#56

The scary thing is that, as the alt-right appears to grow in popularity and influence, they appear emboldened by their message. It seems they are getting more and more strident in their views…and as a movement its now a far cry from isolated white young men raging against their perceived injustices.

#57

He must genuinely hate himself. It’s almost like he’s trying to suck up to the school bullies to get them to not pick on him. If he wasn’t the useful idiot with media access, most of those far-right homophobic neo-nazi guys he pals around with would be happy to shoot him.

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#58

I don’t think she was duped into anything; she knew writing about him would extend his platform but she did it anyway because it would raise her profile.

#59

Angela Nagle has already written a book about GamerGate & the alt-right if anyone’s interested, she’s bloody great :+1:t3:

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#60

She is just in complete denial about what she’s done then

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#61

Yeah, that’s what I find deeply troubling. On optimistic days I think that with Milo having been fired from Breitbart and Bannon out of White House that maybe the alt-right wave has broke. But those days are few and far between. It feels like it’s only going to get bigger.

#62

I saw you’d posted that in the Needle Drop thread - definitely going to pick that up. I spent an unhealthy amount of time digging into this stuff when GamerGate broke and it all feels like a fever dream now.

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#63

I’ve got to say, that as a woman it genuinely puts me off the idea of doing anything (even smaller things sometimes) with a public profile/that would put me on their radar. Or at least makes it a big factor that goes into calculating whether something is worth doing or not. Which is sad because it’s what those fragile-egoed losers want.

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#64

This is really sad; but totally understandable, as a white male I’d be far less likely to be targeted than yourself but even I don’t want to leave any dissenting YouTube comments etc.

I guess, as a movement, it’s particularly vitriolic in nature because it is online. It is much more socially awkward to just shut someone down and shout in their face (or the online equivalent) in person. Perhaps this is where the hope lies; in maintaining personal debating and physical campaigning (it has worked for the Labour party, at least).

I saw this video last night of a British schoolboy (must have been 14/15?) making a speech in class about “feminist lies/men’s rights”. His teacher tried to ask probing questions but just straight batted them to rapturous applause from other male schoolmates. You can hear loads of buzzwords like “triggered” and “snowflake” whispered by the class. It was the saddest/scariest thing I’ve seen in ages.

#65

Is that Kill all Normies? I feel like I need to read this asap.

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#66

It’s depressingly ironic, how so much oppression is undertaken by people who are supposedly champions of free speech.

#67

That’s really sad, though entirely understandable (just spotted wonton used almost exactly the same words. The number of women who were run out of the media for daring to have opinions on videogames is heartbreaking. I really hope you don’t let it hold you back - you’d have to endure more than I ever would if I developed a public profile, which is so unfair there aren’t words for it, but the world absolutely needs more diverse voices to be heard right now.

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#68

Penny’s a peculiar one I can’t tell whether she was using her connection to Milo to report from behind the scenes and shed light on a growing problem or whether her principle reason for doing it was because she knew that the resultant article would likely draw a lot of attention.

I personally thought her coverage of them was actually pretty spot on.

#69

I had a disturbing experience earlier this summer. I was teaching a bunch of 16 year olds in Austria. They were smart kids who were on an accelerated science course and were keen on English. We were doing a Dragon’s Den activity where they had to come up with an invention in groups and then give a presentation and Q&A session to the class.

I was walking around chatting to the students/helping them with vocab while they were planning, and one pair of boys had called their invention the “Rape-o-matic” that helps you “absolutely rape the competition”. I was really shocked because they had seemed like nice kids. They were really puzzled and a bit defensive about why I was so shocked and angry with them.

I marched them to the office to meet with their regular teacher, and once we were all talking, it turned out that they hadn’t connected the English word “rape” with the German “Vergewaltigung” (which is literally something like “bad/active violencing” ver is a prefix that makes things more foreceful or shows them going wrong ), and they were not being deliberately horrible.

They’d picked up the vocab word rape off the internet and playing multiplayer XBox against strangers in English, and from context thought it meant something like beating or winning. They were mortified and horrified when they realised the actual meaning, and what they’d really said in their project, and the teacher had a stern talk with them about checking words carefully in the dictionary before carelessly using them, and they had to write a reflection.

It’s still horrifying that that usage of the word is so prevalent and thoughtless that some kids could even get that idea, just trying to improve their English.

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#70

Teenage boys can be petulant, unempathetic and entitled enough without having all this poisonous stuff fed to them.

#71

It’s depressing but not nearly surprising enough to read about normalisation like that. I remember when Alan Pardew used the term “rape” on Match of the Day a few years ago, and was widely castigated…but now it feels like there’s such a huge portion of the online community immune to this kind of reaction.

Exactly, which is most worrying thing. Typically, the narrative is that teenage boys behave in this way at their most vulnerable time…then become more reasonable as they mature. If 20/30 somethings are validating this behaviour then it will already be seen as an adult thing to do by these kids :frowning:

#72

~runs dramatically into thread~

HE’S A MASSIVE CUNT!

~hasn’t read any replies, leaves~

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#73

The language of so many online gaming communities is absolutely toxic and far too many people either don’t seem to realise it or care. :frowning:

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#74

I think it’s an insecurity thing as well- they worry about people accepting and liking them, so just sabotage it by being the worst arsehole they can. But then seem really puzzled and petulant that no-one wants to date them/be a true friend beyond being internet arseholes together.

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#75

The worst thing is when people say, “that’s just what it’s like - you should expect it.” Which is as straight forward an example of privilege that I can think of. And as we’ve seen these cesspools don’t just exist in a vacuum.

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