Hello KYM.
I've lurked your (excellent) site for six years now, but only now have I felt compelled to create and account and say something. About me: I'm a white guy, college student, specializing in ancient languages, history, and literature. Fluent in Latin and Greek. I have a deep understanding of scholarship, rhetoric, and consequently ethics. I'm also a lifelong gamer, general internet lurker. I bring all this information up because I think it's necessary to preface what I'm about to say.
I have strong opinions about truth, responsible presentation of information, and debate. I've always considered myself a proponent of women's rights, LGBT rights. My religion (Unitarianism) is stepped in the traditions of social justice: real social justice. We went into Hitler's Fortress Europe to help rescue Jews; we were some of the first to go to the South and join in the fight for civil rights: some of our ministers and parishioners even died for the cause. We were even the first religious organization to marry LGBT couples. Suffice to say, social justice, the belief that all people deserve equality before the law, the idea that life is sacred, that the intellect is sacred, and that compassion for others and respect for their differences ought to motivate us, these ideals are at the deepest, most central core of who I am.
So, imagine how furious I am when I see these "social justice warriors" raging across twitter and tumblr about oppression and injustice when all they really want is attention and vindication. I normally disagree with Internet Aristocrat on fine points, but one big theme I can agree with him on is that these people are not in it for the common good, but rather their own good. They create false victim complexes to distinguish themselves rather than actually doing something to make themselves excellent or exceptional. This behavior pitiful, disdainful.
GamerGate is emblematic of all these problems. The people who have been against you (us, dare I say, because I am on your side) note that they are mostly white. Twentysomething white liberals (I use that as a term of disdain even as a left-leaner myself in this context) who want to thrust their "progressive" Orthodoxy onto the world and silence any who disagree with them. The reactions of the Kotaku crowd, the LW women and their supporters, disturbs me profoundly as a believer in social justice because their actions are fundamentally counter to justice itself . People are born free, endowed with the (in my beliefs sacred and God-given) intellect, which allows them to choose for themselves. Shaming, harassing, silencing others on the basis that they disagree with you only makes everyone angrier and more hostile. That ruins the chance for dialogue, understanding, and true progress.
Of course, this issue affects me personally. I'm a white guy; I get along reasonably in society, but I've always had latent guilt issues about my gaming and internet-loving pastimes. I remember when the "games journalists" were lambasting Jack Thomas for calling Grand Theft Auto a "murder simulator and now the person who wrote the "How to End Gamers" guide used the phrase "Murder Simulator" himself! Of course, I'm still touchy about this facet of my identity, so when that sewage outflow of articles condemning white male gamers was vomited onto the internet, it hurt me personally, even though I was not part of the GamerGate movement back then.
On another level, the censorship is appalling. Moderators abusing their power, journalists using their platforms to preach hate-- they've succeeded at sewing misinformation and unjustly branding genuine and earnest people bigots. They've taken the cause of justice for the underprivileged and turned it into their platform as privileged white people to advance their own agendas. The hypocrisy is utterly staggering.
I think I've gone on a bit long. Here's the Teel Deer:
The aggressive response to GamerGate disgusts me on the level of a scholar because it violates the concepts of truthful reporting and responsible dialogue on every level. It disgusts me as a person because this platform attacks me on the basis of profiling, blaming me for the crimes of others. Worst of it all, however, was their response to Not Your Shield. The systematic harassment and denial of identity towards people of color, women, and LGBT people on the part of the anti-GG crowd is definitive proof that they're irredeemably in the wrong on this issue.
As you are attacked and harassed. As you are censored and banned, know that you're by and large doing the right thing. Refrain from aggression and vulgarity. Act with the grace and tact and humility that these colluding, self-righteous, arrogant crybabies lack. As someone who's dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth: spiritual truth, historical truth, personal truth, and ethical truth, I believe in your cause. And I believe you can triumph.
I'd like to conclude by saying that I have a deep and abiding respect for the KnowYourMeme community as a whole. As a scholar, I find the project of documenting internet culture fascinating and I'm proud of you all for presenting your information in a fair and level manner, even when you feel strongly about it. Your cover of GamerGate is peerless: there's a reason Christina Sommers chose to get her information from you.