Last night, GamerGate was following around Jonathan McIntosh and mocking him for having an expensive backpack – that it turned out wasn’t even his. As if that wasn’t stupid, creepy and stalkerish enough, this morning E3ers woke up to find the area around the convention center papered with anti-Anita posters.

At least he has more than one poster to throw up, right? pic.twitter.com/VopgX17z4T — Aubrey Cottle (@Kirtaner) June 18, 2015

More proof the posters are real. pic.twitter.com/ZGDnaQjj1q — Jennifer Medina (@JenniferJMedina) June 18, 2015

It’s difficult to tell, but the white background ones repeat the words ‘GamerGate’ over and over again. Which is all ironic, given that Gators love to say over and over again that #GamerGate is about Ethics in Games Journalism, which has fuck all to do with either Anita or John.

Perhaps realizing that this little escapade was even more awful and creepy than what normally passes for acceptable discourse (stalking McIntosh, for example), and definitely falls in the category of being harassing little dickbags, KotakuInAction has been desperately trying to spin this as a ‘false flag’ – i.e. done either by Anita and John themselves, or by Third Party Trolls. The truth of the matter is that, once again, some sick, demented lone wolf took an action that they thought was in bounds in an attempt to discredit and silence critics that they disagree with. The lone wolf was probably this guy – a crazy street artist with a decidedly right-wing bent. If it’s him, he’s clearly someone who believes in the various right-wing bullshit he’s trying to peddle, which means he’s probably thinking he’s doing God’s work carrying GamerGate’s message. But that’s just a theory: this Twitter account is the only person who has claimed credit.

But this is all speculation. Whoever it is plastered #GamerGate’s name all over it, and because #GamerGate has earned the mantle of being obnoxious little jerks with a history of engaging or high-fiving in support over similar actions, they get saddled with the blame. And they should. Whether they took the action or not, they created the toxic environment that made someone think they’d be treated like a hero for this.

The FemFreak episode shows the problem with an anonymous ‘chan’ style of protest. People think that no one can speak for an anonymous group. The truth is anyone can. And once enough bad ones do, there is no reason in the world why anyone should give that protest the benefit of the doubt anymore.