On Empathy and Harassment in #GamerGate

My twitter mentions blew up today when a two month old tweet of mine resurfaced. In this tweet I answered someone who had said I was a GamerGate supporter and asked for an example of my criticisms of GamerGate. I replied that GamerGate lacked empathy.

This is a statement I have made before. I believe my first mention of it was when I wrote my interviewing a hashtag article. One of the things that struck me about GamerGate was the ferocity with which it attacks people who have undoubtedly received at least some sort of abuse.

I believe GamerGate would have been better served in its campaign had it been more sympathetic or empathetic to people who have clearly received abuse. By “better served” I mean GamerGate might have received better coverage in the media, and by “people who have received abuse” I am talking about Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and others.

Here’s what I am not saying:
* I am not “denouncing” GamerGate.
* I am not saying that this lack of empathy is without reason.
* I am not saying anyone else — anti-GamerGate or Zoe, Anita, etc — is beyond criticism. I have plenty of criticism for everyone involved in the GamerGate controversy, pro and anti. It’s just that today was GamerGate’s turn :).

I also said that I believe some harassment has come from GamerGate supporters. How much? I don’t know, but I do believe it is very likely that some people out of the tens of thousands who have supported GamerGate have doxxed and/or threatened others with bodily harm.

When you look at the numbers from the GamerGate survey, 259 out of 718 GamerGate supporters agree with me.

Again, it’s important to understand what I am NOT saying here: I am not saying that GamerGate supports harassment or that GamerGate has definitively harassed someone or that it’s a hate mob or anything like that. Each of the 259 people who answered in the affirmative have their own reasons for hitting the agree or strongly agree choice. I wouldn’t be surprised if they agree with me — that some people who support GamerGate went too far.

Similarly, I would say the exact same thing about anti-GamerGate. Some of them have undoubtedly taken things too far and I know GamerGate supporters have lost their jobs, been harassed, and have received threats of bodily harm.

That’s why I think sympathy or empathy is important. It costs nothing to let people know you feel bad for them and that you wish them well. And if you make that statement without placing any blame or without also mentioning in the same sentence that they are awful people, it means something.

You can still disagree with them. You can still call them liars and argue that they have wronged you. You can say they are embellishing their victimhood for money. I just think sympathy and criticism should be kept separate, whether that be in separate paragraphs or even separate posts. Just not in the same sentence.

That might make me the tone police, sure. But perhaps if things are going to change, the tone should change. I’ll talk a lot more about this topic in the book.

8�.