no-more-mediation:

Yeah… Either you’re not getting replies because there’s no “outreach” system… Or because you’re interpreting something that doesn’t exist. There might be some individuals who go too far in their politics, but if you want to speak to them and you’ve actually seen them.. Why aren’t you DIRECTLY messaging them? Answer; because you don’t really want to know, you just want to fight an idea you’ve got, not talk to human people.

Aww, I take offense to that! I always try to handle things through direct, private communication if I can. I send a lot of emails; I don’t post about it because they are meant to be personal communication, not some public trophy, and also because I tend to talk more openly about my own experiences in them, including stuff I prefer not to make public on Tumblr.

Take my recent post directed at Dominic Tarason, for example. Back in October I actually sent him an email directly. He wrote a public TwitLonger post about how he’d love to speak to me and try to make me see reason, but was afraid I would attack him or refuse to listen. So I sent him an email myself, explaining where I was coming from and asking him to explain the point at which I was incorrect in my feelings. I’ll even post the email below, scrolled past any parts I’m uncomfortable sharing. I figure it’s my writing, so I do have the right:

(full size)

There was no reply, of course, which is probably why I found it kind of aggravating when he started tweeting a few months later about how he was so disappointed that I was someone who believed rumors without evidence. Like, literally every interaction I’ve had with him was requesting evidence for something he said, to which I never even got an acknowledgement.

I want to make conversations like this happen, but I can’t find a tactic that will get people like this to open up. Private conversation almost never seems to work, and my public invites for discourse always seem to lead to the same sound bites as people completely sidestep the issues I actually care about. It’s why I’m trying the “Win Kazerad” thing now; my thoughts are that maybe, if I make it so people have to sell their beliefs to me rather than refute my own, they will actually address my concerns. Only GamerGate people are responding so far, but I’m holding out hope that I will come out of this with sympathy for everyone involved.