Yesterday, in the middle of bullying prevention month - see Pacer.org, Stop and Stomp - Sam Biddle of Gawker media cracked a few jokes on twitter.
They weren't very funny. Sarcasm and humor is subjective, of course, but at this moment in time on twitter this was akin to making an "I have Ebola"-joke when sneezing on an airplane or talking about all the guns and bombs you have while lining up for TSA security. The hazmat suit team arrived in the shape of the called out #gamergate. It doesn't help that Sam Biddle is a hated writer already as he can be "disingenuous in a manner that borders on lying".
@samfbiddle @max_read I'm a disabled gamer who went through a lot of bullying growing up for my medical issues and love of gaming. Fuck you.
— Joshua Gibbons (@Pinworm45) October 17, 2014
People saw that Gawkers Editor-in-chief Max Reid joined in on the jokes screendumped the exchange, and began contacting Gawkers advertisers.
The first confirmed advertiser to pull their ads from Gawker media is Mercedes. Mercedes doesn't even bow down to the Devil played by Willem Dafoe, so they certainly do not bow down to bullies.
Adland® is a commercial-laden heaven and hell for advertising addicts around the world.
This advertising publication was founded in 1996, built on beer and bravery, Adland® now boasts the largest super bowl commercials collection in the world.
Adland® survives on your donations alone. You can help us out by buying us a Ko-Fi. Adland® works best in Brave browser
I don't blame Mercedes, but of course everyone missed this joke. The joke is that you'd think, of all people, gamers and self-declared nerds would be more aware of the negative consequences of "bullying," threats, etc. -- and yet, they've built a shitty little movement around it, driving women out of their homes for the grave sins of caring about and making video games.
Biddle did not do a good job illustrating this point, but jesus, the lack of self-awareness going on in the self-righteous backlash on twitter is absolutely ridiculous. They are literally proponents of a bullying-focused "movement" around the hashtag-that-cannot-be-named. You'd think the gamers responsible for death threats, misogynistic cultural warfare, and twitter witch-hunting would be able to realize that all of their indignation is the ridiculous part, but no.
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PermalinkYeah, keep deflecting. "We" missed the joke. Well, you will miss those ad money. Keep it up.
We will bring the whole temple down on your head.
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PermalinkYou might want to look into third person address
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PermalinkHold on now. They asked him to delete, then asked his boss. Both told them to fuck off and he was getting a raise for doing it.
SO now it's come to this.
IF trolling is not a joke, this was not a joke.
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PermalinkIt's always amusing when feminists scream so loudly about death threats and abuse, but ignore their own tactics attacking men. Lies, propaganda, more lies, pulling fire alarms, and the threats made against the International Conference on Men's Issues in Detroit. Every man who has spoken publicly to address feminist lies has faced similar threats of death. Hell, they've threatened to murder children for offending their sensitive feelings. All ignored. Of course when you're a follower of a religion that believes that women can never be held responsible for any of their own actions because "muh sojiny" then this is expected.
It's amusing when feminists scream about the trope of needing strong men to rescue fragile little princesses... then demand men come save them when they're actually in trouble.
The entire gaming community expects a full federal investigation on these so perfectly crafted "threats" that Anita seems to keep receiving but deciding to spend more time tweeting about how much of a victim she is instead of actually working with law enforcement.
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PermalinkYour post is a perfect example of the over-generalization of a large group of people that we are angry about. Gamers, as a whole, are being attacked due to the actions of a few trolls. If you visited any of the GamerGate collectives like r/kotakuinaction or 8chan, you would see that we denounce bullying, doxxing, raiding, etc. Which is way more than you can say for the other side. Keep up that sjw narrative, we will continue to hit the opposition where it hurts until we get apologies and policy changes from specific journalism sites. Poor Anita. She gets a threat from a troll and has to cancel an appearance. What do you think would happen if she went after the NFL? She would have to flee the country. That's what would happen. They chose gamers because they severely underestimated our strength as a consumer voice. They thought we were vulnerable loners. Well, I'd hate to break it to you, but this is only the beginning. We will bring websites, sjw's, and journalists to their knees until the nepotism and cronyism ceases. We have the support of each other, and many others in the game industry that are tired of their people trying to force their narrative into our hobby.
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PermalinkThanks for letting everyone know that, once again, the stance of SJW's. It boils down to this:
If someone says anything mean to me-that's bullying and harassment and must be stopped;
If we do it to anyone else it's "just a joke" and they need to "grow up".
Funny how that applies to "#killallmen", "ironic misandry", "bathing in male tears" and any other form of sexist, racist bullying SJW's like you choose to engage in.
Sorry-if YOU set a standard and then fail to live up to it, that is not "social justice"-it's just you being a hypocrite.
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PermalinkOh please, everytime a comedian or whoever says a crude joke the morally righteous get up in arms about how it being a joke is not an excuse.
So keep yapping and make bigger fools out of yourselves.
Even the captcha agrees: reap what you sow.
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PermalinkAnother huge win for #GamerGate. Not only have we raised over $60,000 to bring women into gaming, we have raised more on top of that for anti-bullying charities and suicide prevention hotlines. Now we are letting these slimeballs know that it is not OK to bully and harass people. I am so proud to be a part of this movement and all the great things we've achieved.
I can only hope that other advertisers follow suit. These horrible writers need to realize that their actions have consequences, and that their flimsy accusations of "misogyny" do no excuse their poor behavior.
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PermalinkI would also like to tip off this site that Ford may also be considering removing their advertisements. This may be false, however.
https://twitter.com/kingtytankhamen/status/523211988848369664
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Permalink"So keep yapping and make bigger fools out of yourselves."
I think I'll keep writing letters and bleeding your friends of advertising revenue, instead.
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PermalinkYou guys are so bad at reading comprehension that you just got antagonistic about a different commenter supporting your side. This is both how and why you missed the original joke.
STEM isn't everything
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PermalinkLook whatever side your on I think everyone can agree that encouraging bullying especially during anti-bullying week is a heartless and stupid thing to do regardless of intent.
It's not cool and the guy should be fired no one should ever have to be bullied.
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PermalinkThe fact brands do not want to enable or defend or support or take sides at all with this behavior is admirable. They're basically saying "We don't care how many eyeballs your site pulls-- grow the fuck up."
Kind of a tangent, but here's what I find interesting. Sam Biddle is editor of Valleywag, right? When Valleywag started, according to their wiki page:
And yet now, when the same kind of collusion has been uncovered by the actual masses as opposed to the blogging elite, the same website is now trying to shrug it off as a big joke because "neckbeards" or something.
Is it just me or are more and more things on the internet quickly devolving?
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PermalinkIt's certainly not just you.
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PermalinkI just want to thank the company for this. I'm in the market for a new car, and because of this I'm making mine a Merc! I'm thinking C-Class, but I could be persuaded by the Saloon... will have to book some test drives for next week!
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PermalinkI don't think there's any context where one can write "Bring Back Bullying", and not expect to raise serious concerns. It's such a hateful statement, that the 'chill bro, I was just kidding' defence, doesn't begin to cover it. The real question here is will other companies follow suit and pull their ads from the Toxic Maw of the Gawker Network? I doubt many consumers looking for a new Mercedes are really that concerned with articles of such journalistic weight and integrity as "The Sims 4's Nudity Mods Have Gotten Really Detailed!" (currently Gawkers #1 trending article...) I'd love to hear from someone in a paid media agency who specialises in ad buying, to learn how they're coaching their clients through this mess.
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