A letter to my father about SPJ Airplay

Today the event #SPJAirplay took place. This event was hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists, the goal of which was to address the ethics concerns of GamerGate and attempt to improve how journalists handle leaderless online revolts/consumer movements in the future. It was to be an all day event, with 3 panels, and GamerGate sent 6 people we trusted to address this knowledgeably and effectively to participate. This event received a lot of attempts to get it shut down prior to it occuring, as it was likely to be a clear refutation of the false narrative that has been levied against gamers like myself for the past year (Some details on those attempts here http://spjairplay.com/update12/ )

Well, the morning panel went off without a hitch, and it was great, it was everything GamerGate could have hoped for and was clearly helpful to the SPJ as well. During this first panel, their hashtag (#SPJAirplay) was trending in the US, Canada, and the UK. The SPJ ethics director even commented during it that GamerGate is clearly not what has been claimed. Then the second panel began, it was a bit rockier and more intense than the first but was still going well, only about 3/4 of the way through it, the police evacuated the building and SPJAirplay got shut down by bomb threats. Just like when I went to GGinDC back in May, people interested in silencing GamerGate’s concerns used bomb threats to try to do so. Bomb threats, over fucking journalism ethics.

Anyway, this was of course an incredibly stupid move on their part, as it only further cemented how false the narrative against GamerGate has been and the idea that people are actively trying to prevent the issues we’re raising from being addressed. Within 15 minutes of the evacuation, #SPJAirplay was trending on twitter WORLD WIDE. Every twitter user in every country could see, plain as day, the hashtag trending. An event for journalists, by the society of professional journalists, with many journalists in attendance, was shut down by bomb threats. So, that narrative will not stand any longer, this is going to be all over the world, there will be tons of articles on it, and so on the eve of the 1 year anniversary of GamerGate beginning, we have the makings of a total victory, not just FTC guidelines and ethics policy updates, but a true vindication for all the lies that have been spun about us.

This, however, is not how I wanted this. I wanted Airplay to go off without a hitch, I wanted our vindication to come by the sagacity of our arguments, in this forum that journalists couldn’t ignore. This feels like a hollow victory, but since at least half of the event took place (and was streamed live, worldwide), it’s not completely hollow. I was so excited all day, my hype was real, I sat down to watch the debates and was overjoyed by them, but this… it just killed the mood. It’s so frustrating, like if say, you had been winning a game of risk against me and then I flipped the board and stormed out of the room. Yeah, you’d be the winner, but not because you had completed the game and won, but because I was an asshole.

First article about it is out already, give it a read if you like. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/15/what-i-meant-to-say-before-that-bomb-threat/

GamerGate, achieving our goals, working to prevent censorship and lies, people of varied political, national, religious callings all coming together to fight for the future of gaming… it is the thing I am most proud of being a part of, in my life. My life has been a series of bad decisions, failures, and making do. I’ve never created anything of value, haven’t felt any strong pull to elevate my situation in life since my felony conviction, never really done anything that I could reflect on and feel proud to my core for having done it. Perhaps that seems sad, but I don’t think so, because GamerGate has been a truly unique ride, I’ve met so many great people and had so many great times, all while really standing for something I believe in. Rather than feel depressed at the prospect of my participation in GamerGate being my proudest work, I feel truly fortunate to have had the opportunity to do so.

So I’m sure you can understand how I feel to see what should have been the day we vindicated ourselves to the world on our own merit being overshadowed as the day we were vindicated by the incompetence and zealotry of our opposition. Any who might suggest that the bomb threats were a false flag done by us (which I’ve already seen happen), simply do not understand the gamer mentality.