How was the article?

Angry Assault
2018/01

SJWs Attempt To Conflate Wichita Swatting Murder With #GamerGate

angrygamer

With zero evidence, nothing but their own words, and a platform on social media to spread their agitprop, Social Justice Warriors decided to conflate the recent shooting in Wichita, Kansas with #GamerGate. More specifically, they’re attempting to pin the act of Swatting on #GamerGate by claiming that the consumer revolt was somehow responsible for the rise of Swatting.

On December 28th, 2017 a certain Andrew Finch was murdered by a police officer after stepping out onto his front porch. The shooting took place after the officer was dispatched to the scene following a call to the service center from a prankster who claimed that a hostage situation was taking place at Finch’s residence. The prank-caller was a 25-year-old from Los Angeles, California, and was notorious for using Swatting as a means to troll people; he had used it before in the past. As mentioned, the police arrived at Finch’s place, called him outside and opened fire, killing him once he stepped onto the front porch.

The tragedy led Social Justice Warriors in the gaming and media industry to instantly place the blame of swatting on #GamerGate, the globally-supported consumer revolt from 2014 that aimed to restore ethics in media journalism.

Huffington Post contributor and Buzzfeed writer, Kitty Stryker, claimed that doxing and swatting was part of “Gamergate’s legacy”, posting the tweet on December 29th, 2017.

IT professional and Github contributor, Alice Goldfuss, also used Twitter to take shots at #GamerGate, indirectly attributing Swatting to the consumer revolt by saying that it just claimed “its first human life”.

CEO of Frog Creek Software, Anil Dash, wasn’t content with just putting #GamerGate in the crosshairs, he also extended the blame to “toxic masculinity”, posting the following tweet on December 29th, 2017.

SessionCam’s Mic Wright claims that Swatting is “Domestic terrorism” and that it’s employment by “young men” was wrought by #GamerGate. Wright also takes jabs at Japan’s declining birthrate, blaming Otaku culture, writing across multiple tweets…

“Let’s not call Swatting “a prank”. It’s terrorism. Domestic terrorism by young men with access to online gaming and no adequate access to empathy, compassion and a sense of propriety. This is what Gamergate has wrought us.

 

“In Japan, a culture of shut in men has been catastrophic for relationships. Western meninists/red pill pillocks blame that on women. I blame it on men being brought up far too indulged and expecting the world to shape to their will.

 

“The Reddit Red Pill/Pickup Artist/Alt-Right/Gamergate nest of toxicity stems from a similar thing. Men blaming things they struggle with on others. And no, it’s not about ethics in gaming or the destruction of masculinity. It’s about malcontents and danger.”

Game designer Jennifer Scheurle had a very long diatribe prepared – too long, in fact, to fit within the confines of this article. However, excerpts from the multiple tweets speak for themselves.

Creative director at Bossfight Studios, Damion Schubert, claims it was “infuriating” watching #GamerGate get outraged at the murder-by-Swatting.

What all of the accusers missed out on was that it was actually the anons from 8chan that ratted out Tyler Raj Barriss, the prankster who called in to have Finch’s house Swatted. According to Dangerous, the anons utilized weaponized civic journalism to track down the details and feed it to the cops. On December 29th, 2017 the Los Angeles police department made the arrest.

And in case you were wondering, yes it’s the same 8chan that is one of the only few places where #GamerGate is allowed to use it as a hub. Even while being demonized by the members of their own industry, the core gamer groups are still fighting the ethical fight.

As pointed out by respected journalist Brad Glasgow, there is no hard evidence anywhere indicating that #GamerGate was behind known documented Swatting events.

Glasgow also points out that nothing in the FBI report indicated that anyone closely associated with #GamerGate had anything to do with the Swatting reports taking place during that time.

As pointed out by Ian Miles Cheong, Swatting has been a thing long before #GamerGate became an online phenomenon back in August of 2014.

Cheong is correct. In fact, according to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service records, the first documented instance of fake bomb threats goes back as far as 1976.

Swatting in particular became a documented affair for the FBI in a February 4th, 2008 report that detailed the act of ‘Swatting’, which popped up on the FBI’s radar back in 2007. That’s seven years before #GamerGate was a thing.

Many people online called out the Social Justice Warriors for attempting to pin the act of Swatting on #Gamergate, as well as media outlets like Boing Boing, who recently attempted to conflate the Wichita shooting with the online consumer revolt.

Others were also keen to point out that Social Justice Warriors lying about #GamerGate being responsible for the rise of Swatting instantly makes all the media’s previous evidence-free claims about #GamerGate being a harassment campaign look even more ridiculous.

The major problem, however, is when the general public is lured into the false sense of belief that #GamerGate really is responsible for harassing and doxing, and that it’s a movement that weaponized and popularized Swatting for the youth generation.

(Main image courtesy of Kukuruyo)

(Thanks for the news tip Lyle)

Post Tags:

GamerGate Industry News SJWs

Other Angry Assault