Liberty has always been one of the defining attributes of Western civilization. The freedom to believe or disbelieve is essential to who we are. In the marketplace of ideas, good ideas prosper and bad ideas fail. This is as it should be as all ideas should be allowed to be subject to rigorous debate and intense scrutiny.
Another hallmark of our culture is that one can believe what one wishes to believe or not to believe without coercion or force.
The study of arts and sciences is all about the search for the truth. Without freedom of inquiry and the freedom to critique free from repression, the arts and the sciences become stagnant and betray their purpose. The problem is there is a natural tendency among artists and scientists to establish orthodoxy and a status quo of thought in their respective fields. New ideas that challenge the status quo are routinely attacked, marginalized and even censored by the powers that be.
Sometimes the quest for truth takes a detour and becomes ideologically driven. When ideology replaces the truth as the destination, the truth seeker can no longer be trusted. When ideology trumps truth, the truth seeker becomes a liar. The result is no longer artistic or scientific but propaganda.
Progressives are the Establishment
Every advancement in our civilization has come about by those who dared to challenge the power of the status quo. Today the status quo are the people who have cloaked themselves in the mantle of progress, tolerance and free thought. They call themselves progressives.
Progressive thought is now the dominant ideology in most areas of our lives including the arts, the sciences, the media, the corporations, the government and even in most mainline religions here in the West. Progressivism is really just cultural Marxism repackaged with a smiling innocuous face.
Despite decades of progressive laws and policies enacted in most Western democracies, progressives don’t really like the world they live in. They will never be happy.
Progressives operate in many guises. The backbone of the movement is comprised of a coalition of radical feminists, nihilists, identity politics advocates, social justice warriors, race hustlers and sexual identity activists.
Progressivism has become a like a religion where those that do not adhere to the faith are condemned as sinners and heretics. You can’t judge them but they will certainly judge you.
These progressives no longer need to convince those that disagree with them of the justness of their cause or the validity of their ideas with reason and debate. Instead, they have made their own rules to enforce their orthodoxy upon the populace. These rules are called political correctness. Those that violate the rules are labeled as heretics and cast out of polite society.
Whoever makes the rules, wins the game.
The New Heretics
Labeling and shaming are the progressive weapons of choice. The new heretic label takes many forms: the bigot, the sexist, the racist, the homophobe — just to name a few. The very mention of one of these labels strikes terror into the hearts of people and corporations who risk losing their reputations and their livelihoods if they dare to speak out against the establishment. Each label was carefully crafted to disarm the challenger with the ultimate goal of shutting down debate and silencing the opposition by virtue of fear and self-censorship.
Years ago when the West was more conservative and traditional in thought the progressives were the underdogs. Gradually they came to power because in liberal democratic countries they had the right of freedom of speech. It was this very freedom granted to them by the society that they hated, that they used to promote and advocate for their ideas. Regrettably, these very same progressives and so-called free thinkers who have become the establishment are unwilling to share the very freedom that they enjoyed with others.
Free Speech Under Attack at Colleges and Universities
Forty years ago, colleges and universities in the USA and Canada were hotbeds of free speech, free thought and open debate. Today, thanks to progressives the reverse is true as most institutions of higher learning have become silent under the yoke of oppressive speech codes, safe zones and trigger warnings. Those speakers that do not tow the progressive line are routinely shouted down, pies thrown in their faces, bombed with glitter and even worse banned from speaking.
The self-appointed guardians of tolerance have no tolerance for opinions that differ from theirs.
No area of society is safe from these progressive tyrants. Even entertainment, sports and leisure activities have not escaped the progressive glare of the Eye of Sauron.
Political Correctness Infiltrates Gamer, Geek and Fandom Culture
Recently the world of video games, MMOs, comic books, films and fandom have been under a relentless attack by progressives, con-artists and attention seekers. Seemingly oblivious to the plight of millions of real women living in barbaric regimes all around the world, these priviledged social justice warriors think the best use of their time is to root out sexism in the imaginary worlds of video games. The hypocrisy is astounding.
In the video game genre, most of these activists have never even worked on a legitimate video game yet somehow they know what is best for gamers. These ideologues view everything through the rigid prism of equality and identity politics. Thanks to academic indoctrination via gender studies college courses, they see sexism, racism and homophobia everywhere and of course in all forms of entertainment. Naturally anyone that dares to disagree with them and their crusade is vilified and demonized.
Even worse, spineless video game companies are starting to cave in to the pressure from progressive activists and sexual identity groups. Instead of defending artistic freedom and integrity and standing up for gamers, they grovel when anyone mentions the word diversity.
Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo Evicts the Honey Badgers
One of the best examples of this is what happened to the Honey Badger Brigade at the recent Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. They were ejected from the show because they dared to counter the official progressive narrative during a question and answer session at a panel. Breitbart has an excellent account of the entire situation.
Here is a partial account from the Honey Badgers of what went on:
On April 17th 2015, the Honey Badger Brigade was forcibly evicted and our booth ordered removed, despite our operating well within the rules of the Expo and it’s policies of conduct. We were not given a chance to dispute the alleged complaints. The organization violated its own stated policy in the process and has released conflicting claims regarding its reasons for our removal.
Those claims indicate that we were removed due to our Men’s Rights Activism and unpopular view of modern feminism. Therefore it is our belief that the actions taken by the Calgary Expo staff were of a political nature and contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in particular freedom of conscience, freedom of thought and freedom of association.
What happened to the HoneyBadgers is an outrage and an attack on fundamental human rights. Progressive elites have demonstrated that they have zero tolerance for anyone that deviates from their ideology. This is outright censorship and it must be opposed strenuously.
Many gaming conventions and expos are becoming politicized and controlled by the progressives. GDC and other gaming conferences are increasingly devoting more time to “advocacy” which is really a polite euphemism for pandering to progressive ideology.
Why I Support the Honey Badgers and #GamerGate
What happened to the Honey Badgers is symptomatic of the infiltration of progressive politics into entertainment culture. Progressive activists and corrupt journalists want to control and dictate the video games that you play, the films you watch, and the comic books that you read. The tactic of these bullies is to create a climate of coercion and intimidation where developers and artists will engage in self-censorship and interject the progressive ideology and advocacy directly into plots, storylines and characters within games, films and comics.
Little did they know that gamers, geeks and nerds would not be so easily intimidated. Despite the mischaracterizations from progressives and their accomplices in the mainstream media, #GamerGate is a positive movement of people from all walks of life who are gamers, geeks and nerds that will not stand idly by while they watch their hobbies, their pastimes and their culture become emasculated.
If you care about artistic integrity and freedom, you should support #GamerGate. If you care about journalistic integrity, you should support #GamerGate. If you oppose censorship, you should support #GamerGate. If you oppose the injection of politics into video games, film and comic books, you should support #GameGate. If you want video game developers to continue make the kinds of games you want to play, you should support #GamerGate.
If we sit back and do nothing, the videos games we play tomorrow, the films we watch tomorrow and the comic books we read tomorrow will end up being Orwellian propaganda. I don’t want to live in a world where a handful of elites get to control what we can play, watch and read. Last I checked, it hasn’t worked out too well for the people of North Korea.
The people attacking #GamerGate are true believers and ideologically driven. They are serious, organized, well-funded and underhanded in their methods. It’s also about ego and power. Never forget that for the progressive bully, the ends justifies the means. They will stop at nothing to achieve their misguided goal of controlling your life. They must be stopped.
The time to act is now. Get involved. Speak out. Stand up for freedom of speech. Stand up for gamers, geeks and nerds. Vote with your dollars. Boycott video games, films and comics that are trying to indoctrinate you. Please support the HoneyBadgers legal defense fund by making a donation if you can afford it. We can win this if we stand united.
-Wolfshead
Nice to see more people standing up to the SJB (social justice bullies).
You’re ready for your two minute hate and SWATTING/bomb threat I hope.
Train
Awesome article. I read the entire thing. I wish more game developers were as brave as you. Thank you.
Thanks for taking the time to describe this rationally. I’m terribly afraid that we may have crossed a tipping point and there are too few classically liberal thinkers left, who might disagree with what you say but defend your right to say it. It’s rather ironic that the progressives have now turned into the authoritarians who will brook no disagreement among their ranks–and doubly ironic that they don’t know what their dogmatism looks like from the outside.
Thus far I have been the only long term active gaming blogger that openly supports GamerGate. I have been attack from all quarters and am now naturally assumed to be a misogynistic, homophobic, evil Lord of all things evil. So it’s heartening to see someone else enter the fray. I disagree with one of your points though. Films and comics have already fallen to the Orwellian hordes of Social Justice Bullies. Thor is a woman now, for gods sake. We also thought that games were the last stand but they’re now gunning for Heavy Metal music if you can believe it.
Too many bloggers and gamers have their collective heads in the sand on this issue. They figure that if they play nice to the SJBs and agree with what they say then they will be left alone to play their games. They are terribly mistaken. The games are not the point. The idiom has never been the point to them. They do not know how to create, they only know how to destroy, and they are never ever satisfied.
Thank you for joining the ranks.
Thanks for your post! I agree with you Adam.
I have noticed in the last 3 years increasing pressure and concerted agitation directed at the video game industry from the progressives and the social justice warriors. This has also been emanating from within as many game devs are sympathetic to the cause of the social justice warriors as they are radical progressives themselves.
Most bloggers and most journalists are progressives — so they have been only too happy to see what has been going on. Those who are not and can actually think for themselves are living in a state of fear. You can lose your job and be blackballed for challenging the status quo. These progressive bullies who cloak themselves in self-righteousness act in packs and can make people’s lives a living hell. Trying be a conservative or a Christian in Hollywood today.
I completely agree that films and comics have been completely hijacked as well.
I think many bloggers are afraid of being labeled so they will not oppose the social justice warriors and are just hoping this will all go away. The problem is it won’t unless good people stand up and speak out.
Until Gamergate happened the progressives were unopposed and growing more arrogant. With the scandals of GamerGate even the progressive bloggers and now the gaming industry have realized that the social justice warriors have gone too far.
Rarely have I delved into politics on this blog but the vicious and diabolical assaults on the video game industry are becoming so outrageous and despotic that I can no longer in good conscience ignore it and feel compelled to add my voice to the growing chorus of gamers that want their hobby free from politics and interference from the social justice warriors.
In the end the marketplace will decide and gamers will vote with their dollars. Gamers will simply not put up with propaganda and political correctness injected into video games at the expense of good gameplay. Good games will sell and bad ones will fail.
Still, we need to be vigilant because these people will not stop. As you wisely noted, they are not creators they are destroyers. It’s all about the “revolution” for them. This is Marxism 101. Once they have fully emasculated the video game industry they will move on to their next target. We need to continue to speak out and expose these radicals and nihilists with solid reasoning and logic.
“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” — Edmund Burke
Great article. There are extremists on both sides of GamerGate but you don’t have to condone violence against women to support the ideals behind free speech. Yet unfortunately the anonymous trolls and those organizations that put pressure on companies to be ‘politically correct’ seem to get the most attention by the media. Thank you for speaking honestly in this era of ‘1984’ politics.
Thanks for joining the party. Hopefully in the years to come GamerGate will be remembered as a diverse group of people that stood up for all gamers the same way we remember how the media stood for gamers against Jack Thompson and his brand of Gamer hate.
It’s funny, when (literally) hundreds of thousands of social justice bullies dogpile and target, harass someone online for doing something socially unacceptable, no one says that social justice is actually about cyber bullying and harassment.
But, when a small number of trolls associated with Gamergate and the Honey Badgers harass someone online, that becomes the only thing the media talks about, never actually letting them speak for themselves and explain their actual motivations.
If Gamergate has taught us anything, it is that the media is in a bad state right now.
If unethical journalists who are criticized for their corruption are able to spin the narrative so thoroughly in their own favor, to say that their critics are actually just misogynists who trying to force women out of gaming (despite having numerous women in their ranks and having donated over $70,000 to help women in gaming), then the media has become too powerful, too immune from any sort of outside critique.
Excellent points!
Instead of talking about the real issues of journalistic corruption, collusion and social justice advocacy brought to light by GamerGate, the anti-GamerGate people are trying their best to deflect and misdirect so that the public will focus on them as victims of “harassment”. So now their alleged victimhood becomes the story. This clever shell game is not fooling anyone.
The mainstream media who have been playing this very same dishonest game for many years now are naturally receptive to claims of alleged harassment so automatically they side with the anti-Gamergate crowd.
If the mainstream media were forced to look at the real problem of video game journalists betraying principles of journalistic ethics by acting like advocates who promote one particular ideology, they would be forced to admit this problem exists and they would have to look at their own biases as well.
I believe the GamerGate issue is going to be a wake up call for many who weren’t aware of how deeply entrenched media bias has become in our society. Gamers, geeks and nerds are fiercely independent and intelligent. The social justice warriors were not expecting this kind of resistance and opposition to their bullying tactics. They are not used to being opposed which is why they are so angry and distraught.
Seeing people fight back against the tyranny of corruption and political correctness really gives me hope for our society.
I left an earlier comment but it didn’t come up for some reason. My gaming blog actively supports GamerGate as well. I am so relieved to see someone of your stature in the trenches as well. Here’s hoping that more will join us.
Hi Adam, I just searched for your initial comment and found it in the spam section. I have use a spam plugin that did this automatically. I am sorry this happened and I have restored your comment. 🙂
Great article, thanks for writing it and for braving the kneejerk emo shitstorm that accompanies any mention of gg. As someone who has worked as a game journo for many years, it’s heartening to see that at least one fan of this industry has a firm grasp of reality. The games industry and the pack of blogger/journo types surrounding it is so overwhelmingly filled with libs that it often seems hopeless, and you’re spot on with your observations of “progressives” becoming the establishment, both in video game culture and in western culture at large.
The saddest thing is that these people are so completely indoctrinated that they believe that they’re correct and that their various sjw causes are noble, and that erroneous belief in turn justifies whatever actions (usually highly selective coverage) they may take to advance the way they see the world.
Anyhow, thanks for the ray of light.