No more wars

So you might have heard of this thing called #GamerGate recently. I am not going into why it exists or how it happened or who said what – there are plenty of sites on the web that already do that. I don’t intend to add to the plethora of views nor do I aim to abuse the hashtag to make a point and/or gain exposure.

What I want to write about is the fact that this is being portrayed as a conflict, even a war, when in reality it is actually all very pointless and fabricated out of thin air. All this #GamerGate furore shows, is how easy it is to rile people up and manipulate them, even if the intentions behind the idea might have been worthy once upon a time.

And don’t get me wrong I do think the initial idea behind #GamerGate is noteworthy – namely that the gaming press is biased, corrupt, did (and probably still does) take bribes and that they most certainly try their best to promote controversy and conflict in order to drive traffic and thus revenue.

And, as I will point out, it’s really all America’s fault.

Us vs. Them – The War on.. something

American culture is different. Anyone who has ever spent some time there, particularly lived there, can attest to that. Almost every single thing you do in America can be boiled down to or linked to, a competition, a struggle, a conflict of sorts.

This starts in school, where kids compete to be honour students, so parents can put bumper stickers on their cars. It carries over the higher education with college sports and it is incredibly predominant in the workplace, from simple things like “Employee of the month” and to the ever present bonus culture and companies undercutting each other to get the bigger share of the market. The American society thrives on competition and American’s probably think it brings out the best in people. Survival of the fittest, the strongest and all that, not to mention it keeps things cheap (the “loser” of these competitions often fall below the poverty line and are forgotten about).

A lot of American lingo and rhetoric these days reflects that – listen to any news report, or articles, sports broadcasts, business conversations in general and you will hear phrases like “War on X”, “In the battle for..”, “It is a fight for…” – everything is a conflict. We had the war on christmas, the culture war, the social justice war, the war on terror (of course) and the war on women – and god knows how many other wars we have had or are having or are going to have in the future. WAR!! makes a great headline.

But more than that, war and conflict has an additional “benefit”. People must take sides in a war. There are always at least 2 sides in every war. Conflict allows, even forces, people of a certain mindset and ideology to band together, to form a group and unity. It becomes easy to say “You are either with us or against us!” – this is true for the war on terror (and was used frequently by Bush and Co) as it is on the culture war, the business war, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on….

There is a clear line, drawn in the sand (or on an internet forum or other online space) and people are either on one side or the other. Unless of course people don’t take a side…

Because the ONLY thing that these so called “wars” have in common with a real war (you know the one where people actually get killed), is that there are plenty of people in the middle, who do not take sides. Those people in the middle, who tend to be the absolute majority, are often ignored, marginalized and attacked  – and suffer the consequences for not taking a side and just wanting to get on with life. People in the middle are pressured to take a side.

The people in the middle

If you have actually been following #GamerGate on twitter, through news outlets and social media, one thing you might have noticed is that the majority of hate speech, loud shouting and posting in general comes from the US side of the Atlantic. This I think is a direct reflection of what I wrote above – that conflict culture, the need to belong to a side, and the absolute need to establish that one’s side is the right (righteous) side to be on. And the louder you shout, the more right you are, clearly.

You have people on both sides making sweeping generalizations, trying to speak for a much bigger audience than they actually represent. These people will shout down anyone who dares to oppose or even question them. Some of these people will go to extremes and threaten opposition.

Anita Sarkeesian has received threats. Definitely a horrible thing and whoever is behind this should be exposed and dealt with by the law. But a statement like this is not accurate nor is it helpful:

What she does, is lump everyone who ever thought positively of an aspect of #GamerGate together with those who take things too far (by far a minority would be my guess). Sarkeesian, in a way, is no better than those people she opposes. By generalizing, by lumping everyone who disagrees with her in the same pot, she makes it clear that she does not leave space for opinions other than her own. She (and those that support her) makes it clear that questioning her arguments means joining the war against women. Having an opinion, in her mind, is on the same level as harassment and threats of violence.

Nor does it help when games developer (who was threatened as well), makes statements like this:

There is no literal war on women, at the very least not in the games industry. Men and women (because a lot of GamerGate supporters are actually women *gasp*) are NOT out on the streets with guns and hatches, wading knee deep in the blood of their female victims. I work with several women in my current studio and I can assure you they are quite safe, I have not brought weapons to work and I do NOT plan to hurt them in any way, neither does any of my male colleagues. Women in my work place are NOT my enemy.

Last time I checked we have not started to marginalize women, fire women, reduce wages or in any other way lower equality in any way – i.e. we have not started going backwards on all the equality gains we have created over the last 100 years. Last time I checked the vast majority of people were still working together, peacefully and with the hopes of continuing to do so in an equal and friendly environment.

Because the majority of people sit in the middle of this bullshit argument. The majority of people do not send threats. The majority of people do not even participate in the debate.I would argue the majority of people actually supports arguments from BOTH sides. Most rational, normal, calm, human beings can understand that there are issues that have to be addressed – on BOTH sides.

But the biggest problem of all is that people who sit on the either one of the sides – people heavily invested in the conflict – cannot accept people in the middle. Those of us who have an opinion of our own, those of us who question what we hear, think for ourselves and pick and choose the best arguments. We don’t have an affiliation and we reserve the right to change our opinion if we hear a better argument. We in the middle are either seen as enemies or potential allies. We either need to be fought or won.

The sad thing is, it is us people in the middle who keep the world running. I have met some of these extremists. I have worked with them. And one thing I can tell you: a lot, if not most, of their energy and time goes into their “war”. It takes time to read all the social media and articles, it takes time to come up with counter arguments, rants and blog posts (I know it does – I do write a few myself after all) and above all – it preoccupies the mind. Extremists, those who want to fight a perpetuous war, can’t stop thinking about it – everything else moves into the background. For some, the war actually becomes their work and life – often with financial, health and other consequences.

Those of us in the middle are the ones though that actually make society work. By being more open, being more tolerant and by simply getting on with life, we probably do more for society than extremists on any side will ever do – and we do not need the publicity or acknowledgment either.

The truth is, there is no war. The truth is, there are are a handful of people (on both sides) who try to perpetuate conflict, who WANT a war, and they do so for 2 main reasons.

1. Because they want to feel better. Ranting, raving, threatening others – it is all done as a self defense mechanism and it is designed to deflect problems onto others. Venting makes us feel good. Venting on a bigger stage (such as Twitter) can make people feel elated, even wanted or desired – something they might be lacking in real life.
2. For personal benefit or gain. This can be in the form of publicity and acknowledgement or, as it the case for many publications, real life money. Controversial news reports, interviews and articles bring readership. Readership brings advertisement money. This has been true since the start of news papers – headlines sell. These days it just includes comments.

So on the one side you have individuals who feel the need to vent, to deflect personal problems, insecurities and issues and on the other side you have people who can financially benefit from that – in hindsight, I think these conflicts do have more in common with conventional war than I might have realized. It’s all about ego and money.

Alternative Option

So what is the solution to all this? Well it’s really quite simply, at least in theory. Might be harder to fully implement. In one word: Abstinence.

If you consider yourself a moderate, if you think you are open to more than one view. If you see good arguments on both sides or you simply don’t want to take a side, the best thing to do, and in fact the only thing to do, is to abstain.

Don’t participate in discussions, stay away from news sites and outlets that perpetuate the conflict (either based on ideology or financial gain) and don’t listen to the voices of the extreme crowd.

This does not mean you have to stay clear of twitter and facebook – we live in a time where you can’t fully avoid certain things if you are online. But don’t subscribe to those who tend to fight on one side or the other. Don’t actively participate in debates and comments and above all, if you do see something that would normally rile you: ignore it and move on.

It is of course possible to still frequent news site and read all these comments and still not participate actively. But I think this takes a lot of willpower and restraint. The sheer volume of comments at times and the incredible stupidity of those who make them, can make it incredibly hard not to respond.

But imagine a world where every moderate, everyone in the middle, would do just that. Soon it would only be the extremists fighting each other. If there is no crowd that pays them any attention, if there is no ego stroking and if there is no financial gain to be made, they would quiet down quickly enough I believe.

And the sooner that happens, the sooner we can get on with life. The sooner we can all be friends and work towards sorting out real issues like Climate Change, Food Shortage, Poverty Healthcare and yes, total Equality and Humanism. Compared to any of those, how important is it really to have a “war” about anything to do with video games…

What am I going to do?

Well I am not strong enough to read certain articles and comments and to resist from replying. I am not strong enough to ignore what I read, I would dedicate at least some of my time and energy on thinking about stupid arguments from either side. I would get frustrated and that would probably lead to anger. And I have no space in my life for frustration or anger. I don’t think anyone should have space in their life for frustration or anger.

So I will take my own advice. Abstinence. I will no longer visit website which carry articles about #GamerGate or any content that talks about sexism, violence or other elements in games or the games industry. I really don’t care what other people think or what the media writes. I have no influence on these people or the media. So why bother with their views or waste time contemplating them in the first place? Have YOU ever convinced ANYONE online?

I will do what I have always done. Treat people I interact with in real life with the dignity and respect they deserve. I will continue to work with and hire people who are the best in their field and who are decent human beings (and avoid working with people who are not). I will continue to not give a fuck about a person’s gender, ethnicity, relgion or sexual preference. I will not be labeled and I will not label. And I bet you anything, the less time I spend with these issues, the happier I will be.

I will try to keep content for this blog coming, but I will no longer post on any social issues. Anything going forward will be related to content, design or the industry in general. There should be plenty of stuff to write about anyway!