Welcome to my almost dissertation-length rebuttal of the video above. I haven't had the chance to do a good shredding of an AmazingAtheist video since I had my own YouTube channel but I am sure it won't be too difficult to shake off the rust. :P
TLDR Summary: I illustrate how the video is filled with intellectual dishonesty, hypocrisy, a false dichotomy, baseless assertions, things taken out of context, poor-reasoning, jumps in logic that border on conspircy theorist type of silliness, sweeping generalizations and fallacies in general. In a nutshell, his arguments are easily refuted with basic logic.
"Zoe Quinn is a feminist (here we go), social justice warrior who is known for using lies, harassment and manipulation for her own personal gain."
Okay, lets break this down shall we? We are not even a minute into the video and we already have our first attempt to bash feminism. How is this actually bashing feminists as a group you ask? Oh, that is an excellent question, thank you for asking. :P Well because it is an attempt to establish feminists as the "enemy" here, which is a common theme for TJ and the video continues to do so later but I will get to that in a moment. What this "us vs them" narrative of gamers against feminists does is create a false dichotomy.
Then we have the "Social Justice Warrior" claim which is essentially a less offensive version of calling someone a FemiNazi. In the end it is just a word used to demonize and dismiss a group of people, like when someone calls a person a "race-baitor" any time they try to point out racism. Or how an LGBT activist is just pushing the "Gay Agenda" when they fight for equal rights of the LGBT community.
Then he claims that Zoe Quinn is known for using lies, harassment and manipulation which is funny because TJ and Thunderf00t have a similar reputation in the Atheist YouTube Community. :P But to be fair to both Zoe Quinn (if the claim is true) and AmazingAtheist, that doesn't automatically mean their arguments are invalid. We still have to address the actual arguments, Mr. InvestiGamer. ;) Heck, if we're going to dismiss people's arguments based on things like that then I could easily point out that AmazingAtheist is one of the most sexist people on YouTube. He has a history of being a rape apologist and even once told a rape victim that she deserved it and he hopes it happens again. And that isn't even the WORST thing he said in that post.
Its "US" vs "THEM"
"Gamers have uncovered rampant incestuous behavior between gaming journalists, indie game developers and social justice warriors."
Again, here we have an attempt to establish feminists as the enemy. Apparently we are supposedly part of some massive conspiracy to ruin gaming. Or maybe... Just maybe... This guy is conflating the issue a bit? Instead of jumping to conclusions about conspiracies like some Alex Jones fan, lets break this down and examine it for a moment using logic and objectivity.
#1. At the center of this entire fiasco is the supposed past relationships between Zoe Quinn and a few people in the industry. and whether they may have given her game positive coverage due to their relationships. Okay, this is a fair point and it is entirely possible. Unfortunately as Boogie2988 pointed out in his GamerGate video, there has most likely been corruption in the gaming industry for a very long time as far as that is concerned. I think we have all seen the claims that certain sites and even YouTubers may get paid or given earlier access to games for giving positive reviews of games. I'm sure this happens to some extent so this is nothing new in the industry. So yes, this could very well be a completely correct assertion even though we have no concrete proof at the moment. Other than a few points, pretty much every aspect of this case is based on speculation and questionable evidence.
#2. However, even if this IS true, it does NOT establish a link between Feminists and the gaming media beyond this specific case. There is no link between Anita Sarkeesian and anyone in the gaming industry, despite the fact that AmazingAtheist added her photo into the mix. There is also no link between other feminists and the gaming media either so this is actually a baseless assertion.
#3. Some people claim that this non-existent link is why some gaming journalists post positive articles about Sarkeesian. Well, I hate to interject a rational thought into the situation but I wonder if AmazingAtheist ever stopped to think that maybe a gaming journalist posts something positive because he or she actually AGREES with Sarkeesian's points? Could it be that some gaming journalists also think the harassment of Sarkeesian by gamers is also morally wrong? *gasp* Nah, its probably just some "white knight" I am sure.
Its really about corruption in gaming. No, seriously! We mean it!
"GamerGate is a movement created by gamers and for gamers intending to combat this corruption within the gaming industry"
Oh, so its really just about corruption in the gaming industry? That was really how this was created? Well then, using some logic that he uses in the video, lets talk about this:
http://www.dailydot.com/geek/zoe-quinn-outs-4chan-behind-gamergate/
Now to be fair, I am sure there are a lot of people who do care about corruption in gaming but to claim that this is the motive for all people involved with the "movement" is blatantly false and we know it certainly isn't TJ's motive here. TJ is a perfect example and so are the people from 4chan and Reddit in the link above. Its not like this is the first time these Reddit groups and 4chan has attacked feminism. Heck, one Reddit anti-feminist group was responsible for the whole "Ban Fathersday" hoax that was designed to try to make feminists look bad even though that one backfired on them when it was exposed.
Bias in Journalism (aka not understanding the difference between opinion sites and unfiltered news sites)
Now he claims that sites like Kotaku are not being unbiased as journalist. Does he even understand what Kotaku actually is??? Hint: Their "About" page reads: "Thank you for reading Kotaku, a news and opinion site about games and things serious gamers care about." Notice the words OPINION SITE in the sentence. You would find it difficult to find ANY type of news media that is completely unbiased right now, not just in gaming. so that is a bit naive.
What? The money for a crowd-funding campaign to pay for an individual's project was actually sent to the person creating the project?
I'm not really interested in debating about Zoe Quinn but there are also some reasoning flaws in the video when he makes certain arguments specifically about her. Such as when he complains that donations for Zoe Quinn's Rebel Jam project are deposited in her paypal account, as if that somehow proves something. He actually doesn't say what it proves, he is just says it is interesting. This guy thinks like a conspiracy theorist. lol Does he not understand how most crowd-funding projects usually work? Who does he think the money goes to for these projects when they are done by individuals and not actual companies? lol Does that mean she is taking the money and not actually finishing her project. Well, anything like that is always possible but there is no reason to believe that will be the case at this point. However he has apparently already convicted her of fraud in his mind. Now THAT is interesting.
Here project can be found here if anyone is curious, http://www.rebelgamejam.com/
Holy multitude of fallacies, Batman!!!
Now he moves on to complain that the gaming media insulted gamers and proceeds to point out several articles which I will address individually below. All of these articles actually have something in common.... They don't attack all gamers as a whole regardless of what AA implies in his video.
#1. A Guide to Ending "Gamers" which can be found here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DevinWilson/20140828/224450/A_Guide_to_Ending_quotGamersquot.php
The first thing you should notice is that the word Gamers is in quotation marks and if you actually READ his article you will discover that he is talking about a specific kind of gamer who is toxic to the community. A certain mentality that we see among certain types of gamers.
#2. The End of Gamers which can be found here:
http://dangolding.tumblr.com/post/95985875943/the-end-of-gamers
Again if anyone bothers to actually READ the article, they would see that this one is refering to death of the old concept of a gamer. Meaning that the traditional predominant paradigm in gaming is dying. Games are slowly being made for people other than just the fifteen-year-old, straight, white male.
#3. The Death of an Identity which can be found here:
http://kotaku.com/we-might-be-witnessing-the-death-of-an-identity-1628203079
Once again, if you read the article you will see that he is talking about a specific kind of gamer. He even specifically says, "Note they're not talking about everyone who plays games, or who self-identifies as a "gamer", as being the worst. It's being used in these cases as short-hand, a catch-all term for the type of reactionary holdouts that feel so threatened by gaming's widening horizons. If you call yourself a "gamer" and are a cool person, keep on being a cool person."
Sounds pretty clear to me. And yet Amazing Atheist's minion suggests that this is an attack on all gamers because this is what TJ does in his videos. This is one of several reasons why most of the Atheist Community does not take him seriously. He is entirely dishonest and always attempts to take things completely out of context.
Then he goes on to suggest that this is some coordinated effort (conspiracies everywhere!) even though he clearly didn't even comprehend what these articles were actually about in the first place. lol And of course, he has no actual evidence that this was some massive coordinated conspiracy either.
But wait, it gets even better! He then goes on to say that the conspiracy is probably true because many members of the gaming industry communicate with each other in a Google group called Game Journo. Yes, it is quite shocking that members of an industry would talk to each other in private groups/forums, industry conventions, etc... Heck, when I was a GameSage for Aeria Games we had our own private forum where we discussed issues related to what we do. It doesn't mean there is collusion to commit some massive conspiracy. As much as I try to avoid insulting people too much, this guy clearly has the reasoning ability of a 10-year-old. His jumps in logic are hilarious. Its the kind of stuff you see from guys like Alex Jones. :P And the bigger problem is that the conspiracy itself is complete nonsense because the assertion that they are attacking gamers as a whole was completely false, as I illuistrated earlier. I should also point out that none of the people who wrote the articles he cited are actually members of this group. Oops. Logic fail. :P
You can find the list on the conservative Brietbart website: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/09/21/GameJournoPros-we-reveal-every-journalist-on-the-list
And to put things into perspective. A list which has a grand total of 150 people which is a pretty tiny percentage of the total amount of gaming journalists and out of that 150, the emails in question involved a total of SEVEN people so this is hardly indictive of a mass conspiracy of any kind in the industry.
Also, if you read the emails you will notice that they were about supporting Zoe Quinn during the onslaught of vitriol aimed at her during all of that. They were concerned about losing female talents in the industry which is definitely a concern when you look at the toxicity in the industry right now.
The only thing really questionable in that email list was the comment where one person said, "Who here hasn't slept with a PR person or game developer? #AMIRITE" Which was clearly a joke. A bad joke but a joke nonetheless.
Its the Feminists!!!!!! The Feminists I tells ya!
Yes, the feminist boogeywomen are apparently up to our old shenanigans yet again. He goes on to make it clear that in his mind, feminism is an enemy to gaming when he says that these sites are supporting Zoe Quinn's Pro-Feminist (as if supporting women's equality is a bad thing) Professional-Victimhood idealogy. Wait, did I hear that correctly? Did a video on the Amazing Athiest channel seriously just talk about someone "playing a victim" after dealing with some hostility from someone? Amazing Atheist of all people? lol The same guy who, along with thunderfoot, have spent more time complaining about being targeted over the things they say than pretty much ANYONE on Youtube? Holy Jebus, the level of hypocrisy exhibited in this video is astounding even for the Amazing Atheist channel.
This whole "professional victimhood" claim that is made anytime a woman says anything about being harassed or threatened is just another completely transparent buzzword used to try to discredit someone, much like words such as FemiNazi, race-baiter, playing the "race card" and things of that nature. Its a way to avoid dealing with actual arguments.
You should report about both sides of the issue! Just don't expect me to actually do it as well!
So now he goes on to say that they are diverting attention from the "real" issue and refuse to report accurately on both sides of the issue. Which is funny considering that he tries to turn this into a gamer vs feminists war even though feminism isn't even relevant to the original story here. And of course he only talks about the problem from his anti-feminist perspective while dismissing or completely ignoring the rampant sexism we're seeing during this debacle. So he is guilty of both accusationms that he is using against other people.
What sexism in video games? I see nothing outside my own little sphere of existence!
He asks why journalists are using sexism as talking points. Hmmm... Perhaps it could be due to the amount of blatant sexism we have seen during all of this? Could it be the claims that women are trying to ruin games? Could it be the fact that so many women in the community have been targeted? Could it be the death threats? The rape threats? No, no, that can't be it. Clearly it is because these "pro-feminist" journalists are just "white-knighting" because Zoe Quinn is a women. I mean what other possible reason could a male having for supporting a female in any situation, right? It can't be because its the right thing to do or because a woman makes a valid point during an argument.
What's funny is he tries to downplay the death/rape threats and name-calling as negative criticism and negative comments. lol Does this guy even have an ounce of intellectual honesty?
Hypocrisy Overload!!! Error! Error!
Now here is where it gets hilarious. He actually says, "Just becuase there is a small and hateful group of people that are causing trouble, that doesn't mean the entire gaming community is to blame. There are small, vocal and explosive subsets of every group."
Which is actually a true statement, just for the record. The problem here is that he personally making blanket statements exactly like that about gaming journalists due to what a small number may or may not have done. They also try to suggest that Zoe Quinn somehow represents feminists as a whole and Feminism itself is the enemy. Basically, he doesn't apply his logic to his own arguments. Ever.
Anita Sarkeesian's claims in her Tropes videos have been refuted even though they really haven't!
Wait a minute, how did we get from corruption in gaming to Sarkeesian's video that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject? I thought this was just about corruption in gaming? ;) Now he says that her claims in the video have been refuted by thunderfoot and Mr. Repzion (two other anti-feminists) even though both people's videos were actually filled with the same kind of bad arguments we witnessed in THIS video. I suppose later I will have to make a long rebuttal for those videos as well and post them on my blog. Basically these guys don't think there is such a thing as sexism in video games and thunderfoot doesn't believe in sexism in general. And of course, their arguments are painfully easy to pick apart.
Christina Hoff Sommers: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Now we come to my personal favorite part of the video. When he actually claims that Christina Hoff Sommers is a well-established Feminist. Okay, first of all, Sommers is about as much of a Feminist as Phyllis Schafly or Ann Coulter. Sure, she claims to be a "feminist" but literally EVERY SINGLE OPINION she has is against the idea that women's issues are real issues and she does nothing but bash Feminism as a whole. I'm actually going to do a post specifically about her work later this week so watch for that.
Yeah, if she is a Feminist then I am Christian Conservative. :P While I am not one to play the "No True Scotsman" game, I do believe that ideologies have certain core beliefs that are shared by all members and I will give you some examples.
* It would not be fair to say that most Christians are homophobic. However, it would be fair to say that most Christians believe in the divinity of Jesus.
* It would not be fair to say that most gamers enjoy playing FPS games. However, it would be fair to say that most gamers enjoy playing games in general.
* It would not be fair to say that most football fans like the Chicago Bears. However it would be fair to say that most football fans like football.
* It would not be fair to say most Pro-Choice people believe that abortion should be legal up until the moment of birth. However it would be fair to say that most Pro-Choice people believe that abortion should be legal.
You get the idea. This brings us to the obvious question: What is the core belief of Feminism as an ideology? Well, lets look at the very definition itself.
fem·i·nism
ˈfeməˌnizəm/Submit
noun
the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.
The key part of that definition is the phrase "advocacy of women's rights." For those of you who don't know much about Christina Hoff Sommers, she actually does not advocate for women's rights, at all. Quite the opposite in fact. She believes that most women's issues are not real, spends most of her time trying to tear them down and actually sides with anti-feminists on literally every issue. That isn't even an exaggeration. I mean every single issue.
She is atuall something much worse than women like Phyllis Schafly because at least Phyllis admits what she is instead of pretending to be a Feminist to give her some sort of percieved credibility. Sommers, on the other hand, is the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing.
But to be fair, I am not just going to dismiss her comments in this video without actually refuting them.
She starts off using the same tactics that we see from the InvestiGamer: Trying to discredit the other person without actually addressing her arguments. She refers to them as gender activists (you mean feminist?), hipsters with degrees in cultural studies. Wow an elitist cheap shot at people for choosing a certain kind of degree? Assuming the people in question actually DID choose those majors and that this isn't just complete nonsense she made up.
She begrudgingly says that Sarkeesian does make some valid points and then goes on to say that she cherry-picked a lot of things but fails to actually give examples. Then she says that gaming has become more inclusive and that there are games that cater to a wide variety of people now, which is partially true. Some developers in the industry have started making more games that appeal to a wider audience but that doesn't mean a lot of the same old problems are non-existent now. The overwhelming majority of games still cater solely to the traditional demographic of straight, white males. However I do think it is slowly heading in the right direction. Another problem is that the gaming community (not the industry) itself is still not very inclusive. Women, LGBTs and black people are targeted with hatred far more often than other groups and to a much more severe extent. This problem actually seems to be getting somewhat worse recently as games start to change to appeal to a more diverse audience.
Now she joins AmazingAtheist in trying to establish Feminism as the enemy by suggesting that we don't just want games that appeal to us, we want the male gaming culture to die. Naturally she doesn't actually provide any evidence to support such a claim and I have yet to see a single feminist say that we only want games to be made that strictly cater to us. So yeah, more baseless, sweeping generalizations with zero evidence.
What's funny is that these same guys say that Anita Sarkeesian's opinions are invalid because she supposedly isn't a gamer but they have no problems with supporting the opinion of a 64-year-old woman who has probably never even watched a video-game, not to mention actually played one. Somehow she mysteriously has more credibility on this issue than Anita Sarkeesian which I find fascinating. I haven't seen a single person question Christina's gamer cred.
Now we are back to the InvestiGamer and he is talking about how there is no evidence that video games make people sexist, homophobic or racist, which is true of courses. Games don't cause anyone to do anything. However gaming does seem to attract many people who ARE those things and we certainly have a significant amount of them in the community. So this is just a strawman argument about a claim that the other side has never even made.
Now TJ's minion claims that the organization that Sommers works for is completely unbiased and that comments about them being a right-wing think-tank are baseless. Well, that isn't actually true...
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/american-enterprise-institute
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/04/02/why-the-american-enterprise-institute-chief-is-so-popular/
Even FactCheck.org, which actually IS an unbiased source, refers to them as a conservative group.
http://www.factcheck.org/2014/04/playing-politics-with-the-pay-gap/
For a guy calling himself the InvestiGamer, he certainly doesn't seem to do much actual investigation. :o
Hypocrisy Wars 2: The Hypocrites Strike Back!
Continuing with the hilarious hypocritical statements, the InvestiGamer points out that Christina Sommers came to her conclusion by actually talking to gamers and that she went out and tried to understand and learn from the demographic of people that Feminists (again feminists are the enemy) are criticizing, slandering and defaming. Yet he never stops to think that maybe he should actually try talking to Feminists and attempt to understand our point of view. Maybe that is a better option than criticizing, slandering and defaming Feminists. ;)
He also says that you should approach a group of people with respect as an outsider, which he clearly refuses to do when Feminists are the group in question. SO yes, lets complain about Feminists slandering gamers while we slander Feminists in the same video.
In Conclusion
What we have here is pretty much what the YouTube Atheist Community would expect from a typical AmazingAtheist video: Endless hypocrisy and the logical consistency of a religious fundamentalist. This is why both he and thunderf00t are not taken seriously by most of the community.
No comments:
Post a Comment