Comments

1
Enlightening.
2
Always been unclear why these videos brought out so much hate in and of themselves. It is not like she is even breaking any ground or stating anything that is radical enough that it has never been stated before. Visibility, I guess.

I would have liked to see more discussion about how these are more or less classical tropes finding fertile ground in the medium of video games. My biggest critique of the videos is that they are kind of shallow, and I was expecting more digging since she got so much money and posted pics of that giant stack of video games she bought. They kind of boil down to "here is one example of the trope. Here is another. And here we see another."
3
It's time for internet trolls to learn that online threats are just as illegal as threats by any other medium. The authorities need to start taking them a lot more seriously.
4
The cops don't even investigate the origins of Swatting pranks. Why would they investigate internet threats? And Swatting costs ACTUAL POLICE RESOURCES, too. I fear this is one of those things the community will have to police by themselves.
5

it's totally unacceptable to threaten people on the internet

You are saying this with a straight face, SLOG.

But the whole world is laughing at you.
6
Someone says something on internets. Sloggers outraged.
7
Should be required watching for every video game designer. I'm watching the "Ms. Male Character" video and it's quite good.
8
@5 People calling you an idiot is not equivalent to threats of rape and murder. Believe it or not this is not all about you.
9
Sarkeesian's research is sophomoric at best. Ask yourself which is more likely - that the designers of Super Mario Bros had a desire to perpetuate the "patriarchy" by making a weak princess needed a man to save her, OR that early designers of a children's video game, when the story line usually consisted of "destroy X for high score," decided to use the simple fairy tale "Hero saves princess from fire breathing dragon?"

The real story is her persecution - how thousands of people get angry at someone, decide to make her life a living hell and can do so with impunity due to the anonymity of the internet.
10
#9

My point exactly, from personal experience here.

The real issue is anonymous use of the Internet.

For example, you cannot get in a car and drive around the highways "anonymously". You have to have a personal and vehicle license so you can be held accountable for your actions on the highway.

So too we need a lot more identification and policing of the "Information Highway" along with absolute means of identifying anyone "driving" along it.
12
I agree with @2 and @9. The analysis in the videos isn't particularly surprising or groundbreaking, what's more interesting is the cretinism it draws to the surface.

Most gamers, for better or worse, are willing to put up with casual taunting and insults, and probably view the levels of misanthropy as fairly equitable, especially in games with massive online communities where you don't know anything about the player behind the character and where the character's gender is secondary to gameplay and competition. The only bright side of this level of misogyny is that it makes apparent what exists, it's completely indefensible, and creates a starting point for everyone to agree there should be some sort of change.

Most of my gaming experience has been in games with small playerbases (several hundred), where it's much more difficult to be anonymous, most of us have played the game for over a decade, and most of us have matured beyond rape threats/jokes and homophobia. It's been encouraging to see the game's admin staff take sexual harrassment complaints seriously, and I believe they've brought legal action against certain players for sexual harrassment.
13

#9

Oh and speaking of Super Mario Brothers...probably one of the worst and most racist depictions of Italians ever seen on any media. Yet, no outcry from the agendists.
14
@13 - this is some kind of long-form performance art piece your doing right? Like Andrew Dice Clay?
15
@14 Ahhahaaha - That explains everything!
17
1) Nobody should have to put up with threats of rapes and violence.

2) But. If you are opinionated on the Internet, you will get horrifying shit shoveled your way no matter what your message. They mean to hurt you, so a woman will be threatened with rape, a man will be threatened with death or the death of his family. That this woman in is being threatened does not mean her message is notably more threatening to the "patriarchy" than any one else's. It's mostly a symptom of her having targeted for criticism one of the most petty, obnoxious, pathetic, and immature subcultures in the world.

3) Her work is the opposite of intellectually rigorous. Her entire schtick is to cherry pick evidence that supports her, and completely ignore countering evidence.

4) Before anyone jumps down my throat, please see #1.
18
Ample evidence that video games over time harden empathy and for some individuals, with insecurity or sociopathic dispositions, will act them out in real life and mow down theater goers, mall shoppers, or students - or rape someone.
This is the culprit. Depravity in our culture.
This is what liberals prefer, it seems.
19
As someone who plays a ton of video games, I found these videos to be rather enlightening. I don't give a shit that it's "basic" information because guess what, everyone has to start somewhere. For many gamers, this will be their first time dealing with feminist issues.
20
@18 Do you believe the crap you spew or do you just say anything without thinking?
21
@19: I only apply the critique that they are not really up to academic or scholarly standards because she herself claimed she was doing a scholarly, academic project.

I write literary criticism and have had many articles published, and if I was given $160,000 and years to work, you better effing believe I would have put out an incredibly detailed and painstakingly researched piece of work, not something that just demonstrates surface issues.
22
I've only watched some of the videos, but I found them very enlightening.

One of the more interesting ideas in the Ms. Male Character video was how a group of, male, characters will have different personalities, and then one female character will represent the totality of female personalities. It was also interesting to think about how Angry Birds was essentially genderless until they introduced "girl" characters which redefined the rest of the cast as male.

If I were a video game designer I would try to avoid falling into these cliches. And it's rather easy to do. Why not have half the NPCs be female with different personalities? Why not play against type to add a little interest to these characters? Or, create female variants of every personality type? Explore how to show characters' gender without bows or makeup.

I think it would have been interesting to see what she thought of Metroid's reveal that the main character is female and subsequent feminizing of the character in later games. Though I imagine she tackles that in another video. A Ms. Male Character with no actual male counterpart.

There are also many examples of games which do not necessarily fall into these traps. Battalion Wars is one which comes to mind for me. Some of the most ruthless war commanders are female, though portrayed as all the characters are as one or more stereotypes. In the original game I thought it was at turns amusing or disturbing to hear ruthless war strategy coming from a character that reminded me of a Barbie doll.
23
@14
Well, it's trolling, designed to derail the conversation.
24
@18 it stands to reason that conservatives nitwits would claim that video games are the source of the problem while they routinely justify killing and torture with terms like collateral damage. You are the sociopath.
25
#23

A statement where I point out that the Blog of Record and its commenters engage in the exact same behavior being decried by the OP is considered a "troll"?

Now I've heard everything!!

26
@17 Find me some male video game critics who have faced an onslaught like this. I'd love to see it.
27
@25 Exactly the same behaviour? I will just say it again: "People calling you an idiot is not equivalent to threats of rape and murder."

Now shut up. You are adding nothing of value to this discussion.
28

The other point I need to make is this. Snowden et. al. tell us that the NSA has the tools to detect when I eat a peanut butter sandwich. Whereas a bunch of anonymous stalkers making death threats are undetectable?

One of these facts cannot be true.
30

#29

Stop hiding behind a pseudonym and a cartoon.

How old are you anyway?
31
@10:

Why wait for someone else to take the lead? If you were actually serious about wanting to curb online anonymity you could always start by creating a new SLOG account under the name "John Bailo", or just plain "Bailo". Otherwise, you're simply showing yourself to be another in a very long line of bloviators demanding other people do something you're not willing to do yourself.

There's a word that goes along with that definition; let's see if you can figure out what it is...
32
@28: Now this is an actually useful question. Astonishing.

The tools do exist to identify most garden variety internet trolls. Pretty much all of us posting here could be tracked down, with the cooperation of the IT staff hosting SLOG and our own ISPs. The issue is not the ability to track down these folks; the issue is the willingness of either law enforcement officials or site hosts to do so.

Twitter could provide information to assist in identifying the individual posting as "Kevin Dobson". Law enforcement could try to track him down. But these incidents are for the most part not taken seriously.

Maybe one of the reasons they are not taken seriously is that every butthurt asshole on the internet who ever got called the dumbest motherfucker on the planet seems to think their hurt feelings are equivalent to someone posting a threat of rape and murder accompanied by the target's home address.
34
@17
1) We agree on that at least.

2) The quantity and degree of threats made against women in the video game industry is on a whole different order of magnitude than those received by their male counterparts. We're seeing the backlash of a small minority who are losing their "safe space" in which they could be openly misogynistic, homophobic, and racist. The fact that these children are typically not particularly popular in school allows them to see themselves as a persecuted minority, fighting back against an invading oppressor. (Women are half the population after all! Why'd they have to come and take Video Games, my thing, away from me?)

3) It's not so much "cherry picking" as "cranberry bogging" when you can just skim the surface of the medium and come up with a heaping handful of examples. Regardless of the academic rigor displayed in these YouTube videos, I think we can be pretty confident that this man was not a kickstarter backer who is upset at the misuse of his money.
35
"Anita Sarkeesian Threatened with Rape and Murder for Daring to Keep Critiquing Video Games"

a. Her critiques are rather vapid. Although some people might find them insightful.

b. Whether her critiques are vapid or not is not the story. She is getting death threats from people who do not agree with her opinion. That is the story.

c. If the staff at The Stranger were a little more self aware they'd be able to find enough examples of similar behavior in these forums. Attempting to silence people who you disagree with seems to be a thing on the internet.
36
Great ... a large number of these misogynistic asshats are probably coming here this weekend for PAX
37
@28,
I too am surprised by how SLOG does its policing of forums, particularly evident with contrarion views posted in any "gun" post... and reporting those posts (violence against a poster/suggesting they kill themselves and nothing else) does nothing.
38
@9: Yeah, whatever. Bullshit. This is a classic justification of hidden male privilege. You don't see that the media and games are biased. We get that. It isn't easy to see. Fox News doesn't see that the police are racist in Ferguson. They figure that they are just doing their jobs and blacks coincidentally happen to be the offenders. The police are just enforcing the laws. And game developers were just using fairy tales.

What Anita Sarkeesian is trying to do is expose this hidden bias. It isn't a coincidence that almost all game protagonists are male and that women in games are usually objects. And it isn't a coincidence that blacks in America face abuse and profiling from cops (who are just doing their jobs). You and Fox News may not see it (and as Bill O'Reilly pointed out, 'white privilege' simply doesn't exist), but if you are smart you will at least pay attention to her argument and perhaps educate yourself.
39
I don't think video games cause violence, but they cause bad social skills, and semi permanent immaturity...

There is nothing wrong with debate, and I liked Sarkeesian's movie critiques, but backlash shouldn't include violence and death threats...
40
@28:
The other point I need to make is this. Snowden et. al. tell us that the NSA [a] has the tools to detect when I eat a peanut butter sandwich. Whereas [b]a bunch of anonymous stalkers making death threats are undetectable? [and [c] that the NSA is a law enforcement agency]

One of these facts cannot be true.
That would be [a] and [c]. There are technologies that can beat encryption schemes like Tor, but they are not simple. For example, you could do coincidence checks against all Tor exit nodes. Can the NSA do this? Maybe. Do they share this with law enforcement, who have to obey the Constitution? Probably not.

Rephrase your argument with a better understanding of intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies, encryption technology, and the legal requirements for surveillance. Thanks.
41
Raindrip @18, if evidence is so ample, why aren't you sharing any of it?
42
@28: And just to be clear, it is doubtful anybody can defeat Tor's encryption. But it is possible to do coincidence checks against the exit nodes for Tor and figure out who sent a message. This is because the final message is in the clear (at least by subpoena for Twitter to post it). So if a person makes a lot of contact with Twitter along a network that has little latency, you can do coincidence checks to find out who sent if as long as they send enough messages (similar to how Stingrays with multiple calls can isolate a phone number).
43
@30: I'm twenty-two and a half. How old are you, Bono?
44

#31

I use my real name everywhere but on SLOG.

The reason being is the comments here were so hateful, venomous and vile that I didn't want it associated with the psychopaths in this "net community".

45

#43

https://www.facebook.com/john.bailo

By the way, where's your real name and picture?

46
Fucking ban bailo already.
47
#40

Therefore you are saying any organization can transmit messages security (as do anonymous posters) and be undetectable.

But if all these messages were undetectable and also traceable, if by some chance evidence of a crime or planned crime were to appear, the NSA would not be obligated to inform other authorities.

Maybe it's time for a remake of "The Conversation" (1974)!!
48
@24: Funny how countering an argument by juxtaposing it with something totally off topic is rather popular on Slog - a bit sophomoric though.

@18: You're right. Thank you for pointing that out. 'Evidence' is the wrong word. I should have started that sentence with:
"Many have experienced that video ..."
49
@44:

In other words, even though everyone already knows who you are, and even though you purport to use your name everywhere online BUT Slog, you STILL insist on maintaining an "anonymous" handle here, because people call you out on your ignorant, insipid comments? Do we need to add your picture to the definition of "Butthurt" in the dictionary?
50
#49

You cannot update your moniker on SLOG to my knowledge.

It requires creating a completely different account.

51
@47: Who the fuck knows what the NSA would do. Would they give up one of their intelligence capabilities to protect one woman? I doubt it. Remember, they aren't a law enforcement agency. If they are monitoring Tor exit nodes (which is a big IF), they aren't doing it on behalf of the DOJ or FBI.
52
@9 - The thing is, the point you're making here is pretty much the same point that Sarkeesian makes in her first 'Damsel in Distress' video. She posits that early game designers employed the old standby woman-in-peril trope for much the same reasons as early filmmakers, and sometimes even under the direct influence of those early films: as a quick way to raise dramatic stakes in a medium with broad technological and narrative potential that was only just starting to be explored. Her point is that by unquestioningly embracing this narrative device (even as games have become capable of telling much more complex and nuanced stories), game designers perpetuate stereotypes which reinforce harmful, patriarchal ideas of femininity. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think she's ever accused any specific game designers of having any sort of deliberately patriarchal agenda.
53
@44 How's the weather up there on your cross?
54
@48

Time to ban jonnon already..it contributes zero to threads and seems only here to stalk baio.

why are internet stalkers like jonnon allowed to post here?
55
I just want to point out, since no one else has, that this Kevin Dobson person appears to be MUCH more than just a hate troll. He appears to be a demented, dangerous stalker/potential murderer. Not to diminish from the conversation about trolling, but this is some next level shit. I would venture that he isn't even threatening her because of her views re: video games at this point. I'm sure that's how he initially found her, but this is beyond.
56
Twitter could provide the information to identify Kevin Dobson in a matter of minutes, in conjunction with his email and/or internet providers. He should be behind bars this afternoon. He won't be.
57
@10

Last time I checked, it was completely legal to go out in public, without carrying any form of identification whatsoever, wearing a mask or veil or makeup or helmet or full-body pony costume concealing your face, and walk up to absolutely anyone and say just about* anything you like without being obliged to provide your real name at any point.

Also, I think Americans vote with secret ballots for some reason.

The very obviously wrong idea that people can only be anonymous on the internet is something only an imbecile would cling to.

 

* notable exceptions being threats and hate speech, which the law for some reason seems to treat like problems that exist offline as well as on the internet.
58
@5: Making fun of you when you're being willfully stupid is not making threats to rape and murder you, you idiot child.
59
@56: Of course not. Brogrammers would never sacrifice their libertarian ideals. I'm sure they have more disdain for her than they do the trolls.
60
The thing i feel bad for, is that these threats are coming from some of the most no-account wacko's on earth. These dudes couldn't bully a 3rd grader face-to-face. I'd rather the gamer fanboys be after me, than, say, an ISIS member pickup a phone book with my name and number in 6pt font somewhere in it. It'd be nice if she were forced to do this because she was in trouble with some legit bad guys instead of these losers. But then again, no one wants to be the first!
61
@21- "I write literary criticism and have had many articles published, and if I was given $160,000 and years to work, you better effing believe I would have put out an incredibly detailed and painstakingly researched piece of work,..."

And that's why no one is giving you $160,000. Incredibly detailed academic work doesn't get a million views on Youtube.
62
@21, 61: Indeed. If @Theodore Gorath simply managed the work management process at a major power plant or industrial facility, he could make the $160K without having to write a damn thing. And that $160K would come every year without any research.
64
@48 - that's because in your bizarro world, video games would cause sociopaths to act on their fantasies but the pervasive culture of neglect for human life required to sustain the empire would have nothing to do with it.
65
@63
"Surely if there are "enough" examples of such behavior you could provide us with one or two?"

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

Is someone posting a link to a graphic with the phrase "kill yourself" clear enough for you?

Or do you support it when it is directed at the people you disagree with?
You only oppose it when it is from people you disagree with?
66
@65 do you really think that threats to a real person rather than a screen name is the same thing?

67
@66
Did you have trouble loading the link I posted?
Here it is again.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

Yes. They are the same thing.
And you have just provided another instance of supporting such behavior.
69
@56 "Twitter could provide the information to identify [...]"

Technologically speaking, you are absolutely correct.

They should not do so, however, _unless_ Law Enforcement requests the information (and a subpoena is probably the correct mechanism), or if their policy is just to hand over everyone's info to anyone for any reason. There could be some middle path that involves an internal investigatory department, but that's would be enough overhead and expense to make that unlikely.
70
@68
Here's the link that you may have missed.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

Maybe you should examine why you support such behavior when it is directed against someone you disagree with.
So that is one instance that I provided by one person.
Followed by two people who support it.

Like I said, iIf the staff at The Stranger were a little more self aware they'd be able to find enough examples of similar behavior in these forums.
72
@67 yup I looked at the link. Though I think telling someone to kill themselves is in bad taste, there is a very big difference between telling Anita Sarkeesian that she'll be murdered and raped while providing her real life information and telling fairy.unbalanced to kill themself. You're physical well being has not been directly threatened.
Sorry people have insulted you. They should grow up and stop doing that shit, but to compare what Anita is going through and what you - still utterly anonymous - have gone through on slog is silly.
73
@71
"Of course it's all about you."

And that is person #3 defending that behavior.
As long as it is directed against someone they disagree with.

I'm sure that there will be more.
75
@70: Oh my God, this again.
So tell me, have you been doxed?
Has your real name and/or address been made public?
Has anyone been filling your inbox with threats to rape and/or kill you?
How about on twitter? Facebook? Instagram?
Have you received any threatening letters or disturbing packages?
Have reported any of this to the police?
Have you reported any one to the Stranger?

Have you even tried sudoku yet?

You are absolutely right some people were mean to you, which is because no one on Slog likes you, but no one wants you dead either, I promise.
76
@74
Yes, you keep defending that behavior.
Because it is okay as long as it is directed at people you disagree with.
77
@76 but it's not the same thing. This really shouldn't be that difficult to grasp.
78
@76: I'm not. Because they are not the same thing.
And again, no one wants you dead.
79
Sigh
For once in my life I would LOVE to hear a feminist say something about the objectification of men in everyday life. Ever see those Abercrombie and Fitch ads with men with sixteen pack abs and their faces covered, sending the message to boys that you can't be attractive without unrealistic, airbrushed abs and arms?
Even academia has taken notice: http://blogs.stlawu.edu/chewculturalstud…
But what is the feminist response to treating men as objects? What do feminists say to object to images like this: http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.…
The feminist response is always the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2KVj2vV…
They believe in equally between men and women...but that women are a little more equal then men.
81
@79 way to miss the trees for the forest. If muscle bound dudes were the sole representation of men you'd have a point. What feminists are complaining about is not the busty characters in video games but the fact that that's only kind of women found in a game. In popular media there are male protagonists of all shapes and sizes, women don't get that. Even in your linked picture that chick is hot, rarely will you see a picture of an unattractive lady with a bunch of handsome men around her.
I really recommend actually reading some feminist writing before you spew uninformed opinions.
82
I love how Anita Sarkeesian is always harping on about the objectification of women while in EVERY one of her videos she has to be wearing her low-cut flannel, hoop earrings and massive amounts of makeup.

In any case, she's a proven charlatan.

- Anita admits on video that she doesn't like nor play video games.
http://loiter.co/v/video-footage-of-anit…

- Anita gets caught stealing someone's artwork for her videos.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vie…

- Anita gets caught stealing other people's Let's Play footage from Youtube.
http://victorsopinion.blogspot.com/2013/…

- Anita BLATANTLY cherry picks and misrepresents parts of video games in order to fit her narrative. Proves that she never actually played the games she uses as examples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuRSaLZi…

But by all means, please keep sending her money to fund her badly researched Youtube videos. She's laughing all the way to the bank.
84
Narcissistic trolls are super weird. Most trolls attack a target whereas these losers make themselves the target. Fucking bizarre.
85
@81
First, the woman is ok looking and fully clothed while surrounded by shirtless men. If it was an ok looking man surrounded by half naked, beautiful women, cries of "sexism"! would make my ears ring.
Second, when was the last time you saw a man who didn't have a six pack in an Abercrombie and Fitch ad?
And I've actually read a bunch of Andrea Dworkin, Susan Brownmiller, Mary Daly, and Gloria Steinem etc.
Feminism is just another form of collectivist bull shit, for the most part. Only Christiana Hoff Sommers Betty Friedman and Camille Paglia make any sense.

And why is it when I talk about feminism I'm asked "have you read any feminist books?" I have. But when people bash Libertarianism and I ask "have you ever read a Libertarian book?" they have no reply and usually haven't? (and Ayn Rand doesn't count because she hated Libertarianism)
86
@34 Good points, thanks. The only thing I will say is that Anita may be right about horrendous broad sexism in video game culture (it really is a cesspool), but she's still totally unscrupulous and unfair in how she constructs her arguments.

I feel about her kinda like I used to feel about Keith Olbermann before he disappeared up his own ass: both may be on the right side of the fight, but are such unscrupulous, unfair, unreasonable partizans, that I'd rather they weren't on my side at all.
87
"For once in my life I would LOVE to hear a feminist say something about the objectification of men in everyday life. Ever see those Abercrombie and Fitch ads with men with sixteen pack abs and their faces covered, sending the message to boys that you can't be attractive without unrealistic, airbrushed abs and arms? "

Because men also have an ongoing narrative in most of the media that says that even the most clumsy schlub has a chance to get The Girl while the non-standard female is the butt of jokes for sharing similarly unlikely preferences. Vince Vaughn and can lust after the hot blonde of the movie but it won't get the same laugh that Melissa McCarthy gets for lusting after the cute lifeguard.

Also, although the numbers for male eating disorders are on the rise, they are a tiny minority compared with female disorders. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, only an estimated 10-15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are male ( http://www.anad.org/get-information/abou… ) So it's a problem, just like male rape (10% of all victims are male according to RAINN) or male sexual harassment (16.3% in 2011 according to EEOC), but it's nowhere near the same scale!

You want to hear about how men are the victims? You're not going to hear it because, as sad and unfortunate as it is, it's just not as pressing compared to the sheer number of women who are fucked over every day. Sorry but not really.
88
@65: "Is someone posting a link to a graphic with the phrase "kill yourself" clear enough for you?"

It's a rude request, not a threat.

And I can see why people dislike your narcissistic drivel.

The difference, as pointed out many times before, is that they literally threatened to rape and murder her and published her personal information so someone could do just that.
89
@85 I asked if you had read any feminist writings as your argument was incredibly surface level. A&F ads are obsessed with 6 packs, but for every ad there's literally thousands of out of shape dudes in leading roles.
I took a quite a few political philosophy courses in college, who is a libertarian author you would recommend?
90
Who are Betty Friedman and Christiana Hoff Sommers?
91
@85: Hey, weren't you the one a while back going on and on about how you objectify men? You know, on that thread where most of your posts got deleted because they were getting so graphic and misandrist and kinda rapey?

Yeeeeeaaah sooooo
Pot. Meet Abercrombie.
92
@91: I'm just lollin' at their comment that "Camille Paglia make any sense."

Paglia is Palin with a few more brain cells, little more. She's meant to be a conservative troll for attention.
93
@92: I know right? She's like a hyperactive 4 year old running around a cocktail party saying rude words and pulling her dress up over her head.
94
fairly.unbalanced, commit sudoku
95
@87 Well put. I would only add that the objectifications of both women and men are just two sides of the same coin. And it is all based on male power and agency versus female submission and passivity.

The male images that CS decries @79 and @85 are of strength and virility - muscular youth. It is a male vision of power, not a female one.

The cultural ideal female image is of a female body that men want to fuck. The cultural ideal male image is of a male body that men want to fuck her with.
96
Looks like the threats were a hoax--not surprising given Sarkeesian's past dishonesty, noted above at #82.

"It appears the Anita Sarkeesian death threats (covered earlier on slashdot) are a hoax. The tweets all appeared rapid-fire across three minutes; and the screenshot was taken 12 seconds after the final tweet, logged out, directly on the user's page, without a search."
http://beta.slashdot.org/submission/3804…
97
I'm amazed no one has referenced the great article on the topic that was posted to the New Statesman (which I found linked on Kotaku today). It did precisely what all great editorial journalism aspires to: it made me reconsider my opinion on the matter.

@22: The changes to video games you propose sound great, but the sad truth of the structure the current game industry means that in most cases, developers are forced to hew to what the publisher's market researchers believe will sell the most units, and that method is to cater to males. Those that circumvent the system (say, though Kickstarter) may be just as limited as their situation means they are even more in need of high sales.

@65: Your lack of awareness/understanding of a ubiquitous meme image does not a death threat make. I employed the image in its original usage, as I didn't have the energy that day to yet again point out your numerous distortions and hypocrisy.
98
Bonus comment!

For anyone interested to see just how deep the hypocrisy of fairly.unbalanced goes, by all means click this link and read Dan's post. Then, read comments 9, 19, and 52 (with 80 for extra credit). You'll notice that his later comments - 106, 109, 112, 117, 121, and 127 - refuse to acknowledge the dressing-down he just received. With that in mind, compare and contrast fairly.unbalanced's comments and stance in both threads. Show your work.
99
@98: Thanks so much for the link. I had to laugh because @82 is such a perfect summary of the fuck knuckles that piece describes. He's even imagined into existence that Sarkeesian is wearing a low cut shirt to help prove his "point".
It's marvelous!
100
Anna, is that sufficient evidence for you?
One person here posts "kill yourself" and 6 people here defend that posting.

It is not because Anita Sarkeesian is a woman.
It is not because Anita Sarkeesian critiques video games.
It is not because of Anita Sarkeesian's claims of misogyny.

It is because that is how some people on the internet behave towards people they disagree with.
You can see them right here.
101
@99 Not just low cut - low cut flannel. Sexy, sexy, flannel. How can anyone be expected to take a woman seriously when she's all tarted up in flannel?
102
Does no one care that there are strong indications this a HOAX, perpetrated by Sarkeesian herself to promote her latest Tropes video? (see above at #96). I guess not, as long as it fits your preferred narrative.
103
@100:
No one wants you dead.
Your experience does not meet the criteria to be compared to Sarkeesian's on any level.
That you are trying to ride her coat tails and equate some one being mean to you on one blog with being driven from one's actual home by a credible death threat is as repulsive and tone deaf a thing as you have ever done.
Bravo, unbalanced, little victim robot, bravo.

104
@102: I would. If there was actually any thing to support your preferred narrative besides neck beards trading rumor and wishful thinking on the intertubes.
105
@101: LOL. Mmmmm flannel.
I'll be in my bunk.
106
@105 I admit I don't know how twitter works very well. There may be a very good explanation for how Sarkeesian took a screen shot of these tweets 12 seconds after the last one (and only 3 minutes after the first one), without being logged into her account or running any kind of search. How would you explain it?
107
@103
You have already come out defending such behavior.
Along with 5 other people here.
As long as it is directed against someone you do not like.

If you did not like Anita Sarkeesian's message then you would be posting about how no one wants her to be raped and murdered.
You would claim that it's just something that people post when they don't really mean it.
Just as you are doing right now.
108
#18 predictably says something fucking stupid again - to wit:
Ample evidence that video games over time harden empathy and for some individuals, with insecurity or sociopathic dispositions, will act them out in real life and mow down theater goers, mall shoppers, or students - or rape someone. This is the culprit. Depravity in our culture.
This is what liberals prefer, it seems.


Take a second and read that again if you can actually do so with out vomiting.

You know a normal person with even an average intellect would be immediately cognitively disabled after even thinking something that dissonant and moronic. The genetic brain impairment our resident Rightwing troll raindrop apparently has actually got him to the point of typing it.

So. Raindrop? Those upstanding right-wing parents that took their nine year old to the gun range where she went and blew a dudes brain out with an Uzi - that would be the depravity YOU right wingnuts prefer.

You know, actual - not virtual - slaughter.

And I guarantee you that 90% of cretins that are threatening to rape this women over her video game comments are fucking RIGHT WING TROLLS JUST LIKE YOU.

109
@107: That's a negatory good buddy.
I have not, and will not, ever defend threats of rape and/or murder against any one no matter what I may feel about them.
If any one ever threatens to rape and/or murder you on this blog, or any where else, I will be down on them like a ton of bricks and support you in reporting them both to the Stranger and the police.
You have my word

But that hasn't actually happened to you.
No one had threatened to kill you.
No one has threatened to rape you.
No one has doxxed you.
No one has followed you from Slog to any other part of the Internet to harass you.
No one has your address or that of your parents.

But you know, when any of that happens, despite the fact that you are an epic tool, I will have your back.

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