Somehow the editor at Kotaku UK approved this profile piece on "Total Biscuit On Dealing With The Hate", akin to the many sympathetic pieces on professional harassers, alt-right, MRAs, neo-nazis, etc. that we've seen previously last year. It's the same dynamic where media platforms publish profile pieces on harassers and bigots, instead of their victims, and thereby white-washes people who've done immense harm to others. This article, despite online harassment being central to the piece, does not mention even once Gamergate and erases the hate that TB has dealt out himself. Marginalized people have been warning everyone about humanizing harmful personalities by giving them editorial space in mainstream media, yet here we are once more where an outlet gives a sympathetic platform to someone who's done a lot of harm to people.
As some of you may know, Total Biscuit is known for
Remember this is what he once wrote last year:
tl;dr: Kotaku UK's editor approved a sympathetic profile piece on someone who has cultivated the harassment and terrorism in video game communities throughout the years on the anniversary of Gamergate, while erasing & ignoring the hate that he has dealt out.
EDIT: if people are interested, other and better articles have been published throughout the week, such as this one
As some of you may know, Total Biscuit is known for
- unleashing his toxic followers on people who criticize him,
- supporting Gamergate,
- saying that racism does not exist in the UK,
- calling the women who are terrorized by gamers professional liars,
- saying that the only ones who are driving women away from gaming culture are the people who claim that women are harassed.
Remember this is what he once wrote last year:
"Hey Ross, I liked your answer to the Gamergate question and I dont blame you one bit for not diving too far into the endless void of bullshit that is that whole thing. You got the gist of it though. Publications covered their own asses because they stood accused of corruption. That was the literal start of it, Grayson was accused of favourable coverage of Quinns game while they were in a romantic relationship which he had not disclosed. The narrative was changed to portray any discussion as misogynist, the facts twisted in an effort to discredit and smear further investigation (apparently won't someone PLEEASSEEE think of the women is the new THINK OF THE CHILDREN, which is weird because I've always thought women should be treated like adults not children... like a fucking sane person would) and anyone even remotely associated with it was branded a heretic. The 40k reference was more apt than you know, having ANYTHING to do with Gamergate was basically like being tainted by the warp itself. If you even came into contact with it it was Exterminatus for you and anyone you associate with. Crazy shit. I've never had as many threats as when I dared speak about journalistic ethics or question the knowledge and motivations of some talking-heads in the last year. I literally had hundreds of people wishing death on me through social media for supporting a charity that I AM PUBLICLY AFFILIATED WITH because they somehow misinterpreted it as a sinister attack designed to destroy their charity event. Just to add a cherry on top of that, all that went down while I was in a goddamn chemo clinic.
I've been keeping an eye on this whole thing since it started and my conclusion is pretty simple. Those involved lied and lied and lied until they got the media on their side (which wasn't hard because most of the liars were the media to begin with). A lot of the people with audiences stopped talking about it because you put a target on your back whenever you did and a bunch of people on the anti side have tried to make opposing this boogeyman their career path, raising money through Patreon, getting writing jobs, promoting their games, receiving paid public speaking gigs and enjoying publicity all under the guise of fighting something that doesn't exist in the form that they claim it to. Did harassment happen? Absolutely. Could anyone have controlled that? No, because a hashtag isn't a club. There are no rules, you dont have to apply for membership, nobody can control the actions of a random guy on the internet who decides to use a hashtag. A hashtag is not a group, it is a communication channel with no oversight. Does it fucking suck that people like Sarkeesian and Quinn were threatened by thugs on the internet? Absolutely. Does any of that dispel the very real concerns people had about how games media was acting? No, if anything the way Gamergate was covered was in itself proof of the corruption. Games media had the power to make this whole ordeal go away, instead they closed ranks and pushed the narrative as hard as they could to deflect criticism. I personally found it disgusting. Gamergate is one of the worst things to happen to gaming culture in a long time, but not for the reasons Polygon claims. The only people driving women out of the games industry are the fear-mongering yellow journalists repeating the narrative that women are under attack. Well done guys, you successfully discouraged women from getting involved in the industry. How progressive of you. Dolts."
tl;dr: Kotaku UK's editor approved a sympathetic profile piece on someone who has cultivated the harassment and terrorism in video game communities throughout the years on the anniversary of Gamergate, while erasing & ignoring the hate that he has dealt out.
EDIT: if people are interested, other and better articles have been published throughout the week, such as this one