A petition to black out Steam for an hour

[disgruntledgamer]

Self-Entitlement, Steam Black Outs, and You: Why This is Silly
By: Carl Batchelor on August 28, 2014 at 8:36 pm @rpgendboss
Share4 Tweet19 Tumblr0 Reddit0 Share24

File this one under ?Holy self entitlement, Batman?: But apparently some of Anita Sarkeesian?s supports/friends/whatever have started an online petition to get Steam shut down for an hour in a show of protest for Anita?s recent cyber-bullying. Wow.

By now you probably know of the supposed harassment Anita Sarkeesian received for her recent Tropes video and the ensuing fallout, so I won?t waste time repeating it here?since the entire gaming internet has fallen over itself in a mad rush to paint her as the injured, suffering victim. You can?t shake a digital stick right now without bumping into some depressingly apologetic article that grovels at her feet like a wounded dog begging for mercy. As it stands now, you, reading this article, are being told you have to be ashamed to be a gamer and that your hobby is either dead or deserves to die.

All because a fake sockpuppet troll on twitter cyber-bullied Anita Sarkeesian.

Yes, let?s talk about that before we go on, shall we?

Notice anything about this threat maker?

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see this isn?t even real. Ten tweets? Default ?egg? avatar? Every tweet solely devoted to Anita? Smells like a typical sockpuppet troll to me.

But no, Anita, like every other emotionally stunted internet neophyte, thinks this is real. She thinks someone is going to broadcast over the internet their intent to do her harm and that they?ll actually follow through with it. You know, like every single one of us got stabbed when some angry jerk-off on twitter/IRC/4chan/Gfaqs/Gamespot/IGN/ICQ/AOL/Instant Messenger/Facebook/Myspace/Ebaums/Newgrounds/Yahoo/ messaged us and told us they?d kill us. I mean, yeah, we were so totally dead right? I mean, after all, the internet is as real as real life, so if someone says they?ll do something to you online, they will so totally do it in real life, right? It?s like that really hot blonde I met on Yahoo ten years ago who said she had a model body and wanted to ?do me all night?. She totally wasn?t a guy with a beard and severe acne who just turned 53 and lived with his ailing mother. Definitely not. Because, you know, everything on the internet should totally be taken at face value.

Is Anita this dense? Are her supporters that dense? How long have these people been online, anyway? If I went and hid under my bed every time someone told me they were going to kill me online, I would have shriveled up and died behind a locked door ages ago. Newsflash Anita & friends: This is the internet. Saying you?ll rip someone open is pretty much a term of endearment here. Heck, the first time I got on IRC back in 1996, the very first private message I received was from someone telling me he hated (slang term for homosexuals) and that he?d kick my (slang term for rear-end) for coming into his chat room. It?s just how the net is. Even someone as unimportant as me gets crap like that thrown at them on twitter. It?s meaningless. To actually give it power over you is to basically admit you?re too sensitive to be here in the first place.

I know what people will say to that though. But?But?They had her real address! They knew her family!

Ever hear of Google?

It?s shocking what you can find out about someone on Google. Googling my own name revealed an online document detailing the purchase I made of my old house in NJ back in 1999. From that, you could have gotten my address (If I still lived there) the name of my grandmother whom I bought the house from, and how much I paid. Further digging, which wouldn?t take too long, would get you my age, current address, marriage documents and loads of other info?all from easily obtainable public sources. You also wouldn?t be the first person to do it to me either.

Though imagine what a highly visible public internet figure like Anita has sitting out there. Especially if you get one of these highly motivated 4chan types who want to ?dox? her. You?d have names of family members, addresses and god knows what else.

So does merely copy-pasting some googled info with some really poorly written almost joke-quality threats require a call to the FBI and the purchase of a dog? Didn?t we stop taking online death threats seriously back in the late 90s? Isn?t it considered passé by now? Do people actually think they are real? In 2014? Will that 14 year old kid on battle.net sending me hateful messages kill me? Yeah, I?m sure he?ll show up at my house with his noodle arms and try to stab me for doing something to him in a video game.

No, and the real reason Anita made such a big deal of this is due to two things:

#1: It now makes her a sympathetic victim instead of the rabble-rousing negative attention seeker she truly is, and?

#2: It moves all the internet attention away from Zoe Quinn and the scandal involving gaming journalist?s lack of integrity.

It?s really a masterful move on her part, to be honest. I am willing to bet you that when she saw those threats pop up in her @mentions she was jumping up and down for joy and triumphantly texting her pals at Kotaku because she finally had a way to make gamers look like the bad guy again. Sort of like how we found out Adam Sessler and his buddies were in a bar watching Phil get ?hacked? in ?real-time?.

Actually, I wouldn?t be shocked if she purposely created that account and posted the threats herself. If Phil fish can ?hack? himself and pretend the ?leader? of ?Capital letter /V/? got him, then it makes absolutely perfect sense that Anita would borrow the same tactic to make herself look victimized and gain sympathy as well.

It didn?t work for Phil because Phil was a dude. Anita, well, the internet always cries for a girl in danger, so she knew she could rely on people leaving their bullshit detectors at home and jumping to easy (read: incorrect) conclusions.

Maybe I?m wearing too much tinfoil, but I think this was all planned. The SJW crew has been looking for a way to spin this whole fiasco back in everyone else?s faces and get the spotlight away from their own highly suspect shenanigans, and this is the perfect way to do it. Me? I?m not buying it. Two decades of internet use taught me a lot, and the most important lesson is that people lie to gain sympathy. All the time.

And nobody wants/needs sympathy right now in the gaming hobby more than the SJW movement.

Read more at http://nichegamer.net/2014/08/self-entitlement-steam-black-outs-and-you-why-this-is-silly/#oTcAm0XHFA1tyiFd.99


An article on the whole thing very nice and informative read.

 

[Don Incognito]

First off if she doesn't like the threats here's a fun thought stop making yourself a target!

Yeah!

And she dresses like a slut, you know she wanted it! It's her fault she got raped!




Seriously, dude, take a second and think about what you write.

He does have a point, anyone who tries to make a hobby and its user base look bad by lying threw their teeth, and doing so for money, is bound to get flak from members of said user base they are insulting because what do you know, people don't like being called shit for liking the hobbies they do.

It's also more appropriate with Anita, her history with 4chan being best summarised as her spamming their boards with ads for her kickstarter, then using the predictable flak she got for it as fuel for that very same kickstarter.

No, he does NOT have a point.

You don't blame the victim. Period. This is not a hard concept.

 

[Zontar]

No, he does NOT have a point.

You don't blame the victim. Period. This is not a hard concept.

That 'victim' intentionally went out of their way to become one to use it as part of a campaign to make money for a product most people would make for free. I'm sorry, but this is a case where you CAN blame the victim.

Think that you can never, ever blame the victim isn't a hard concept, what IS a hard concept is making it fit reality where there are a long laundry list of cases and crimes and so forth that prove it doesn't work as a model.

This was the internet equivalent of going to a bike bar, telling one of the patrons to punch you in the face, shoving him when he didn't and then complaining when you get the inevitable punch to the face for shoving them.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Honestly, I would love to see Valve shut down Steam for a while and explain that it's because of Anita and the other, Zoe or whatever she's called girl.

The people who made the petition obviously don't understand how people will react so... let them experience it first hand.
They will learn something, I'm sure of it.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Yes because its fucking Valve's fault that you get trolled so much?

 

[Don Incognito]

No, he does NOT have a point.

You don't blame the victim. Period. This is not a hard concept.

That 'victim' intentionally went out of their way to become one to use it as part of a campaign to make money for a product most people would make for free. I'm sorry, but this is a case where you CAN blame the victim.

Think that you can never, ever blame the victim isn't a hard concept, what IS a hard concept is making it fit reality where there are a long laundry list of cases and crimes and so forth that prove it doesn't work as a model.

This was the internet equivalent of going to a bike bar, telling one of the patrons to punch you in the face, shoving him when he didn't and then complaining when you get the inevitable punch to the face for shoving them.

No.

No one is responsible for your actions other than YOU.

You can not control what other people do. You can only control what you do.

So if someone threatened her life or safety, it is NOT her fault, no matter how much you disagree with what she said.

 

[Zontar]

No, he does NOT have a point.

You don't blame the victim. Period. This is not a hard concept.

That 'victim' intentionally went out of their way to become one to use it as part of a campaign to make money for a product most people would make for free. I'm sorry, but this is a case where you CAN blame the victim.

Think that you can never, ever blame the victim isn't a hard concept, what IS a hard concept is making it fit reality where there are a long laundry list of cases and crimes and so forth that prove it doesn't work as a model.

This was the internet equivalent of going to a bike bar, telling one of the patrons to punch you in the face, shoving him when he didn't and then complaining when you get the inevitable punch to the face for shoving them.

No.

No one is responsible for your actions other than YOU.

You can not control what other people do. You can only control what you do.

So if someone threatened her life or safety, it is NOT her fault, no matter how much you disagree with what she said.

She literally spammed 4chan to get harassment sent towards her to use as fuel for her kickstarter campaign. This isn't about agreeing or disagreeing with her, it's about her literally having gone out of her way to intentionally get harassment sent her way.

You can't cry victim after going out of your way to try to become a victim. It also doesn't help that her leaving her home because of threats sent her way was proven to be faked, either that or she can somehow respond to harassment before it occurred.

 

[Inglorious891]

You know what? I want this to happen.

Not because I think it's a good idea; just the opposite.

If this happens and a potential 4 million people, who have never heard of Zoe Quinn, can't play their video games because of it, hoy boy the shit storm that erupt will be beautiful. All of the Zoe/gaming journalism stuff seems to be winding down, but if this happens that's a potentail 4 million people who will know, and I doubt most of them will be happy.

So let the blackout come; if it hits I'll be monitoring twitter afterwords, twirling a cigar and laughing at the chaos.

 

[ObserverStatus]

Sounds like the old strategy of punishing all the children for the actions of one child, to make the group resent the one child. I have never sent death threats to any feminist so why should I be punished?

Well yes, it is the same strategy, but if the people making the rape and death threats end up on the receiving end of a blanket party as a result, what is there to complain about?

 

[GenuflectHonesty]

Sounds like the old strategy of punishing all the children for the actions of one child, to make the group resent the one child. I have never sent death threats to any feminist so why should I be punished?

Well yes, it is the same strategy, but if the people making the rape and death threats end up on the receiving end of a blanket party as a result, what is there to complain about?

Okay then, let's follow this train of logic. Steam goes offline for an hour, people resent who sent the death threats...so WHO sent the death threats? Who is everyone supposed to be mad at? Do people expect this to happen and then the guy responsible be all like "Ha HA, it was I! Behold your gamelessness, for I hate women so much I KILLED STEAM!", so that we can properly shun them?

 

[Fireaxe]

No, he does NOT have a point.

You don't blame the victim. Period. This is not a hard concept.

So if someone puts on a sandwich board saying "send the blacks back to the cotton fields" and walks into Harlem, any reaction they get is completely not their fault?

Get out of here with this rubbish, if you intentionally antagonise people they will react.

 

[Artaneius]

No, he does NOT have a point.

You don't blame the victim. Period. This is not a hard concept.

So if someone puts on a sandwich board saying "send the blacks back to the cotton fields" and walks into Harlem, any reaction they get is completely not their fault?

Get out of here with this rubbish, if you intentionally antagonise people they will react.

Exactly, quoted this for truth. If you constantly harass the gaming industry demanding justice, you will get and deserve the exact opposite. A crusade needs to happen.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

Sounds like the old strategy of punishing all the children for the actions of one child, to make the group resent the one child. I have never sent death threats to any feminist so why should I be punished?

Well yes, it is the same strategy, but if the people making the rape and death threats end up on the receiving end of a blanket party as a result, what is there to complain about?

So if a man rapes a woman, all men should be jailed?

Because that's the same fucked up thought process you proposed.

 

[ObserverStatus]

Sounds like the old strategy of punishing all the children for the actions of one child, to make the group resent the one child. I have never sent death threats to any feminist so why should I be punished?

Well yes, it is the same strategy, but if the people making the rape and death threats end up on the receiving end of a blanket party as a result, what is there to complain about?

So if a man rapes a woman, all men should be jailed?
Because that's the same fucked up thought process you proposed.

Not just all men, all women too. Why deprive them of the opportunity to take a few swings at the rapist?

 

[Charli]

Yes blacking out Valve/Steam, one of the few companies I think really watch themselves when it comes to equal rights in their games and their workplace will absolutely help this situation.

What what?
Get. Out.

And your 'scrutinizing the evidence' is equally bullshit. I've no doubt she got those threats frankly. People on the internet are that despicable and batshit and nothing you outline or point out is at all damning.

So in short, I'm really not impressed by any of the content in this thread.


Crap from all angles.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

Sounds like the old strategy of punishing all the children for the actions of one child, to make the group resent the one child. I have never sent death threats to any feminist so why should I be punished?

Well yes, it is the same strategy, but if the people making the rape and death threats end up on the receiving end of a blanket party as a result, what is there to complain about?

So if a man rapes a woman, all men should be jailed?
Because that's the same fucked up thought process you proposed.

Not just all men, all women too. Why deprive them of the opportunity to take a few swings at the rapist?

Sure, let's play "find the rapist". I will do my utmost to rig the game against you for coming up with such poorly thought up idea.

 

[kuolonen]

I know there is around -1% chance of this happening with +-1% margin of error.

Still, I do hope this would happen. Just so all could finally feel what the certain someones would do if they could to gaming, ALL gaming, just to bring their political shit into it. Not only do they that crap poured down their every orifice every time they visit any gaming related site, now they also get to enjoy blackouts for it!

 

[SweetShark]

Again, I ask:
It is SO important if Steam is offline for only 1 hour?

 

[Don Incognito]

No, he does NOT have a point.

You don't blame the victim. Period. This is not a hard concept.

So if someone puts on a sandwich board saying "send the blacks back to the cotton fields" and walks into Harlem, any reaction they get is completely not their fault?

Get out of here with this rubbish, if you intentionally antagonise people they will react.

Exactly, quoted this for truth. If you constantly harass the gaming industry demanding justice, you will get and deserve the exact opposite. A crusade needs to happen.

Jesus tap dancing Christ. Do you people even think before you type this stuff?

A crusade needs to happen?

Settle the fuck down, Pope Leo.


I didn't realize we were all unthinking beasts who had no control over our actions, and therefore can't be held accountable for them.