakness.

 

Bring fire.

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I prefer Frederick Douglass' advice on dealing with people who clearly have all the facts but refuse to listen, personally:

 

 

 

Because change, real change, won't happen if we have to play whack-a-mole with these fuckers, because they can always go somewhere else and they'll never have to really look at what they've let themselves become. They expect civility, and they won't respect it. Anger, they can handle. But mockery? The people who make dreadfully serious videos intoning they should be 'expected' are not the kind of people who take kindly to those who think they deserve only ridicule. They blew up because people started watching My Little Pony, for Pete's sake. Their sense of humour is stunted and warped, and that is their weakness.

 

Bring fire.

I disagree. The reason trolls, well, troll is that they already view the internet as just words, not people.  Mocking them online will probably have a limited effect at best.  When mocking would be super helpful would be if pop-game culture adopted the outlook.  If you were at a lan party and made some misogynist comment and everyone then made fun of you for it, it would stop people from acting that way online.  The same goes for cons, popular podcasts, etc.  That's what I think anyway.

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Secondly, I liked the idea that a game had (Titanfall I think?) where they didn't block cheaters from servers, instead they created cheater only servers and anyone who was a known cheater got shunted there so that they were forced to deal with others doing the same shit to them.  Except I don't think that would work in this case because it would just create a monster that feeds off of it's own bullshit.

See also: Hellbanning.

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