Alexander Anderson
Alexander is a lifelong gamer who used to play video games competitively. He has a bachelor's degree in psychology which gives him a unique insight in the world of gaming. You can follow him on twitter
A curious Twitter exchange between StoppingLies and DenverComicCon took a dramatic turn for the worse when the man asked the convention to clarify their policy of “harassment is defined by the victim.”
I have no idea where to begin. “If someone feels they have been harassed, it is harassment” could be the most poorly-defined rule in the history of mankind. Anything can be interpreted by anyone as harassment. What if I feel harassed when I see the color blue? Are the security guards going to kick out attendees who wear blue because I complain to the staff that I feel harassed because of the color blue?
Furthermore, everyone at the convention has a different definition of harassment and everyone has different things that offend them. How will the Denver staff respond to all the different type of harassment? Where do you draw the line?
It gets worse. StoppingLies directly asked “if someone wears a Gamergate shirt and someone else doesn’t like it, that’s harassment?” DenverComicCon’s response was something along the lines of “No worries Mr. StoppingLies, it doesn’t matter if someone else doesn’t like the GamerGate shirt. We already labeled GamerGate as a hate group. This falls under our custom rules as hateful symbols aren’t welcome at Denver Comic-Con. If you wear that shirt we’re going to have to ask you to leave.”
This unexpectedly harsh stance caught me off guard. I had to double check to make sure that DenverComicCon was talking about Gamergate and not ISIS.
False Narrative
This shirt is probably okay to wear to the convention.
It’s no secret that the staff at Denver Comic-Con bought the mainstream media’s narrative of GamerGate: an internet movement created to harass women. However, you can’t blame them for not understanding what the hell GamerGate is. The anti-GamerGate side knows how to use the media to manipulate the masses, because they’ve been pulling it off for years. Wikipedia supports their narrative. 100% of mainstream media articles supports their narrative. Google search results for “GamerGate” gets you nothing but a narrative of GamerGate as an anti-woman movement.
How the hell can the average person fight all that? To see what GamerGate truly is requires a considerable amount of effort and energy. It’s the equivalent of cracking the Matrix code without Neo’s powers.
GamerGate in a nutshell.
First, the person has to give a fuck about GamerGate, which is difficult seeing as it isn’t a particularly stimulating subject. The masses aren’t interested in studying a complex issue after a hard day’s work. On the off-chance that someone is motivated enough to Google GamerGate, they’d be barraged with lies from page one. Wikipedia’s page of GamerGate is complete horseshit, but an average person isn’t going to know this given the site’s credibility.
After Wikipedia, there’s random articles on GamerGate by Gawker and the Washington Post. Anyone who keeps searching will find nothing but MSM propaganda pushing the anti-GamerGate narrative. Since most people have been conditioned to take the mainstream media seriously, they’ll swallow the anti-GG agitprop whole. In fact, if I were still in college, I’m sure that I can get an A if I were to write an essay on why GamerGate is an evil, misogynistic movement.
In order to find out the truth about GamerGate, the average Internet user has to research the subject like he’s writing a ten page research paper. Most people aren’t going to bother with that level of effort. What usually happens is that they’ll Google GamerGate, spend five minutes reading an article promoting the false narrative, and that’s it.
Conclusion
How GamerGate reaches out to the masses will ultimately decide whether or not the movement is successful. The aGGros don’t care about the truth because the average person doesn’t exert much energy studying anything that’s not related to their life or hobbies.
Don’t be surprised that Denver Comic-Con took the position they take on GamerGate, especially when a quarter of Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Supporting GamerGate is similar to believing that the world is round like a ball in 600 B.C., when everyone else thought that the world was flat like a pancake.
In the meantime, don’t wear a GamerGate shirt to comic cons near you, unless you want to be labeled as part of a hate movement.
Read More: #GamerGate Is Hate T-Shirts Have Arrived
