Looking at #gamergate now one thing is clear – none of those in the “social justice” camp expect this kind of fight. They were not ready yet for open war, and it shows.
Background
The premise is simple: Over the last few decades what we now call the #sjw movement has worked to acquire control not over specific institutions but discourse and social narrative generally.
Like all groups that attempt to convince others to hand them power they do so by attempting to turn your better instincts against you. Very few people support rape, hate women or are deeply racist… so accusing them of those things can have a powerful effect on how they behave. While at the moment it is humorous to say “think of the children!” as an ironic reference to the overuse of that particular emotional lever we need to remember there was a time before it was over-played when it had real impact.
These are the tactics of emotion, not logic. Of fear, not reason. They do not want to debate about the issues, they want to create an atmosphere where people are reluctant to debate at all… where their decrees are untouchable.
Before they achieve this end they are vulnerable… if the hand that rewards and punishes moves too openly the target group (you) see the motion and rebels. Remember “the red menace” and McCarthyism or the “child satanic cult” scares of the 80’s?
Tactics and state of play
In order to control a group with their fear of accusation or associated guilt you must put yourself in a position where you are free to assign guilt and define those associations. In other times and places you might then aspire to religious or state authority but in modern American society you go after three core areas: academia, media and editorial (news). Why these in particular?
- They are largely uninteresting to those with a strong logical or fact based worldview, and are thus comparatively open to corruption.
- As media is the public face of social discussion, through movies, books and articles then they can make it appear that their position is popular.
- As forces in academia, particularly in non-STEM fields, they can publish studies, articles and journal papers that will be referenced later to lend the illusion of proof to their arguments.
- As a force in the editorial world they can then bring the other two together, claiming both that they are voicing a popular demand for change and that their viewpoint has been “proven”.
Several prominent gaming journalists across America are part of a secret mailing list on which they discuss what to cover, what to ignore, and what approach their coverage should take to breaking news… – Milo Yiannopoulos (source)
It has been working well for them. In fact if you look more closely at the campus “rape” issue you see the entire playbook laid out. Since they are strong in the academic world and the related areas of government this is a perfect testing ground.
- Academia publishes a false “study” that finds 1-in-5 women “have been raped”.
- Media and editorial content push the information to create an apparent crisis.
- Anyone who questions the information is demonized via a host of accusations (anti-women, pro-rape, denier of facts etc.)
- Shut down dissenting speech through disruption (setting off fire alarms, violent protest, physical assaults).
- Editorially defend and excuse these attacks as the understandable reactions of reasonable people against unspecified “aggression”.
- Push for measures backed by institutional power to punish those who act in ways they disagree with simply because the disagree. In short, they criminalize intent, reaction or emotional response. To do this they attempt to lower the bar on
- Some of the proposed solutions institutionalize and codify the concept that to question the crisis, the rules or the remedy is in and of itself a hostile act and can be punished.
And there you have it – a perfect cycle of manipulation that results in the #sjw cadre free to not only define the problem but manufacture the evidence and use institutional punishment to silence any who question or disagree. If you are unsure if this cycle is real, go ahead and read up on what our college campuses are like now.
My fellow gamers is any of that familiar? Does the name Jack Thompson ring any bells?
The most interesting thing about these tactics to me is how consistent they are no matter the underlying justification. These are the tactics of control, and those who seek to control what you can think and say are united in this goal for its own sake. They have never been particularly attached to the causes they ride to achieve them. One can easily imagine Sarkeesian and those like her being just as at home in the Soviet Union demanding party loyalty, or within a radical religious group demanding the heretics be thrown out.
Premature discovery and comitting to the attack
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hile many will argue the timeline, to me the incident that pushed #gamergate from just another internet dogfight into an exposure of coordinated infiltration was this article by Milo. It exposed not only the collusion and misconduct within the gaming press but demonstrated how invested they were in growing the influence of “social justice”. This validated everything that was already being suspected and the fuse was ready.
Then on August 27 @adambaldwin gave it a name when he linked to some videos by @int_aristocrat and everything hit the fan.
https://twitter.com/AdamBaldwin/status/504801169638567936
Here then is the critical moment… subject to criticism and ridicule (which these folks simply cannot stand) they doubled down and went on the offensive. A coordinated series of articles declaring gamers dead hit the stands in a massive show of force.
In their arrogance and fear, they overplayed their hands. Like the poor bastards caught in the Asakai battle when you make a mistake and are prematurely exposed to enemy fire sometimes you have to commit everything to trying to salvage what you can. With the masks off now they stand exposed openly with their hands on the levers of Oz… making loud decrees fewer and fewer are listening to.
Escalation
Do not be mistaken that this insidious blight spawned in or was limited to the gaming press. In #gamergate we see only one exposed tentacle… yet it will prove to be the tipping point.
The attacks used as the foundation of #gamergate are drawn from the full spectrum of #sjw parlance. Microgagressions, “male gaze”, misogyny, inherent male violence, privilege and attacks on capitalism. To accept the things gamers are accused of you must also accept that these things are real societal problems.
When these foundations proved less than totally effective it exposed a weakness in the accusations themselves. Not only did gamers rebel against the notion that games promoted “rape culture” but they questions whether rape culture existed at all and this could not be tolerated. The battle instantly became much wider than #gamergate – the battle now was a referrendum on the entire spectrum of underlying assumptions the #sjw community has been inserting into the narrative.
As such, they have drawn in more and more influence. When Rolling Stone pushed the fictitious UVA rape story it was only hours until the full spectrum of #sjw warriors was relating it to violence in our culture and video games. The UVA rape was proof that their underlying accusations of “rape culture” and misogyny had merit. Similarly not a few of those who came out early reporting on the UVA case drew from the rhetoric against video games to prove the same… these assumptions feed and support each other.
To reject these concepts as criticism of gamers is to reject them as concepts… because it is the same narrative those who rely on it for power will shore it up wherever they can. The UVA rape absolutely was seen as a vindication of the #sjw gamer accusations.
Expect to see more and more attempts to bridge all of these causes in the hopes that some level of collective guilt will shut you up. They will continue and link opposing their views with begin a homophobe, transphobe, racism, supporter or terrorism and pedophile. As you are attacked from each new direction keep track of those who try and use these tactics against you and understand that they all serve the same cause.
These are the same people.
This is the same enemy.
The tide is turning, victory will be sweet
Victory is not only possible, but we have the momentum. Just today PC Gamer tried using the shadow of Nazi Germany to re-establish the concept of political correctness and shame into the narrative. No doubt they wanted to at lease assure themselves of the continued effectiveness of their tools.
It failed utterly. When you can call people Nazis and they tell you to shut up and stop being silly you must really feel as if you are losing your moral authority.
Don’t misunderstand me there is a long battle ahead. There are very powerful forces and billions of dollars at stake here in the form of political parties, publishing empires and entertainment franchises. However our enemy is “all in” with more and more of them forced to directly rely on donations and support from their dwindling audience as they become unemployable or fail to product viable products.
This will only make your victory sweeter and more complete. When this work is over the thought police / Oppression Olympics / political correctness influence will have been pushed back by a decade or more.
Related Media
Credits
The header is inspired by the awesome art style of @yahtzeecroshaw. Hopefully he doesn’t eat our souls.
Updates
This story has been modified to clarify concept,s correct spelling and enhance readability. Thanks to the folks over at Reddit who linked to it and provided criticism.