.@jimmy_wales #GamerGate



The problem isn't that anyone can claim membership or affiliation.



It's that anyone can claim that you have affiliation/membership, to what, and alongside who.



The problem is that it has been painted as something to be a member of in the first place, and only people who disagree with you get to choose who you're a member alongside.



This has set a standard where the only way I can prove innocence against guilt by association is to isolate myself from anyone who shares opinions similar to me (otherwise they 'know I'm still gg'). Never speak an opinion, share info that also appears on or agree with anything that's posted on 8chan (otherwise that's proof I'm part of 'gamergate' because I'm taking order from the 'base of operations')... If I engage with the wrong people, have the wrong opinions, or share the wrong information - that's what makes me a member of 'gamergate' and therefore affiliated with anyone else they decide is gamergate, including anonymous trolls.



The group as a whole seems disorganised because there is no group as a whole - at least not beyond the way people who wear red shirts are a group, or can be grouped (or people who don't like what they call 'gamergate'). Its very status as something people are 'part of' is a fabrication on the back of people's colloquial use of language for convenience - it's easier to say "I'm in #GamerGate", or "pro-gg" than to spend multiple tweets laying out your entire viewpoint. They don't even mean the same thing for everyone who says it. This doesn't mean there's a flawed organisation - it means there isn't one, or at a stretch there are many different organisations sharing the same name. Some of which include only one person. To classify it otherwise is a mistake, and not one the people incorrectly categorised as one organisation are responsible for correcting.



Oh, I can form an organisation to prove my innocence, of course - but my only choices are that I have to adhere to a public manifesto, or otherwise (as an individual) not hold certain opinions or share certain information lest I be shown to be a member of the hate group gamergate! Is that a reasonable situation? "Am I, or have I ever been, a member of GamerGate? And can I tell you who else is a member?"



There is no option for me to act as an individual sharing information via a hashtag people with similar interests may check - in fact, using the hashtag or not is irrelevant to being labeled, fem freq has 15k+ RT's of the tag coming off their account and they aren't called GG. The anonymous trolls I've seen have none, and are called an obvious member - alongside me!



I am either a member of an organisation including abusers based on the judgment of people who hate me for my opinions, or I have to form an official organisation in order to be allowed to hold those opinions and share related information as someone separate to harassers.



The group called gamergate does have a manifesto. It was written by the press and organisations such as IGDA, the ones who truly created the 'hate group' and also decide its membership. The only way to escape, once you've been tarred, is to form an organisation with membership mutually exclusive to 'gamergate' and to exclude and cut yourself off from anyone they deem unsavoury.



I refuse to play this abusive game. We are individuals.



I guess the simplest way to explain it is to paraphrase an 'opponent' popular with various organisations for her list of harassers - they've made my gamergate bed, and now I'll (gladly) get fucked in it. As long as information is shared, and is significant enough to stand on its own and mean something to anyone reading, I am glad. At this point, I'm totally cool with press saying I'm a terrorist. They're the only real 'anti-gg'.



I'll also continue to point out where I think press are being exclusionary, trying to push out and demonise vulnerable people. They really hate that. I think it might work better if people are scared of me, anyway.



It's late, but hopefully I've made some sense to anyone reading.





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