So I entered the #GamerGate conversation, and was actually pleasantly surprised by the response!
Sadly, I’m unable to embed the Storify here because this is a free, hosted blog (which is kinda bullshit). If anyone knows how I can embed the Storify here, please let me know.
But anyways, here’s the link:
https://storify.com/NateHevens/conversation-with-gamergate
Nathan Hevenstone
Atheism, Music, and More... 
And not for nothing, when the people who have accused LITERALLY EVERY WOMAN DOXXED BY GAMERGATERS of making it up to play the victim and gain sympathy start claiming they’re being doxxed? I tend towards skepticism. And that’s before you get to the audacity of claiming “both side do it!” when there’s one side united by hashtag, “Operations” and a sophisticated PR manipulating strategy … and they’re trying to claim that Everyone Else is the Other Side. Actually there’s no unifying anti-GG front, and it takes an exceptionally large amount of paranoia or jumping to conclusions to try and ascribe any solidarity to all of GG’s critics.
Viewing your critics as an amorphous monolithic Enemy to be Defeated when they are simply different people with different views who don’t happen to agree with yours … that’s the mentality of a cult.
Now that I agree with 100%, and definitely looks to be a major part of the problem.
That said, I looked into the GG’ers who got doxxed, and at least some of them did indeed speak out against the doxxing of Zoe, Anita, Brianna, etc…
Nate: Read this
The problem with GamerGate is there may have been a brief, shining moment, somewhere between its inception in a chatroom dedicated to how Zoe Quinn was a whore and its current attack mob mentality, where it was more good than bad. That moment, if it ever existed, is long gone and now the movement is defined by who it attacks, and would collapse if it didn’t have a hit list.
Sadly it’s been my experience that the ones who flock to the hashtag at least will happily show their true colours as SJWs haters first and anything else second as soon as I respond to them a couple of times. It might not be the majority of GamerGaters numerically, but when they’re the most vocal it’s hard to make that distinction. And it’s even harder for me to give the benefit of the doubt to the “good” gamergaters who aren’t willing to hold their own allies to any ethical standard while crowing about how GG is about ethics, and what do you mean it’s sexist?
I’m still looking forward to GGers proving me wrong.
I get that. Believe me. That was the point of my initial tweets, and it’s where I stand now. The loudest shouters tend to dominate the conversation, and sadly, with #GamerGate, it’s the trolls, harassers, doxxers, and threateners who are shouting the loudest. I want to see the people I talked to, who seem to want the toxic elements to shut up, to shout louder.
Also, some of the GG’ers are trying to hold the toxic allies to more ethical standards by reporting them, not just to Twitter, but to various law enforcement agencies. That’s a good thing, and I hope they plan to keep it up.
Gamergate seems to have taken little practical action to address corruption in games reporting.
It has mostly attacked women and their supporters.
…I grew up with an abuser. You don’t watch what they say, because they say things designed to confuse you. You watch what they do.
…The actions of those claiming Gamergate seem to be mostly designed to mostly terrorize individual women who have come to their attention.
If you’re a gamergater reading this? Feel free to link an article proving me wrong. I’d be really glad to find out Gamergate isn’t actually a virtual mob out to terrorize anyone who disagrees with them. But I need cites, not assfax.
Click my link. There are some, at least, who are speaking out against the harassment and threats, reporting offending Twitter accounts, and mass reporting to various Federal law enforcement agencies around the country and the world.
Far be it from me to pull a #notallgamers, but this was my experience with them. Some really do think the doxxing, harassment, and threats are coming from a third party. I’m not entirely sure I agree with that, but it also wouldn’t surprise me right now.
Further, I’m not suggesting that #GamerGate gets an undeserved rap. I just think that some of them really are trying to change the image of it from the inside. And that’s good.
I’d like to hope that the few decent people marching under that banner might actually cause some change, but just like watching MRAs tear apart any of their own who dare to question the orthodoxy I suspect that the toxic hordes of anti-SJW GamerGaters will be only too happy to turn on anyone who ruins their “fun”. There’s a certain mentality amongst the movement that solidarity is crucial and any attempt to split to a less controversial hashtag/label is splitting/divide-and-conquer – which means they’re more invested in feeling like they have numbers than they are in adhering to any standards of their own. Add to that the way has-been right-wing hacks like CHS and Milo Yiannolpoulos are fanning the flames of resentment amongst GGers and it’s getting almost impossible for me to find the diamonds amongst the mud.
I quite like this article about schisms and false comparisons regarding GamerGate. tl;dr – if you’re scared of people splitting your movement, you shouldn’t be; often the movement ends up better for it.
I can only say “amen” to all of that. You are 100% correct.