Clarifications on #GamerGate, KiA and the alt-right

Yesterday (was it yesterday?) ... well, recently, in any case I made a throwaway comment in the heat of Twitter battle that I now regret. I said that many in #GamerGate and KiA had gone 'alt-right.' I should have merely said that GG had moved to the right which, I believe, is true.



When Milo Y. got heavily involved in GG in his role at Breitbart, he made much ado about the "alt-right." At the time I pointed out that the alt-right was a bastion of ethno-nationalists and various other reactionary, right-wing racists and that it was probably not what Milo claimed it was. But the phrase stuck. Bannon used it to describe Breitbart, and for a moment in history a number of people within and outside of GG referred to themselves as 'alt-right.'



It was because of this that I said some GGers had gone 'alt-right', but I was quickly assured that alt-right *now* meant what I had thought it meant in the first place: Racist, ethno-nationalists who want nothing to do with homosexual Jews like Milo. Meanwhile, many of the shitposting GG types who briefly self-described as alt-right quickly backtracked and distanced themselves from the true alt-right. Tha'ts great! I'm glad. There is, in fact, a pretty huge divide between people who make fun of so-called SJWs and post silly memes and people who burn crosses and worship Hitler.



I stick to my assertion that GG and subreddit Kotaku in Action have *moved to the right* though I accept that many within both GG writ-large and KiA are not right-wing. (Left-libertarian is a pretty unsatisfactory catch-all that many use, however, which I feel is a little too vague.) I also stick to my assertion that the phrase Social Justice Warrior has broadened in meaning, and is now often used to simply describe anyone to the left of whoever is wielding it. I dislike the word, and I find it peppered all over KiA.



I also stick to my assertion that outrage works on many sides and can infect many sides. I see a lot of outraged gamers all the time who, sometimes, are outraged by SJWs who are outraged. It's outrageous! And I tend to avoid this stuff lately, until I don't, and then I get mired in days-long Twitter wars where everybody's pissed off and I walk away tired and dejected.



As to the Cuphead controversy, I addressed that in another Twitlonger. You can read about it here: https://twitter.com/erikkain/status/906355100528115712



I am in no way "attacking gamers" by suggesting that we not dog-pile on a game journalist who had a bad run. I'm also suggesting we view more than just one video to discern competency. And finally, I do think many people are suggesting that "all game journalists" are terrible at games, in spite of the fact that there are just a tiny handful of examples of this. (See, for example, the tweet that started this whole thing from IMC: https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/904058093192994816



He tweeted: "Game journalists are incredibly bad at video games. It’s painful to watch this. How do they think they're qualified to write about games?"



Not, "this game journalist is bad at games" just "Game journalists are incredibly bad at video games."



Well, Ian, my dude. You were a game journalist once. You know many game journalists. I'm a game journalist and I'm not incredibly bad at games. I'm qualified to write about them. I absolutely take this shit personally. So please stop talking shit just to please your followers. I know it's fun to stir up your fan base and say outrageous things like this, but it's also dishonorable. And I may be old fashioned but honor matters to me.



Throwing everyone working in games journalism under the bus by implying the entire profession is this bad at Cuphead is disingenuous as hell, and so is the rest of that thread, implying that reviewers are just watching YouTube videos to make their reviews and so forth. It's just a nasty way to treat people and I'm really disappointed and frankly a little pissed off also. I expected better than this. Of course people feel the need to defend against this kind of flame-war bullshit. Don't act surprised when they do. (But of course you're not surprised when they do, because you're planning on it, planning on writing the follow-up article "Game Journalists Defend Being Bad At Games" not even considering that maybe they're just sick of being lied about, just like gamers were sick about being lied about.



In any case, it's hard to convey all of this via 140 character tweets. Almost everyone screws that up. It becomes twenty different threads with five people tagged in each one. I'm told the same thing twenty times even after I've clarified my position. It's exhausting and stupid and so here's a clarification to end all clarifications.



I don't think 'all gamers' are attacking 'all game journalists' but I think some are, including tweets like the one I linked from IMC. I don't think all GG has moved to the right, but I do think it's had a distinct rightward drift and I know I'm not alone in thinking that. I don't mind. People are allowed to be conservative or Trump supporters or whatever, that's fine. But I do dislike the constant outrage over whatever new SJW article was posted or whatever silly thing a student activist group just did.



I'm a fucking game journalist. I play games. I write about games. All this drama is lame and childish, and if you're helping to constantly stoke said drama, well... Do better. We're all adults here, aren't we? Aren't we?

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