Gamergate and the politicization of absolutely everything

[AngryAmish]

By ezra klein

Snip

"4. Iyengar and Westwood's conclusion is stark. "Partisans discriminate against opposing partisans, and do so to a degree that exceeds discrimination based on race," they write. Think about that for a moment: at least under certain experimental conditions, our political identities now trump our racial identities."

Snip

"7. This is the context for how #Gamergate has become so massive: we live in a world where politics leads to a 38-point gap on whether a movie about slavery should win an Oscar — an issue, for the record, that neither the Democratic nor Republican parties had any official, or even unofficial, position on. But partisans knew intuitively which side to take. They knew who their friends were, and they knew who their enemies were, and they knew which side would cheer if "12 Years A Slave" won the Oscar. Political identities aren't about tax cuts. They're about tribes."

Read the whole thing. I kinda hate ezra klein (I think he is a grasping non entity) but this is smart.

http://www.vox.com/2014/11/1/7136343/gamergate-and-the-politicization-of-absolutely-everything

[Seeking Serenity]

1. I read this piece

and while I do think Ezra Klein fancies himself too much, I think this piece was spot on.

I have seen it time and time again. It's almost like some people have to wait until "Team Blue" or "Team Red" identities have been established before one can have or offer an opinion on a thing. And I have absolutely known liberals (since I'm a Democrat, I tend to know more liberals than conservatives, DH might have a different viewpoint) who may feel a certain way about a particular issue or person based on actual evidence, but they have either changed their viewpoint or they "just can't" because the issue or person is identified with Team Red.

I hate that EVERYTHING has to be politicized and EVERYTHING placed in a Team Blue or Team Red box (and then you bloody well better act and think accordingly). You even see it even down to SPORTING EVENTS, where people decide who to root for based on the perceived political and ideological position of the cities or regions involved (I remember that most vividly here on DU when the San Francisco Giants were playing the Texas Rangers a few years ago). Now how shallow is that?

Besides the fact that I love him to pieces, I'm glad I married a more conservative man. He forces me out of ideological and informational confirmation bias loops (and I him, I hope). This "Are you on my team? If not, I won't have anything to do with you" mentality will be the ruination of our nation (and I'm sure that there are some who will say that's a good, desirable thing).

[chrisa]

2. +1

Everything is political now, with the two teams of idiots arguing just for argument's sake like little children. One side is all for something, and the other side stomps their feet and whines like a baby. Republicans and Democrats both do it - both are just as unreasonable and full of partisan hacks / opportunists.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Agree. n/t

[linuxman]

3. I read the article yesterday.

I thought it was spot on. The whole time I couldn't help thinking "This guy must live on DU, LOL.". It really hit the mark.

[joshcryer]

4. Internet drama and clickbait journalism.

That's what it boils down to.

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. Exactly. We liberals are much better at alienating than recruiting.

Last edited Sun Nov 2, 2014, 02:16 PM - Edit history (1)

It is thought that having a few true believers is more important than having a broad coalition.

18. The point here is not that both sides are equal, or equivalent. It's not even obvious that there are two sides here, so much as there are two coalitions, each with multiple sides and competing interests. And no one should dismiss the very real, very dangerous harassment that's happening under Gamergate's banner. The point here is that the Gamergate fight is now being partly driven by forces that have nothing to do with the video gaming industry, or even with gamers. Forces that are very good at making these kinds of conflicts worse and deeper. Forces that will be around long after Gamergate dies down. Forces that will create the next Gamergate.

19. A lot of the people glomming onto Gamergate are doing so because they're angry at the way the "social justice left" has been able to set some of the terms of online discourse. In Gamergate, they saw a point of weakness — a way to make gains in a fight they've otherwise been losing. You can see this in a lot of Breitbart's coverage, which makes clear this isn't about video games so much as it's a new front in a larger battle:

It's easy to mock video gamers as dorky loners in yellowing underpants. Indeed, in previous columns, I've done it myself. Occasionally at length. But, the more you learn about the latest scandal in the games industry, the more you start to sympathise with the frustrated male stereotype. Because an army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners, abetted by achingly politically correct American tech bloggers, are terrorising the entire community - lying, bullying and manipulating their way around the internet for profit and attention.

This resonates with a lot of Gamergaters, who though they see themselves as liberals, they feel dismissed and even hated by the social justice left — they're for equal pay and they voted for Barack Obama, so why are they being made the enemy just because the women in their games have skimpy outfits?

[Seeking Serenity]

8. And don't forget shunning

We're also good a practicing a secularized form of excommunication.

"What, you don't lionize and think Anita Sarkessian (sp?) or Rebecca Watson are always right all the time? I CAST THEE OUT!"

(Surprised that I know those names? You should be. My older son keeps me up to date. )

(On edit: I'm now being told that even that snark is out of date, in that Rebecca Watson is already so last year. I'm too old to keep up.)

[ZombieHorde]

7. Excellent article.

I would like to add that these tribes we so desperately cling to were not made by us. They were made by others to manipulate us. Our identities were crafted by others for the purpose of propaganda, control, etc. The number one tool for controlling large groups of people is to create an identity for them. The labels will usually stay the same, such as "American" or "Democrat," but the definition of those identities will be altered to suit the propagandists needs.

Seeing propaganda targeting other people is generally easier to see than the propaganda targeting ourselves. For example, Sarah Palin's use of the identity "true American" is easier for Democrats to see than Republicans. However, many Democrats don't see the insidious manipulation of the outrageous phrase "we're all Americans," when trying to rally a patriotic, inclusive spirit.

[seaglass]

9. Yeah, imagine guys making rape and death threats to women over video games. Ezra is totally

right, this should not be politicized, all DECENT people - men/women/Democrats/Republicans should be against those who issue rape and death threats and should denounce those who attempt to intentionally minimize and ignore the threats these women are facing. No question.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. ROFL

"Actually, it's about ethics in game journalism" didn't work very well, so now we're at "Actually, it's about our overly politicized culture..."

[seaglass]

11. LOL. They actually have a new one about how much gg is about donating to anti-bullying charities.

Which of course is a good thing but seriously - I smell desperation.

[Ykcutnek]

12. We need to drop much of the social justice shtick and focus more heavily on working class issues.

We do nothing but alienate blue collar voters by our participation in the culture war.

Many Millennials are also turned off by it as well.

[seaglass]

13. You forgot the sarcasm tag. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. Losing badly constitutes a "win" in this election. The NYT has an article explaining how we got here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016105765

[AverageJoe90]

16. Unfortunately, we might *have to* rethink some of that.

Because there have been a LOT of mistakes made by certain factions on our side over the past couple of years, and boy, has that been *painful* to watch. And perhaps a lot of that may be summed up this way: good intentions, no matter how noble, can lead one on the road to failure if things aren't done right.

I'm not going to suggest we abandon social justice altogether, but things like "white privilege&quot definitely this!), and perhaps even "rape culture", etc. are better off left behind in the circle of '80s academia enthusiasts, whilst the rest of us try to pick up the pieces and move on. But until we acknowledge our failures, we can't do that, now, can we?

[Seeking Serenity]

15. kick

[Chathamization]

17. Decent article, but doesn't touch on the fact that the feeling of being misunderstood, under siege,

smeared, etc., as well as hostility and disdain for outsiders, seem to be a large part of the "gamer" community in general. Witness the silly amount of anger directed at Roger Ebert or the way that massive amounts of violence in video games has been (and still is being) laughed at and dismissed as a non-issue for years. There's a difference between trying to clean up your house, and simply growing too embarrassed that the more extreme elements in your group are starting to make you look bad.

But I suppose a lot of the issues we are seeing here are issues with online communities in general (and, to a certain extent, communities in general).