Inside Gamergate by James Desborough

Author:James Desborough
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Postmortem Studios
Published: 2017-08-08T04:00:00+00:00

The United Fucking Nations!?

A massively important aspect of the power dynamic around Gamergate and the broader 'culture war' is the authority and importance of victimhood status. I first became aware of this – yet again – during the Occupy movement when 'The Progressive Stack'[105] was used to determine who got to speak and who didn't.

This is a kind of prejudice, where people's identity is given a primacy of importance over their eloquence, skill or ideas. It is the absolute opposite of the philosophy behind image-board anonymity, which emphasises merit and a viciously cruel marketplace of ideas. Essentially, the more 'oppressed' and marginal you are, the more protected groups you fit into, the more right you have to speak and the more weight your words are given. It's also starkly against left-wing philosophy, which advocates treating people equally, not creating special treatment or new hierarchies.

Claiming victimhood, claiming marginalisation is, perversely, an incredibly useful thing regarding both hard and soft power. The irony is that the whole concept rests upon the idea that you're powerless, and need compensation for that status. That you need to be granted advantage – rather than equality. That's an argument that can be had and many groups are, indeed making these arguments. It comes down to a battle between those who advocate that equality should mean equal treatment and those who advocate for compensatory inequality.

Speaking for myself, I'm an egalitarian. I don't think you can get to equality by pumping more inequality into the system. Certainly, in today's world, there are powerful arguments to be made that aspects of discrimination now more adversely affects men – especially in education[106]. There are also arguments to be made that 'positive discrimination' worsens race relations and creates resentment and problems as compared with assistance given by need. This may have contributed to the populist-right backlash and a sense of entitlement and outrage amongst communities constantly being told they are owed something due to history. Blaming whites, men, and heterosexuals for the alleged actions of their ancestors is like a secular version of original sin.

People resent it.

It certainly doesn't help the pursuit of equality.

If you happen to belong to any 'non-marginalised' group, you'll find your opinions being censored, ignored, and you'll find yourself being held responsible for perceived historical wrongs. Are you cisgender? Are you white? Are you male? Good luck getting heard or getting a fair shake, especially if you don't spend half an hour apologising for that first.

This power-dynamic narrative also lays behind the Orwellian attempts to redefine terms like racism and sexism to 'prejudice plus power' rather than simply 'discrimination' on the basis – in these cases – of race or gender. This is, in fact, a specialised sub-definition of racism used to describe systemic or systematic racism, not racism itself. The facile and shallow nature of this analysis, especially when it characterises all white people as privileged or holding power, is rendered apparent when you consider that the most racist demographics are the ones with the least power[107].

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