I didn’t want to write this piece, I really didn’t. I wanted to write a nice little article that I could possibly sell to a few gaming rags for a quick buck to pay the rent (I owe people money) and shed the facts. I had been one of the many vocal critics of Anita Sarkesian that stated that her claims of harassment were more often than not an over exaggerated sob story of victim hood generated for the sole purpose of gaining publicity and cash. Sarkesian has also made it a habit to put time in browsing her Twitter feed. Hours upon hours of time and effort browsing her twitter feed like the self-absorbed suburbanite pustule filled sack indigent human flesh that she is. It’s obvious that a meticulous amount of effort goes into her selection of 20 plus screen caps of trolls considering that she can get hundreds of tweets in an hour or two. But despite her tendency to over exaggerate her problems, I still didn’t want to write this piece. I wanted to be proven wrong and taste the bitter taste of humility on the stage of public discourse. This could have been a piece that took a look at how what happens online can have some serious ramifications. This would be article could have been deleted and replaced the ultimate college liberal shrine to political correctness while maintaining that Gamergate is not about harassing women. It could have been all that apologist crap with a healthy dose of bitter sarcasm, had the facts not confirmed my dark suspicions to be true.

From August 27 through the 31st news broke that Anita Sarkesian of tropes v.s women fame was forced to flee from her home when faced with threats of necrophilia, possible cannibalism from the fiendishly degenerate gamer know as Kevin Dobson. This act of psychological war fare prompted the unfortunate Miss Anita to call the local authorities only to be turned away by their blatant incompetence, according to her oh so trustworthy Twitter feed. Had this just been reported by the same gaming rags that launched a massive smear campaign, I would have wrote it off as more blatant lies manufactured to paint #gamergate as a misogynistic movement. Then the story popped up on comics alliance while browsing Twitter (I can only imagine what my facebook feed looks like). "That’s weird” I thought to myself, “Why is gamer gate cropping up on a comics site?“ After a quick search on google I discovered that the conversation blew up overnight, grabbing the attention of the internet at large like an atomic bomb exploding in the night sky. The mad jackals that unleashed these articles on Anita’s night of terror onto the public at large were none other than the likes of The Washington Post, The L.A Times and Yahoo news. As I read these fantastic tales from these reputable news sites, I discovered that none of them ever got a statement from the police. "Now that’s damn strange, doesn’t the press usually contact the police when addressing an event they dropped the ball on?” I looked over Sarkesian’s Twitter feed to see what happened what really happened that night. Do to the limitations of my cheap smart phone, I could only go back an hour, an hour that comprised of literally hundreds tweets talking about the side show event Sarkesian’s career had become comprised of. After finding no success asking questions on the smart phone (a couple of which got me blocked by Adam Sessler) I commandeered the grossly outdated laptop of my best friend and plunged deeper into the matter and found her claims of police incompetence.

After seeing how her fans reacted, I decided to find out exactly how the cops handled her call that night. If the cops really did just suggest that she should just stop talking about video games to stop the threats, then there would be a serious case of victim blaming and negligence, sparking a massive outcry towards the San Fransisco police department. If the cops had a different story, then that would mean that these half deformed ghouls that are supposed to be professionals lack any sort of professional ethics.

I reached out to the San Fransisco police department and asked them what happened on the night of the 26th, the night of infamy. I expected to hear a prepared blanket statement about how the San Fransisco police department takes all threats seriously, I was also ready to sift through forums requesting a record of the dispatch calls from the that night. I was not prepared to hear the dispatcher tell me that they never received a call from Anita Sarkeesian’s home address. I then informed dispatch of the comments Sarkeesian made about her call with the police department on a public forum and then that’s when she gave me the prepared statement on how serious the cops take these sorts of things.

Anita Sarkesian has just made a clear cut and dry example of why the message of #Gamergate and #notyourshield may be more important than opposition would have the audience at large believe. Through Anita’s bold faced lies, that conveniently happened right around the time her last “Tropes vs. Women” video dropped, we have just witnessed favoritism in the gaming press. It’s like the press took one look at Anita Sarkesian’s Twitter feed and decided to run with it as if it were the Gospel word without doing any fact checking, critical thinking, or even so much as a phone call to the third party involved in the story. But it’s not just the gaming press that suffers from this cancer, even the Washington Post, the L.A Times and Yahoo Business Insider failed to do their basic legwork required to be a reporter. If these parasites can’t ask questions, do research, do the leg work, or even make a phone call and report all of the facts, then why do we continue to listen to them?

#gamergate and #Notyourshield is the gaming community as a whole standing up and demanding a higher standard from the press as a whole. We want the facts, not some tabloid click bait made for the victim’s publicity. Like I said, I didn’t want to type this, I would have much rather been stoned to death on twitter than discover that the mainstream press has been infected with this cancerous mentality.

The only question that remains is the big one. Why? Why did she do it? Why did she go on Twitter and lie to thousands of her followers? Why did the press automatically assume she was right and shift blame on the “Gamer” Instead of asking the cops for their side of the story? Was this a case of collusion? Did the timing of these articles have anything to do with the fact that the company Anita Sarkeesien works with, Silverstien media, is connected to the Independent Games Festival, which is quite possibly under federal investigation? Or is this all just the cliche tale of the little girl who cried wolf? Who knows.

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http://herocomplex.latimes.com/games/gamergate-related-controversy-reveals-ugly-side-of-gaming-community/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/29/gaming-vlogger-anita-sarkeesian-is-forced-from-home-after-receiving-harrowing-death-threats/

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/27/6075679/sarkeesian-driven-out-of-home-by-online-abuse-and-death-threats