A good portion of this thread seems to be devoted to Bob and his Twitter presence, and whether or not he insults his audience (or the degree to which he insults his audience). People also seem to be keen on disseminating Bob's words out of context to suit their own ideas of who they perceive him to be.
The way I see it is this:
Bob holds strong opinions about issues of prejudice, and the actions people take (and the things they say) based on their prejudices, specifically when it comes to matters of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Bob holds these prejudiced people in contempt, and as such pulls no punches when calling them out on their shit.
Keeping this in mind, we then have to look at certain members of the geek community (mostly gamers, but we'll use the term geeks because this doesn't strictly apply to gamers alone), specifically geeks who may not hold any conscious prejudices, but for some reason either subconsciously relate to said prejudice, or act defensively out of the perceived notion that they are being lumped in with those who do consciously hold these prejudices.
When Bob speaks out, using the snark he is known (and, in my case, loved) for, the aforementioned geeks are prodded into a reactionary stance, and, if they are actual fans of his, feel hurt and betrayed. However; Bob isn't the one these geeks need to analyse. Rather, they are better served looking inward, figuring out why, since Bob's targets are chiefly bigots and idiots, they identify with these targets enough to feel insulted.
Continuing to keep this all in mind, we turn to Bob's Twitter tirades, specifically in regards to...a certain movement. Disregarding the ridiculous quagmire as to the origins of this claptrap crusade and what its actual goals are, there exists the fact that it has negatively affected a lot of people. Specifically, in this case, people Bob is close to personally and professionally. Which, in turn, provides Bob with the incentive to take a stand firmly on one side of the issue.
So, the scene is set:
Bob is in a position where he feels personally affronted by the actions of some terrible people, as said actions have negatively affected people he is close to. Bob is opinionated, emotional, and (in his own words) immature, so he uses the platforms available to him to strike out against these people. Twitter being instantaneous, some of these strikes are heated and inflammatory, and as Twitter only allows so many characters per message, these strikes are also easily taken out of context or retrofitted to suit other contexts as needed. In his anger and frustration, he disregards the members of...that movement...who are sane and rational and want nothing to do with the shitbirds who drag the whole thing down with their bigotry and harassment.
In the other corner, we have folks who already have a bone to pick with Bob due to what they perceive to be a stance against them (as outlined above), so they rally against him in defense of themselves and the medium they hold dear. As they believe they are standing against a betrayer of geekdom, their words also become heated and inflammatory.
And so, Twitter becomes a battleground, where Bob is baited and berated and, in turn, says some outlandish things of his own. Everyone rattles cages and bellows war cries, and when the dust settles everyone goes home unhappy, with Bob on one side turning his nose up at people, and those same people on the other side thinking Bob has turned against geeks and deserves to be derided for his misdeeds.
In the end, I support Bob, regardless of some of the more immature things he's said. He is on the right side of things, even if in his righteous fury he is blind to those few rational minds who got caught up in the swirling shitstorm. It is because Bob stands for what I believe is right that I am able to forgive his missteps, even if he is unapologetic.
Also, as a footnote, I realize other people have problems with Bob which have nothing at all to do with anything I mentioned above. As such, I must say that, if you are one of those people, none of the above statements apply to you, so please don't get your skivvies in a twist because of it.
