I’m angry right now and as such I know I should probably step away from the keyboard, crank up steam, and spend this feeling blasting monsters and enemies in a game, but I can’t. I can’t because I know that if I ignore what is happening in games and media right now I could lose even that escape mechanism. I look at my kids, blissfully unaware as they play Terraria on our PS3, and I know that this is not just a fight for me right now. It is a fight for them. Non-gamers will dismiss what is happening as some kind of nerd civil war, unimportant and puerile. Pointless and childish, but it is not. GamerGate was always coming. It was inevitable, because when a group of people is vilified, demonised and dehumanised again and again and again they eventually draw a line in the sand and say “no more”.

As a parent it is my job to teach my kids how to deal with bullies. How to stand up for themselves and those others who come under attack. When to ignore the threats and ridicule, and when it is time to fight back in their own defence. I would be doing my children a disservice if I was to ignore GamerGate and those that are attacking the identity and culture of Gamers, Games and Gaming. We have been scapegoated for society’s ills for too long, and over the last two months it is very clear that it has become permissible to target our gamer children with hate and vitriol, to disparage aneurotypical individuals in a way that would be abhorrent to anyone with an ounce of human decency, using the words “Aspie” and “Autie” the way proponents of hate use ethnic and racial slurs.

This is Janet Mackay, she is a mother of a Youtuber who is on the autistic spectrum. She isn’t a gamer, the only horse she has in this race is her son. When he told her of what is happening in GamerGate she had this to say:

So who exactly are these people who would dare attack our children? What kind of bully are they? If you, as a child, were bullied you may well recognise the type. When i was growing up they were the “cool” kids. The ones other kids aspired to be. The ones who dripped with entitlement and popularity. The ones who flounced off to university and reinvented themselves as socialist warriors whilst still having every hardship cushioned by their parents wealth and influence. The ones who have to invent adversity in their lives to legitimise their existence as “Social Justice Warriors”.

I’ve always identified as a socialist. Certainly more left than centre. I’ve been a proponent of Unions in every job I’ve worked in. I’ve voted left of centre in every election I’ve taken part in. I’ve stood up for the little guy on numerous occasions often doing damage to my own career prospects simply because it is the right thing to do. I know what true social justice is and the people attacking Gamers right now, who profess to be flying it’s flag, in no way represent social justice of any kind. Not in the slightest. They are, in some cases, self professed trust fund babies who have had advantage after advantage handed to them on a plate.

Prominent voices in the opposition are second or third generation capitalist aristocracy who unironically have the audacity to lecture people on “privilege” Alex Lifschitz being one such example, son of David Lifschitz President of the Gehr Group a multi-billion dollar corporation. What on earth do people like this know of hardship and struggle? In the UK we call these people “Champagne Socialists”. Trust fund babies who play at socialism all the while knowing that if the struggle get’s too hard they can rely on their families vast wealth to shelter them from any ACTUAL hardship. Ironically enough, these people who claim to be socialist warriors are actually scions of the Capitalist Cultural Hegemony. Essentially they are rich brats going through a parental rebellion who have decided to fire pot shots of invective at the very people they claim to stand for.

This is why these people are so vehement in their condemnation of GamerGate, why they hide behind a smokescreen of gender politics, cry victim and harassment when people step up and tell them they are wrong. Why they ignore or dismiss evidence of corruption and collusion when it is presented to them in black and white. Because they are “The Cool Kids” they have charmed the fawning gaming media to pander to their whims, so that they too can be part of that “Cool Clique”. Like the eponymous “Mean Girls” they are so used to getting everything their own way from childhoods of real privilege, they feel that they can slander and bully whomever they feel like without consequence, because that kind of wealth brings with it protection.

My children don’t have that privilege, they are encouraged to work hard and earn everything they get. New games, computer upgrades or consoles come from the sweat of their brow, be it doing chores for pocket money or achieving great grades at school. I certainly cannot afford to give them the best of everything, but I give them the best I can. So when these overindulged rich kids rally the media to attack MY children, to disparage them, to attack them on Twitter and MSNBC, I’ll do what I have always done. I’ll stand up for the little guy, for the people who lack the privilege and the power to stand alone in the face of the hate.

GamerGate is not going to go away by these petulant children stamping their feet. It is not going to go away by them calling anyone Pro-GamerGate “white neckbeard cishet basement dwelling virgins” simply because that is factually incorrect. GamerGate is not going to go away until they stop attacking the vast and diverse gaming community. The proletariat to their bourgeoisie.

I’m going to stand up along side the likes of Janet and say loudly and clearly…

Back The Fuck Off.