I won’t comment on their politics, because they’re irrelevant for our immediate purposes. That last quality has led science-fiction writer John Scalzi to write that moderates are Gamergate’s “useful idiots,” building up the movement’s numbers and momentum while providing cover for harassment. A Gamergate moderate a) genuinely opposes harassment and does not commit it (except inadvertently) b) is upset primarily with the gaming press rather than women per se and c) feels sufficiently disenfranchised to support Gamergate anyway. They have spoken (mostly) respectfully to those with whom they disagree on Twitter, Reddit, and blogs, and they tend to self-identify as social and economic liberals (really!). Several talked with the Washington Post’s Hayley Tsukayama. They are the people who make up Gamergate’s Harassment Patrol, which polices Twitter and has identified and reported some egregious harassers. The key to reducing the movement’s size lies in the little known but surprisingly numerous species I call the Gamergate moderate (Gamergater moderabilus), which by my estimate constitutes well over half the movement. The old “video games cause violence” canard, unproven as ever.Shutting all gamers (not just Gamergate members) out of media discourse.Fire-and-brimstone sermons like “ Stop supporting Gamergate.”.Wishful-thinking pieces like “ So Long, Gamergate.Threatening to blacklist Gamergate members from the gaming industry.Hauling out celebrities to condemn Gamergate and telling them their heroes hate them.Telling Intel and others they are misogynist cowards when they pull advertising.Convenient erasure of Gamergate’s many female, LGBTQ, and minority members, however wrong they may be.
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