Why is casual racism/sexism more accepted in video games than other forms of media (these days)?

appreciate it, bg. my big sister has asperger's so it's something that's come to strike a particular chord with me. not gonna put myself on a pedestal - it did not jump out to me in the years between when the word started circulating and when she found her diagnosis. a failure of my own empathic instincts and training for sure.

chicken/egg situation there, lacking empathy makes it difficult to understand why it's a bad term, and people who qualify under that same umbrella often lack empathy

been working to get it out of my vocab irl and online tbh
and yes, i'm a bit ocd/spectrum-y myself so mh otm

anyway, you guys are missing the big pull-quote there:

Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey donated $100,000 to President Trump’s inaugural celebrations through a shell company seemingly named after a time-traveling vehicle from role-playing game Chrono Trigger.

I don't think any of that is particularly surprising, tbh

SPINAL FUNCTION

it's surprising that it happened in actual reality

ZEAL PALACE CORP

not really, it's 2017 and these fuckers are seemingly everywhere. mostly because they're too vocal and the internet is omnipresent

Yeah, like I don't know how you can interact with gaming culture at large (or have followed the bitcoin saga, or watched any portion of the shenanigans that fuel Silicon Valley) and be surprised at this.

but then again I've also been saying that comments sections are a bellwether for the country at large for years now so maybe I've just jaded myself into expecting shit like this and every instance of it is confirmation bias

So, I read Lindy West's fantastic Shrill yesterday, and I strongly recommend it for any number of reasons. But I thought of this thread because she discusses at length the backlash to her taking the position that rape jokes are generally not funny, and that stand-up comedy's male protestations of free speech and "equal opportunity offender"-ism mask and trivialize real harm in precisely the way patriarchal culture at large wants to minimize and erase rape and the experience of survivors (thus, such jokes can't even claim to be transgressive or shocking, not that that would be an excuse anyway). This all went down in 2013, a year before Gamergate, and the tactics, tone and avenues of the harassment campaign are all identical. I wouldn't be the first to connect the two sagas, but it did help turn some light bulbs on for me - at several points upthread I was most interested, in terms of armchair internet discourse analysis, in parsing out how GamerGate might show a particular translation of general misogyny through the particular tropes and life experiences of gamernerds.

I still don't think that's a dead end insofar as it might help in developing strategies to interrupt and redirect gamernerd culture in the long run. West writes hopefully about how teenaged stand-up comedy nerds might just maybe think about this issue differently when from the minute they're getting interested in the form, their heroes are willing to come out and say that rape jokes arent' funny --- reminded me of my reflection somewhere upthread that the anonymous writers of Usenet group FAQs probably helped shape my 12- and 13-year-old sense of how you're supposed to behave in a community generally and to interact with people you can't see specifically. But, seeing obvious patterns that line up between Gamergate and non-gamernerd developments otherwise identical in substances does make me think that the more useful common denominator is the language, behavior and values inculcated in white male culture generally and white male internet culture specifically. Again not a staggering revelation but put another way, I think the thread title question isn't wrong in its assumptions, but may be giving other forms of media a little too much credit.

A review of Angela Nagle's new book about alt right gamergator schmucks

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/kill-all-normies-the-alt-right-s-new-turn-1.3104338

good read - need to pick up a copy of her book

No thanks I'm good. https://t.co/91yChTVLDs

— namechanging cunt (@UnburntWitch) June 12, 2017

Notch acting like a stand-up guy as ever.

I am truth and freedom, you are a witless pawn of evil. https://t.co/xgW8VV5lJC

— Notch (@notch) June 12, 2017

lonely shut-in + misogyny + social media + billions of dollars = disaster

nationalise the videogames industry imo, all that money is not good for the people who are good at making games

Yeah, this weekend is a great time for these fucks to show up again

if people come at you for these not being "recent" enough: pic.twitter.com/2CkHlzy8Z2

— celene 🌙 (@ombrophilia) June 12, 2017

Entered the fray and one of these Notch-saving dickheels quoted Latin at me and then accused me of ad hominem because I said they were pathetic, and that his sympathy for Quinn ended when she "monetised" her abuse.

The only comfort is they will never multiply. The genepool ends here.

lol @ "monetised her abuse", like that 1. isn't total horseshit as a concept and 2. would even be a problem otherwise. the biggest mystery to me is the mindset of these ppl whose constant resort to bullshit and desperate stuff like this doesn't weaken their faith in the cause

the bullshit IS the cause, why would it weaken anything?

they are feebs. that is why their faith isn't weakened. they are literal wastemen.

they are genuinely stupid people who think they are clever because they are good at videogames and because they are unpopular in the real world.

are you...ilx subtweeting me?

haha no!

it is possible to be all those things and not be an asshole imo

that's unfair, there are plenty of popular, successful people having children who are horrible people

Nothing particularly new here, but it's good that Polygon continues to call this stuff out, and Sarkeesian is OTM as usual

https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/6/27/15880582/anita-sarkeesian-garbage-human-vidcon-interview

It's very depressing to look back on the original question and realize the answer is "It isn't; racism and sexism is just as acceptable in all of our media, videogame people are just louder about it."

agreed

I like that their arguments against what she's said still amount to "nuh uh, she's wrong. and she was mean to me!"

Carl Benjamin is a British YouTube personality in his late 30s. He has spoken vituperatively, many times over many years, about Sarkeesian and her work. Some of his videos are thumbnailed with ludicrously Photoshopped imagery of Sarkeesian. At the time of writing, his Twitter page is bannered with a picture of Sarkeesian.

Good god these cretins.

Benjamin is an atheist.[19] He self-identifies politically as centre-left and a classical liberal.[4][20] He has opposed movements that purport to defeat online misogyny, such as the British group 'Reclaim the Internet', which he called "social communism".[3][21]

Benjamin has said that the working class could be harmed by immigration and neo-liberal policies from both the left and right. Benjamin was a vocal supporter of Brexit[22] and described Donald Trump as the "lesser of two evils" compared to Hillary Clinton. Prior to the primary election of Clinton as the United States Democratic Party candidate, Benjamin stated he would have preferred Bernie Sanders over Clinton or Trump.[23] Along with Trump, Benjamin has endorsed other right wing politicians such as Marine Le Pen.[24]

Fuck this chode. He should self-identify as a chode.

I feel like the idea these dudes have no natural positions and just claim the opposite position of whatever their targets believe is a little overblown, but imo it's more true than false

the people individually targeting Sarkeesian like this dude really seem like the kids on a playground who run up and punch a girl on the arm because they want attention, but have no idea why or how to do so positively

perhaps the most depressing part is where it turns out he makes $60K/year doing this.

oh god, the article didn't mention his idiotic online handle (thankfully) and I realized who he is

yeah this guy is not very bright

Yeah me too - I am surprised he stayed anonymous so long when clearly he wants to be admired - presumably

bah - presumably he waited until he could summon legions on anyone who bothered him in real life.

the fact that two of these moldy diaper versions of human beings make 8k a fucking month via patreon to keep doing this crap makes me sick

the phrase is "diaper drinkers" TM whiney

I think I heard it from j4son from Alternative Press originally

hey cool, it turns out that n1ck r0bins@n (polygon video comedy dude/generator of much content i've loved) is very likely a total creep. weirdly the reaction online is "i sure hope gr1ff1n (his partner on many polygon comedy things) is ok" (who is a dude). lol i guess at least believing reports & showing concern for secondary victims is a step up from not believing at all, but ok.

anyway, fuck everything

Seconded

ugh

killing some time here and I searched for what that's about and was kind of pleasantly surprised by how many people were actually saying "hey, women don't have to post 'proof' he was a creep to women, if women say that and are corroborating each others stories, then believe women"

I mean, post you-know-what, there's still a contingent of idiots who are going to rip apart any screenshots of interactions, say whatever was said wasn't that bad or is fake, and attack anyone posting about it. So wanting people to step forward with screenshots or w/e is basically asking people to make themselves targets. And it looks like people are starting to understand that

folks the gamers are at it again pic.twitter.com/Ft1t13Iw4L

— baҳ 📚 (@bax_books) September 7, 2017

tbf gamers never really stopped this bullshit but hard lol that it's south park of all things that's triggered them this time

Were the previous 36 DangerGamers such irredeemable choads?

it's a fair bet

I'm sure there'll be some good-natured antisemitism in the game to make up for it