"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[Vainamoinen]

oooohhhhh I am so looking forward to the reaxxion article. I think they're strongly leaning towards Aurini, so I'll assume they'll crucify Owen tomorrow.

 

After 24 hours, I almost thought reaxxion would simply ignore the Aurini/Owen breakup. The takedown piece is online now, tellingly by reaxxion "ethics officer" Sam Roberts. I assumed they'll crucify Owen, but I could not even imagine how low they would stoop. In Robert's view of the world, Owen has committed blasphemy by questioning almighty reaxxion site owner Roosh V.'s ability to convince women to sleep with him:

 

The book ["Don't bang Denmark"] describes Roosh’s travels in Denmark, and chronicles his difficult, though ultimately successful, journey to get a number of the local women into bed. For whatever reason, Owen was of the opinion that Roosh was unable to get laid at all in Denmark, and became incredibly worked up when Aurini attempted to correct him.

 

And that's what the reaxxion article boils down to: Roosh V. ejaculates twenty times an hour and every single time, he hits a willing woman of diverse nationalities. The truth of that statement is not to be challenged. The only thing funnier than a man continuously emphasizing his own virility are men continuously emphasizing ANOTHER MAN'S virility.

 

Of course, Owen's mental breakdown, murky reasons, bizarre obsession, extreme emotional state, strange and unnatural fixation, border[ing] on the autistic, obtuseness, stupidity, willful blindness, irrational[ity], jealousy also lead him to betray his backers:

 

By the time they arrived at the airport and Aurini dropped him off, Owen had worked himself into an extreme emotional state. While boarding the plane, he was behaving bizarrely, peppering the personnel with so many odd questions about the airplane that airport staff refused to let him fly. He was forced to take a rental car back to Atlanta, using the backer money he’d raised via crowdfunding to do so.

 

Interesting how we never heard of that from co-star Aurini.

 

Instigating hate by faking pity is reaxxion 101, so let's have that as well:

 

In his videos, Owen does not have the look of a man who is satisfied with the direction his life is taking. He’s quite clearly alone in a darkened apartment, unshaven and ill-kempt. His voice is downcast and uncertain, and he tends to go off on tangents about wrongs done to him in the past by other people, despite the fact that they have nothing to do with the topic at hand. He shows signs of depression.

 

And to top it off, let's have an entirely ethical appraisal of the reaxxion site founder as well, great work, "ethics officer".

 

For those of you who may not be familiar with Roosh, he is a man who left a comfortable white-collar job in the United States during the mid-2000s, and has dedicated his life ever since to traveling the world and sleeping with as many attractive foreign women as possible, and showing other men how to do so through his blog.

 

Okay, these guys ARE sleeping together. Seriously now.

 

Coming to reaxxion is always a bit like coming to another world, where Roosh V's Legalize Rape article is "satirical", "satirical" and of course, "again, completely satirical" and in no way reflects his previous, obviously philantropist/educational travel guide publications.

 

These guys... seriously... these guys.

[JonCole]

 These guys... seriously... these guys.

 

All that shit seems ludicrous to the point where I barely believe it.

[Irishjohn]

These guys... seriously... these guys.

 

I had never heard of this site until now. It's... awful. Just awful. Their "Mr. Brianna Wu" schtick (and linking to a picture of Miranda Kerr to humiliate her further) is pretty awful. Wow. I need to go and shower now.

 

 

Those seem like valid reasons not to like Twitter. OTOH, it also feels worth noting that the underrepresented groups who use it tend to be more concerned about its failure to police abuse and harassment than its character limit. I think the former is a bug, whereas the latter is presented as a feature. GG's presence on Twitter is partly because it's taken a hard "just a platform" line on the conversation, but also because it's a place - in most cases, the only place - where people can be mobbed and harassed directly.

 

Yeah, it's not 8chan or anything but that cop-out from Twitter has to go. I know they're making changes but it still seems rough. I agree completely with the validity of the service for people from underrepresented groups (just look at the numbers of mobile internet use, and phenomena such as "black twitter."

 

The biggest thing, really, is the inability of wealthy teenage kids that are really into video games to understand that they're wealthy. This is a wider thing in the US. Apple talks about iPads in classrooms like it will fix everything (speaking as an educator, um, no) and ignores the fact that they're really very expensive. A lot of GGers probably think they had it tough because they're still rocking an Xbox 360. A lot of people could only dream of affording one, but some of those people can get on twitter through an affordable smartphone.

[feelthedarkness]

Those seem like valid reasons not to like Twitter. OTOH, it also feels worth noting that the underrepresented groups who use it tend to be more concerned about its failure to police abuse and harassment than its character limit. I think the former is a bug, whereas the latter is presented as a feature. GG's presence on Twitter is partly because it's taken a hard "just a platform" line on the conversation, but also because it's a place - in most cases, the only place - where people can be mobbed and harassed directly.

 

 

You're absolutely right, and I'm sorry if I came off as flippant or dismissive about that.

 

Though I think Twitter is under direct obligation to address their harassment problem, where my quibbles are endemic to the system. 

[sclpls]

I don't do twitter. I know I should, because it's a great way to advertise commissions and stuff, but I think it's more trouble than it's worth. On top of Twitter's existing issues with not being condusive to discussion and having a very obvious harassment problem, it's way too easy to make an idiot out of yourself. Corporate twitters in particular are the worst. Remember when DiGiorno tried to use a hashtag about domestic abuse as a way to sell pizza? Ugh.

 

To be fair, large corporations are extraordinarily talented at making idiotic, tone deaf statements. Twitter is just a new platform for them to do so.

[BusbyBerkeley]

So what was the joke Tim Schafer made the other day? I've seen a few references to it on twitter, but I'm an idiot and can't find a quote.

[zerofiftyone]

So what was the joke Tim Schafer made the other day? I've seen a few references to it on twitter, but I'm an idiot and can't find a quote.

 

This one?

https://twitter.com/necrosofty/status/573323317735661569

[Dewar]

http://www.themarysue.com/time-schafer-gamergate-joke/

 

There's a video there, but I didn't watch it as this is my work computer. Quote from the article:

 

Sock: How many gamergaters does it take to make a single piece of armor?

Schafer: Oh, god, I don’t know.

Sock: Fifty. One to do the modeling, one to do the materials, and forty-eight to tweet that it’s not your shield.
Okay, so it’s definitely not the best joke (and Schafer’s puppet voice is terrible), but at least it works purely on a strictly linguistic, wordplay-centric sense. Armor? Shield? Get it?

But many Gamergaters were not happy about the use of their #NotYourShield hashtag, with which people of color, LGTBQ people, and women tweet about how they like Gamergate so those who are against the movement on the grounds that it behaves pretty unfairly to those kinds of people are clearly being disingenuous. (Hey head’s up, we aren’t.) It wasn’t just offensive to them—it was hate speech. And they sure did let the Internet know about it.

[Brodie]

This one?

https://twitter.com/necrosofty/status/573323317735661569

 

this makes me pretty happy.

[Henroid]

GamerGate has spent so many months telling people not to be sensitive about their harassment and threats of varying degrees.

 

Then Tim Schafer makes a joke, and all of a sudden GamerGate loses its shit and is super sensitive. Imagine that.

[Deadpan]

Definitely don't want to begrudge anybody their decision to not use Twitter or dislike it, but as somebody with a little exposure to media studies it just gets to me that so much of the complaining happens on a level of griping and generalizing about how communication "is supposed to work" and not a nuanced look at its built-in affordances and mechanics, plus all the complaints that apply just as well to other platforms, but are supposedly only a real issue with this one.

 

The broken abuse report system is definitely a valid complaint, but at the same time I get kind of wary when people make strong claims about what it means for how we should be using the platform. After writing about GG I was once approached by a guy who was adamant that, in his words, if all this abuse happens on Twitter, then surely Twitter is also somehow the cause of it and we should just abandon it, and that strikes me as reading too much into the location of a problem, like saying that if bad things happen to you outside, maybe just don't go outside then. And obviously when I take issue with that stance, it doesn't mean that I think we shouldn't be working harder to make outside safe, just that opinionating on whether people should be going there despite the risks can be various shades of misguided.

 

Which probably speaks to how deeply ingrained this thing is in my life, but it really is a pretty essential tool for keeping up and promoting your work, for writers especially,

 

I think the only thing that's really required to have good arguments on Twitter (which I've definitely had!) is the good will on both sides to just not read the absolute worst into the gaps that its character limit necessitates, and if people don't bring that to the table then I'm pretty sure you're not going to have a fruitful conversation with them given a more verbose platform. When I hung out on other forums, I saw a lot of people get into these discussions that essentially turned into arms races of who could write the longest post in a series of increasingly lengthy posts, while completely talking past each other.

 

They definitely used a lot more than 140 characters, and it didn't seem to make their conversation all that much better.

[Nachimir]

 

After 24 hours, I almost thought reaxxion would simply ignore the Aurini/Owen breakup. The takedown piece is online now, tellingly by reaxxion "ethics officer" Sam Roberts. I assumed they'll crucify Owen, but I could not even imagine how low they would stoop. In Robert's view of the world, Owen has committed blasphemy by questioning almighty reaxxion site owner Roosh V.'s ability to convince women to sleep with him.

 

I think my biggest laugh was at the phrase "Owen was on track to be a successful movie producer"

[Twig]

good will on both sides 

But that's exactly why Twitter will never be a good place to have an argument. Exceptions are nice and all but it'll never be the rule.

[Vainamoinen]

GamerGate has spent so many months telling people not to be sensitive about their harassment and threats of varying degrees.

 

Then Tim Schafer makes a joke, and all of a sudden GamerGate loses its shit and is super sensitive. Imagine that.

 

That wasn't Tim. It was his sockpuppet.

 

Gaters are now trying to paint that joke as racist on youtube, and supply an 825 word essay that explains why it is racist.

 

If it wasn't all so damn sad, I'd laugh my socks off.

[Bjorn]

Tim was equally amazing and awkward as hell. 

[marblize]

The more I read about this the more the gamergate stuff reminds me of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

 

They were a bunch of privileged white guys who were appalled at how accessible art (this is my conclusion on their approach to disseminating their work) was becoming with the advances of the industrial age.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood

 

 

I feel like that's.... a bit reductive.

 

Gamergate is appalled at 'accessible' art due to its growing inclusivity.

 

Pre-Raphaelites were just bummed about particular art techniques that were taking over. 

 

Also I don't think Gamergate will get in art world trouble for painting a woman not up to the period's standard of beauty any time soon. Angering people by painting Mary not beautifully seems pretty rad. GG seems like the ones who would be angered over the pre-raphaelites "Taking away our 'Mary boobs'" so to speak.

 

And come on, this is amazing: "In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, whom they called 'Sir Sloshua' "

[Blambo]

Yeah I always thought of the pre-raphaelites as wanting more aesthetic diversity by returning to a less formalized artistic age, which is the opposite of Gamergate's preference toward games as strictly a formal exercise of mechanics.

[Deadpan]

But that's exactly why Twitter will never be a good place to have an argument. Exceptions are nice and all but it'll never be the rule.

 

But why do you think this is the case with Twitter but not other places? Except places small enough to have an established consensus on certain topics. What's the special thing about it that makes people go "this... this right here is the breakdown of communication" is what I want to know.

 

Speaking of which, I glanced briefly at the Escapist thread about the matter and there's an entirely unsurprising consensus that no, public ridicule and people taking a stand against them is great, because now the world will see how poor and persecuted they really are and they will find new allies (also somebody said something about Schafer having insulted "thousands of minorities" and I prefer to think that they don't actually call people "a minority" but rather meant that it was insulting to every different ethnicity, creed, sexuality and gender identity imaginable).

[Twig]

Because Twitter, as opposed to, say, this place, is used by everybody on the planet and then some.

[Irishjohn]

Speaking of which, I glanced briefly at the Escapist thread about the matter and there's an entirely unsurprising consensus that no, public ridicule and people taking a stand against them is great, because now the world will see how poor and persecuted they really are and they will find new allies (also somebody said something about Schafer having insulted "thousands of minorities" and I prefer to think that they don't actually call people "a minority" but rather meant that it was insulting to every different ethnicity, creed, sexuality and gender identity imaginable).

 

http://southpark.cc.com/clips/256710/not-my-waterpark

[Dewar]

Tim was equally amazing and awkward as hell. 

 

Tim manages to strike that really funny balance all the time, and I'm not sure if it's because he's naturally that way, or just a born actor/comedian. Either way, it's brilliant.

[agorman]

A little off-topic, but someone showed me this brilliant comment today on KiA, and all I can say is LMAO.

http://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2eynpx/idle_thumbs_comes_out_in_defense_of_gaming/ckn6z88

Far Cry 2!

The Wizard!

What the hell hapenened?

Sorry if this has been posted already.

[Ozzie]

Haha, good one!

[BusbyBerkeley]

Ugh that's the first time I looked at that subreddit. Those are some hateful, stupid people.

[Irishjohn]

It's ridiculous to me that, on top of an unbelievably brazen and ill deserved sense of injustice, people are making fun of Tim Schafer because the maths of his joke was wrong. Public speaking is not a simple thing, guys.

 

These Sarkeesian Effect idiots are getting worse. Aurini posted Skype logs of their conversations in a bid to show that Owen acted in bad faith. ..... Okay.

 

http://www.staresattheworld.com/2015/03/jordan-owens-reasons-splitting-thesarkeesianeffect-skype-logs/

 

Incidentally, the people of Denmark are getting an absolute shoeing in this debate overall. In other news, I had no opinion (or awareness of) "Game" until now. I don't like it.

 

The manner in which Aurini is utterly oblivious to what a terrible person he is, is just stunning.