Fascinating how words and phrases can have such hugely different meanings to different kinds of people. Take "Gamergate", for example. For those on the cultural libertarian side it's shorthand for a consumer revolution -- a concerted but non-centralized push for ethics in games journalism. But to the social justice crowd, Gamergate immediately evokes hordes of misogynist trolls hiding in their basements, making poor women's lives hell with their vicious online abuse.
The latter interpretation is clearly bullshit on stilts. If there is a concerted push to harass people online, it seems to be coming from the SOCJUS side more than anything. Yet the demonisation of Gamergate continues, and not just in the, er, twenches of Twitter. It's the prevailing angle in the MSM too.
And you've gotta wonder, why is it so dominant and immovable? Aren't journalists supposed to seek the truth? Surely they would disabuse themselves of their delusions and come to a more balanced, nuanced perspective after a few objective interviews of those involved in these numerous online stoushes. Hell, even a bit of Googling would do that, you would think.
But nup. Gamergate's haters are not for turning, that's for sure ... The reasons are manifold, of course. But I'd say one of the main factors is the toxic influence of the PC Left in higher education. This victim feminist myth about the entire world being stealthily controlled by a bunch of diabolically nasty old white heterosexual males (who are simultaneously knuckle dragging morons, BTW -- work that one out!) is drummed into journalism students right across the western world. They graduate seeing eeevil white males behind every social ill and not surprisingly their reporting reflects this.
It's this deep seated social justice narrative that bonds these people, gives them an identity. Throw in the huge political pressures (often in the form of mountains of moolah) brought to bear on many companies and organizations employing these nascent newshounds and the odds that they will start to think for themselves are remote indeed.
It's not too long a bow to say they're kinda like young priests fresh out of the seminary. Newbie padres have a neatly divided universe: God vs Satan. And in the tiny mind of your typical crusading journo it's the Patriarchy's war on Chickdom.
Reporters like this (and most of them are like this) see the dark, or should I say pale, hand of the Patriarchy at work everywhere they look. For them, Gamergaters are like this faceless cabal's younger henchmen. Just as victim feminists can never actually name which blokes comprise the Patriarchy they're always shrieking about, Gamergate is almost always collectively condemned. Named, individual harassers are almost never included in articles about its appalling antics. Which is odd, because if it were as vast and vicious as it's purported to be, there should be squillions of these cases to choose from.
It really is whacked out conspiracy theory stuff. The wheels are gonna fall off of it. They just have to. But it's gonna take a while, unfortunately.
/hug #GamerGateHugPatrol :)
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