DrOswald said:
Devin Faraci is a professional communicator. He has been working in this field for sometime. Hyperbole, exaggeration and sarcasm are not tools of communication, they are tools of propaganda. Faraci knows this and he should know better than to use them when talking about something as important as gender equality.
Not only, as bobleponge already pointed out, is "professional communicator" not a thing, but Hyperbole, exaggeration, sarcasm and propaganda are all tools of communication. Pretty much everyone trying to convince others of something utilized propaganda to do so, because it is one of the single most effective tools of communication to convince people. Hell, pretty much any and all advertisements are a form of propaganda, trying to convince you that their product is better than their competitors. Being an effective communicator and an effective propagandist go hand in hand. You cannot be good at one without also being good at the other.
Devin Faraci is a professional communicator. If it is true that gamers have unusually low reading comprehension then he should be able to take that fact into account when deciding what to write. This is literally his job.
No, his job is to literally attract people to the site through which he earns revenue, so as to bring in more revenue for said site. If the gamers he is insulting happen to have unusually low reading comprehension, that doesn't matter, because there's plenty of other gamers who do not, and who are more than willing to laugh at and ridicule the subset of gamers he is insulting for their ridiculous and horrible behavior right along with him, who understand that they're not the type of gamer he is talking about and therefore do not feel offended by the things he says. And even those gamers who do feel offended still give him publicity and therefore increase his revenue, because they make a public spectacle out of it, such as this very thread, and expose him and his site to a wider audience by doing so.
Devin Faraci is a professional communicator. He should learn the self control required to give a subject like this the respect it deserves instead of getting into pissing contests to see who is the biggest bastard on the internet.
Or, you know, he, like many other gamers, fully realize this subject is completely unworthy of respect and completely worthy of ridicule. He realizes that people who get so upset over some game developer sleeping with some game journalist and some other people and some woman criticizing certain games for sexism that they're willing to threaten them with rape and death and call in fake bomb threats to get their point across are completely unworthy of respect and completely worthy of ridicule. And therefore, he is giving them as much respect as they deserve, which is none at all.
Devin Faraci is a professional communicator. He should start acting like it.
Which he fully is. Just because you among many others don't like his message doesn't mean he's not effectively communicating the point he wants to communicate to the audience he wants to communicate it to. And if you want to claim that you're part of the gamer crowd he is insulting, then you are not the part of the gamer crowd he wanted to communicate to with those tweets, you are part of the crowd he is insulting, because you have chosen to throw your support behind them. I'm still not sure why people are so willing to support the gamer crowd he is insulting by getting so upset when he insults them, but if it's a simple lack of comprehension, you've had it reexplained to you multiple times, by both him and others who actually understand what he is saying, so I find it hard to believe that's all there is to it.
If you comprehend who among the gamer community he is insulting and why, yet still insist on taking offense to it, then chances are, it struck a nerve for you personally for some reason, and not because you honestly believe that all gamers should be offended when the worst elements of the community are called out for abhorrent behavior. This may be as simple as your inability to separate yourself from the "gamer" label, that you have internalized it as your identity to such a fundamental level that lashing out against any perceived attack upon the label triggers an irrational defense mechanism within you. It may be that you recognize that you've participated in questionable behavior over these issues, even if you don't feel you've taken it nearly as far as others have, and therefore, feel like you shouldn't be insulted to that extent, even if others do deserve to be. Maybe you fully recognize that you weren't insulted, but are so caught up in fighting for what you perceive is right, that misrepresenting the other side in order to discredit them through a propaganda campaign is a fully acceptable thing to do. Maybe it's something else. I don't know. But I do know that no one who recognizes the types of gamers he is talking about, recognizes that they are not a part of that crowd and want nothing to do with them, and are rational enough about the issue to assess it critically, has any reason to feel insulted by what he's said.
If you still do, then it is time you took a long, hard look at yourself and find out why. Self reflection and awareness are a beautiful thing, and you shouldn't be afraid to stare into the abyss unless you truly fear what might stare back at you from within yourself.
