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JonCole

"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

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Total biscuit being completely oblivious to misogyny is sadly not surprising at all. His total wrongheadedness about it is almost impressive he hits like every "but feminism is bad, stop complaining" internet egalitarian truth is in the middle talking point/fallacy.

Its just frustrating because its flat out impossible to have a reasonable discussion without having to do a shit ton of work to explain everything to them. Ugh. Can't do it.

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Oh man, that Total Biscuit pretzel logic...

 

Without getting too deep into it, because if you think about what TB is saying too hard your brain will turn into mush, a couple of points about this conversation leap out to me:

 

1. TB keeps using this rhetoric about the importance of protecting consumers, like they are some vulnerable group that is getting preyed upon by the world at large (or something, it is not exactly clear). That is a weird assumption to make.

 

2. TB was about to write some statement complaining about the New York Times piece for what he incorrectly saw as some factual misrepresentation without himself bothering to investigate and confirm what Leigh's actual work relationship with Gamasutra is. The irony of this fact is apparently lost on him.

 

3. He then says the problem with Leigh's views is that it will have broader ramifications. Again, irony apparently lost.

 

4. He employs that weird logic where because other people suffer forms of harassment, he thinks misogyny isn't a problem. As it happens, I came across this old reddit thread about how the DOTA community is a problem for women, and I think it perfectly captures how sexism and misogyny are in fact specific problems for women beyond simple harassment in general (which also happens, and is also a problem!) http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/20ghsa/when_you_wonder_why_there_arent_more_girls/

 

5. Chris is really awesome, and I hope his engagement resulted in one less rant from TB that would result in his fanbase descending on women guilty of the crime of disagreeing with TB.

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TB, having grown up in the UK, often goes off on side rants about how lacking the consumer protections are here in the United States. He has some good points I think, though he does seem to go overboard with them (he goes overboard with everything really, that's his internet personality) and they don't really have a place in this conversation.

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Weirdly, when PressFarttoContinue was banned from Polaris Media for hassling/harassing Dodger, TB was pretty quick to shut him down, saying:

 

I frankly had no interest in getting involved in this drama, but sitting idly by and watching toxic, ignorant individuals attack my friends and coworkers is not acceptable. 

 

I guess maybe that's consistent if he believes that there was nothing gendered about that situation, but it feels like you'd have to work quite hard to believe that. Or, I guess, if it's only attacks on friends and coworkers that is problematic.

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Weirdly, when PressFarttoContinue was banned from Polaris Media for hassling/harassing Dodger, TB was pretty quick to shut him down, saying:

 

 

I guess maybe that's consistent if he believes that there was nothing gendered about that situation, but it feels like you'd have to work quite hard to believe that. Or, I guess, if it's only attacks on friends and coworkers that is problematic.

I don't think it's that hard. I lived in a similar bubble for quite a while. Ditto with racial issues.

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TB, having grown up in the UK, often goes off on side rants about how lacking the consumer protections are here in the United States. He has some good points I think, though he does seem to go overboard with them (he goes overboard with everything really, that's his internet personality) and they don't really have a place in this conversation.

 

You see a lot of arguments for consumer protection here in the U.S. as well. Often that results in occupational licensing requirements. Sometimes that's sensible, I think everyone besides the most staunch libertarian likes the fact that doctors need licenses to practice, but sometimes it is more dubious like for hair stylists, and just create more hoops for people to jump through to get jobs.

 

I think the basic question that needs to address is what is the specific harm that is created without the specific consumer protection in place? A lot of times, there is no difference, and that is certainly applicable here. I'd say video games fall closer to the hair stylists (where a consumer may be dissatisfied with a hair cut or video game) than doctors (who engage in operations that can be a matter of life or death).

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That Logic bomb video was quite good as well. It's always nice to be reminded of how easily anyone can be swayed by good rhetoric, even though he had a disclaimer at the beginning of the segment i was totally onboard with his fake conspiracy video by the end. 

It's funny how many people in the comments accused him of slandering thunderf00t with that section, in spite of that disclaimer! Kind of proving his point about how easily they will believe conspiracy theories.

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I think the basic question that needs to address is what is the specific harm that is created without the specific consumer protection in place? 

 

I think this is a very acute framing, since the backlash against Gamasutra isn't about misleading information, or harmful misreporting, or libellous content. It's about an opinion piece.

Portraying this as a consumer revolt only works if the consumer is supposed to be protected against ever reading anything that upsets them. Which is problematic, partly because people get upset by lots of different things, and also because a commitment not to publish anything that might upset somebody is almost certainly going to fall foul of any other standards of ethical conduct also being argued for.

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TB and a lot of LaterGaters seem to conflate the statement "Gaming has a misogyny problem" with "everyone who plays video games is a misogynist", and then they feel personally attacked instead of reflecting on it.

What's funny is when you apply that sorta logic to other things.

 

"America has a gun violence problem." - Everyone knows that doesn't mean every American is waving a gun around shooting people.

 

I've seen friends throw that example at GGers and seen two things - ignoring the point willfully, OR jumping into hysteria about "now you're saying gamers are violent." Basically most counter-arguments I've seen take words from sentences and rearrange them to change the meaning. It's frustrating and difficult to argue with in good faith because it's just a bunch of purposeful negativity.

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Yeah, I would say you could use a different analogy, like, saying homelessness is a widespread problem, but it does seem pointless when most evidence points to you are just arguing with trolls.

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Portraying this as a consumer revolt only works if the consumer is supposed to be protected against ever reading anything that upsets them. Which is problematic, partly because people get upset by lots of different things, and also because a commitment not to publish anything that might upset somebody is almost certainly going to fall foul of any other standards of ethical conduct also being argued for.

 

I think you could also easily view Leigh's piece as arguing in favor of a potentially larger group of consumers, that she's not slander all game players but engaged in the holy act of consumer advocacy for a potentially unserved group of game consumers, which in religious terms, the unconverted are in some ways most precious.

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I think this is a very acute framing, since the backlash against Gamasutra isn't about misleading information, or harmful misreporting, or libellous content. It's about an opinion piece.

Portraying this as a consumer revolt only works if the consumer is supposed to be protected against ever reading anything that upsets them. Which is problematic, partly because people get upset by lots of different things, and also because a commitment not to publish anything that might upset somebody is almost certainly going to fall foul of any other standards of ethical conduct also being argued for.

 

I'm also just a bit uncomfortable all the implications of what TotalBiscuit says to that effect, about the duty of critics and journalists being to protect the arbitrarily defined community of "gamers" from bad press and the bad feels that come with them. It would be a nonsensical ethical stance to have in any other medium, but somehow it makes sense that gamers feel they deserve to feel good always.

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I'm also just a bit uncomfortable all the implications of what TotalBiscuit says to that effect, about the duty of critics and journalists being to protect the arbitrarily defined community of "gamers" from bad press and the bad feels that come with them. It would be a nonsensical ethical stance to have in any other medium, but somehow it makes sense that gamers feel they deserve to feel good always.

It's funny how often these things parallel actual game design, since the prevailing trend in big-budget productions these days is to provide constant positive feedback to keep those endorphins flowing.

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I'm also just a bit uncomfortable all the implications of what TotalBiscuit says to that effect, about the duty of critics and journalists being to protect the arbitrarily defined community of "gamers" from bad press and the bad feels that come with them. It would be a nonsensical ethical stance to have in any other medium, but somehow it makes sense that gamers feel they deserve to feel good always.

 

I think that line of argument is one that he's backed himself into in an effort to avoid confronting his own shittyness. Frame the entire ordeal as being about consumer advocacy and ethics so you can dismiss any hint of cultural criticism as being misguided SJW-ing or cynical pandering. Harassers are dismissed as extremists who don't represent the "real" gamers.

 

He's so unaware of his own cultural baggage that he styles himself totally free of bias and subject only to facts and logic, therefore his arguments are pure and any pushback is either in bad faith or the result of misunderstandings (I think he's retreated to blaming Twitter as a format in every confrontation with anyone half as articulate as himself that I've seen). 

 

However, I do value the presence of TB in the conversation as I definitely share more of his cultural life experience than I don't and, at first glance, a lot of his argument make sense... until someone with more perspective comes along and punches holes the size of small moons through his bullshit (and through the bullshit that still infects me). 

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Well... he isn't

 

Tho, it's telling that this isn't sparking any rants or videos or anything. 

 

A video game big wig saying you should use the media brainwash Americans into agreeing with bad foreign policy, like for example using the way they use the media to brainwash people into buying their videos games, is within the accepted narrative of games. That this is a thing is probably just making him feel good about his stance on GG since, "LOOK! what I'm talking about is totally real, even if I have no interest in pursuing that particular case of corruption".

 

Say video games are sexist, and everyone loses their minds. 

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Here's the thing that really annoys me about Total Biscuit. That guy as well as every other Youtuber is part of the Polaris network. Polaris is now owned by Disney. Their ass is owned by the biggest media company in the world. I've heard word before of Polaris pushing certain games onto it's video makers plus all of the ad revenue is targeted and engineered towards the top which they get their chunk. They play by a set of rules even though they would want you to think that they have free reign to still do whatever, it's cool, it's just Disney guys. Like all of this guys criticisms of whatever he thinks games journalists shouldn't do (which he seems to mix up between reviewer and so on) is done by the guy on a daily basis. I guess his leg to stand on is he's just an entertainer, an ad hoc journalist and reviewer whenever he feels like it, except he is only beholden to Disney for ad revenue and not an editor, so anytime he gets paid off for something, it's fine.

 

Honestly, I'm really sick of Polaris part of Youtube these days and all of these overpaid loud punters under it.

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