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GamerGate supporters receive bomb threats

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Round and round GamerGate goes, where it stops nobody knows. The gamergate circus has just moved on from the sublime to the ridiculous with the good guys now sending bomb threats against the bad guys

Now to be clear I don’t support either side. The anti-GG side are overly pushy with the forcing of their agenda and  demonising anyone who shows any support for some of the gamergate ideals. But at the same time I feel the gaming community needs to be more open to people of opposing views. I wrote about how they won the war by bullying previously so you can read up about that here if you like.

On the other side I believe the gaming industry is horribly corrupt at the top with sites like IGN and Gamespot being given earlier embargo times by publishers in the full knowledge that their reviews are going to be positive – not to mention the collusion I believe exists between gaming journalists to ensure certain story lines are given more coverage than others.

But mentioning you support gamergate instantly makes you a bad person who needs to be abused. And now onto the new sordid details of GamerGate and its new fiasco.

What happened now?

Staunch GamerGate supporter, Milo Yiannopoulos, organised a GamerGate event in Washington DC with the catchy hashtag #GGinDC and invited some prominent supporters to the event along with others.

Previous to that night many anti-GG members had, allegedly, harassed the bar owner and attempted to force them to cancel the event. That already borders on the psychotic; banning public gatherings is a little scary. After failing to get the bar to cancel the event well known anti-GG supporter, Arthur Chu, had publicly stated that the GamerGate will be ending that night.

And so at 12:15 in the morning the bar in question, Local19, was evacuated by the DC Police who at first claimed it was a fire drill and then as things played out it became known that a bomb threat had been called in to the police.

Arthur has now gone on record stating that he didn’t intend his statement to be a threat and rather that he felt the conversation would be over after their meeting.

“I never publicized the restaurant’s email or phone – indeed the first person to do that was a GamerGater trying to goad me by calling me a coward,” he added. “When I said ‘it’s ending tonight with them meeting there’ (not ‘It Ends Tonight’) it was in response to a different follower saying ‘This won’t end well.’ At the time I thought that was silly because one way or another the whole conversation would be over after the meet up occurred. Clearly I was wrong.

the whole situation is  a bit pathetic and the whole lot of them – Gamergaters, Anti-Gamergaters alike –  need to get on with their lives and stop harassing each other.

I am personally a fan of many of the things Christina Sommers says and this is what she had to say about the incident:

In the hours before the DC GamerGate meetup, I received two phone calls and an email from the manager and owner of Local 16. They were nervous about the event. As they explained, they were facing “aggressive opposition” in the form of angry phone calls, hostile twitter chatter, and strange communications from someone named Arthur Chu.

I assured them that it would be a calm gathering of exceedingly nice people. I tried to make light of the attacks. It’s all just a prank, I said. Internet nonsense. For a moment, I worried the owner was going to cancel the get-together. (Just to be clear, GGinDC was not a formal affair.

The bar offers an upstairs room to any group that can commit to running up a $500 bar tab.) When I asked the owner what he wanted me to do, he said he would appreciate it if I and others would answer the angry tweets and explain that Local 16 was a neutral party and had no knowledge or opinion about controversies among gamers. I was relieved and touched when he told me, in what I took to be a Middle Eastern accent, that he would not turn away any group from his bar. “How could I? This is America.”

I sent out a tweet making it clear that the bar was a neutral party, and I alerted others to the odd little rage campaign against our meetup. I found it all so silly. In one tweet I urged Arthur Chu to take a break from Twitter and join the party. It’s hard to demonize people while sharing a drink with them at a bar. Had he shown up, I can almost guarantee the group would have been civil to him. They were exactly as I had told the owner—calm, polite, and nice. I should also add diverse, friendly and about as remote from the cartoon villains of Mr. Chu’s imagination as any group could be.

It was a joyful gathering—Milo gave a hilarious speech and Caroline Kitchens (aka Deputy Factual Feminist) toasted all the “internalized misogynists and neck-bearded basement dwellers” in the room. I had recently given talks at Georgetown and Oberlin—where dozens of impassioned gender activists protested my presence on campus, issued trigger warnings, and even set up “safe rooms” for anyone panicked by my arguments. I thanked the GamerGaters for not being triggered—and for making me feel so safe, so validated.
I spent the next several hours laughing, talking and taking selfies with people who felt like old friends. I can’t count the number of men and women who told me they shared my commitment to reasonable equality feminism. What they reject is today’s authoritarian, censorious third wave feminism—with its trigger warnings, micro-aggressions, and carrying on about the capitalist patriarchy. They thanked me for my many books and articles showing that one can still be a strong proponent of gender equality without buying into the madness.

By midnight, I was exhausted and heading toward the door when I noticed that everyone was filing out. I tried to make sense of it—closing time? Then word began to spread that it was a fire drill. A fire drill in a DC bar on Friday night at midnight? That would be a first. It has now been confirmed that someone sent a bomb threat. As with the many threats the media reflexively blamed on GamerGate, no one knows the source.

Many Gamers call me based-Mom. The critics of GamerGate finds this bizarre–even sinister. I think they are projecting their own frenzied mindsets onto the sweet people who came to the DC meetup. What a pity that the journalists who have caricatured GamerGaters as a misogynist hate mob were not there to meet them. The actions of Arthur Chu and his cohorts should give them pause. In the battle for the soul of gaming, they may be allied with the wrong side.

Of course, there are accusations of false flags, and that GG instigated the whole thing to further their own causes – but that’s largely unprovable hearsay and speculation. Right now, it looks like both sides have placed death threats and bomb scares. Can we maybe start to agree that both sides have fanatics that have ruined the entire debate?

Last Updated: May 5, 2015

39 Comments

  1. Umar

    May 5, 2015 at 10:03

    Maybe we should all stop associating bad things to a group by the actions of some of it’s individuals.

    Reply

    • Ranting Raptor

      May 5, 2015 at 10:06

      Unfortunately that is asking a lot. The internet has bred a mob mentality where you need to always be on a side. This prevents such logical thought processes such as “The vocal few should not be labeled as the majority voice”

      Reply

      • Umar

        May 5, 2015 at 10:11

        Media is largely to blame for this. There is honestly good things to come from these groups, but it is always the negativity that is perpetuated.

        Reply

        • Ranting Raptor

          May 5, 2015 at 10:15

          I guess media could potentially try to highlight the good sides of all of these groups. But would it really solve the problem?

          Guess it couldn’t hurt at all. Might help shift mind sets just enough to start making a change.

          Reply

          • Umar

            May 5, 2015 at 10:17

            Who really knows what the solution really is, but like you said, shift in mindset is at least a start, and honestly, it’s the best place to start.

          • Ranting Raptor

            May 5, 2015 at 10:19

            In fact… I’m trying to think of something good to say about all these groups and…. well I can’t really think of anything. Seems odd considering they MUST have some good qualities?

          • Umar

            May 5, 2015 at 10:27

            There has been people within these groups that did charity work and try to promote a lot of good, never gets mentioned though. Unfortunately all it takes are the actions of a few to sully the entire image and then further intensified by the media.

          • DatKofGuy

            May 6, 2015 at 10:08

            Its not only a few, most of the mob mentality has come from the SJW side, particularly those femfreq supporters. I wonder if they realize how stupid they look most of the time and the crap they cause for normal consumers like us, I mean FFS, they made Joss F’n Whedon quit twitter, they gave Chris Evans crap coz of a joke he made about Black Widow… I mean all this started coz of one dumb tief that decided she need to dick suck her way to fame and fortune and then couldnt deal with the consequences and then rallies a bunch of disillusioned guys behind her coz “hey she’s pretty and she is being bullied, we need to help” its that kinda kak, where people dont look at the facts and just go based on their carnal insticts that really irk me.

            also there was this other funny article where the wife of that Will Wheaton guy was bragging how she tricked gamergate guys to donate moneyy to femfreq. but then you actually look into it, it was her donating of her own money to femfreq everytime somebody said something mean to her on twitter…. and then the rest of media still reports it as “gamergate supporters tricked into donating money to femfreq” I mean don’t people check facts. god…
            /rant

            Anyway… Buddha… I may be getting a PS4 in July 🙂 any good online multiplayer games we could play then?

          • Umar

            May 6, 2015 at 14:49

            Honestly, there is so much politics right now in the entertainment industry, it’s just not funny. I do believe there should be a push for a more ethical and inclusive industry, but it seems to be getting out of hand now to the point where people fight for ‘ethics’ by any means necessary. Death threats, cursing, harassment…it’s crazy and it’s happening on both sides of the fence right now. Sometimes, it’s best to just mute it, and enjoy games/movies etc ….

            As for online games…Not too sure. Raid mode in Resident Evil Revelations 2 is awesome, and I really wanna get Toukiden for some console monster hunting 😀

          • DatKofGuy

            May 7, 2015 at 18:13

            Yass… toukinden bra! Played the psp one already..i just want my damn god eater 2 localized already.

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      May 5, 2015 at 10:36

      Actually, no. If you belong to a specific group with a specific cause and some people in it do stupid stuff in its name, and the group doesn’t do anything about it, it reflects on all of you and the group, because you’re tacitly approving the actions of those people in your group.

      Reply

      • Umar

        May 5, 2015 at 10:44

        Yeah, I can’t agree with that in all honesty. There is no singular point of authority within these groups, and even if there is, how are they to stop each and every person abusing the group’s name? It’s incredibly unfair to hold all people within the group accountable for the actions of a few.

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          May 5, 2015 at 11:36

          It’s got nothing to do with fair, & you can choose to be wrong if you like. ;P

          That’s precisely the problem with internet movements, and in the case of GG – amorphous, directionless, leaderless ones. Anyone can claim anything. Doesn’t change the point.

          If you remember a real world example not too long ago, the courts upheld the ANC was responsible for damages caused in CT during one of its marches. They also tried the “it wasn’t us, it was those individuals” defense.

          Reply

          • Umar

            May 5, 2015 at 11:51

            LOL SHUDDUP, you’re wrong face, but that is the problem with a group so widespread and leaderless. I honestly don’t care about GG, I just don’t fully agree with painting an entire group (both sides) based on the actions of a few, but like you said, it being an internet movement without a leader, it’s hard not to.

          • DatKofGuy

            May 6, 2015 at 10:19

            So I’m muslim, so I should be accountable for all the other shit those crazy ISIS guys are doing?

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            May 6, 2015 at 11:03

            “If you belong to a specific group with a specific cause” – So if you belong to ISIS, yes. If you don’t, no.

          • DatKofGuy

            May 6, 2015 at 11:18

            Then you’re contradicting your entire argument saying that.

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            May 6, 2015 at 11:28

            Um… no. ISIS is a specific group with a specific cause. Unless you’re trying to argue every Muslim is somehow a member of ISIS.

          • DatKofGuy

            May 6, 2015 at 11:31

            Uh…No, you missing my point completely.

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            May 6, 2015 at 11:37

            This is too much irony for me.

          • DatKofGuy

            May 6, 2015 at 11:40

            Would you like some salt with your iron?

  2. Ranting Raptor

    May 5, 2015 at 10:04

    2 words to gamergaters, extreme feminists and the gaming community at large.

    Grow. Up.

    Reply

    • Lord Chaos

      May 5, 2015 at 10:09

      You’re just saying that because you’re old now. 😛

      And except for the jape I fully agree.

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        May 5, 2015 at 10:14

        Hehehehehe. As a 30 year old veteran of life I feel I have every right to demand others grow up too…..

        PS: Neener neener neener

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          May 5, 2015 at 10:15

          That joyful moment when you reach the top of the hill & get to look down on everyone, just before everything goes downhill. 😀

          Reply

          • Ranting Raptor

            May 5, 2015 at 10:16

            The downhill part is the most fun. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

    • Pariah

      May 5, 2015 at 10:48

  3. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    May 5, 2015 at 10:06

    Is this still a thing? xD

    Reply

  4. Blood Emperor Trevor

    May 5, 2015 at 10:09

    Bomb threats = not cool. Dipshits that do that need to grow the fuck up. It doesn’t prove a point, it doesn’t change anything, it just makes everything worse. No one who’s the target of a bomb threat is going to think, “hmmm… you know that other person making the threat actually has a good point.”

    That said, I’ll admit to feeling vaguely amused. I’m uncharitable that way.

    Reply

  5. Blood Emperor Trevor

    May 5, 2015 at 10:19

    Wow, she lays it on a bit thick doesn’t she? It’s so sugary-sweet I want to vomit just reading that.

    Reply

  6. Hammersteyn

    May 5, 2015 at 10:35

    Are people still playing this?

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      May 5, 2015 at 10:44

      It’s a mobile F2P without MTs, who wouldn’t? 😀

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        May 5, 2015 at 10:59

        LOL

        Reply

  7. Pariah

    May 5, 2015 at 10:43

    It seems that on Friday night, Local 16 was the bomb!

    Reply

  8. Greylingad

    May 5, 2015 at 10:58

    You know, I was enjoying some lovely coffee up until right about now… Here I’m sitting, thinking, “Gamergate, what was that again, maybe something to do with bribery and corruption in the gaming industry, must be…” I honestly forgot about this, as true as Bob… Unfortunately, though, you will fanatics in every little aspect of life, it’s unavoidable, the only thing that one can do is hope that they are dealt with correctly, if someone issues a bomb threat they should be arrested and held accountable…

    Reply

  9. Deceased

    May 5, 2015 at 13:14

    Don’t care about GG or anti-GG

    I just stopped caring – fuck both sides – attention whores seeking attention will whore anything out to get some attention

    On another note, the only “GG”s I recognise is:
    – Good Game ( usually followed by WP – Well Played )
    – Get Good ( usually followed by WP – Why Play? )

    Anything else doesn’t count … 😛

    Reply

    • Weanerdog

      May 5, 2015 at 13:53

      gg wp

      Reply

  10. Majik

    May 6, 2015 at 10:50

    Bunch of clowns the lot of them! Grow up!

    Reply

  11. Billy Spandex

    May 6, 2015 at 11:47

    Gamergate is the rebels, and social justice warriors is the evil empire.

    Reply

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