This movement has had many labels. Many ideas have also been discussed surrounding it. But what truly lies at the core of this giant fight? What is the reason it rages on?
Is it about misogyny? Are we a movement of hatred, bent on protecting our hobby from being inclusive?
Is it about removing political commentary from our games? Do we want to just ignore games becoming a critical art form and refuse to have them be critiqued as other forms of art?
Is it about ethics in journalism? Is all we want just to have fair, clear reviews about the products we buy?
The truth, or the view of it, depends on who you ask. Even if you speak to those who are on the same side, you might get a different answer. And that is because, what lies at the core of this isn't ideals, or truths. It's people. Other human beings, not unlike yourself, fighting for the ideals and truths they believe in.
Somewhere along the way, the world has forgotten that.
The hatred seen during #GamerGate is the hatred that saturates the Internet. It's the hatred born of the vast disconnection between people that has paradoxically occurred now that messages can circle the globe in seconds. We can communicate faster than ever, yet we listen to each other less and less. We revel in sites like WorldStar, and laugh relentlessly at others without regard with how they would feel. In short, the technology meant to share ideas has shared ignorance instead.
As a supporter of #GamerGate, I have tried to engage people to break through their confirmation bias, that mental trick that eases decision-making but blocks out contradiction. In the end, though, I meet with no success. Time and again, even when I think that I've reached someone, they turn back and resort to old ideals, comforted by them. And it is because they don't see a human being on the other side of the argument. They see a faceless set of ideals.
We question so much, why not the very existence of one another?
You see it all the time, people denying that someone can't possibly support this or that idea. #NotYourShield was founded to put faces to the argument, and even then they are disbelieved. It's the Internet, after all. It's all Photoshop and exaggeration. Nothing is real except what you already know to be real. The entire Internet has become an echo chamber of one's own beliefs. If you hold an ideal, even if it is unpopular, in the wide world of the Internet you will find others who share it. And in sharing it, carving out a spot for yourselves, you create a space where you can retreat to time and again.
These places can wall you off to everything else. They can stop you from considering the possibility, however unlikely, that you might be wrong.
Now, you might say, "Pawk, how do you know that you aren't wrong about #GamerGate?" I could very well be, and in just admitting that, I do more than most of the antiGG individuals I have dealt with. They refuse to question, and actively refuse to speak about it. No matter how reasonable or caustic you are, they will block you. They will refuse to look critically at facts, to consider them from other angles.
I openly agree that there is harassment of women online. There is also harassment of men. There is harassment of private citizens, of public people. It isn't due to #GamerGate. It's not even due to any one idea. Every idea draws fervent hate and love. And when those people on either side collide, the most extreme of both sides begin hurling slurs and threats of violence. The reasonable, moderate people who are in the middle of this fight need to understand this.
I don't want people to be harmed. I don't want people to be afraid on either side just for believing what they do. Because I know what lies at the core, and what will exist even once this fight ends.
People. People deserving of respect. People who deserve to be safe.
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