Stupid Comment of the Month #6: totally not about gamergate

Cover

We’ve not had a Stupid Comment of the Month since 2012. The topic does not often come up, and is usually helmed by Shaun, but this time round I am taking the reigns. It is going to be a bumper edition courtesy of a random guy off the internet.

In the last few weeks I have been slowly retreating from social media. After reading a piece by Laura Michet (not linked here due to the nature of this post) it struck me that I was spending too much time engaging in social media discussion that ultimately left me exhausted.

A comedian once said that mobile phones allow people to talk more about less and I utterly agree with that sentiment. I feel like the internet has caused me to have even fewer significant conversations and yet I’m more drained due to investing more time in those I do have.

However, when the following conversation started on a Facebook thread I really couldn’t resist breaking the silence.

Please note: we aren’t complete dicks, so identities have been obscured (with humorous pictures in some cases). Also, we have provided a translation for one of the members of the conversation. The text exists mostly in unedited form but we have included some non-stupid inline comments so as to give the rest of the discussion context. Screengrabs of the conversation were taken in two batches, on the night that the conversation started and the following afternoon just before the thread was deleted.

It started on a discussion thread outside of the normal gaming forums, on which the initial posts were civil. Then this:

Sophistry 01

Translation: I haven’t got a clue what I am talking about…

Sophistry 02

Translation:… and I can prove it.

So I had to comment.

Sophistry 03

At the time I was responding to a different post but this invoked Krusty’s disagreement.

Sophistry 04

Translation: I once saw someone much cleverer than me use this word in an internet argument to shut the other person down.

Sophistry 05

Translation: For anyone who wants to base their opinions on my shade of dumb feel free to agree with me.

Sophistry 06

Translation: Damn, I really like that word. It really rolls off the tongue.

Sophistry 07

Translation: I am a massive homophobe who bases his views on made up flim-flam, which is supported by my equally homophobic peers. That is, when we aren’t flinging poo at each other and checking each other’s hair for ticks.

Sophistry 08

Translation: I have no real interest in continuing this discussion because I have no proof and instead I would rather further my own agenda. Also, yes, I did just say that anyone who calls someone a misogynist is actually being racist.

Sophistry 09

Translation: My stance is basically: I am headbutting the keyboard at this point. I am as surprised as you are that words are coming out and forming sentences.

Some of you may have made it this far and be shaking your head in disbelief and wondering ‘how is it that this guy is getting likes?’. Please note: if the likes are singular then it is because I had to click ‘like’. I mean, most of this is comedy fucking gold. Half the time I had tears rolling down my eyes.

So then I posed the question (sorry, the thread has been deleted, so I can’t screen capture me posing this question): was Krusty a gamergate supporter or just a person interested from the sidelines? Incidentally, this is a trick question that Krusty the clown cannot answer correctly, but here he goes:

Sophistry 10

Translation: Yeah, you thought it was going to be a simple answer but this is way better than anticipated. Listen to me, seriously, fucking listen to me: South Park.

At this point the tumbleweeds had blown away and someone other than me actually responded to him. To steal some buzzfeed terms, his response to this was priceless.

Sophistry 11

 

Translation: What does ‘apologia’ mean? I only have one big word that I know. Also, I have not read all of your post and I’m going to prove it to you.

Sophistry 12

Translation: Told you I’d prove that I didn’t read all of your post.

Sophistry 13

Translation: As I write these words I can imagine a bunch of people standing up at their desks (in their homes or their offices) and applauding – hands pumping furiously as they clap -  all of them exclaiming: ‘oh my deity, Krusty, you fucking nailed it’. Have you seen that awesome film ‘Wolf of Wall Street’? I am Leonardo DiCaprio in this scenario.

At this point the admins dropped in with a reminder telling him what is acceptable and what is not.

Sophistry 14

 

Translation: I don’t give a fuck what you say. You will never take my FREEDOM, or my misuse of ‘sophistry’.

The diatribe that Krusty went on about porn use is pretty good after that but we are talking about about 1000 words of fantasy. After that, Krusty has time for some theorising.

Sophistry 17

Translation: Whenever I say ‘my theories’ it basically means I can spout whatever the fuck I want and you can’t fucking touch me. Theories hurt no one, especially the ones based on facts… in my head. Come on, it isn’t that much of a stretch to believe what I am saying.

This didn’t really work for a few people so they started calling him a misogynist. He came back with a serious riposte.

Sophistry 18

Translation: You thought I just wasn’t reading your posts? Fuck man, I’m not even reading my own posts.

Sophistry 19

Translation: And when I say ‘in how they express themselves’ I mean ‘when they do that thing where their mouths move and I have to listen to them’.

At this point I woke up with a bit of a hangover and laughed my arse off.

Sophistry 21

Apologies for the spelling and grammar stumbles there – I was a little hungover and without an editor.

Sophistry 22

Translation: You have pointed out a hole in my logic, but my logic is infallible – I am confused.

Sophistry 23

Sophistry 24

Translation: I am even more confused. I keep using that word over and over and you don’t seem to understand that this means you have to stop debating with me. Hmmm… what’s this? ‘Troll calling card – use in case of emergency”.

Sophistry 25

The thread then dissipated as the admins came in and stomped it out.

A lot of centrists are trying to paint a picture of two sides to the story that need to be heard. It becomes harder and harder to believe that when people like Krusty exist.

Perhaps the biggest problem was that no one else expressing support for the gamergate movement was condemning his words. One made a few allusions to it but still appeared to class Krusty as an ally, and never outright asked ‘seriously dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?’

Such silence from the gamergate movement is worrying – they are quick to decry hypocrisy but appear unable to look at the contradictions within their own ranks of members and supporters.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this conversation.

Postscript: it appears that gamergate is shifting away from its original manifesto concerning ethics and games journalism. Instead they seem to be about pushing against Social Justice infestation. Make of that what you will.


Posted

in

by

Comments

5 responses to “Stupid Comment of the Month #6: totally not about gamergate”

  1. Gregg B Avatar
    Gregg B

    I'm pressing the Like buttons but they're not working!

    Good effort AJ, I'm amazed you managed to draw up the energy for such articulate responses. I think that's pretty much the reason why you see so few people arguing against these morons: it's like trying to plug a burst sewer pipe with your bare hands; exhausting and messy. They can keep pumping out shitty half-arsed remarks but if you're going to shut them down you've got to really work at it and, even then, when you walk away they're probably going to carry on. I don't think there's any reasoning with these turds to be honest but know that I've got a huge amount of respect for folks like you who wade in there to (hopefully) set some people straight and ground these idiotic exchanges.

    Sophistry ftw! ;-)

    1. ShaunCG Avatar

      "it's like trying to plug a burst sewer pipe with your bare hands; exhausting and messy."

      Best. Metaphor. Ever.

    2. badgercommander Avatar

      Well, it started off in earnest but by the end of it I was poking him to see what he would write next. He didn't need a whole lot of encouraging.

      The sad part is that the moderators came out with a statement that went 'There seems to be a lot of interesting arguments on both sides but let's be a bit more civil, please'

      I get that this is something that they have to do to not alienate their patrons but the fence sitting when no one had produced any valid arguments on gamergate's side it did jive me because people like Krusty got to walk away feeling like he still had a case.

      I recently started up another argument with a far more intelligent debater but fundamentally the tactics were exactly the same. Also, as he was a friend he was sending me private messages and arguing with me about it as well as publicly on Facebook. It went on for three days with me replying when I could but it ended with him having the last word and me being exhausted as, unlike him, I have a full time job and a roster of other things that are more important than arguing with him. I want to post again but I realised that I just wrote 2 thousand words arguing with him when my Evil Within review sits at 600 and is unfinished.

  2. […] rather than on the successes there have been as a result. In essence it is the angry articles, like the one I wrote a while back, that are now counter-productive. We should be boosting articles and podcasts that promote actual […]