By all rights, the furor over rocket scientist Matt Taylor’s cheesecake shirt should have died down by now. After being chided earlier this week for marring the celebration over the landing of a space probe ON A GODDAMNED COMET by doing interviews in a tacky shirt covered with half-naked ladies, Taylor offered a brief but heartfelt apology. You would have thought we’d all be able to move on.

Not so fast. Because these days apparently no controversy can ever be over as long as it serves someone’s interest to keep it going. And so a loose but very familiar coalition of reactionaries and antifeminists and angry techies have started flogging an amorphous cause they call #Shirtgate or, more popularly, #Shirtstorm, purporting to be outraged that Taylor was “humiliated” into apologizing.

So many of the angriest voices in this, er, conversation are #GamerGaters it looks a lot like a sequel. Call it GamerGate Part Two: The Straw Graspening. And it’s not just me making the connection: #GamerGaters and #Shirtstormers, often one and the same, are making the connection:

So radical #shirtstorm SJW have attacked my games my #gamergate revolt and now they are attacking #science. Am i allowed to be mad ? — Anti-ProcrusteanBed🏴 (@punkerul) November 16, 2014

I am a man. I'm sick of hearing that because of my gender, my opinions don't count and sexism towards me isn't real. #GamerGate #shirtstorm — Lord Inquisitor Ineptus Astartes (@AstartesIneptus) November 16, 2014

https://twitter.com/Scrumpmonkey/status/533409838207078400

Heck, our old friend Milo is making the connection:

https://twitter.com/Nero/status/533727009105801216

Oh, it’s a veritable #GamerGate Old Home Week! GG mainstays Thunderf00t and Mundane Matt have rushed out videos about The Shirt.

People are making graphics covered with hard-to-read text:

There are giant complicated conspiracy theory graphics covered with red lines and angry red text. This one notes that Chris Plante, who wrote an article criticizing Taylor’s shirt, also wrote one of the now-notorious “Gamers are Dead” pieces.

https://twitter.com/Reyeko_/status/533482641774100480

Apparently there were a few dudes who were none too pleased with Plante’s story on The Shirt:

https://twitter.com/plante/status/533244307105648640

#Shirtstormers wrote angry “letters” in too-small-type. (Click here for larger, more readable version and here for one with angry graphics, too.)

https://twitter.com/Alpha_duck1/status/533698520100777984

While others tried to draw a parallel between Taylor’s alleged “humiliation” and … rape.

https://twitter.com/MSamenfink/status/533812500429828097

Neo-reactionaries and “Dark Enlightenment” types see opportunity in the #Shirtstorm hashtag.

https://twitter.com/voxday/status/533336186535030784

Don't judge me because of what I'm wearing – unless I'm a guy. Then you can define my personality and try to ruin my life. #shirtgate #NRx — VDARE (@vdare) November 15, 2014

https://twitter.com/antidemblog/status/533341319184531456

https://twitter.com/BernardChapin/status/533628518077186049

As do MRAs:

https://twitter.com/deanesmay/status/533758421158227969

As does this familiar name:

Women do not face a hostile climate in science. And they can handle seeing a guy in an edgy shirt. #GamerGate https://t.co/8gvTyo0bg6 — Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) November 16, 2014

They’re all there, all hoping to turn a debate over a shirt into another endless internet Benghazi.

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