Update: Following recent investigations by Gamergate members on Reddit’s ‘Kotaku In Action’ board, it has come to light that tweets made by Brianna Wu featured in this article were produced by a third party troll account posing as Ms. Wu. Brianna Wu did not call CameraLady a ‘gross f*cking aspie’.
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Gamer Headlines as a whole. Gamer Headlines is a free press site made up of many authors from all around the world with different opinions and beliefs.
Gamergate. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about this, huh? In my coverage in the past, there’s been some things I’m glad I said, and others that I regret not saying, partially because the fine folks behind the movement did a more than brilliant job boosting the signal themselves. Looking at you, Fine Young Capitalists.
Another one is not giving enough of a spotlight to the abuse being sent the other way, towards the supporters and celebrities of Gamergate. This has been under particular scrutiny lately, as Gawker professional has been in the spotlight for openly advocating bullying and nerd shaming in order to shut the movement down. This has caused Mercedes Benz to pull out all advertising from the network, and many GG celebs such including the recently declared cancer free John Bain (aka Totalbiscuit) to set up fundraisers for anti-bullying organisations.
Ultimately #GamerGate is reaffirming what we’ve known to be true for decades: nerds should be constantly shamed and degraded into submission
— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) October 16, 2014
Well if that’s not an invitation to write my wrongs, I don’t know what is. So, here’s my rough guide to some of the most major cases of abuse against gamergate. Watch out for very foul language ahead folks, if nasty words affect you in any shape or form now is the time to turn tail and run.
First of all is a special shoutout to gamergateharassment.tumblr.com, a blog dedicating itself to rooting out harassment against gamers. Like Sam Biddle, a lot of this is just good old nasty nerd shaming. High School never ends, right? Below is only a small sampling of the abuse by the blog, with plenty more where that came from. Oh, and a special shoutout to George Reese, who is the face of Dell Computing’s Cloud division. Real professional he is.
Personally, I hope all these #gamergate fucks get ass cancer and rot in a prison. http://t.co/y8LewRh8H2
— danv2 (@danv2) October 13, 2014
Had enough yet? Well settle the bile in your stomach because it’s gonna get worse. Onto the celebrities! Starting off is Boogie2988, the soft spoken Youtuber that’s been calling for both sides to have more level heads and talk to each other for a while now. His reward? Addressing his recent ban from Neogaf for his neutral views, someone took the time to comment on the video and threaten the life of his wife, leaving him to mourn:
Just last night I deleted a youtube comment from a user who posted my home address and said he’d kill my wife and leave me to mourn.
— Boo-ghoul 29666 (@Boogie2988) October 14, 2014
Next up is the legend himself, Totalbiscuit. Originally neutral, Totalbiscuit has been turned to the side of campaigning gamers by the abuse he’s received. Even while he’s in surgery to remove cancerous tumors from his body, people still harass him. Unfortunately for them, nobody ever told them not to mess with a cynical critic off his balls on morphine:
Here is someone not related to videogames, but has become relevant because anonymous threats and schemes were turned into very real actions that harmed someone’s life. I’m talking of course about Danielle Gieger, an equal rights activist with a disdain for the aggressive social justice movement. Responding to criticism bout as well as a cat responds to a bath, people went to her Amazon page and reported her books for plagiarism. Poof, livelihood gone. So when you think of people claiming that boycotts are tantamount to censorship, remember that this happened:
Alright SJWs, come after my accounts, but dont come after my books. I was reported to Amazon for plagiarism&now they’re holding my royalties
— Danielle Gieger (@DanielleGieger) October 8, 2014
Now agree with his views or not, Milo Yiannopoulos isn’t a lazy journalist. He’s famous for pulling the whistle on GameJournoPros, and confirming the worst fears of top writers from different publications colluding together to spin stories one way or another. It shouldn’t be a surprise then that he ended up as public enemy No.1 for many folks, one of which took it upon themselves to hunt down Milo’s home address and sent him syringes full of mystery liquids. ‘Crazy’ is putting it mildly:
No idea what’s in this syringe but evidently someone wants me to find out! Arrived yesterday. Crazy. #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/jYkczEqvho
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) September 21, 2014
Hold on folks, we’re getting near the end. You have to wonder in these situations, perhaps this is a lone nutcase? Maybe there isn’t a concerted effort to harm people like there may or not be in the other camp? Well that would be fine and dandy if there wasn’t some sort of online resource, where you can find details of industry figures who you may disagree with, as well as their close family and friends. Oh, but of course there is:
And finally, let us leave ourselves on a note of utter hypocrisy. We all know Brianna Wu, right? Featured on TV with MSNBC, Brianna has been a victim of death threats herself, supposedly from Gamergate though mounting evidence suggests she could have far more enemies than that from what appear to be series of Twitter spats. But nothing quite beats insulting one of your peers, who suffers from Autism, a ‘gross fucking aspie’. Revel in the nasty hypocrisy, ladies and gentlemen. Revel in it:
Remember for all your news regarding Gamergate, whether you’re a supporter, detractor, or curious onlooker, stick to GamerHeadlines.
And for all that is holy, don’t say mean things to people because you disagree with them. But that should go without saying. Right? Right?