Tag: media

RomanceGate

It’s hardly a surprise to learn that the SJWs are attempting to thought-police the romance genre as well as games, comics, and science fiction:

The Nazi romance novel For Such a Time, by bookseller-turned-author Kate Breslin, drew little attention outside of a small but passionate romance literature community when it was published in the spring of 2014.

Now, after being nominated for two major prizes at the Romance Writers of America’s annual conference in late July, the book’s Holocaust-set themes of Christian salvation are tearing the romance world apart—and roiling Gamergaters rushing to its defense….

The group took interest after outspoken science fiction writer and game designer Vox Day shared Wendell’s post on his blog. In an interview with Newsweek, Day—whose blog has previously compared feminists to Nazis—described Wendell as an “SJW” (code for “Social Justice Warrior”) and argued that “political correctness” is a “major problem” in the United States.

“It’s another example of SJW’s attempting to thought-police a particular industry or genre,” Day says of the Breslin outrage. He compares it to the scuffle over the 2015 Hugo Awards, while others have likened it to the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign that fought to diversify children’s literature.

“Obviously a lot of people liked the book, because they nominated it,” Day adds. “What they’re trying to do is disqualify all those people’s opinions because they disagree with them. It’s something that the SJWs are getting more and more blatant about, and I think people are getting more and more tired of their attempts to impose political correctness and impose thought-policing on everyone else. Donald Trump’s not having any of it, and I’m certainly not either.”

Day’s followers took the bait. Wendell was distressed to learn from a friend that his post had drawn dozens of comments, some denigrating her and mocking her blog by calling it “Cat-Lady Central.” One commenter went so far as to write that “as long as the SJWs support Moloch Worship (aka Planned Parenthood) that traffics in baby parts, they have no right to criticize the Nazis.”

Day says that abusive treatment is par for the course. “I have absolutely no concern for [Wendell]’s feelings about people speaking rudely about her. She is trying to thought-police people; she deserves every bit of criticism she gets.”

Much to my surprise, Newsweek actually soft-pedaled it a bit. They could have mentioned that I have compared feminists to Nazis… to the detriment of the feminists. I believe the exact quote is: “calling a feminist a feminazi is an insult to the German National Socialist Worker’s Party.”

Anyhow, what we’re seeing here is the SJWs attempts to utilize the power of the press to marginalize and discredit me backfiring on them. It was their running to every media outlet from The Guardian to the New Zealand Herald, from NPR to Entertainment Weekly that brought me to the attention of other media outlets that are not simply pushing their libel campaign, including publications such as Newsweek.

It is a little ironic, of course, that I have been interviewed half as many times by national publications concerning a story in which I am not at all involved as I have been about either of the actual stories in which I am directly involved, #GamerGate or Sad Puppies. But that simply demonstrates the utter corruption and ineptitude of the SJW-infested media. One must not speak to anyone who might disrupt the Narrative, after all.

Read the whole thing. Notice how simply calling the SJWs out puts them immediately on the defensive. They don’t like to be called thought police because that is exactly what they are. In every conflict, someone will end up advancing and someone will end up retreating. Shoot down their assertions as briefly as possible, then go right after them. Whenever you’re faced with an SJW, call them out for thought policing. Call them out for speech policing. Or call them out for the sheer absurdity of their statements.

For example, the next person to respond to one of Wendell’s attacks should hammer her for saying that “redeeming Nazis through the power of Christian salvation sounds like a bad idea.”  She doesn’t think Nazis should be redeemed, so what does she think, they should be encouraged?

The funny thing is that every time I read the word Wendell, our noble spokesmanatee kept coming to mind. It made the whole experience that much more enjoyably surreal. Meeewhooooo Hoooon! And the reaction of the SJW twitterati is even funnier.


Megan Broderick ‏@megbrod12
I’m SO CONFUSED as to why Newsweek quoted vox day in that article. He literally has nothing to do with it at all?? #journalism I guess.

Lenore Tolcser ‏@LenoreTolcser
Oh. My. God. People need to stop giving Vox Day attention! It legitimizes him. NO. BAD.


Michele Mills ‏@mills_michele
I just checked with my 14 yo son –
“You’re not following a man named Vox Day on the internet, are you?”
“No!”
“Good. Don’t…Ever.”

Trump crushes feminist speech police

This is how you handle it when someone calls you sexist, misogynist, or whatever other label they seek to use to discredit, disqualify, or distract you:

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. However that is not without its downsides, in particular when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. Your twitter account–

DONALD TRUMP: Only Rosie O’Donnell.

KELLY: For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell.

TRUMP: I’m sure it was.

KELLY: Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contesttent that it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees.

Does that sound like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?

And how do you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?

TRUMP: The big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to China, we lose to Mexico both in trade and at the border. We lose to everybody. Frankly what I say and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding, we have a good time. What I say is what I say. And honestly, Megyn if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you although I could probably not be based on the way you have treated me, but I wouldn’t do that. But you know what? We, we need strength, we need energy, we need quickness and we need brain in this country to turn it around. That I can tell you right now.

Megyn, YOU are a part of the big problem the USA has. Every SJW, every self-appointed thought policeman is a part of the problem. And it is time to start making sure that every time they try to play thought police, we cram that concept right down their throats.

“The big problem this country has is being politically correct.” It’s certainly one big problem that gets in the way of discussing any of the actual issues that matter.

It was good to see Trump put Kelly in her place. I have never understood the conservative affection for her. She’s a feminist, she’s PC, and she’s pro-immigration, ergo she is on the other side.

That being said, good for her and Fox News for actually putting the candidates on the spot for a change.

What passes for SJW “journalism”

It’s not just about ethics in science fiction journalism, it’s about the way SJWs regularly get the most basic facts completely wrong. Because – all together now – SJWs always lie:

Adam Roberts @arrroberts
In a nutshell, my thoughts on the 2015 Hugos kerfuffle.

“Nazis. I hate these guys.”

Metayahu@Metayahu
It’s even funnier because the white guy is married to a black woman.
NAZI

Adam Roberts @arrroberts
Since I nowhere call Torgerson (or anyone) a Nazi, I’m not sure of your point.

Peat Moss ‏@DrinkerOfScotch
Do you not see the picture included in your original tweet? The one that says “Nazis, I hate these guys”?

Adam Roberts @arrroberts
You were originally responding to my Guardian piece.

Peat Moss @DrinkerOfScotch
I wasn’t responding to anything previously. So you’re saying you just happened to mention Nazis and Hugos for no reason?

Adam Roberts @arrroberts
The ‘Nazis’ joke (from days before) was about Vox Day. Through to be accurate he’s not a Nazi: he’s a clerical fascist.

Peat Moss @DrinkerOfScotch
Thanks for the clarification. Good to know exactly what your biases are.

Adam Roberts @arrroberts
I have beliefs, predicated on principles, experience and thought. I’m sure you do too. Calling them ‘biases’ is merely rude

Peat Moss @DrinkerOfScotch
I think calling people fascists and misrepresenting the Sad Puppies as racist, sexist, and homophobic is just a bit more rude.

Adam Roberts @arrroberts
You are, perhaps, denying that Vox Day is a clerical fascist, or John C Wright a homophobe? We’ll have to agree to disagree

Peat Moss @DrinkerOfScotch
Vox Day is a libertarian. I disagree with many of his opinions, but he’s not trying to silence people or pass laws against them.

Filotto ‏@Filotto
no. We’ll have to agree you are an outrageous liar. @voxday is demonstarbly not fascist.

Adam Roberts @arrroberts
V.D. is a deeply religious Catholic with militaristic, racist and misogynistic views. He’s no common-garden libertarian.

Filotto ‏@Filotto
why do you lie so stupidly? @voxday is NOT a catholic. And you lie about the rest too.

Vox Day @voxday
You’re pig-ignorant, Roberts. I’m not a Catholic and never have been. I’m not racist or misogynistic either.

Vox Day @voxday
If you were an actual journalist, not an SJW parody of one, you’d talk to me, not to others about me.

Robert G Evans @drawncutlass
Well said.  The whole Sad Puppies controversy has been marked by unethical journalism.

I’ll admit, I’m every bit as racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, and white supremacist as I am Catholic. And Old Martian. The funny thing is that the most recent Catholics in my heritage are a) the Mexicans and b) the Native Americans, two basic facts about me that the SJWs are desperate to deny.

Isn’t it remarkable how they will so readily claim me to be that which I am not, while simultaneously omitting to mention that which I indisputably am?

Au revoir, Reaxxion

I’m disappointed to learn that Roosh is shutting down Reaxxion, as I think there is a real need for a game site like that and I thought the writers were doing some excellent work there.

I’ve decided to close Reaxxion after approximately nine months of operation. Traffic has not grown to a level that allows the site to financially sustain itself. We have not been able to consistently surpass 250,000 page views a month.

I take full blame for the site’s commercial failure. The writers and editor did a great job trying to achieve my vision of what Reaxxion should be, but in spite of that, the growth did not occur. I attribute this failure to creating the site from a spontaneous idea (in response to gamergate) instead of developing it organically based on an actual need. The fact the gamergate continues to be successful and influential in other communities shows that I did not even provide a substantial need to the audience it was intended for.

We’re pretty busy with some other projects, but perhaps when things transition to the next phase, we’ll be able to take a look at doing something similar. But notice how Roosh has implemented the “fail faster” philosophy. That is one reason he continues to be successful.

Success = Try, Succeed/Fail, Try Something Else.
Failure = Try, Quit, Mope.

My 10-second diagnosis is that there were no game reviews or industry news, which rendered it all opinion, no news. But I salute Roosh and the writers for making the effort. It was a good one.

The missed opportunity

An influential GamerGater, The Ralph Retort, supports Milo’s point about the conservative media completely missing the opportunity presented by #GamerGate:

At the beginning of GamerGate, I was still a card-carrying liberal.
Even though I had become disillusioned with my party, I had yet to
switch my official affiliation. It’s not that I’ve changed all my
positions or radically departed from my past. I just feel like my own
party’s thought leaders have left me behind in a very real way. I was
being called right-wing by people who had never done any real activism
or volunteering at all. They sat on Twitter and spammed #killallmen
constantly, so that made them good leftists. Fuck that shit and fuck
anyone who subscribes to it. I don’t have to toe their line, and I
won’t.

Don’t get me wrong: rank-and-file Democrats still disagree with these
people on radical feminism. I was just personally tired of being called
out over PC concerns and feminist bullshit. Plus, both parties are so
fucking corrupt that I don’t see a point in giving either one my vote
automatically. So, that’s why I personally switched. Even from the
start, though, I was willing to put any kind of political affiliation to
the side in order to fight SJWs. I saw Milo’s very first thread
on 4chan. Some people were up in arms that we were going to be
identified as a conservative movement. What these dopes failed to
realize was, we were always going to be labeled as right-wing by the
media. I already knew it simply because I had been experiencing it for
years, like I just told you.

This whole time, I kept waiting for the conservative media to jump
in, en masse. It never really happened. I guess some of them were too
cowardly to go up against the feminists. Maybe they were afraid to be
falsely labeled as harassers. I don’t know what the problem was, but I
know we were waiting for their support and it never materialized. Where
was Fox News, for fuck’s sake? Talk radio? They left us out on the
battlefield by ourselves with Milo, Based Mom, Cathy Young, R.S. McCain (great column by him here) and a couple others. Mike Cernovich
stepped up as well, although I wouldn’t really call him establishment.
He’s been taking great glee at shitting on those guys all week. While I
like Ms. Young, I can certainly understand his frustration over some
things. I have it too.

There’s still time for them to jump in, but it does feel like they missed the boat last fall.

I really thought that once anti-GamerGate managed to get Anita Sarkeesian in TIME and have GG pilloried in televised dramas as well as in the Washington Post, Fox News was going to recognize it as a story and jump in. But for some reason, they never did. Nor, as Ralph observes, did any of the major talkers or columnists, not even any of the younger ones that you would expect to be at least somewhat conversant with games.

I suspect that there were multiple reasons for this, generational, political, and tonal.

I’m about as old as a gamer in the media gets. There is a very clear divide between people who are only one or two years older than I am and everyone younger. The conservative media is pretty old, and many of the younger media figures are female. So, I strongly suspect that most of the conservative media figures who were peripherally aware of #GamerGate simply couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on. And, as we’ve seen with “cuckservative”, they are really uncomfortable with the vulgar way that gamers, especially channers, communicate.

On the political side, conservatives are almost as afraid of being accused of being sexist as racist. So, the fact that the media so readily swallowed and pushed the “gamers are harassing poor defenseless women” pretty much guaranteed that the conservative media would be about as likely to get on board with GamerGate as with ISIS. And, as we’ve seen with “cuckservative”, about all that is needed to keep the conservative media away is to cry raciss.

And then there is the tonal aspect. The conservative media, for all its pretensions, is moderate at heart. They spend as much time tone-policing and denouncing the “extremists” on the right as they do attacking the left. Since the GamerGate tone is cheerfully extremist, the conservative media was always more likely to take shots at it than support it.

Granted, the success that both GamerGate and the Puppies have had is causing some in the conservative media to come around a little. That, and the fact that the mainstream organizations they follow, such as NPR and the Wall Street Journal, are paying attention, albeit negative, to GG and the Puppies, has caused them to take another look. But given their reaction to “cuckservative” and Trump, I expect most of them to continue to largely ignore GamerGate until the next big success or two.

At that point, no doubt we’ll see books like The GamerGate Manifesto and The New Puppy Order being written by people who have never had anything to do with either GamerGate or the Puppies and published by Regnery. It’s not until the coopters and self-seekers and parade-leaders show up that one knows a movement has truly broken through to the mainstream.

And I think the shills will be very surprised to learn what sort of reception they’ll get. GG ain’t no tea party and Rabid Puppies won’t hesitate to tear off the hand that tries to put the leash on.

Police vs media SJW

It’s hard to know who to believe when you’re dealing with two sets of known liars. But the fact that the police were simply able to produce the recording is sufficient evidence of Ted Rall having exaggerated his experience with the LAPD without even needing to listen to it. As we all know, if the police had done anything wrong, the cameras wouldn’t have worked, the tape would have been lost, and the digital recording accidentally erased:

In a May 11 post on The Times’ OpinionLA blog, Ted Rall — a freelance cartoonist whose work appears regularly in The Times — described an incident in which he was stopped for jaywalking on Melrose Avenue in 2001. Rall said he was thrown up against a wall, handcuffed and roughed up by an LAPD motorcycle policeman who also threw his driver’s license into the sewer. Rall also wrote that dozens of onlookers shouted in protest at the officer’s conduct.

Since then, the Los Angeles Police Department has provided records about the incident, including a complaint Rall filed at the time. An audiotape of the encounter recorded by the police officer does not back up Rall’s assertions; it gives no indication that there was physical violence of any sort by the policeman or that Rall’s license was thrown into the sewer or that he was handcuffed. Nor is there any evidence on the recording of a crowd of shouting onlookers.

In Rall’s initial complaint to the LAPD, he describes the incident without mentioning any physical violence or handcuffing but says that the police officer was “belligerent and hostile” and that he threw Rall’s license into the “gutter.” The tape depicts a polite interaction.

In addition, Rall wrote in his blog post that the LAPD dismissed his complaint without ever contacting him. Department records show that internal affairs investigators made repeated attempts to contact Rall, without success.Asked to explain these inconsistencies, Rall said he stands by his blog post.

As to why he didn’t mention any physical abuse in his letter to the LAPD in 2001, Rall said he didn’t want to make an enemy of the department, in part because he hosted a local radio talk show at the time. After listening to the tape, Rall noted that it was of poor quality and contained inaudible segments.

However, the recording and other evidence provided by the LAPD raise serious questions about the accuracy of Rall’s blog post. Based on this, the piece should not have been published.

Rall’s future work will not appear in The Times.

That’s a surprisingly harsh standard, though. If the mainstream media is really going to stop publishing journalists and contributors who lie in their articles, it won’t be long before the average newspaper consists of nothing but sports scores and classifieds.

The etymology of “cuckservative”

Nero explains it. TL;DR: think 4chan, not Stormfront:

As the leading conservative authority on interracial intercourse, I therefore feel compelled to set the record straight on the so-called racial origin and dimensions of this insult.

Here’s my verdict: all the writers above are wrong. As someone who’s been covering web culture and online memes for years and who has a great deal of respect for how well many right-wingers have taken to internet culture, I’m slightly embarrassed by my fellow conservatives’ inability to understand a term that returned to popular use not on white power websites, but on 4chan.

Before it became a 4chan meme, “cuckold” was a common term of abuse in mediaeval times and through the Renaissance. Shakespeare plays are replete with the word — that’s where I learned it, anyway, where it’s used as a byword for an emasculated male….

On 4chan, “cuck” is used as a general term of abuse, to describe
someone who caves in, surrenders, or sells out his core supporters. (His
base, in political parlance.) 4chan’s founder Christopher Poole, for
example, is called a “cuck,” not for any racially-charged reason, but
because he capitulated to outside pressure to ban controversial
discussion topics on the website. And because he was allegedly cuckolded
in real life – but not by a black man.

It’s easy to see why “cuck” makes such a good insult. It’s a byword
for needlessly relinquished manliness, for selling out and caving in.
The original metaphor of watching your partner getting slammed by
another dude now simply means abandoned principles and a lack of
backbone. It’s a byword for beta male or coward….

Indeed, the suspicion of many is that this is another case of virtue
signalling from mainstream conservatives, rather proving the point of
the hashtag and demonstrating it better than any gloss yet published. A
sort of meta-definition in action, since it demonstrates supposed
conservatives using precisely the “slander and move on” tactic so
beloved of liberals.

And I think it should be very clear that any cuckservative who would disagree with the leading conservative authority on interracial relations can only be doing so because he is a racist homophobe.

Since, you know, they don’t appear to be hypersensitive to being called names or anything like that.

No one likes SJWs

Not even artists on the Left. Alan Moore, the creator of Watchmen, announces that he will henceforth avoid the media rather than put up with incessant thought-policing by the SJWs:

Comics god Alan Moore has issued a comprehensive sign-off from public life after shooting down accusations that his stories feature racist characters and an excessive amount of sexual violence towards women….

The award-winning Moore used the interview to address criticism over his inclusion of the Galley-Wag character –  based on Florence Upton’s 1895 Golliwogg creation – in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics, saying that “it was our belief that the character could be handled in such a way as to return to him the sterling qualities of Upton’s creation, while stripping him of the racial connotations that had been grafted onto the Golliwog figure by those who had misappropriated and wilfully misinterpreted her work”.

And he rebutted the suggestion that it was “not the place of two white men to try to ‘reclaim’ a character like the golliwogg”, telling Ó Méalóid that this idea “would appear to be predicated upon an assumption that no author or artist should presume to use characters who are of a different race to themselves”.

“Since I can think of no obvious reason why this principle should only relate to the issue of race – and specifically to black people and white people – then I assume it must be extended to characters of different ethnicities, genders, sexualities, religions, political persuasions and, possibly most uncomfortably of all for many people considering these issues, social classes … If this restriction were universally adopted, we would have had no authors from middle-class backgrounds who were able to write about the situation of the lower classes, which would have effectively ruled out almost all authors since William Shakespeare.”

Moore also defended himself against the claim that his work was characterised by “the prevalence of sexual violence towards women, with a number of instances of rape or attempted rape in [his] stories”, saying that “there is a far greater prevalence of consensual and relatively joyous sexual relationships in my work than there are instances of sexual violence”, and that “there is clearly a lot more non-sexual violence in my work that there is violence of the sexual variety”.

In the real world there are, Moore tells his interviewer, “relatively few murders in relation to the staggering number of rapes and other crimes of sexual or gender-related violence”, but this is “almost a complete reversal of the way that the world is represented in its movies, television shows, literature or comic-book material”.

“Why should murder be so over-represented in our popular fiction, and crimes of a sexual nature so under-represented?” he asks. “Surely it cannot be because rape is worse than murder, and is thus deserving of a special unmentionable status. Surely, the last people to suggest that rape was worse than murder were the sensitively reared classes of the Victorian era … And yet, while it is perfectly acceptable (not to say almost mandatory) to depict violent and lethal incidents in lurid and gloating high-definition detail, this is somehow regarded as healthy and perfectly normal, and it is the considered depiction of sexual crimes that will inevitably attract uproars of the current variety.”

Moore ended by telling Ó Méalóid that his lengthy responses to questions, written over Christmas, should indicate to fans that he has no intention of “doing this or anything remotely like it ever again”.

“While many of you have been justifiably relaxing with your families or loved ones, I have been answering allegations about my obsession with rape, and re-answering several-year-old questions with regard to my perceived racism,” he said. “If my comments or opinions are going to provoke such storms of upset, then considering that I myself am looking to severely constrain the amount of time I spend with interviews and my already very occasional appearances, it would logically be better for everyone concerned, not least myself, if I were to stop issuing those comments and opinions. Better that I let my work speak for me, which is all I’ve truthfully ever wanted or expected, both as a writer and as a reader of other authors’ work.”

After completing his current commitments, Moore said he will “more or less curtail speaking engagements and non-performance appearances”.

Seriously, who wants to deal with them. We’re seeing a lot of this in the game industry as well. The more that the game journos have tried to thought-police the developers, the less inclined the developers are to talk to them. Many designers and developers alike avoid the press because they know they won’t be asked questions about the actual game and its development, but rather about tangential political issues in which they have absolutely no interest. Some companies won’t even permit their developers to speak directly to the media any more as a result; all interviews have to be cleared through the PR people first.

SJW-driven journalism in the arts increasingly resembles prosecution or interrogation rather than an effort to either advertise or understand the art or the artist. It’s no wonder that successful artists like Alan Moore are increasingly reluctant to permit themselves to be interviewed.

But no fear. There will always be plenty of fame whores like the Kardashians around who will be more than happy to speak to anyone with a microphone.

Media as weapon

We’ve certainly seen this with both #GamerGate and Sad Puppies. But given how resorting to it has failed against us, I very much doubt it will work against Google.

If you talk to the reporters who work for various big media companies, they insist that they have true editorial independence from the business side of their companies. They insist that the news coverage isn’t designed to reflect the business interests of their owners. Of course, most people have always suspected this was bullshit — and you could see evidence of this in things like the fact that the big TV networks refused to cover the SOPA protests. But — until now — there’s never necessarily been a smoking gun with evidence of how such business interests influences the editorial side.

Earlier this month, we noted that the Hollywood studios were all resisting subpoenas from Google concerning their super cozy relationship with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, whose highly questionable “investigation” of Google appeared to actually be run by the MPAA and the studios themselves. The entire “investigation” seemed to clearly be an attempt to mislead the public into believing that it was somehow illegal for Google’s search engine to find stuff that people didn’t like online. A court has already ruled that Hood pretty clearly acted in bad faith to deprive Google of its First Amendment rights. As the case has continued, Google has sought much more detail on just how much of the investigation was run by the MPAA and the studios — and Hollywood has vigorously resisted, claiming that they really had nothing to do with all of this, which was a laughable assertion.

However, in a filing on Thursday, Google revealed one of the few emails that they have been able to get access to so far, and it’s stunning. It’s an email between the MPAA and two of Jim Hood’s top lawyers in the Mississippi AG’s office, discussing the big plan to “hurt” Google. Beyond influencing other Attorneys General (using misleading fake “setups” of searches for “bad” material) and paying for fake anti-Google research, the lawyers from Hood’s office flat out admit that they’re expecting the MPAA and the major studios to have its media arms run a coordinated propaganda campaign of bogus anti-Google stories:

    Media: We want to make sure that the media is at the NAAG meeting. We propose working with MPAA (Vans), Comcast, and NewsCorp (Bill Guidera) to see about working with a PR firm to create an attack on Google (and others who are resisting AG efforts to address online piracy). This PR firm can be funded through a nonprofit dedicated to IP issues. The “live buys” should be available for the media to see, followed by a segment the next day on the Today Show (David green can help with this). After the Today Show segment, you want to have a large investor of Google (George can help us determine that) come forward and say that Google needs to change its behavior/demand reform. Next, you want NewsCorp to develop and place an editorial in the WSJ emphasizing that Google’s stock will lose value in the face of a sustained attack by AGs and noting some of the possible causes of action we have developed.

In other words, Jim Hood and the MPAA were out and out planning a coordinated media attack on Google using the editorial properties that supposedly claim to have editorial independence from the business side.

I don’t know anyone who still takes the media at face value. If you do, you’re obviously either a) not very bright, or, b) not paying attention.

Jeu vidéo et «suprémacisme»

Causeur responds to Le Monde’s coverage of #GGinPAris:

Video Games and “Supremacism”

#Gamergate might not ring a bell with readers, but Le Monde / Pixels recently covered its recent meet-up in Paris. Concerned vigilance sums up the tone of the article. The author ventured onsite ready to ferret out any signs of Evil on the prowl. This unwittingly comic posture does not prove we should all bless #GG, even if it does incline us to consider this affair from a benevolent perspective. If you’ve read Alban Agnoux’s paper in Causeur #26, #Gamergate will seem like familiar territory: it is an online movement engaged in a cultural war to protect freedom of speech in video games. Against whom? Mainly against those #GGers denounce using the term social justice warriors (SJWs). In a nutshell, if you like Lara Croft, you are not an SJW. Does this also make you an antifeminist? It doesn’t take much to become a suspect these days.

Ah, how the young generation sometimes leaves us scratching our heads in perplexity! The author of the Le Monde article did not evade the polychromatic aspect of the #GG phenomenon. In order to balance his depiction, as well as to avoid bewildering his readers more than was necessary, it is understandable that he also chose to take some harder lines. Did he do so in order to quiet any inner doubts about his own orthodoxy as well? I would not go so far. In any case, this is where Vox Day, one of the gamers behind #GGinParis, came in handy: not too young, easier to classify, especially if you put words in his mouth. Given the number of detractors the man has already accumulated, why not join the pack? The threat lying hidden in the shadows of #GG would thus appear to boil down to him. Him, and his ideology: supremacism.

Perhaps it is me, but as characterizations go, this one comes across as vague, if not outright flippant. It is an accusation made in bad faith, without force and without conviction. Check out the second photo of the article, in which the alleged supremacist Vox Day appears, but which also inexplicably features the beaming smile of the black owner of the bar: how is the reader not expected to start having doubts after seeing that? If, on top of that, the readers goes off exploring the chap’s blog, well, at least all is not lost. From what I understand, accusations of supremacism sadden the accused greatly, as he never misses a chance to assert his Native American and Mexican heritages. And does he not seem a little too satisfied with the attention bestowed upon on him by Le Monde?

Yes, why not reduce the enemy to a caricature — but one has got to put some heart into it, lest the effort prove counterproductive.  

It’s a strong and wryly jaundiced response to the Le Monde author’s apparent determination to stick to the Narrative, and to take the occasional cheap shot. Don’t get me wrong, I was impressed to see that the journalist not only made the hitherto unseen effort to show up at the event, but spent several hours there and talked to many people there. However, it was disappointing that he elected to run with the “supremacism” line even after acknowledging that my ancestry made the claims of being a white supremacist absurd and that a response to a single attacker cannot seriously be considered a reliable indicator of one’s perspective on a group consisting of hundreds of millions of people.

Then again, the journalist openly admitted that he did not know how to describe my actual ideology, libertarianism. And he did make an effort, as he even made reference to my attempt to put it in French terms: “Voltairean revolutionaries dedicated to liberte’ while rejecting egalite’“. But the Causeur author is correct to call him to account for taking, shall we say, liberties with the truth, as the fact that communicating a hard-to-translate perspective does not justify inventing your own version of it.