"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[Cordeos]

  On 8/27/2015 at 6:15 PM, Mangela Lansbury said:

In the time I spent with a French guy who had recently moved to America, I had to explain that French society was deeply racist several times. He would bring up how Americans seem to be having all these race problems these days, but at least they were past all that in France -- but, like, no they're super not?????

 

It was extremely frustrating. I don't understand that part of the European mindset.

 

France has had a mix of super alouf liberal intellectuals and crazy racist nationalists for a while now. Its very confusing. 

[SuperBiasedMan]

Yeah I read a blogpost someone wrote about how she was working in a really nice office that made a specific effort to address microagressions and prejudice in company culture. It was a good positive article about how to make the effort in ways that matter.

 

It was bombarded with shitty comments, but a couple of times I did see the sentiment "I don't understand how you americans haven't gotten past that yet, we're fine over here."

 

I think being such big media present country gives you some big media present assholes for the rest of the world to remember you by.

[itsamoose]

  On 8/27/2015 at 6:15 PM, Mangela Lansbury said:

In the time I spent with a French guy who had recently moved to America, I had to explain that French society was deeply racist several times. He would bring up how Americans seem to be having all these race problems these days, but at least they were past all that in France -- but, like, no they're super not?????

It was extremely frustrating. I don't understand that part of the European mindset.

I don't know that is just a European thing, anytime you bring up societal issues in the US people tend to point out how it is worse somewhere else, or it is diminished in the US to the point of it not worth being talked about. I think it's just part of the whole "everyone else is the problem and I was right all along" mindset that has permeated society today, particularly in the political realm. There are usually racist or sexist undertones to the argument but it all seems to be based on what I believe is called the error of designation--where people see something as a quality inherent to their character as opposed to a product of circumstances and motivations.

[Cordeos]

  On 8/27/2015 at 6:46 PM, itsamoose said:

I don't know that is just a European thing, anytime you bring up societal issues in the US people tend to point out how it is worse somewhere else, or it is diminished in the US to the point of it not worth being talked about. I think it's just part of the whole "everyone else is the problem and I was right all along" mindset that has permeated society today, particularly in the political realm. There are usually racist or sexist undertones to the argument but it all seems to be based on what I believe is called the error of designation--where people see something as a quality inherent to their character as opposed to a product of circumstances and motivations.

 

Its pretty classic Tu Quoque.

 

[tberton]

  On 8/27/2015 at 6:15 PM, Mangela Lansbury said:

In the time I spent with a French guy who had recently moved to America, I had to explain that French society was deeply racist several times. He would bring up how Americans seem to be having all these race problems these days, but at least they were past all that in France -- but, like, no they're super not?????

 

It was extremely frustrating. I don't understand that part of the European mindset.

 

This is pretty hilarious/sad, considering how many race riots there were in France in the mid-aughts.

[Mangela Lansbury]

  On 8/27/2015 at 7:50 PM, tberton said:

This is pretty hilarious/sad, considering how many race riots there were in France in the mid-aughts.

But you see, those were about various other things and all for different reasons, not just because of race. They couldn't be because of race because race is a solved problem in France.

These were INCREDIBLY frustrating conversations that reminded me a lot of conversations with left-leaning Americans who can't get behind the Black Lives Matter movement because white people have it hard too, y'know, it's obviously just a class thing?????

I guess it's not a uniquely European mindset. That entire way of thinking just baffles me -- how you can sit right at the edge of understanding, just a little baby step away, and just be like, nah, here is fine with me.

[Deadpan]

  On 8/27/2015 at 5:32 PM, Vainamoinen said:

I'm fairly certain that from an informed US perspective you could call it socialist.

 

Ah, we're probably just talking about different parts of the right-wing catalog. There's definitely a big difference in economic philosophy between here and there, but for everything else it's much of the same nonsense, except people often don't see it that way. It's like in that blogpost where TotalBeesquick claims there's no racism in Britain because there are no black people there which is 1) a bizarre and wrong claim and 2) neglecting that racism can also be targetted at people whose skin is virtually the same color as your own. It was always about assigning value to arbitrary differences, no matter how

.

 

But yeah, the amount of outright nazism that's going on around here over the horrifying prospect of providing for the basic needs of refugees makes it really unsettling to continually see people go "Oh racism, that's an over there problem"

[Markson]

I've always told myself (maybe deluded myself) that American society looks worse because it's also louder - issues get dealt with in very public and sometimes violent ways, but they're evidence that things are moving somewhere. Sometimes to very scary places, but sometimes to better ones.

 

I don't think the violence and suffering is necessary for change to happen, and I hope there are better ways...and some things that should be public are wiped under the rug for decades until they explode, too, though.

[ratamero]

My very limited experience when living in America for 6 months is that racism is much more "tangible" there. I would take the bus and be the only white person on it. I'd go to a fast food joint and 100% of the people working there would be black. The university campus would be almost completely white. The fact that economic inequality is much bigger in the US than it is in Europe, in general, might lead to a kind of de facto segregation that is different from the racism that exists in Europe.

[Vainamoinen]

Lest we forget.

 

[slime]

  On 8/24/2015 at 5:36 AM, Gormongous said:

Excellent post and full of the hope that I think the Hugos need moving forward.

 

On that topic, here's a blog post from Ursula Vernon, one of the people who got pushed out of the list of nominees because of the Puppy slates (numbers were released after the awards went out which show where various votes went): http://ursulav.livejournal.com/1634673.html

 

George R. R. Martin hosted a Hugo losers party after the main awards, and gave out several awesome trophies (dubbed 'Alfies') to people including Ursula. He's written some more excellent blog posts on the Hugos, the post-event losers party, and the Alfies:

 

Part 1: 'Hugo Aftermath' http://grrm.livejournal.com/439207.html

Part 2: 'The Hugo Losers Party' http://grrm.livejournal.com/439464.html

Part 3: 'What's it All About, Alfie?' http://grrm.livejournal.com/439564.html

Part 4: 'The Alfies' http://grrm.livejournal.com/439932.html

[Vainamoinen]

A late addendum to BadHat's "bad joke" a few pages ago, which I won't quote so he doesn't get shit for it any more: Sarkeesian recently spoke on precisely this kind of criticism (the puppetmaster thing), and the video is now online.
 
http://videos.theconference.se/anita-sarkeesian-hate-and-heroism

[Ben X]

What the fuck, BadHat?

[brkl]

This BadHat situation demands a thorough inquiry.

[Ben X]

But enough about your avatar...

[Ben X]

Seriously though, that Anita talk is good. It's all stuff I knew but presented very well and really underlines how much logical straining gators and such go through in order to undermine her. Also: they say Lemmings isn't real gaming? What is wrong with these people?!

[Vainamoinen]

That game collection struck me as fairly odd. It's a collection of 'casual' and 'pretty old', but then there's Portal in it... that's not supposed to be 'real gaming'? Why, is it too short or what? Not that I ever play Valve stuff.

[Ben X]

I assume Anita has taken those from real comments, so maybe Portal was considered too mainstream and popular by some internet hosebrain? The Lemmings pull is beyond me though.

[BadHat]

Sorry. 

 

To contribute to the "not in my country!" thing on the last page, this is something I genuinely used to think of New Zealand. In reality, we're more liberal and open-minded about certain issues, sure, but there's a pretty deep strain of sexism, homophobia, and racism running through our culture, even if a lot of people are outwardly accepting.

[BigJKO]

For excellent "not in my country", go check out the thread for The Last Night, where the developer Tim Soret declared sexism didn't exist in Paris.

[Mangela Lansbury]

  On 8/31/2015 at 8:59 AM, BigJKO said:

For excellent "not in my country", go check out the thread for The Last Night, where the developer Tim Soret declared sexism didn't exist in Paris.

In a conversation with my French friend this weekend, he said that racism in France is mostly just a poor people thing and certainly not a thing he ever does, and also that immigrants should learn French or go back to their own damn countries.

[Vainamoinen]

Seems like some nobody twitch gamer/streamer who looks like he's fresh from High School has chosen to tearfully detail his breakup (with another streamer) to his fans via stream. Seriously, it's all teenie drama. What's making this a big deal, of course, is gamergate, thanks again.

 

I won't hand out details, no names or games or links at the time, no siree. We'll have that soon enough.

 

The reaction in the usual sources shows how gamergate has taken away nothing at all from the Qspiracy disaster. This is all willingly discussed for one thing, with hardly anyone thinking it off topic in any way. Every other word seems to be "cheat", although in between sobs, the streamer seems to have explicitly said that his former girlfriend didn't cheat. Christ, does that sound familiar. Some voices are actually conveying "won't anybody think of the poor accuser, he's sure to lose his job". The most reasoned stances there demand to "hear her side". To which, of course, they are not entitled. Pray to god the guy's former partner is as intelligent as last year's primary mob target and never starts slinging deeply intimate shit back.

 

Gamergate could grow up in a hurry and tell that guy to stick his personal problems where the sun doesn't shine before their left arm inexplicably starts pounding on the girl but... yeah, I'll dream on for a little while.

 

Prepare for the mob and stand by the abused. 

 

 

 

/edit a few hours later: Seeing some really interesting developments. People actually questioning whether it's gamergate stuff, disassociating themselves right in those threads. Other people taking a teensy peek through the curtain of crap, coming up with things like "Looking back a bit further at the "other guy's" twitter, it's nothing but nauseating middle-school "I wuv you" barfy shit between him and this chick for the last few weeks, and ****** is claiming this chick said just last week she wanted to marry him?..."

[Gormongous]

Man, nothing brings down the glow of watching Sarkeesian's latest video like it finishing and me being confronted with a mosaic of pasty dudes in dark rooms, all sporting titles like "Women as Reward: My Opinion" or "Women as Reward: the Last Word." Just a guess, because I'm not going to watch any of them, but her bit about entitlement sailed right over their heads, didn't it?

[Zeusthecat]

http://kotaku.com/ftc-slams-youtube-group-for-deceptive-xbox-marketing-ca-1728237588

 

Come on gamergate. It's right there in front of you.

[Vainamoinen]

As I said, AAAs and 'youtubers' are invincible.
 
And, of course, Jason Schreier scores nine c-trophies on the deepfreeze site. Not a source gamergate would want to draw on.
 
But that is... spectacular. Just spectacular. That... is corruption.
 
 
(Read the comments under the article. Do it. )

  Quote

But it wasn’t an indie developer, no SJWs were involved, and nobody slept with each other. I’m confused!