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Ah, misogyny.  Definitely a feature of society not a bug.  Amazing the amount of fuss dude-bros can whip up in their crusade against the evil double X conspiracy.   I’m still gathering information on the whole debacle, but I may as well share what I’ve read about Gamer Gate so far.

Amanda Marcotte has a succinct analysis over at Raw Story –

“Not that there was any doubt, but the entrance of right wing ideologues into the faux controversy “#GamerGate” makes it almost comically clear how this is not, was not, and never will be about “ethics in journalism”, but about harnessing the inchoate anger of a bunch of people who feel left out by the Cool Kids and aiming it directly at the goal of eroding women’s right to basic equality with men. (For those who wish to argue that point, feel free to read this, and please comment there, in the wasteland where zero #GamerGate enthusiasts have yet to actually argue with any of my actual points.) It was a grassroots movement of 4chan misogynists who just want to punish individual women online to get back at women as a group for some incoherent sins against them (insufficient blow jobs, not sneaking into their houses to clean shit while they’re away), but now the conservative vultures are swirling. They see some marks and they, by god, are going to pick them up. And like watching a vulture tear into carrion, it’s simultaneously revolting and fascinating.”

 “For those who have been following this ridiculous “#GamerGate” story, where a bunch of misogynists who have been harassing a video game developer named Zoe Quinn because her vindictive ex-boyfriend sent them after her, have probably been happy to see that Quinn just dumped a bunch of screenshots disproving their already flimsy excuses for the harassment. From the get-go, it’s been obvious that the real reason all these haters have been attacking Quinn is that she’s a hate object for them to dump their misogyny and resentments all over, but the “official” reason is they are very concerned about the integrity of gaming journalism. The accusation is she “bought” positive press by sleeping with a journalist for it. The fact that the press she supposedly bought with sex doesn’t exist hasn’t slowed this bullshit down. But Quinn shared a bunch of screenshots showing that, in fact, the “concern” over “ethics” was a paper-thin rationale for what’s really going on, which is a widespread semi-conspiracy to harass a few targeted women in games in an effort to scare off anyone in gaming who insists on believing women are people. So I recommend reading the link.  But I do fear this won’t slow any of the harassment down, and I’ll tell you why. It’s because it was evidence from day #1 that there was no real concern about the ethics of gaming journalism going on.”

For more information on the gamergate fiasco, check out Vice, Recode, Deadspin, and Death and Taxes.