If that community is truly an echo chamber, then there's no reason for an educated person to waste any time or energy on it. Just ignore it and spend your time on something productive.
Out of all this conversation, this is pretty much the most important point.
Ignore. Even in the most privileged position possible, the Internet, and life, are impossible to traverse without the power to ignore anything and everything.
I'd agree except that they leak. The KKK is an echo chamber. That doesn't mean I want to ignore it and let it fester. Etc.
Feminism is insanely important and gets set back horribly by radicals spouting hateful BS as much as by troglodytes who think the 50s were perfect and women-in-STEM initiatives are unfair discrimination.
Since it's impossible to tell, they are effectively the same. There is a solution. Educate yourself fully. Then you will know for sure which groups are jerks and which are simply experts. Since you are educated, the experts will accept you. Ignorance causes suffering. Simply eliminate it, and the problems will go away.
That may be true in some fields, but I don't think you've seen the blazing rows that pop up from time to time in feminist academia.
I know at least one professional feminist academic whose professional circle refuses to acknowledge at least 4-5 serious feminist academics that I can name(and I mean, people with actual qualifications and positions) as academics, based on their positions on various matters, and/or their research. And from what I'm told by the same people(So, grain of self-justification salt, and all that) this isn't terribly unusual.
I'd agree except that they leak. The KKK is an echo chamber. That doesn't mean I want to ignore it and let it fester. Etc.
Feminism is insanely important and gets set back horribly by radicals spouting hateful BS as much as by troglodytes who think the 50s were perfect and women-in-STEM initiatives are unfair discrimination.
No amount of typing at them on the Internet will de-troglodyte somebody.
Well, I just stopped following a feminist page on FB because they are entering MRA territory. Any issue that could be inclusive they are choosing to make only about women. Shame on me for still following after they made a point of stating that they are not egalitarian but exist only to better the position of females in the world.
We here at the FRC forums are really only discussing this in relation to the GamerGate hoopla and how it's affecting our hobbies. I have to be honest, I didn't know that much about any of this prior to all the terrible things that have been happening in the videogame world, but here's an interesting article about the "Men's Rights" movement which is the philosophical underpinning behind the GamerGate bullshit.
What's most interesting to me about this article is the seemingly 180 degree turn Warren Farrell made from women's rights activist to men's rights activist. While I agree with very little of what he says, and disagree even more with the methods he supports, I find it interesting trying to understand the mindset behind some of these people.
He sounds like one of those creepy nice guys. He was all into being a feminist because it got him what he wanted but then... Divorce... All womenz be da debil!!!!!
MRA does have some valid points regarding family law and men being ridiculed for not being emotionless terminator cyborgs. The sexual harassment issue is pretty much fixed.
He also makes an interesting point about using the fringe groups to make your own group appear moderate. That kind of thing goes on all the time but the people in the moderate group don't usually mention it so honestly.
So this video by Sargon of Akkad showed up on my YouTube front page. Because the thumbnail was of James Portnow, an gaming industry consultant who many of you probably know as the writer of Extra Credits, I was curious, though I didn't expect much knowing Sargon is a GamerGator and having seen a couple of his videos before (which were awful).
The video is a jumbled mess drawing a tenuous connection between Portnow and Leigh Alexander trying to make a statement of guilt by association, spliced in between LOTR clips for some godforsaken reason. The only coherent point really is at the end, where a clip from an Extra Credits video is shown where James is directly quoted. The quote is about how gamers and game developers have to defend their medium when outsiders like Fox News try to demonize and condemn it. He of course is attempting to throw it back into their face.
Problem however is that what Portnow is talking about is unwarranted condemnation of people without knowledge from outside the sphere. However, legitimate critique of knowledgeable people within the community is of course permissible. Sargon and his GG-cronies of course don't recognize people like Sarkeesian or Alexander as such, despite the fact that they are and the Gamergators have no basis to deny them such status other than their disagreement with them.
I've been somewhat "following" this guy for a while now trying to figure out if he's serious or just a really good troll, but now I think he's just actually crazy. Originally I saw some people making fun of him on /k/ because he thinks hes a "spec-op" that's somehow in the army, marines, and navy seals and has a fetish for the desert eagle. He can never keep his story straight so its not really worth getting into but for a while now he's been on supposed "missions" and believed that terrorists were after him on multiple occasions. I was pretty convinced that he was a huge troll before but now I think he must be schizophrenic. Now he has joined gamergate and its just continued to go downhill.
No way this guy is for real. No way. Elaborate trolling and/or parody.
I want to believe you. I really do. But I can see a world where this guy is legit.
I'm really hoping that the universe goes all Battlestar reboot on us and we find out that this is all just an elaborate experiment carried out by some unseen creator administered by his sexy minions.
I can't wait for this whole fucking experiment to be scrapped and started again.
Taken out of context, that video may seem like a parody. Except, he has been "acting" this way for years. He livestreams himself for hours on end and he has not once "broken character".
Should social media offer "report this person" capabilities for people who appear to be dangerously mentally ill?
No.
Why?
Safe harbor. If you add a "this person is crazy/dangerous" system the owner of the website becomes potentially liable if they do something. This could also quickly be used for harassment. All the DMCA takedown problems would be multiplied as people with opposing viewpoints try to overload the system to silence those they don't agree with.
I'd agree except that they leak. The KKK is an echo chamber. That doesn't mean I want to ignore it and let it fester. Etc.
Feminism is insanely important and gets set back horribly by radicals spouting hateful BS as much as by troglodytes who think the 50s were perfect and women-in-STEM initiatives are unfair discrimination.
No amount of typing at them on the Internet will de-troglodyte somebody.
Extra Credits released a new episode yesterday, questioning why there aren't any studies being made about how playing video games can increase empathy. One of their examples for a game scenario that does that is an event in This War of Mine in which the player overhears a soldier threatening to rape a refugee in another room, and the player has to make a choice between going up against a superior enemy and risk his life for the sake of a stranger, or back away ensuring his own survival and the survival of the refugees he is attempting to support.
Extra Credits deemed it helpful to put a trigger warning in front of the discussion of that scenario, as well as the ability to skip forward in the video. You know, because they empathize with actual rape victims. Queue a shitstorm in the comments about how trigger warnings are bullshit and how they further the "wussification" of society etc.
I pride myself in my lack of empathy. I honestly see empathy as "the path to hell, paved with good intentions". I have my own concerns to worry about, work, health, home, family. I have lost things and people before, recently in fact.
But to see empathy as a positive is not always a good thing.
Games like DAY Z are much more beneficial to society, as we learn to be self sustaining, instead of getting hung up on the stuff that has 0 impact on our lives. The fact is capitalism isn't going away and lack of empathy is a powerful survival tool.
Comments
Feminism is insanely important and gets set back horribly by radicals spouting hateful BS as much as by troglodytes who think the 50s were perfect and women-in-STEM initiatives are unfair discrimination.
I know at least one professional feminist academic whose professional circle refuses to acknowledge at least 4-5 serious feminist academics that I can name(and I mean, people with actual qualifications and positions) as academics, based on their positions on various matters, and/or their research. And from what I'm told by the same people(So, grain of self-justification salt, and all that) this isn't terribly unusual.
motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/warren-farrell-mens-rights-movement-feminism-misogyny-trolls
What's most interesting to me about this article is the seemingly 180 degree turn Warren Farrell made from women's rights activist to men's rights activist. While I agree with very little of what he says, and disagree even more with the methods he supports, I find it interesting trying to understand the mindset behind some of these people.
MRA does have some valid points regarding family law and men being ridiculed for not being emotionless terminator cyborgs. The sexual harassment issue is pretty much fixed.
He also makes an interesting point about using the fringe groups to make your own group appear moderate. That kind of thing goes on all the time but the people in the moderate group don't usually mention it so honestly.
Edit: at the end is a rebuttal written by Warren.
The video is a jumbled mess drawing a tenuous connection between Portnow and Leigh Alexander trying to make a statement of guilt by association, spliced in between LOTR clips for some godforsaken reason. The only coherent point really is at the end, where a clip from an Extra Credits video is shown where James is directly quoted. The quote is about how gamers and game developers have to defend their medium when outsiders like Fox News try to demonize and condemn it. He of course is attempting to throw it back into their face.
Problem however is that what Portnow is talking about is unwarranted condemnation of people without knowledge from outside the sphere. However, legitimate critique of knowledgeable people within the community is of course permissible. Sargon and his GG-cronies of course don't recognize people like Sarkeesian or Alexander as such, despite the fact that they are and the Gamergators have no basis to deny them such status other than their disagreement with them.
I also made the mistake to look at the comments.
http://jezebel.com/a-man-is-making-bizarre-terrifying-youtube-videos-abou-1683221832
I saw that Luke Crane posted a picture of himself and Anita on his twitter. They must be doing Kickstarter biz.
No way this guy is for real. No way. Elaborate trolling and/or parody.
I can't wait for this whole fucking experiment to be scrapped and started again.
It's not a parody. It's someone who needs help.
Mainly for liability/safe harbor reasons.
Extra Credits deemed it helpful to put a trigger warning in front of the discussion of that scenario, as well as the ability to skip forward in the video. You know, because they empathize with actual rape victims. Queue a shitstorm in the comments about how trigger warnings are bullshit and how they further the "wussification" of society etc.