
In 2010, open source programmer Randi Harper was interviewed about her thoughts of women in the tech industry. She stated that life was not hard as a woman in open source programming and she never faced discrimination. Fast forward to 2015. Recently in her blog she states that the reason more women are not in the tech industry is because of all the misogynistic harassment of twitter trolls who target women. Now she would like for you to donate money to her so she can be a full-time social justice warrior activist.
Interview
The picture above contains quotes that Randi Harper said in an interview that you can watch here. She makes a lot of great points about how women are not really being discriminated against in the tech industry. These points are important because they were said in 2010. This was a couple years before the social justice warrior campaign began, which purportedly seeks to show how women are marginalized in video games, barred from jobs in the tech industry, and are subject to all kinds of Twitter harassment solely because of their gender.
She argued that all of that was nonsense:
They want to make it out like we’re going through these horrible trials and tribulations because we’re a woman. I mean they say they deal with negativity because of their gender and I’m willing to bet if they took a look at how offenders dealt with men they wouldn’t see that much of a difference. Some people are just trolls and that’s something you have to deal with. It’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because people are idiots.
With this quote she told the truth about her experiences in the tech industry. If Twitter trolls are just trolls and they don’t target women just for the sake of their gender, then why does Randi Harper have a change of heart five years later?
Good Game Auto Blocker
This year Randi Harper has created a Twitter troll blocker called Good Game Auto Blocker. It allows her to block Gamergate supporters and any other trolls who she doesn’t like. The catch is that you can donate money to help her continue to improve this tool so other women like her can use it to avoid harassment. However, there is one problem with this tool. If a troll is just someone you have to deal with and it is nothing personal, why create it at all?
Randi Harper answers this question with this quote from her blog,
Are you really so surprised that there aren’t more women in tech when this is the type of environment they have to grow up in, that they still live with 20 years later? Internet culture puts trolling on a pedestal, and women are almost always the targets.
So women are always the target of internet trolls and the trolls themselves prevent women from entering into the tech industry. Randi Harper has decided to take on the responsibility herself to combat these Twitter trolls. Recently she was laid off from her job and now she wants you to fund her lifestyle while she improves her Good Game Auto Blocker. She says, “While I could easily find a new job right now, I’m opting for a different life. I’m going to be a full time digital rights and anti-harassment activist.”
Twitter Trolls
It is evident now that Randi Harper has discovered the financial benefits of portraying herself as a false victim. She has seen how Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu are able to take down thousands of dollars in donations for portraying themselves as female victims. Randi Harper has presented her case of how she and many women are victims of Twitter trolls who target her just because she is female.
Through her donation page, she is now able to get $2500 dollars a month to fight anonymous Twitter trolls. If these donations keep up, she will never have to work a real job for a long time. She figured out that as a privileged white woman she can cash in on being a victim instead of producing genuine value for the public.
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