Activism, it’s meant to be about doing something good. Helping people. A selfless act to make the world a better place. Until it’s not.

You see while most people genuinely enter into activism purely to make a difference this is not the case with all of them however.

Let me do a little experiment with you, what’s the first name you think of when it comes to animal welfare ?

I wonder how many of you said PETA. That’s the thing about activism most of it is about having your name known. I mean did you know PETA is against Pets ? They are. There’s plenty more about PETA you may not know and for those interested here’s Bob Chipman’s video on them to tell you more.

Now PR and to an extent advertising is about making the company in question seem better and appear to be making a difference. To be doing good work, making a difference and helping people when in reality it may be slightly different.

I’d like you all to cast your minds back to 2012 when a video went super viral. A video by a group called Invisible Children. The video was designed to raise awareness of a warlord called Joseph Kony and how he was using Child Soldiers.

Here’s that video to help remind you

For a brief while everyone wanted to stop this warlord. However how many people remember the towns being painted orange with stickers ? Because it never happened. People wanted to do good but as many looked into the organisation Invisible Children they discovered not a charity helping people but a political pressure group attempting to push the United States government into taking action. Invisible Children themselves weren’t actually on the ground helping as such unlike charities such as say Warchild.

Now Invisible Children is still a name many will remember an know about. What stopped some others from joinning in the effort was the cost of things they were selling (outside of the US it had high shipping costs). Many held back and then this happened.

What’s important to take from the whole Kony 2012 thing is that the name got out there. For Activist organisations exposure means money and this is just what many group using activism less as a passion and more as a racqet rely on.

What we’ve seen coming from those opposing the hashtag #Gamergate could only be described as vilification of those asking for better ethics. Many organisations capitalised on this in a big way. Media organisations trying to score browny points by doing their perceived good deeds and those attempting to get their name out there because this is their career now.

You see for many organisations attempting to merely create jobs and not trying to make a difference then it’s only exposure not actual achievements that count or that they truly care about.

So if you’re looking at that what has been done by Anita this year in terms of actually helping people ? Well 3 videos you could claim were raising awareness and a single workshop.

Is it really an achievement or progress towards the goal of helping people to make Twenty Media appearances ? Is it really helping people or are the awards ? How about writing guest articles for news papers ? Does any of that sound like people were actually helped or does it sound more like self aggrandising ?

I should also point out in the full report (found here) there are a total of 6 further pages about how many people are paying attention, viewer demographics, Twitter followers and how many articles the organisation has been in.

Heck even the videos themselves could be looked at similar to that of the Invisible Children. So Just how much did they spend in reality to do a single workshop ?

Nearly $32,000 for 3 videos and a single workshop. That’s $8,000 per part. Now what can an $8,000 workshop get you ? Well here’s the results of one of one such workshop though admittedly not run by Feminist Frequency

Now the Tropes Vs women videos came out in Q3, in Q4 as you’re probabaly Aware we had the well I’ll let ABC nightline put the claims out there.

Plenty of false claims in there but the main ones are the threats made against Anita. Threats Anita attributed to gamers when there was no actual evidence.

This is the very screenshot Anita posted of the threats and I’d suggest you read them as it sounds far more like a deranged Vampire fiction fan wanting to suck some-ones blood than someone who plays video games. infact video games are not mentioned in the threat.

So how about that other threat the school shooting one ?

Strange not a single mention of gamers or video games again yet in that ABC article Anita claimed she was the target of Gamergate. Yet Gamergate did something entirely different. #Gamergate members tracked down the person sending Death Threats to Anita, or at least one of them.

Now has Anita acted on this info ? Well no she hasn’t infact she hasn’t even acknowledged it.

What an activism racket needs is first and foremost a serious problem to be dealing with. It can’t be seen to be solving the problem it actually claims to be otherwise it becomes redundent. Worse still if the problem isn’t shown as some huge thing that should scare people hence the fear rehetoric is used.

Gamers are not regular people they’re portrayed as all being Elliot Rodgers

Potential gunmen and killers. Because who wouldn't want to help stop people being killed right ?

Except stop. Think for a moment ?

How many video game critics have been killed ever ?

Yeh not any at all. However people will simply claim there is a threat. to use fear mongering to over-ride the logical part of the human brain.

Now there is not connection between games and school shootings yet people like Anita are happy to claim there is.

That’s right certain games even existing could cause harm.

What activism rackets rely on more than anything though is Zealots firmly and blindly following them

This way it can help them avoid answering anything that could make them look bad. Help them avoid difficult questions.

Because to rackets it’s dangerous for people to ask questions or to provide criticism.

Anita didn't and hasn’t gone after the person actually making Death threats. However she did go after some-one criticisng her.

Now many will argue that Activism doesn't have any financial benefits or benefits for people.

Now look at that 2014 revenue chart and now think that in Q3 two videos were made. In Q4 only 1 video was made yet a lot of media reports and publicity happened in Q4. As you can see from this Media attention in the activism racket = money because not eveyone will check out the organisation they’re donating to. So if you purposely make it seem like you’re the only one then you get the money more easily.

I mean if it really were about Activism you’d want people to know about I dunno Liana K or Christina Hoff Sommers heck you might even want to get on stage and debate with such people.

I mean why not have the debate right ?

That’s the problem with rackets as they rely on people remaining ignorant. They rely on trying to make information as hard to get hold of as possible for people viewing their stuff except the information they want people to have.

So ask yourself is Feminist Frequency making a difference by talking about it ? Are they really helping people in a significant way or are they closer to being a pressure group like PETA, like Invisible Children and like many others. Are they more interested in having a name and what comes with it than their goals ?

Well take at look at their proposed budget and goals for 2015 and the future.

That’s right $40,000 being spent on efforts to raise more money for them and in terms of goals and projects. Another video series, a miniseries. Advocacy, rebranding and creating things to sell.

So um where in there was actually making a change ? Where in there was helping with workshops to get women into technology ? Where in there was helping with women in coding courses or courses to teach coding ? Where in there was helping improve the image of coding and encouraging more women to go into it.

No all there is is advocacy not action most of it focuses on PR / Advertising material and the company itself.

This is why I’m writing this article because advocacy and pressure groups don’t help with the solutions. Racket groups won’t because why get rid of the reason you've got a job ?

Except Feminist Frequency isn't the only group jumping on the train asking for money since #Gamergate started.

A new organisation by two indie developers both of whom claim #Gamergate targeted them. Except as people will most likely not be aware one of the same people actually harrassed someone such that they were in tears. You can read the persons own words here. The same person who happily tried to shut down a non profit effort because she didn’t like them.

So what has Crash Over-ride network done so far to help people ?

Well they’ve helped out a single journalist if their own reports are to be believed.

Which is quite amazing considering the same day said journalist also wrote an article about the project.

However since then there has been nothing really. No success stories but plenty of press.

The truth is and some places are saying it. Crash Over-ride Network and other group are dangerous. Heck many pressure groups who are simply after money are a danger. Not in the sense they’re a danger to you or to me but they’re a danger to actual activism. They’re a danger to people really out there trying to make a difference because they make a name for themselves and get the funding denying it from projects that actually help people. Such as say Castle Knight .

So if you really do care for activism, for equality, for making the world better. Maybe consider looking into people who are trying to make a difference. People who are doing work to help people not simply talking about how terrible it all is and how they could do with more money to solve it, yet never working to solve it. Beware of those out there whose only interest is in talking about the problem not solving it, because chances are they want there to be a problem not a solution. For them activism is not a cause it’s easy cash.