Why No One Will Address Your Perfectly Reasonable Concerns
before I get too much alcohol in me, I have to write a quick thing about the #gamergate kerfluffle from my own perspective, to give you an idea of how it might appear to be failing in the eyes of people like myself. I wont be talking about any of the actual issues here or in replies, and as far as I can tell, by refusing to do so, I am doing exactly what is expected.
the first thing I saw happening, before I even saw the hashtag, was several of the women I follow on Twitter (and several that I dont) being harassed, threatened, and generally made to feel incredibly ill. this was the first wave of attackers, the troll regiment.
it wasnt until most of them had already been blocked or ignored that the second wave appeared - the Activists with Really Genuine Concerns About Corruption in the Video Game Industry - asking mostly-genuine questions to those very same women who had just been terrorized.
"why dont you want to have a rational discussion about this?" they would say, after being told to "fuck off" by various people who were now adrenaline-drunk after wondering whether they were safe in their own homes. "we just want this movement to get media attention," they would say, while simultaneously ignoring the threats of physical violence that had come before, or outright denying their existence, or blaming their victims for manufacturing them.
in this sense, #gamergate has been successful. they have succeeded in silencing women by making it impossible to tell whether their next email, or twitter mention, or phone call will be from someone who will make them fear for their lives; and by doing so, they can claim that their cause is just, because no one will answer their real questions.
as a movement, it doesnt look like anything.
