Over the weekend, the Boston Magazine (edit: whoops, not the Globe) did an article which paints rather convincingly the image that GamerGate Firestarter Eron Gjoni is, in fact, the ex-boyfriend from hell. You know, as if ‘directing an international hate mob onto his exes’ girlfriend with malice and glee’ wasn’t enough.

Over the past several months, Gjoni has been working on a sequel to “The Zoe Post.” When I spoke to him in February, he had created a quick-and-dirty follow-up, which he described as “a full unminced explanation of why” he wrote the original, perhaps packed with even more of Quinn’s private information, and God knows what else. He was worried that he’d get thrown in jail for violating the restraining order, and so had set the sequel, like a time bomb, “to auto-publish if I don’t disable it 24 hours after any court date.”

Helpful tip: lots of people have had their hearts broken.  Lots of people have dated people who they think are crazy, evil, or otherwise bad news.  However, if you find yourself planning to do something like the above, willfully ignoring a restraining order, you are the bad guy.  Period.   Of course Eron doesn’t see it that way.  Eron is offended that the writer doesn’t seem to care that the Zoe Post is provably true (according to Eron) – look at the Facebook logs!  Dear Eron: that’s actually not the relevant part of the story.  The fact that Eron did not try to deny anything in the article having to do with the malice he wrote the original Zoe Post, nor the plans he outlined above, establishes that Eron is completely oblivious to the effects of his actions.  And, for example, why a court was utterly justified in their actions against him.

In related news, I wrote last week that the Honey Badgers were kicked out of the Calgary Expo.  They are now trying to fundraise so they can sue the Calgary Expo for their removal.  Funny thing, though, is that their affiliated men’s group, A Voice For Men, has NO PROBLEM kicking out elements they find disruptive from their own conference.  As pointed out by We Hunted the Mammoth:

They keep saying, “No feminist better try coming here!” Local police have dispatched four officers, and the conference attendees have deputized even more security from their own ranks. “Security” wears black polo shirts, and there are a lot of black polo shirts, but since the line is slow, security decides to sweep us all in with a request to return for a “check.” Nobody does. Only one feminist later attempts entry, an activist who goes by the handle “Dark Horse Swore.” The black shirts eighty-six her.

Hypocrisy is nothing new to any game-related discussion, but those following this odorous hashtag really do take the cake with the completeness of their projection and lack of self-awareness.  To wit, take a look at this graphic that was being passed around today on twitter, which is basically a full primer of the hypocrisy that is what is left of the very tiny GamerGate fringe group.  A response to the points on the graphic.

1. (SJWs say) “You disagree with me?  I will destroy your livelihood then”
Said the group who attempted to end the careers of Ben Kuchera, Nathan Greyson, Leigh Alexander, Sam Biddle among many other journalists, as well as try to engineer the firings or trying to organize boycotts against game developers who have spoken against their point of view, including myself, David Gaider, and CJ Kershner.

2. (SJWs say) “Please show support and donate to my Patreon.”
Here’s the Honey Badgers asking for money for their legal defense for the right to invade a private organization’s group for the express purposes of disrupting it.  Here’s Eron asking for money for the legal defense of his god-given right to continue launching hate mobs at his ex-girlfriend.  Here’s the Patreon for the Sarkeesian effect.  Here’s Liana K’s patreon.  Here’s Sargon of Akkad’s.   I actually don’t care about ANY of this – I find that kickstarter and Patreon are perfectly acceptable ways for people who have ideas that are not necessarily mass market to find an audience and make a living.  I do find the hypocrisy of attacking one side or the other for it.

3. (SJWs are) Openly racist.
The evidence cited here is pretty cherrypicked and thin.  Much thinner than, say, how the White Supremacists of Stormfront see kinship with gamergaters and see it as a recruiting opportunity.  Or KingOfPol going into full-on Holocaust Denialism in a GamerGate-themed podcast.  Or that bloke on the Sarkeesian Effect spouting racist shit between begging people for money.   I know, I know, these guys are rare nutballs who don’t speak for all gamergators.  Funny how that logic applies on THAT side of the table.

 4. (SJWs say) Sexism against men doesn’t exist.
A nice equivalent here is listening to gamergators try to say that sexism and threats of women in the games industry does not exist.  Such as when they accused Anita of not ACTUALLY calling the cops,  or when they accused Brianna of not feeling so threatened she felt the need to flee her home, or when they pretty much accused Zoe of making everything up.

 5. (SJWs say) It’s okay when I do it!
Oh, where to begin.  With how GamerGate excuses the extreme polemics of Milo, as well as disgraced former game journalists like Pinsof, because they happen to agree with them?  Or how they happily make black lists of media sites and game companies to avoid or boycott, but then get the vapors if anyone on the other side says the word ‘blacklist’?  Or how they hammer on the press for making even minute mistakes, but have no problems themselves leaping to conclusions and using Encyclopedia Dramatica for a source?

6. (SJWs say) <Unpopular groups> don’t deserve free speech.
This is the group that is literally rooting for the demise of sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Scissors because those sites have politics that they disagree with.  This is the group who decided that maybe Jack Thompson, who actually DOES want to ban some video games, may have a point, solely because he disagrees with Anita, who merely wants to culturally critique them and see them improve.  The people arguing for greater feminist representation in vidya games aren’t arguing for an end of video games, but there are definitely gamergaters who are arguing for an end to anything that may be considered academic or cultural criticism of video games — because lordy me, a game designer might actually read one of these and listen!

7. (SJWs) Won’t allow open discourse.
Hahahahahahaha!  This is the gang that attempts to effectively shut down social media for anyone who attempts to disagree with them via dogpiling , and openly cheer when they manage to do so so viciously that the stated individual flees Twitter or, in some cases the industry.  Gamergate doesn’t even allow much open discourse INSIDE THEIR OWN GROUP, as people who find themselves deciding to not toe the party line quickly find themselves torn to shreds.

8. (SJWs) use ‘internalised’ unironically.
Okay, you got me on this one.  Seriously, who gives a fuck?  I could make an entire fucking bingo card of stupid catchphrases that KotakuInAction uses unironically or otherwise incorrectly.