A new article from STGRB (Stop The Goodreads Bullies). This one involves a “bully” review that was removed by… http://t.co/ao6TGaQW91 — Anne Rice (@AnneRiceAuthor) June 1, 2015

Just in case the recent imbroglio wasn’t weird enough, Anne Rice (perhaps accidentally) aligned herself with #GamerGate by slamming Randi Harper in Twitter, pointing to an article on ‘Stop the Good Reads Bullies’, a site dedicated to shaming people who abuse . This has resulted in a flurry of responses to Anne, including a veiled rebuke from Neil Gaiman.

From 2004: what I think about authors replying to people on Amazon etc who write bad reviews. Seems apt now: http://t.co/GCVVSVvzxA — Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) June 2, 2015

It also earned a ringing endorsement from the crazy uncle of neoreactionary cultural conservatism. In many ways, these are old battles that just oddly crossed paths. Anne Rice has long had a history of activism against people who abuse author rankings on sites like Good Reads and Amazon by brigading, for example. Whereas Randi’s objectionable posts were from a pre-GamerGate crusade that her and other feminists had against Vivek Wadhwa, a (male) advocate for female empowerment who apparently had a habit of occasionally stepping in it.

In 2015, Wadhwa was criticized publicly by several women in technology for the way in which he was speaking on behalf of women in technology. One example mentioned was that at an event, he had used the slang word “floozies”[87][88] when referring to technology companies needing to take hiring women more seriously, in the context of his advocacy for tech companies to include higher-ranking women on interview panels for female candidates. Wadhwa responded to the criticism, writing that he had not known what the word “floozy” meant due to his poor grasp of American slang, as an immigrant, that he had apologized at the event as soon as his misstep was pointed out to him, and that he had lost sleep over this.

To be honest, I’m so unfamiliar with the Wadhwa case that I don’t know if I have much of an opinion on the matter, and to be honest, I’ve tried to care a couple of times, but I just can’t be bothered to give a fuck. Work’s been a bear, you know? For all I know, Randi was right here, or she was a bully. Here’s my point, though.

Harper is the target of Anne Rice’s wrath, which means that Anne Rice’s opinions are now being uncritically and enthusiastically supported and touted by the #gamergate hardcore on Twitter. The hypocrisy of GamerGate followers in this regard is an impressive new low for them, because Brigading shit is one of their favorite things to do. Check out, for example, the reviews of Zoe Quinn’s Depression Quest. Or the grossly disparate ranking for the Nightline story about GamerGate. Or the fact that KiA actually manipulated IMDB’s ranking system just so they could write negative (and frequently dishonest) reviews about noted #gamerGate villain Anita Sarkeesian’s work. And that’s before you get into them using their numbers to bully and harass individuals with dogpiling, harass organizations and events with coordinated hashtag campaigns, and attempting to bully the press into their point of view with dishonest boycott campaigns. These, by the way, are frequently NOT the acts of third party trolls, but are indeed happily orchestrated and bragged about on sites like KotakuInAction.

I’m pretty happy whenever I see prominent voices speak out on online bullying. If Anne Rice really wants to repudiate horrible, petty online bullies, though, then I welcome her to take on the big game and call out the voices currently attempting to hoist her on their shoulders. Because if an honest anti-bullying advocate is offended by Harper’s advocacy, GamerGate’s coordinated campaigns of brigading and bullying over the last 8 months must be utterly stomach churning.