Despite being declared dead and confronting virtually the entire mainstream media, #GamerGate continues to grow in strength. The latest victories over Gawker will only encourage further attack as its writers continue to commit hubristic errors.
First was Sam Biddle calling for nerds to be viciously bullied, which led to email campaigns convincing Intel, Mercedes-Benz, and Adobe to pull advertising from the unrepentantly pro-bullying site. Demonstrating vast chutzpah, Gawker’s Max Read went on to claim that Intel “is run by craven idiots,” “employs pusillanimous morons,” and without even a hint of irony, that the tech company “lacks integrity.”
The message is clear and obvious: if you pull your advertising from the pro-bullying, vapidly disingenuous rag, you’re just a piece of shit and Gawker doesn’t need you anyway. The passive-aggressive attitude of the site’s “journalists” constitutes an implicit threat to other advertisers Gawker fears might want to dissociate themselves from the explicit approval of bullying. “Continue advertising with us, or we’ll say nasty, defamatory things about you like we did with Intel,” is the implicit threat.
One wonders how any public relations department of any company can be pleased by this; threats to spread nasty rumors about companies that withdraw advertising is a de facto declaration of journalistic infidelity. Not only is Gawker pro-bullying, it has declared, in no uncertain terms, that it puts its own reputation above truth.
How any company can support this affront to journalism is beyond me. I daresay that advertising with Gawker, as though it has any shred of dignity, is to perpetuate the culture of propaganda that #GamerGate formed in response to.
These self-appointed inquisitors have a bark far worse than their bite. Their standard rhetorical tricks, amounting to little more than call them a fascist, will never persuade Intel and other opponents of bullying to return. The mask has been pulled away, revealing the cynical, slanderous core underneath. Anyone with the ability to think for him or herself should no longer give slimy, creepy Wormtongues like Sam Biddle or Max Read the privilege of poisoning their thoughts.
Has the media overplayed its hand? Despite unanimous condemnation of #GamerGate by every prog journalist looking to add a notch to their keyboards, the ragtag band of #GamerGate underdogs appear to only be encouraged by the resistance they meet. No matter how many media outlets declare that the media is not compromised, it is understandable the persecuted are unwilling to believe these proven liars.
It seems that #GamerGate has disturbed a slumbering beast. Neutrality is no longer permissible; the battle lines are drawn between the forces of good and evil. Either you unquestioningly believe the narrative the media chooses for you, or you are a dangerous reactionary representing everything evil.
This is a battle in a bona fide culture war. The media is increasingly utilized by narrow-minded leftists as a weapon to attack anyone who demonstrates insufficient leftism. What they thought would be an easy job in which media activists sic Twitter mobs on undesirables has met with unexpected resistance. The mainstream media has grown indolent in its unchallenged hegemony, but the Internet is chipping away at this concentrated power. Media activists are positively frightened at the idea that someone might question the narrative they have decided to impose.
If #GamerGate accomplishes nothing else, discrediting Gawker and sowing the seeds of rebellion will have been worth it. This isn’t the first of media manufactured controversies, and it won’t be the last. Three cheers for #GamerGate!