[E]verything I have done will be held against me and spun by my accuser

February 10, 2016 9:45 PM

Zoë Quinn explains “why [she] just dropped the harassment charges [against] the man who started GamerGate.” (via Ellen Pao’s Twitter.)
posted by Going To Maine (66 comments total)

That poor woman. I really, really hope she is afforded a measure of peace, because if there was every anyone who got unfairly targeted by the worst cowards in the world, it's her.

Can we start a kickstarter to buy her an island or something?
posted by lumpenprole at 9:52 PM on February 10, 2016 [50 favorites]

This whole thing makes me so sad.
posted by sweetkid at 9:57 PM on February 10, 2016 [5 favorites]

I know everyone wants to see Trump shipped off to some deserted island but please remember Zoe's asshole ex and all his buddies deserve a place there, too. Arguably more deserving, even. I feel so awful for her.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:59 PM on February 10, 2016 [7 favorites]

This is insane. I'd contribute to that Kickstarter.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:59 PM on February 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

I understand why she decided to do this.

It makes me want to burn down the galaxy.
posted by rtha at 10:01 PM on February 10, 2016 [45 favorites]

I hope that karma is real and that it comes for him someday.
posted by palomar at 10:07 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Man, that sucks that that utter asshole gets away scot free. I hope Quinn can find some peace.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 10:08 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Can we start a kickstarter to buy her an island or something?

Zoe Quinn's anti-harrassment network, Crash Override, doesn't take donations.

But Quinn has a Patreon that you can donate to, here.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 10:14 PM on February 10, 2016 [12 favorites]

The asshole ex-boyfriend is tweeting of his victory.
posted by humanfont at 10:23 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the info, htwrt; patronage started.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:23 PM on February 10, 2016

The fact that we have no effective response to one of the worst cases of harassment imaginable (who else except perhaps the President has a one foot stack of hate mail?) is phenominally depressing. The system, and all of us, failed Zoë Quinn.
posted by zachlipton at 10:24 PM on February 10, 2016 [21 favorites]

We are so very lucky to have someone so brave and so well-spoken writing about this happening to her. It's bound to happen, though, when violence against women is endemic - some of the women are going to be very skilled at telling their story, at having their voices heard. I'm sorry she had to be one of them and incredibly grateful that she is willing to write, to talk, to get her story out there despite everything.

I'm glad she did what she needed to do for herself.

And a big middle finger to everyone who says to women: "why don't you go to the cops? Get a restraining order. A DVPO. Get a lawyer." The legal system in our country is an absolute joke when it comes to violence against women. So maybe the middle finger belongs pointed at the legal system, too.

I hope she can get some normalcy back at some point. It will take a long time. It won't ever really be something she forgets, you know? But I hope that she finds peace.
posted by sockermom at 10:29 PM on February 10, 2016 [54 favorites]

No one should have to experience this.
posted by bardophile at 10:41 PM on February 10, 2016 [5 favorites]

What if this doesn't stop these monsters either?
posted by EatTheWeek at 11:02 PM on February 10, 2016

This Gjoni fucknut sounds like the most pitiful self-absorbed proud-to-be loser ever. Surprising and sad he's been afforded any type of "victory".

The only upside is the knowledge that what goes around, comes around. He'll invest trust in someone, at some point, which will become the knife that's turned in his side.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 11:26 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hard to read what she went through. It's so messed up.
posted by radiocontrolled at 11:42 PM on February 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

If I'm following her post correctly she had the order withdrawn but the court is going to hear arguments on the merits anyway to set precedent for future cases?
posted by Justinian at 11:44 PM on February 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is profoundly sad. I had to read her entire post in chunks because reading it all at once was too much. Gamergate has given a face and mission statement to a huge group of entitled abusers and it has always, always, been directed at her and a few others without rest. I've read so much from her and other victims about this about how there is no victory, there is no end, it's all become a day to day reality.

And those in Gamergate are laughing and applauding themselves over this. They are claiming this as their victory. This heartbreaking piece? They gobbled it up and now they're onto the next one. This will not stop them, they don't really care about anything other than their "cause."

Fuck, I was going to write about how I hope that things get better, that this piece will join and inspire others and that we'll see websites create and enforce better tools to protect people, not users, people and that the places where these abusers gather get purged. I still want that to happen, I just don't believe it will.
posted by Neronomius at 3:39 AM on February 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

It still amazes me, this far into GamerGate, that people still swallow the "ethics in games journalism" line without a second thought.

I honestly couldn't read this. I don't have the strength, and I'm not even the victim, just a cismale supporter of Zoe. She's stronger than I am.

Hopefully, one day, the wheel of karma will run over the abusive, spiteful, disgusting excuse for a human being who started all of this. The way things are going, though, that hope is starting to feel more like naïveté.
posted by SansPoint at 4:13 AM on February 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

I have wondered for a while why the legal strategy here was anti-harassment, which seemed unlikely to get verdicts against the principal here, given that the death threats etc were the work of third parties.

Should have been -- and maybe still could be? -- defamation, as that would have created culpability in the principal for the nasty things that third parties did to her stirred up by the defamatory speech -- which I think a court would find were foreseeable consequences of the speech, at least after the first couple of weeks. (Maybe he could claim surprise for the first couple of weeks, but thereafter no way.)

Obviously in a defamation suit she would have to prove falsity against any evidence of his for truth, but that was going to end up a part of any competently-defended anti-harassment trial, so no real benefit there. I wonder if she was poorly-advised on that front.
posted by MattD at 4:19 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have wondered for a while why the legal strategy here was anti-harassment, which seemed unlikely to get verdicts against the principal here, given that the death threats etc were the work of third parties.

Gjoni has been pretty open about coordinating and abetting the third-party harassment- you're not innocent of artillery fire because all you did was call the shots.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:41 AM on February 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

Does it make me a terrible person to wish that Anonymous would step in here? I enjoy it when they help Karma along.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:44 AM on February 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

"I hope that karma is real and that it comes for him someday." --palomar

"Hopefully, one day, the wheel of karma will run over the abusive, spiteful, disgusting excuse for a human being who started all of this." --SansPoint

"Does it make me a terrible person to wish that Anonymous would step in here? I enjoy it when they help Karma along." --Ruthless Bunny

I understand the desire for Ms. Quinn's harassers -- especially her ex -- to receive thorough comeuppance, but we should all be mindful of the fact that not even Ms. Quinn wants that.

Yes, she wants justice, and at a minimum making the continued harassment stop, but she has made it clear that she wouldn't even wish a fraction of the level of sheer torment she's received on anyone else, because it's just so horrible.

Perhaps we should follow Ms. Quinn's lead, then, as it's pretty much the only ethical thing about GamerGate at all...
posted by mystyk at 5:29 AM on February 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also, Ruthless Bunny, most of Anonymous is on the side of the harassers or are actively involved in harassing Quinn themselves.
posted by sotonohito at 5:49 AM on February 11, 2016 [16 favorites]

God, that sucks. It's appalling how badly the legal system works for people who aren't, like me, wealthy, white and male. And Mystyk's point is well-taken, although I confess that I'd still like to punch this sad little creep a number of times.
posted by ColdOfTheIsleOfMan at 6:04 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

mystik: she has made it clear that she wouldn't even wish a fraction of the level of sheer torment she's received on anyone else, because it's just so horrible.

True. Nobody deserves what happened to Zoe. In my mind, at least, karma doesn't have to be Creep Throat being harassed into hiding. It can just be legal consequences for his actions---not even necessarily his actions against Zoe---that result in him stopping his campaign of horror.
posted by SansPoint at 6:25 AM on February 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

The idea that you are basically helpless bringing consequences against the worst harassers on the internet (Gjoni + gamergate) is really frustrating.
posted by Theta States at 7:01 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Gentle kind beings want to stop the cycles of suffering- it's so beautiful. And this kindness allows those who deal out horrific suffering, to never know what it is they do.

I think, they must know. This force will have us all crying out for mercy because we have all caused harms we do not understand. To understand is to hurt. I don't want anyone to hurt, but until you know, you can not realize why you must stop.

Ignorance of others experience allows us to harm unperturbed. Awareness causes pain. Until you join hands with those who are suffering you awaken to, and lift them up.
posted by xarnop at 7:09 AM on February 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

Mod note: Couple of comments deleted. This dude is terrible, but let's not steer this into spelling out grisly ways karma could get him; karma will think of something.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 7:31 AM on February 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

"You can't win, no matter what you do." --Baby Houseman, Dirty Dancing.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:34 AM on February 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

A good companion to the other FPP on the Ghomeshi case, I think. Our justice systems turn out to be really, really bad at delivering justice.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:36 AM on February 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

.
posted by anti social order at 7:45 AM on February 11, 2016

I think also, tobascodagama, our system of justice hasn't yet caught up to the reality of the net as it is, plus of course the fact that our system of justice has always been indifferent (at best) to women being abused.

What happened to Quinn is something like the harassment version of a DDoS. While I'm sure there are many actors involved who were obsessive repeat offenders, a sizable chunk of the harassment, possibly even the majority, came from one time actors who sent out a threat or two and then ended their direct involvement. Trying to charge all of them may well be impossible under the law as it exists because while the aggregate effect is awful the individual contributors probably don't count as harassment.

I'd hope they could charge the ringleaders with something under RICO or one of the various catchall conspiracy laws because they were certainly conspiring to harm Quinn even if like Gjoni most of the organizers really were doing it bloody hands at arms length style and not sending out threats themselves.

But even if the did something criminal under current law (and they may not have, if so I hope we can get some new laws passed but yeesh trying to figure out exactly who to charge and what laws to pass that won't fail Constitutional review is going to be a nightmare) the will to prosecute simply isn't there.

Hell, the government still hasn't even really started doing anything serious about swatting, and that involves actually wasting police time and directly endangering the lives of civilians.

The fact that its online is doubtless a big contributor, there's still this pervasive attitude that the internet is some sort of joke and that taking anything that happens online seriously is an indication that the person in question is an inherently unserious person. But I suspect the biggest contributor to the inaction is that most victims of swatting and organized harassment campaigns are women, because nothing that happens to women is ever worth taking seriously per our government.
posted by sotonohito at 7:53 AM on February 11, 2016 [14 favorites]

I always used to believe, deep down, that the people who made threats to strangers online were basically just assholes and while it was horrible it was not actually physically dangerous, and then those dudes came to the Black Lives Matter protest at the 4th precinct here in MPLS with guns and actually shot people and probably aren't going to face much consequences. That made it really obvious to me that if there's enough people - men, let's be honest, this is about men, probably mostly white men - talking about how it would be fair and right to go and kill someone, then eventually someone's going to pick up the gun.

It feels like a defeat, I admit, but it would feel a whole hell of a lot worse if she were hurt or killed.

I just hate the fact that what happens is that if you try to get justice the way you're supposed to, these extrajudicial paramilitaries, our own little internet freikorps, threaten you until you're scared for your life and your family's lives.

When I was younger, I thought that paramilitaries were, like, a problem they had in South America where US-backed dictators ran the show. Now I realize that we too have our paramilitaries - not as violent, but just as effective in using violence to maintain power and quash dissent. And what's really remarkable is that in, say, dictator-run Brazil, you actually had to recruit and pay your paramilitaries - in the US, they volunteer and work for free.
posted by Frowner at 7:58 AM on February 11, 2016 [36 favorites]

sotonohito The fact that its online is doubtless a big contributor, there's still this pervasive attitude that the internet is some sort of joke and that taking anything that happens online seriously is an indication that the person in question is an inherently unserious person. But I suspect the biggest contributor to the inaction is that most victims of swatting and organized harassment campaigns are women, because nothing that happens to women is ever worth taking seriously per our government.

Exactly right on both counts. People do not understand: The Internet is Real Life. And, of course, a justice system made by white men, for white men, isn't going to give a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys about what happens to a woman.
posted by SansPoint at 8:07 AM on February 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

While we are raising middle fingers, don't forget to hoist a couple in the direction of Adam Baldwin, the jackass who coined the term Gamergate and who really popularized the movement.
posted by JDHarper at 8:11 AM on February 11, 2016 [19 favorites]

Frowner, I think the term you are looking for is stochastic terrorism.

Its what you describe, finding an audience primed for violence (or creating one) then inundating that audience with a message that will direct them towards a target. Its basically how the San Bernardino shooting and the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting happened.

Stochastic harassment or stochastic threats is also a good way to describe what happened to Zoe Quinn.
posted by sotonohito at 8:12 AM on February 11, 2016 [25 favorites]

"Imagine being so mad at someone after a breakup that within a year the united nations is involved" -@topbunkwanter
posted by CarolynG at 8:15 AM on February 11, 2016 [15 favorites]

It feels like a defeat, I admit, but it would feel a whole hell of a lot worse if she were hurt or killed.

Amen. Sometimes, just surviving something is a victory.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:16 AM on February 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

While we are raising middle fingers, don't forget to hoist a couple in the direction of Adam Baldwin, the jackass who coined the term Gamergate and who really popularized the movement.

And groups like the Sad and Rabid Puppies, who have deep connections with and actively recruited Gamergate and adopted their tactics.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:21 AM on February 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

And yet the idiom, "hell has no fury like a woman scorned," still carries cultural weight. It's infuriating.
posted by Salamandrous at 12:51 PM on February 11, 2016 [8 favorites]

Every time someone like Ms. Quinn's ex is able to harass and encourage others to do the same without consequence it's just an endorsement of the same tactics by others. It's not going to stop because it appears there's no reason why it should.

People will just shrug their shoulders and claim "nothing could be done" but the truth is something could have been done, it just wasn't.
posted by tommasz at 12:53 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

And yet the idiom, “hell has no fury like a woman scorned,” still carries cultural weight. It's infuriating.

As a pedant I note that that idiom is about a woman whose advances are refused, not a woman in an abusive relationship, so I don’t know that this really applies. But yes idioms devised in the patriarchy are not cool to women.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:03 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

It feels like a defeat, I admit, but it would feel a whole hell of a lot worse if she were hurt or killed.

Unfortunately, that's a day-to-day thing now. We don't know what kind of ugly things her adversaries are cooking up.

I'm reminded of the statement by the IRA to Margaret Thatcher after she narrowly dodged the Brighton hotel bombing: "Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." Like a Salman Rushdie, under the fatwa of the fanatical Ayatollahs of Iran, you would always be looking over your shoulder, keeping an eye out for the hidden assassin.
posted by theorique at 6:05 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." Like a Salman Rushdie, under the fatwa of the fanatical Ayatollahs of Iran, you would always be looking over your shoulder, keeping an eye out for the hidden assassin.

I applaud her decision to walk the hell away and start trying to reclaim her life, but I don't think anyone can say for sure that doing so will actually reduce the threat of harm. According to the post, Gjoni actually showed up in court to protest when she dropped the restraining order. Who knows what he and his foetid little band of winged monkeys will do in response to this.

Many of the gators seemed really cockily sure that Gjoni would score a grand and glorious victory in the final boss battle the criminal trial, and I'm sure that a substantial number of them are going to feel cheated and deeply aggrieved now that all that's off. Couple that with the fact that some of these gits have turned GamerGate into an extended family and an income stream, and ugh. Just UGH. I would love to be wrong, but I find it unlikely that bowing out of the criminal case will be enough to dispel the gator swarms.

I really wish we could get Zoe Quinn that island. And a highly-trained, all-Crone security force to keep it safe for her.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 7:17 PM on February 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

As a pedant I note that that idiom is about a woman whose advances are refused, not a woman in an abusive relationship, so I don’t know that this really applies. But yes idioms devised in the patriarchy are not cool to women.

I think the point was that we have an idiom for how evil bitches are when they don't get their hormonal way, despite the fact that men are 10x more vengeful, violent, and flat out irrational about it.

Could be wrong.
posted by stoneandstar at 9:13 PM on February 11, 2016 [17 favorites]

May he have a long and excruciating life.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:56 AM on February 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

I applaud her decision to walk the hell away and start trying to reclaim her life, but I don't think anyone can say for sure that doing so will actually reduce the threat of harm.

That's why I think the IRA or fatwa analogy works - just because the fatwa on Salman Rushdie was lifted doesn't automatically make him safe. There's still the possibility of a lone wolf Islamist believing that the fatwa was reversed in error, and taking independent action against a 'heretic'.

When you look at some of the crazy stuff that went on (e.g. the guy who tried to crash his car into Brianna Wu), it doesn't look like any action taken by the main targets will bring their circumstances 'back to normal'.
posted by theorique at 7:51 AM on February 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

There was an interesting discussion here not too long ago about how liberating it is when an abuser dies. So I don't wish him a long, excruciating life - I hope he either gets help or goes away. She may never be at peace until he is gone.

Why is it that the people who need the most help are the most resistant?
posted by sockermom at 9:03 AM on February 12, 2016 [7 favorites]

I want to link to that article every time a guy (a person, but in my experience it's usually a guy) opines that anyone claiming harassment or abuse should totally go to the police or else they're clearly lying.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:04 AM on February 12, 2016 [4 favorites]

(e.g. the guy who tried to crash his car into Brianna Wu)

WTF?

Goddamn, this shit just keeps getting more and more deranged.
posted by homunculus at 9:33 PM on February 14, 2016

Here's a little something more uplifting about Wu: Female Video Game Developer Snaps at Twitter Troll, Results Are Fantastic
posted by homunculus at 9:37 PM on February 14, 2016

What Happened When a NASA Astronaut Got Harassed on Twitter
posted by homunculus at 11:14 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Jace Connors was later exposed by Buzzfeed as a "prank" by an " actor".
posted by humanfont at 4:59 PM on February 15, 2016

He may have been an actor, but I don't think Wu knew it at the time that she was apparently "stalked" by him. If you do something that terrifies someone and then go "just kidding", they may have a sense of relief, but you still put them in fear for a period of time.
posted by theorique at 10:21 AM on February 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

I actually thing the Jace Conners thing was much worse than an honest threat. It's all the fear associated with an actual threat, but with the realization that he's now created a situation where police (who are already predisposed to not give misogynist violence as much attention as it needs) are more likely to discount her version of the events. It's like some perverted reverse version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, where the targets have real issues, but the wolves are actively fostering a situation where no one will listen to them.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:07 AM on February 16, 2016 [5 favorites]

That's a good point. Now those inclined to disbelieve accounts of online harassment becoming IRL harassment have a specific, dramatic incident to hang their hat on - "well, Jace Connors turned out to be a troll, so what proof do we have that XYZ Incident is something real?"
posted by theorique at 5:18 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Washington Post has a video of Zoe and an article about her online.
Headline: "In the battle of Internet mobs vs. the law, the Internet mobs have won."
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:43 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Discussion of the story went on at Monica Hesse's Post chat.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:56 PM on February 18, 2016

I agree that the prank/actor aspect of it did not make it any less terrifying at the moment or terrible in retrospect.
posted by humanfont at 3:10 PM on February 18, 2016

While we are raising middle fingers, don't forget to hoist a couple in the direction of Adam Baldwin, the jackass who coined the term Gamergate and who really popularized the movement.

Adam Baldwin Quits Twitter; Rational People Everywhere Rejoice
posted by homunculus at 10:43 PM on February 24, 2016 [6 favorites]

Yeah, his gamergate buddy Larry Correia did it too, all the while going WHAARGARBL about Anita Sarkeesian. Here's her rebuttal: On Twitter, Conspiracy Theories, and Information Cascades

Of course there isn’t a shred of truth to this perception, but for the people spreading it, the truth is irrelevant. The tweets, blogs and videos are designed to incite rage and enlist more people to join the crusade against me. They are designed to make me out as a powerful enemy of free speech who is determined to crush the expression of any idea she doesn’t agree with, and they conveniently support the perception some have created that I am not a feminist pop culture critic but rather some kind of diabolical supervillain, hell-bent on creating an oppressive society.

This conspiracy and others like it are themselves a manifestation of misogyny, borne out of a deep distrust and hatred of women. They’re designed to foster fear and serve as a warning to other women about what awaits them if they challenge the status quo. Rather than replacing the pre-existing conspiracies, this new one fits neatly in with the others that have been and continue to be proliferated. It’s as if I’m a folk demon and this is yet another horror story people whisper to each other about me and, by extension, about what effects feminism may have on our culture if this imaginary menace is allowed to spread.

These absurd characterizations, unquestioningly accepted as true, then serve as the justification for more extreme forms of harassment. I know how this works because I’ve been down this road many times before. In fact, I talked about exactly this same phenomenon at XOXO in 2014, in my talk on information cascades and conspiracy theories. If you watch the talk now, you’ll see that while the story being spread about me may be different, the tactics haven’t changed at all.

posted by zombieflanders at 7:21 AM on February 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

While it's a great thing that these jackholes are voluntarily leaving Twitter, I'm sure they all have other channels for inciting harassment now. So the onslaught of eggs isn't gonna end any time soon, no matter where they go.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:05 AM on February 25, 2016

More important, they're "leaving twitter" by not actually leaving twitter, just talking a whole lot about leaving. Note, for example, that Adam Baldwin's account is still active and he's tweeted many times since he "left", all about why he left and how horrible the SJW's are that they forced him off.
posted by sotonohito at 9:26 AM on February 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Heh. Of course.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:12 AM on February 25, 2016

How can we miss them when they won't go away?
posted by rmd1023 at 11:38 AM on February 25, 2016 [6 favorites]