This is what happens when you don’t retreat

A journalist is astonished by what he finds by peeking under the rock of #GamerGate:

One of the most stunning experiences I have had so far, while keeping in contact with the community after the publication of my first story on them, has been to discover that GamerGate feminists are real. Despite what a person would assume after being constantly bombarded with the narrative of their misogyny, do-it-yourself feminism is an everyday aspect of the movement. The only condition to that statement is that the feminism which GamerGate represents is the type that becomes offended at the suggestion that women need help to achieve what a man can. It is the type of feminism that believes in promotion by merit, not quota, and where the women are themselves individually powerful enough not to require leadership to assist in determining what they are allowed to think or say.

That goes back to the cumulative character of the people who make up GamerGate. It would have been easy for any of them to eschew the label and enjoy the comfort of being a less persecuted human being. Instead, the character of the average gamer-turned-media-activist tends to be such that they stand directly in the line of fire, knowing that the temptation to disassociate from the movement is the primary means through which a corrupt confederation of clickbait media institutions and Social Justice charlatans intend to dismantle it.

That is how I went native; by becoming convinced that these people represent the highest ethical standard, and through watching them put their personal reputations in harms’ way on principle.

This is why you don’t cry and apologize when attacked. This is why you don’t back down when one vicious name after another is hurled at you. This is why you spit in the ugly face of the SJWs when they offer you the carrot and threaten the stick. This is why you don’t step aside and leave your ally’s flank exposed when they are targeting him and not you.

Because others, less willing to stand in the line of fire, find themselves inspired by your example. Every time you stand there and take a shot without flinching, you cause one, or two, or ten other people to realize that they can do it too. Every time you refuse to submit to the enemy, you make ten, or twenty, or one hundred other people see that defeat is not inevitable.

Don’t back down. Don’t apologize. Don’t disassociate. Don’t despair. Remember, the Reconquista began with a single little battle in northernmost Spain. It took 700 years, but eventually, Spain was once more Christian and free. You’re not given a spirit of fear, so don’t be afraid. We will win in the end.