12. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions
KotakuInAction have adopted the Alinksy Rules with gusto, which is ironic, to say the least.
FYI, it’s always a mistake to respond to let trolls like Virgil set the agenda for discussion, since their sole goal is to garner attention by being ludicrous and annoying. The only thing harassers and misfits want is attention and to feel relevant, and they’ll bark insulting gibberish until they get respondents to bite.
Meanwhile, back to gamergate - PC Gamer has responded to concerns that Tyler Wilde was writing coverage of Ubisoft games (but not reviews) while his girlfriend was employed by that company - in order to remove any reasonable apprehension of bias, PC Gamer has stated that he won’t work on any Ubisoft coverage anymore: http://www.pcgamer.com/a-note-on-disclosure/
It’s an admirable decision - obviously hobby media coverage is always going to be inherently symbiotic - and writers are passionate about the hobby and are going to make industry friends. But there’s a difference between being socially friendly and being romantically involved, and prudent ethics policies recognize the distinction. While I have no doubt Tyler’s coverage wasn’t affected by his relationship, it should always be a goal to avoid situations that even create a reasonable apprehension of bias (which is legally treated the same as actual bias for good reason).
Timex
2963
The thing is though, his work regarding ubisoft had nothing at all to do with the article that caused people to go digging through his shit. That’s bullshit, and intended just to suppress his writing.
LOL what is like the 15th fucking time you’ve tried that “now what’s going on here?” act?
Clickbait’s Orwellian shift in #GG definition from “Buzzfeed listicle/Uproxx curiosity gap headlines” to “any article that states true things which hurt my feelings” is a real triumph of hivemind or whatever. #GGers, like pwk here, speak essentially their own language. Streisand Effect, Alinsky Rules, signal boost, identity politics, there’s like half a dozen phrases they’ve adopted from actual English into their new usage: broadcasting that the speaker is a #GamerGate supporter.
Timex
2966
Wait… So you think that it IS reasonable for people to get mad at that guy over the pc gamer article?
Soma
2967
Timex, now I see where Virgil’s love/hate is coming from:
IMO there are at least two things wrong with what you said. First, the PC Gamer article author was NOT offended by the PCMR term. He just thought it was STUPID and BORING, and it invites misinterpretation. Second is that joking about Nazis (“we’re just pretending to be white supremacists to mock those console peons! lolz”) is NOT OK. Just like rape jokes against women, or the n-word is NOT OK. Because it invites misinterpretation. Because there will ALWAYS be people who don’t get the joke or satire and just think Nazism, sexism or racism is ok. Dave Chappelle gets this.
This is not being thin-skinned. This is about unintended consequences of these kinds of jokes reinforcing the stereotypes rather than demolishing them. If you care about equality, you cannot ignore this problem.
And if people want to “take back” the term “Master Race” from the Neo-Nazis, they are welcome to try.
Should QT3 not cover Stardock games?
We don’t need to rely on your imagination to determine whether people got angry. They did, you know they did, and you’re already making excuses for it(“the idea of pcmr being offensive is ridiculous”<-did not read the underlying article, still knows the author bears some responsibility for the #GG backlash).
You seem to “miss” the bad stuff #GG does regularly, but boy are you up to date when it comes time to denying privilege.
Like let’s recap the timeline here:
1995-2007: People are weirdly defensive about their choice of hobby electronics, to the extent they get in dumb screaming matches on the internet, because gaming culture is toxic
~2008: Comedy reviewer with hat coins terms “PC Master Race” to ironically mock nerds who seriously seem to derive self-esteem from expensive video cards
2008-present: The viciously oppressed demographic of people who buy $400 video cards reclaims this slur and just now uses it, without irony, and disparages people who use OTHER hobby electronics as “peasants”
Last week: Some guy from PC gamer said that people should cut that out, this is a vicious concern trolling clickbait Alinsky 3rd wave feminist assault on our most precious civil right: The ability to feel superior to people with Xbox Ones
Timex
2971
I was disputing whether that was anything about that article that could really cause anyone to be truly offended. He didn’t insult anyone at all. The article was, in my opinion, kind of silly in that the notion of that term being offensive is kind of ridiculous. But that’s not really something worthy of taking vengeance against him. Especially given that he went to a decent length to make it clear that he was not insulting anyone. It was just a silly article
I think the anger against him is somewhat contrived, and that the people who decided to dig up dirt on him we essentially just terrorizing him.
Timex
2972
Oh, i realize that he wasn’t rally offended by it. Although, if you read the article, he cites some guys tweet that suggests he is offended by the term. In my opinion, I think that’s kind of silly.
I think your interpretation here is a bit too far though. I don’t think that the pcmr joke, even by those who embrace the term, is perceived as “pretending to be white supremacists”.
The idea that someone is going to “not get the joke and think Nazis are OK” is kind of absurd. What are they going to do, go buy some fancy video cards to express their hatred of Jewish people?
And honestly, the PC gamer article doesn’t even suggest that stuff. I think that the pc gamer article was just pointing out that it’s kind of an old joke at this point. And that’s fine. Kind of a silly article, but not really something to get anyone upset about, unless they are just looking for shit to get upset about, which is what i think the folks who went after him were doing.
Virgil? You’re the one here wittering on about “Alinsky”, etc.
Oh, and saying that gaming culture is “toxic”. No qualifiers, hence all of it, ever, etc.
You haven’t read the article.
Seriously, I know to you everything is about hurt feelings and taking offense. He didn’t say it was offensive like it made him sad, he said it was STUPID. Because it is stupid.
And that pizza is internet humor. No matter how much we enjoy them at first, all jokes mold, but damned if they don’t stick around anyway. Lolcats, rage comics, doge-speak, saying “my wife” like Borat, references to anything popularized on Newgrounds—it’s time to bag all that up and send it to the landfill. And I’d love for the phrase “PC Master Race” to join them. It’s the moldiest of all.
Make no mistake, though, his article wasn’t silly. It was calling the PCMR subreddit out for being shitty. I realize that violates that unwritten Rule #1 of this forum which is apparently “all people everywhere are assumed to be just the nicest sweetest guys”, but that PCMR shit was and is embarrassing. I’m not offended by it, I’m ashamed of it. I’m ashamed to be associated with the sort of people who contribute to that subreddit.
That sort of completely unselfaware presentation is precisely why Gamers are Over. Gamers did this to themselves!
LOL cry about it then. Perhaps you can favor us with another 15 post puzzlequest where the readers have to work together to figure out what point you’re trying to make?
So basically you can’t refute what I said, and are whining. Thanks, Virgil.
Why the **** are you and your multiple personalities here if you hate gamers so much, again, as you comment on your poor English skills, and refuse to admit anyone outside your Jihad is allowed to make a point?
Finally, Timex, and here’s a real life lesson for you. It’s a tangent but it’s important.
You don’t get to decide what other people find offensive. You keep on surveying these situations and deciding that nobody should be “offended”, that other people are silly and ridiculous for expressing, apparently, any negative opinion. Thanks!
What a joy it is for everyone else to have the input of an uneducated middle class white male heterosexual to tell them that nothing is sexist, nothing is racist, and nothing is problematic in any way. Everyone is silly but you, huh?
Timex
2978
Yes Virgil, i think If you read my post, you’ll see that i point out that the pc gamers article didn’t actually take the term as offensive, but that it was just a tacky old meme.
While i think anyone who gets offended by the term, like the twitter user cited in the article, is being kind of thin skinned, the article itself can’t really be found offensive to anyone who isn’t looking for a fight. The folks who freaked out about it were being ridiculous, and their actions of digging up dirt on the author were effectively just terrorist tactics designed to suppress authors who offended their senses in even the most minute way.
Certainly, folks are free to be offended about anything they want. But in this case here, with people expressing outrage over that pc gamer article, i believe their being offended is contrived. I don’t think that the body of that article itself actually merits any sort of outrage.
I mean, sure, you can get pissed off at whatever you want, but i can still call you silly for it.
This thread needs to be locked, all it is now is Virgil and people bashing on him and ignoring everyone else that doesn’t fall into one of those two.
Timex
2980
Virgil,
First, you yourself have made it a point to tell numerous people in this thread that they aren’t allowed to be offended by things.
Second, in the case here, given that i actually have participated in pc gaming for decades, I think that i actually can judge fairly well whether that article on pc gamer was offensive to a reasonable person (it was not).
Third, you are not in fact better educated than anyone here. No one respects you as an authority on anything. You will have to actually formulate real arguments to win people over.
