An article from a former sjw woman and a gamer.

[EternallyBored]

A severely mentally handicapped, biracial transsexual individual above me had the habit of playing music at 3 am and continuing it loud enough for the walls to shake until they fell asleep the next night. I went upstairs and was called ablest for asking for the music to get turned down. When I went to my friends crying over the word they told me I was because clearly the music was part of their treatment. When the person upstairs reported me falsely for drug use I was encouraged not to counter report as that was racist. When I finally cracked and called the cops after the transexual individual broke into my house and smeared "trans hater" on my wall in crap for what I later found out to be a perceived slight by not smiling right at him. I was told to examine my potentially biased view points as I clearly didn't smile at him right.

It could well be true but this sounds like the most madey-uppey story that has ever been made-up.

I usually don't like to call suspicion on people's stories, and that goes for any side of a debate, I try to take everything at least partially at face value until proof surfaces otherwise, but yeah, that paragraph feels like it belongs on r/thathappened.

It reeks of the same kind of stories I see sometimes on Tumblr where the brave poster is minding their own business when a fat, ugly gamer brony neckbeard, obviously in a fedora, some kind of ill-fitting shirt, and noticeably bad hygiene walks up and actually uses lines like "m'lady" and describing themselves as a nice guy, all while practically checking off a bulletpoint list of MRA, neckbeard talking point stereotypes. Which the brave poster just so happens to expertly dismantle and embarrass the poor neckbeard stereotype before he runs off in shame. It just strains the bounds of believability.

But like I said, I generally don't like to call people liars without a good reason, so let's assume it's all true, then so what? That paragraph alone is so far into the extremist elements that I doubt you would find a single person on this site that would agree with what her so-called "SJW" friends were telling her, I am a social worker by trade, so social justice is a part of what I do for a living, but even I wouldn't agree with basically any of the things she was being accused of.

It makes it hard to see this as anything other than trying to poison the argument by painting anyone that disagrees with you as equivalent to these extremists and their beliefs, whilst I seriously doubt anyone here would actually agree with calling someone ableist because they wanted music being played at 3AM to be turned down, regardless of whether it was being played by a "mentally handicapped biracial transgender" person or not.

 

[ilovelocust]

I'm suspicious of this article. It feels like she is trying to feed us what we want to hear about the other side in the same way many professional victims do for SJWs. Does anyone have anything to back up her claims? I don't want to end up spreading this just because it agrees with me.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Find me that quote. Find me a single quote from an actual source that says "everyone who plays games and is male is a Misogynist". Give me a source and I will join you in condemning it.

Leigh Alexander's twitter seems a safe bet. (all seriousness, I don't wanna go digging, I'm reasonably sure if you look up the gamergate hashtag, or the gameovergate one you'll find what you're looking for.)

Oh I'm sorry...are "social justice warriors" part of a structured organization with a stated ideology? I must have missed that. Please, point me to their website so I can read their mission statement and decide for myself whether it reads as prejudicial. Thanks!

I wanna say tumblr? But again, being facetious because I don't particularly want to get deep into this, the fact this is an issue of "social justice" when it's meant to be a discussion of gaming ethics is truly fucking reprehensible and I really wish we could get back to the days SJW was the people complaining there were no black people in Frozen. I will raise the counter-question: what do you think of how the label 'Gamer' is being used in recent media?

No. Because unlike SJW, a term solely created to defame people, racism and "being racist" has a clear definition.

I... may be incorrect here but the term means Social Justice Warrior? It's a pejorative for someone who, while they appear or allege to care about social justice, doesn't have a real effect and is occasionally hypocritical in their pursuit of 'justice' by engaging in essentially an online form of lynching of targets deemed acceptable. I dunno if I have a misunderstanding, but I thought the label was pretty clearly defined

Basically, 4chan if they think they have the moral high-ground.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Leigh Alexander's twitter seems a safe bet. (all seriousness, I don't wanna go digging, I'm reasonably sure if you look up the gamergate hashtag, or the gameovergate one you'll find what you're looking for.)

I don't like Leigh. I think she comports herself terribly on twitter, and has fallen into using hostile generalizations and inflammatory hyperbole when she speaks out on issues. That said, I've never seen a quote attributed to her where she says "everyone who plays games and is male is a misogynist". If you can find one, I'd love to read it.

I wanna say tumblr? But again, being facetious because I don't particularly want to get deep into this, the fact this is an issue of "social justice" when it's meant to be a discussion of gaming ethics is truly fucking reprehensible and I really wish we could get back to the days SJW was the people complaining there were no black people in Frozen. I will raise the counter-question: what do you think of how the label 'Gamer' is being used in recent media?

If you're referring to the recent "gamer is dead" monologues, I've said at numerous points that I think a lot of it was ill advised purple prose. While I've said myself I think that "gamer" is too dilute a terminology to really mean anything any more, I can also understand the counter point that there is a core enthusiast demographic that lacks a better word to define their hobby, since "hardcore gamer" has been poisoned by the idiotic hardcore/casual debate.

Tumblr is a generalist website and doesn't represent a platform for anything, except possibly pictures of cats.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

Man, this could have been an interesting thread about how people with confidence issues can be easily manipulated by guilt and peer pressure...

 

[rbstewart7263]

Well she's using the term SJW at all, a stupid term used by stupid people, so clearly she's a moron. Not much else to say really.

That doesnt seem very logical at all. Its actually to help to distinguish between a zealot and someone who tries to actually help people. Like warrior and bully for example. So I disagree with your protestation that she is moron because she uses a term to describe the people who colloquially best fit the description.

I'm all for calling people who go too far out, but to be honest the term SJW has just been abused too much. I have little doubt that many people honestly reserve it for extremists, but there are just too many people out there who throw it at anyone who shows the slightest interest in the portrayal of women/PoC/LGBT characters in gaming. The phrase just has too much baggage and now whenever someone sees it, they have to play a guessing game to see if it's being used properly or not, and because of bad experiences, a lot of people don't think it is being used properly, if it ever was.

True though I believe in the context of the story its appropriate.

snip

Yeah I can somewhat agree some of the story is a little bit of a perfect storm but there are parts that validate it too I feel. As a mississippian I have to remember there are some incredibly liberal colleges out there so I can see how such behavior could flourish. If more stories like this come out over the years I think that will be the tell tell right there.

 

[EternallyBored]

Well she's using the term SJW at all, a stupid term used by stupid people, so clearly she's a moron. Not much else to say really.

That doesnt seem very logical at all. Its actually to help to distinguish between a zealot and someone who tries to actually help people. Like warrior and bully for example. So I disagree with your protestation that she is moron because she uses a term to describe the people who colloquially best fit the description.

I'm all for calling people who go too far out, but to be honest the term SJW has just been abused too much. I have little doubt that many people honestly reserve it for extremists, but there are just too many people out there who throw it at anyone who shows the slightest interest in the portrayal of women/PoC/LGBT characters in gaming. The phrase just has too much baggage and now whenever someone sees it, they have to play a guessing game to see if it's being used properly or not, and because of bad experiences, a lot of people don't think it is being used properly, if it ever was.

True though I believe in the context of the story its appropriate.

You've gotta be careful with terms like this, especially on boards like this where the best use of the term doesn't really apply to many, if any, of the posters here. It tends to skew and poison topics before they ever start, as I said in a previous post, I doubt you will find anyone here that would agree with the actions the author describes from her "SJW" friends.

On the opposite end, its sort of like when people bring up problems with the GG group and start throwing around generalizations and accusations, even if they are describing real harassing or sexist behavior, bringing it up separated from context in a separate topic on a board that doesn't attract these kinds of extremists in great quantities tends to color the OP as having an agenda and trying to push strawmen and generalizations before the conversation is even started.

Now, I'm not saying that sharing these kinds of things is bad, but you have to be careful as tilting at extremists on a board that most of them either don't visit, or get banned fast when they do is going to make anyone on the other side of the argument suspicious of your intentions and wary that you are trying to paint the more rational members of any movement with a broad brush, and that you are more interested in either only engaging with easily knocked down strawmen, or just trying to start an echo chamber of agreement. I'm not accusing you of doing this, but it is easy to poison topics like this just from the first post.

snip

Yeah I can somewhat agree some of the story is a little bit of a perfect storm but there are parts that validate it too I feel. As a mississippian I have to remember there are some incredibly liberal colleges out there so I can see how such behavior could flourish. If more stories like this come out over the years I think that will be the tell tell right there.

Anything on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt, whilst I still don't want to accuse the writer of lying without proof, I have seen tons of these types of stories where an ideologue spins a story that is just the perfect storm of stereotypes and convenient events where the story teller always seems to come out looking like a paragon of wisdom and wit.

The world is strange enough for such a story to be true, but in these cases they tend to end up being false or greatly exaggerated 9 times out of 10, especially when they match up perfectly with whatever views the author is trying to push. I've seen too many stories of what "Atheists are really like" and stories of perfect MRA neckbeard stereotypes being rebuffed by righteous bloggers to totally squash my seeds of doubt whenever stories like this crop up.

 

[Racecarlock]

You know how I know people talking about misogyny in gaming culture aren't talking about me and I have nothing to be worried about? Because I know I've never harassed women online. So frankly, I don't give two shits about any "the term gamer is dead" articles. Because that has in no way impeded my ability to play games or insulted me in any way.

I am also a COD fan, so I pretty much already know which people are talking about me specifically being bad for enjoying COD (Usually none) and who is just using a generalization that I don't fit in with.

You're not a misogynist? You're not hateful? These articles probably weren't talking about you then.

Wasn't this whole thing about journalistic integrity in game reviews and making sure journalists disclose any ties they may have before reviewing a game? What does this have to do with any of that?

 

[Vigormortis]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_to_be_your_audience_Gamers_are_over.php

Too kind. I can see where you're coming from.
This Leigh Alexander is not very good at defining the terms s/he uses.

Oh, she goes way beyond being unable to define terms.

She's a straight-up racist. [https://twitter.com/FartToContinue/status/511340606527119360/photo/1]

It's fascinating that so many anti-GamerGate people, notably in the journalistic circles, still support and defend this woman.

No wait. Fascinating isn't the right word....

Depressing? Dumbfounding? Appalling, maybe?

I'll find the right word eventually.

 

[Vigormortis]

I don't like Leigh. I think she comports herself terribly on twitter, and has fallen into using hostile generalizations and inflammatory hyperbole when she speaks out on issues. That said, I've never seen a quote attributed to her where she says "everyone who plays games and is male is a misogynist". If you can find one, I'd love to read it.

Would you settle for one displaying her overt racism? [https://twitter.com/FartToContinue/status/511340606527119360/photo/1]

Honestly, she, like many others shoulder-deep in this fiasco, is an incredibly shitty person. Not deserving of harassment, of course. No one is. But still, she's the definition of repugnant.

 

[Carrots_macduff]

not gonna lie i only skimmed, but it really smacks of some anti-sjw propaganda.

when i read the opening of the post and saw it starts with a resume of minority traits, abuse and oppression my bullshit radar was immediately triggered.

 

[C. Cain]

I see a rich white man walking down the street. A few blocks down there's a ghetto where the majority of the population is black.
I murder the white man, most likely stabbing him several times, then steal his credit card. Along the way, a white woman witnesses it, I kill her as well. I take the credit card down to the Ghetto and buy each person enough groceries to last them a year, as well as new clothes and fully paying off all their debts. Any left over money goes to one social justice charity, whether it be for another race or minorities or women.
In that case, I just murdered two people while at the same time fighting for Social Justice.

I disagree, in that case you murdered two people in a misguided and illegal act of extreme wealth redistribution.

Social Justice, as far as I am concerned, affects societies at large. The goal is to guarantee fair distribution of wealth and education. To establish a framework of equality of opportunity and a certain inequality of outcome for everyone. A broad system of public services, social security, health care, protective labour rights, progressive taxation, market regulation and so on.

There is no cause, on this earth, literally none, that is so completely indescribably pure that it's physically impossible to do evil and fight for it.

That hinges on the definition of 'evil'.

Nothing is wrong with Social Justice. Everything is wrong with Social Justice Warriors. If you make a person feel like garbage every day, if you scream at white people with dreadlocks because "YOU'RE APPROPRIATING BLACK CULTURE", if you bully others, if you shame people into depression, if you zealously defend abusers and attack victims, then you're a social justice warrior. (...)

That means you're just an arsehole. There's no need to drag the term social justice into this.

(...) They're a cult in it's purest form. (...) Social Justice Warriors are pieces of garbage enthralled into some cult-like mentality, zealously fighting against an army of perceived slights.

Don't "they" have to be organised in a cult-like structure to be a cult? "They" don't even call themselves social justice warriors, for crying out loud.

I hate them especially, because they give good causes bad names. (...)

"They" are given that name by others. It's an exercise of picking out the most extreme examples of any given good cause in order to give them a derogatory label that also happens to smear the name of the cause itself.

SWJ is such an ill-defined term that opponents don't even have to pick the most extreme examples, they can merely pick examples of the degree of social justice activism that they just happen to be uncomfortable with.

These idiots are the ones creating homophobes. They're the ones creating racism.

No, they aren't.

Because they turn every bloody issue into an ideological war. Because they make others miserable and act like they're the bloody culture police.

Making others miserable is a woeful way of ascertaining whether or not something is a legitimate issue. It cuts both ways, some people are offended by the most trivial things, other people make mountains out of molehills. It's about finding a balance, and so far I think the excesses of the discriminatory status quo far outweigh anything those dreaded social justice warriors did.

 

[C. Cain]

Their name? A good person? "That person who doesn't declare they hate certain sections of society because they are seen as fair targets"?

My heart bleeds for all those racists and sexists whose feelings were hurt by... harsh words. On the internet, no less. Oh, the humanity!

Or if you'd rather pick a different term than Social Justice Warriors try Lynch Mob, same basic principle.

Lynch Mob? Hah. Stay classy.

Snip

Right. Thanks. I got it the first time.
Leigh Alexander is not a very nice person.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

My heart bleeds for all those racists and sexists whose feelings were hurt by... harsh words. On the internet, no less. Oh, the humanity!

Well! Good thing that's the only type of person being attacked then! We can all rest a little easier knowing that the Social Justice League gets to decide who's right and who's wrong! It's not like that #NotYourShield hashtag was built purely to debunk that notion 8D

Lynch Mob? Hah. Stay classy.

Woah now! It is, technically, social justice. It's not decided as a fitting punishment by the rule of law, it's their attempts to fix 'society' by removing undesirable elements. Just replace the pitchforks with hashtags.

 

[C. Cain]

Well! Good thing that's the only type of person being attacked then! We can all rest a little easier knowing that the Social Justice League gets to decide who's right and who's wrong! It's not like that #NotYourShield hashtag was built purely to debunk that notion 8D

Oh noes. Vicious, misdirected attacks of up to 140 characters per message are truly wreaking havoc among the innocent denizens of this planet. Good thing we have our trusty hashtags to deliver us from this unspeakable evil.

Woah now! It is, technically, social justice. It's not decided as a fitting punishment by the rule of law, it's their attempts to fix 'society' by removing undesirable elements. Just replace the pitchforks with hashtags.

You can't be that obtuse, can you?
Wait, now I get it. This is parody. Oh, you! Classic Poe and I fell for it, well played.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Well! Good thing that's the only type of person being attacked then! We can all rest a little easier knowing that the Social Justice League gets to decide who's right and who's wrong! It's not like that #NotYourShield hashtag was built purely to debunk that notion 8D

Oh noes. Vicious, misdirected attacks of up to 140 characters per message are truly wreaking havoc among the innocent denizens of this planet. Good thing we have our trusty hashtags to deliver us from this unspeakable evil.

Woah now! It is, technically, social justice. It's not decided as a fitting punishment by the rule of law, it's their attempts to fix 'society' by removing undesirable elements. Just replace the pitchforks with hashtags.

You can't be that obtuse, can you?
Wait, now I get it. This is parody. Oh, you! Classic Poe and I fell for it, well played.

I readily admit, o fellow crawler of this world wide web, to engage in parody and sarcasm to get across my stance, but can you claim not to bear the same lance?
While alleging that they have no clenched fist, whyfore the WARRIOR of social justice?
(This is now a poetry slam off; I advise other readers to wear safety glasses)