"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[Ben X]

Of course, they're being grandiose about it and trying to appear magnanimous/competent:

"I'm very proud to say that after checking in with #gamergate investigators, That Dragon Cancer is essentially clean. Go ahead and donate!"

 

Why is he very proud to say that, and why is it "essentially" clean?!

[James]

Racism is one of the few things we have that transcends our absurdly large class barriers

 

Middle class racism tends to be the most casual and ashamed of itself, because middle class people (not excluding myself from this) seems to live in homogenous neighbourhoods.

Yeah, I probably phrased that horribly badly. There are plenty of godawful Daily Mail-reading middle class people, and the upper class and otherwise incredibly wealthy have unparalleled power to do awful things with their prejudices. I should have spoken more carefully. All I meant is that disadvantage in one regard doesn't preclude advantage in another.

[sclpls]

Yeah. If I'm not mistaken, many of the footholds for the BNP, and before them the National Front, were/are in the sorts of poor Northern ex-mining towns that TB's talking about. Like so many extremist groups, they took advantage of the frustrations of poor communities, but the point is that it's pretty ridiculous to claim that by being white in Britain you're not benefiting from the pretty fundamental privilege of not being hated by some pretty scary organised groups of people for the colour of your skin. I'd say that's a pretty valuable privilege. I for one would not enjoy losing it.

(By none of that do I mean to imply that British racism is an exclusively Northern thing. You need only look at the quoted Robert Ashley tweet above for evidence to the contrary. I merely mean to relate racism specifically to the article that TB wrote; specifically the claim that he came from a Northern town too poor to be privileged.)

 

There's also uhh... Britain's rather massively sized role in the history of colonialism. It's such a significant part of history that we can't even comprehend what the world would look like without the white persecution of other races. But some Indian and Pakistani families in the town where he grew up seemed to do alright for themselves, so lets just call it a draw.

 

Also Robert Ashley is rad.

[Justin Leego]

what's the deal with littleceasar

 

is that the name of one of those 8chan ops or whatever

Three poavenues occur to me, but then I haven't spent Investigative Journalism amounts of time looking into it:

1. Yes, there's an 8chan sub dedicated to it. It's the name of a browser extension project being developed by that Twitter user, intended to allow extension users to comment over sites and articles that otherwise might moderate those comments, enabling the circulation of "truthful" conversation. Resentment over Wikipedia's treatment of the situation appears to be the main motivator.

Why is it called "littlecaesar"? Two associations that spring to mind:

2. A slang term for someone who is a bossy boots, a miniature dictator

3. There is a US-based pizza chain called Little Caesars - I believe at one point there was a Quinn-related joke about whether a pizza restaurant analogy might be more appropriate than a burger joint reference. I didn't find any evidence of that during a quick search so may have been imagining it. Was it in the various chat room logs?

In related news I was a bit surprised to see a Kotaku write-up slating India's policy towards obscene material, I'm sure Nathan Grayson didn't mean it this but it could be read as saying "this is a backward country because it doesn't allow sexually permissive material as part of interactive entertainment." Which I thought was a bit reactionary. But I can understand why compassion levels might be drained at this time.

http://kotaku.com/ea-says-india-wont-get-dragon-age-inquisition-due-to-o-1659754229

Continued caveating: I'm entirely ready to accept that my understanding of the nuances of cultural relations between the US and India could do with rounding out a little more. That's probably a big chunk of it. I apologise for massive amounts of naïvety on my part, really I'm posting this because I'd appreciate a bit more context.

[Gormongous]

There's also uhh... Britain's rather massively sized role in the history of colonialism. It's such a significant part of history that we can't even comprehend what the world would look like without the white persecution of other races. But some Indian and Pakistani families in the town where he grew up seemed to do alright for themselves, so lets just call it a draw.

 

Also Robert Ashley is rad.

 

Generally speaking, I find it a good rule not to trust the word of anyone who says that their country doesn't have a race problem when their country has a history of colonialism and imperialism. Considering that that's virtually every country in the world, I think it's safe not to trust the word of anyone who says their country doesn't have a race problem, period.

 

I'm also finding it almost shocking how many ways TotalBiscuit is showing the world that he's a somewhat ignorant, somewhat self-satisfied, completely average white dude. Maybe next he'll start talking about how biological differences between men and women mean that true equality is impossible and the goal only of radicals.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Generally speaking, I find it a good rule not to trust the word of anyone who says that their country doesn't have a race problem when their country has a history of colonialism and imperialism. Considering that that's virtually every country in the world, I think it's safe not to trust the word of anyone who says their country doesn't have a race problem, period.

 

And this is why the Irish guy ranting about white privelege was right!

 

...just in case, yes I am being facetious.

[Blambo]

Good save. Something to add to the Not Allmanac.

[thefncrow]

In what might be the most insane thing I've heard out of GG circles lately, that anti-Anita video by Shitty Kane released a new teaser today where they decided it'd be a wonderful idea to pull Jack Thompson out of whatever hole he's been in since getting disbarred for unethical conduct and get him to talk shit about Anita.

[Twig]

haha whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat no way

[Nachimir]

Yeah, I probably phrased that horribly badly. There are plenty of godawful Daily Mail-reading middle class people, and the upper class and otherwise incredibly wealthy have unparalleled power to do awful things with their prejudices. I should have spoken more carefully. All I meant is that disadvantage in one regard doesn't preclude advantage in another.

 

Oh, sorry, I totally wasn't having a go at you. I've known plenty of racist working class communities too, sometimes ones that would violently enforce the exclusion of other ethnicities. Where I am now is pretty racist too. It used to be one of the richest places in the country during Victorian times, and mill owners broke the unions by bringing in migrant labour. The resulting racist attitudes have been passed through families for generations.

[Smart Jason]

This Jack Thompson slash Sarkeesian Effect crossover is gaining a huge amount of momentum very quickly but it should be noted that, for all intents and purposes, even though Jack Thompson is saying exactly what they have been, the moderate and authentic face of GamerGate will disavow any genuine allegiance with him and Davis Aurini. This is the sort of thing I care about knowing before I go all in on rhetoric claiming they're bedfellows now.

[tegan]

GG has convinced themselves that Aerannis, a game about a trans woman living under a government that stomps out those who speak out about inequality, is something that fits into their anti-feminist rhetoric and started promoting it among themselves without a trace of irony.

[Problem Machine]

Game looks pretty cool, even if GG's supporting it is 100% baffling.

[tegan]

Game looks pretty cool, even if GG's supporting it is 100% baffling.

 

They think that the all-female future society presented by the game is supposed to be a "post-feminist dystopia," because these are still the kind of idiots who think that feminism wants to kill all men.

[Gormongous]

They think that the all-female future society presented by the game is supposed to be a "post-feminist dystopia," because these are still the kind of idiots who think that feminism wants to kill all men.

 

I don't get it. Do they think that all male feminists are stupid, or just that they're willing to die along with their entire gender for some positive female attention?

[Merus]

I don't get it. Do they think that all male feminists are stupid, or just that they're willing to die along with their entire gender for some positive female attention?

 

Both!

[miffy495]

The ultimate act of a white knight is to die for his cause, right?

[Blambo]

Just gonna

 

(warning: vulgar, idiotic, offensive content. Totally stupid and not adding anything to the conversation but a great video of Aurini trying really really really hard to show his masculinity probably after watching fight club and not getting it)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0411G1p5m7U

[Brannigan]

He showed me what Rico Suave would look like if bald

[Bjorn]

In what might be the most insane thing I've heard out of GG circles lately, that anti-Anita video by Shitty Kane released a new teaser today where they decided it'd be a wonderful idea to pull Jack Thompson out of whatever hole he's been in since getting disbarred for unethical conduct and get him to talk shit about Anita.

 

You know, I've been figuring he'd get conjured up at some point.  I'm surprised it's taken this long.  But I wasn't expecting it to be in their "documentary" of all things. 

[Brodie]

Aurini, the Cosmo Lavish of the internet.

 

(see Making Money by Terry Pratchett)

[Ben X]

That video, is that a sincere monologue? It's not a parody or satire or persona or anything?

[Twig]

I haven't watched the video and can't right now, but If you check out Aurini's website (not recommended), you'll see plenty of shit that you'd think is satire but... isn't.

[Bjorn]

That video, is that a sincere monologue? It's not a parody or satire or persona or anything?

 

In the comments under it, someone says that it is one of Aurini's oldest videos. So it's really him, doing something. But god knows if he's being serious or not. Like Twig said, you can't really tell with im.

[James]

There's also uhh... Britain's rather massively sized role in the history of colonialism. It's such a significant part of history that we can't even comprehend what the world would look like without the white persecution of other races. But some Indian and Pakistani families in the town where he grew up seemed to do alright for themselves, so lets just call it a draw.

Very good point, but TotalBiscuit absolutely seems like the kind of person who looks back on the British Empire with fondness. I mean, I have no evidence for that, but he fits a type.

Is that unfair of me? Probably.

... Aurini trying really really really hard to show his masculinity probably after watching fight club and not getting it

One of the related videos at the end was "Davis Mj Aurini is a Monster - the proof", in which he unironically quotes Tyler Durden. So you're pretty much spot-on with your assessment.