The #GamerGate Battered Wife Syndrome. Part 1: The Escapist.

| Variloh
( The thoughts expressed in this blog are soley reflective of the authors opinion and not necessarily of all of us here at ManaMonger. Please send your displeasure, white knighting and overall angry comments to his twitter: @ variloh or his email . Thank you!)
I occasionally get serious, but it’s not common so don’t get used to it. In this series I’d like to talk a little bit about what I have found to be an interesting phenomenon in #GamerGate: They seem to forgive entities, no matter what transgressions they have committed, for little to no reason and once forgiven, said entity can no longer do any wrong. 
 
Today’s topic? The Escapist.
 
When people in #GamrGate think the Escapist, they usually think of a site that’s worth promoting, a site that represents everything Games Journalism should be: “a big site that listened to its audience”. Hell, it seems to be the Anit-Kotaku in the eyes of many Gaters. Why? Well, there is a plethora of reasons. They parted ways with Moviebob, Greg Tito and Jim Sterling, they reformed there ethics policy, They allowed GG discussion when most other sites wouldn’t, and the big one, they hired Lizzy Finnegan. Yay.
Seems like a great site, on the surface ad least, but, past and some present actions tend to paint a different picture. Lets take a look at what the Escapist has done in the past first:
What? Just because they didn’t write a “Gamers are dead” article you think there was no SJW agenda in the escapist? Get real. The interesting thing about this article is not only does it sing to the tune of “poor Anita is being harassed by horrible gamers” but there source is…Youtube Comments… #Journalism. And no, not only did the author (Grey Carter) not screen cap anything but he expects you to dig through the comments yourself to find the specific ones he was talking about.
 
 The kicker?  The contributor links to the fem frequency video where they allegedly got said comments. The  article was published on June 12 2012 at 1:01 AM. The comment Section for the video in question was closed on June 16 2013 at midnight (according to the description of said video) so I hope you read the article and dug through the comments in that small window of time because otherwise forget about getting a source, Shitlord.  And speaking of sources, the official source for the article is a feminist frequency blog post where she “reports” the “harassment”. She seems to have screen caped (and makes crystal clear she did NOTHING to tamper with it, Cis scum) but you can no longer see that cap either.  And no, the contributor did not update the article with this information. Not on “deepfreeze” either (not that it would mean much tho).
If the name of the author sounds familiar to you its because hes the creator of Erin Dies Alone and Critical Miss.
 
 A glance at this guys twitter reveals …interesting ideas to say the least. Not only is he one of the people complaining about the GOT Rape scene but  the guy seems to regularly retweet moviebob which is the equivalent of throwing feces all around the neighborhood and giving dirty looks to those who complain. The decision of “is he really an SJW” or if either of these is really a sin is up to you and I encourage you to go look for yourself. There is no doubt, however, that back in 2012 this guy was singing to the tune of harassment.  
 (Its not like Sansa got herself into that situation by making stupid decisions like trusting Littlefinger or agreeing to marry R. Bolton. Nah.)
 
 (I love the claim Bob makes about how western games are more relatable and henceforth more “liked” then those underground games line Final Fantasy)
 
  • They helped create movie bob and Jim Sterling
Yes they got rid of them. Yes we all make mistakes. But am I the only one finding it hard to forget that two of the biggest cuklords on the internet actually originated from this site? Kotaku can’t claim that, neither can Polygon. That shit trophy falls exclusively to The Escapist.
  • They weren’t as “open” to GamerGate Debate as you’d think.
That’s right, the site that people hailed as “one of the few sites that allowed GamerGate discussion” actually engaged in banning of GG members as can be seen being the cited reason in the users ban. There was as well  a “interesting” situation with its mods.  Nothing here is as red-handed as outright closing and banning discussion in the eyes of many Gaters, like some forums did. The “heavy moderation” aka keeping the gun pointed at Gaters with a Shoot first ask questions later mentality, surely shouldn’t be overlooked just because one mod was demoted.
 
There are other stuff but frankly I have invested enough time as it is on this sites past. ShortFatOtaku did a good video (except the part where he puts Liana k entering the Escapist as a good thing) regarding other concerns about there past and present concerns, I recommend you watch it.
 
Now many people would look at the things in this piece and say “o most of it is ancient history” and that may be true, it’s a completely autistic reason to dismiss it, but still. Before this piece gets a tad bit too long, and quite frankly ShortFatOtaku did a good job pointing out current concerns, I would like to add one more issue that remains and he does not cover:
  • Liana K is part of the site.
I don’t know the specifics of her contract as she has only done three articles at the time of writing this, but having the “Shill Queen” aka “The Red Headed Victim” aka “Mind Fiber”, etc… Anywhere near your site is a huge mistake.
 
Liana Kerzner has been caught flat out lying, tone policing and overall doing what SJWs do best: Bullshitting people and then crying harassment. From being the original Drama Llama , to allegedly being responsible of taking down videos , she has never had exactly a spotless record.
 
More recently, this beacon of bullshit has been all about spreading lies, wrecking streams and pledging herself as THE voice (despite her lack of any real credibility in this area, degrees, actual experience working with these people. Nada. ) of those who have any kind of mental illness.
 
“There was a lot of guilt by association with other women they  were targeting and unfortunately any women who weighed in on GamerGate I the early days was compared to Zoe Quinn and everyone started digging into our lives trying to find degrees of Zoe”              
                                                                                                                        -Liana Kerzner 2015
 
Her list of people she has pissed off is seemingly endless: Jayde, Milo, The Ralph Retort (Tho this has been resolved), The Andredal , Myself and recently Men’s Rights Edmenton.
As I mentioned earlier, she had a little spat with me. The reason?  Well, I had the audacity of saying she “went bonkers ” on a video. Context? I was talking about how some people in GG get treated differently.  After her white knights tried to “get me to apologize” after she bitched and moaned on twitter . Why? because im clearly ahorrible troll and i dared mention her grace in a unflattering manner silly, its the SJW way.
 
Then she put out a video where she proclaimed herself as the official spokesperson for anyone who has any kind of mental illness, made up or otherwise. Hope you don’t have any form of PTSD because if you do, Liana now speaks for you!  
 
The funniest part about her video is the top three comments (one by yours truly) are not positive, she does what any SJW victim shill would do:  Cry Harassment (and beg for likes).
 
hi
(The third highest voted comment on her own video, you think Liana would learn, nope).
 
 
But of course, “The Rotten Red Rascal” also got into it with Men’s Rights Edmenton.  Spreading, once again, unadulterated bullshit with not only no evidence but no basis in reality.
 
Then again, “The Triggered Tantrum” does need a way to get people’s attention, and then cry harassment.
 
Liana K is not really discussed and is accepted because #GamerGate has a delusional fear of being called misogynistic shitlords, and so, overcompensates and is absurdly nice to some women who don’t disserve it.  Also, she will spew her lies on videos where she shows her tits or other distracting means. Of course,  whenever someone exposes her shit or calls her out, she will show you her flat ass in hopes you forget all about it. Gee I’m starting to sound like that horrible human being Milo who made horrible misogynistic claims about Liana.  
 
I could write so much more about this insufferable SJW twat, but if you’re not convinced by now of the quality of human being she is, you never will be (or are beating off to here flat ass and 40 year old tits).  The punch line of the joke however is that this piece of trash is one of the answers to filling the void left behind by Jim Sterling and movie bob. Which brings us back to the original point: Why do we support the escapist when they employ the lowest of the low?
The answer: Lizzy Finnegan
  • Lizzy works for the Escapist and it doesn’t matter.
I want to be clear:  I have nothing against Lizzy and find she is in fact a decent journalist. The problem is her being in the escapist changes nothing, she’s a decent on the rise journalist and wrote a great article on GG for Buzzfeed, but she is also pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Many would cut in and say “hey she’s a GamerGater and she works at a major site! That’s one of the main reasons the Escapist is truly turning a corner!”. The problem isn’t true at all. Lizzy was doxxed and left the movement, something I won’t hold against her despite the fact that:
  • Leaving does nothing, your info is already out there, if they want to fuck with you your screwed
  • It was /baph/, a board on 8chan that has no goal BUT fucking with people, again, implying that closing your twitter will do anything is silly.
She may have come back to twitter, effectively contradicting her highly dramatic “ farewell ” but her legendary status was already achieved. Some may wonder why her getting doxxed was so much more important then all of the other people who have been doxxed, including The Ralph Retort . I speculate after speaking to some GGers the main reasons are:
  • Lizzy is a women, proving to anti-GG that not only are there women in GamerGate but they get harassed too, pretty much lowering GG to argue with morons on there own level.
  • It proved /baph/ was not a GG board, little good it did since, once again GG seems to think they need to argue with SJWs or “play ball” with them.
  • It helped prove GG was not misogynistic by showing that the horrible misogynists are third party trolls. By far the most retarded idea ive ever heard, since GG does not seem to grasp that not only is there image never going to be fixed, since SJW’s control the mainstream media, but it should give a single fuck either way.
Furthermore, Lizzy is an entertaining writer with good points, but look at her work on The Escapist . Its well written, interesting and even worth a share, but its not exactly groundbreaking to the point that her being on the site offsets any of the BS we have discussed here today does  it?
All this makes me wonder, why is it the The Escapist is a “GamerGate supported site” in the minds of many and on deepfreeze. Not only do I not remember voting on this but as an unstructured consumer revolt, this sentiment does not make any sense as we have no “boss” to decide what GG as a whole supports.
 
Baring this fundamental contradiction, why is it that The Escapist, with all its flaws gets the GG “nod” but sites that has actual GamerGaters in it, that is being built from the ground up as we speak, hell, that were made more popular BECAUSE of GamerGate, like lewd gamer or shfit2block20 are not only not on sites like deepfreeze, but ignored in favor of sites like The Escapist? 
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