Lots of folks are trying to show me support. I really appreciate it, but what I would appreciate more is if you took your energy in fighting battles with people who don’t care about me to raise the voices of minority folk. Maybe use this time to try get more people employed who aren’t straight white men.
Instead of the collective being one that shouts down marginalised folk, let the default collective be one that raises us up and doesn’t let us be drowned out by bizarrely angry and dismissive others. The status quo is broken and solidarity for marginalised voices should be a constant for progress, for looking and moving forward; solidarity shouldn’t only exist for when things dissolve. Things are already broken and supporting one another is how we continue.
Who cares what they’re saying about me? You know who I am. There’s nothing for you to defend, but there’s plenty for you to promote. I’m not going to tell you who that is, you should know. I’m thankful for the volume of support, but please use this energy to get us jobs, get us recognised, get us safe and able to feed ourselves in industries we love but are told we’re not allowed in.
I might return to social media. I might not. I want to be there for my friends. Again: I’d rather not make this about me. Please, help everyone so that no one ever has to go through what I did.
PS: Please stop talking about me in any relation to Gamergate. Talk about abusers, harassers, unwelcoming environments, and so on. Most of us have experienced this long before any hashtag movements.
PPS: People asking for evidence don’t care about evidence. The fact I left a key source of income and employment, where I was able to get pitches, writing gigs, etc., you would think would be sufficient – but, again, they’re not interested in evidence. Please: Don’t debate them, help promote us.
UPDATE: Comment section has reached attention of people I don’t want to talk to (ever/right now), so I’m putting automoderation on. Sorry, but I’m not in a position to handle court-approved evidence submission, people saying I know nothing, etc. I don’t understand why people are this upset, this focused on me, but I really, really want to move on.
UPDATE 2: Please don’t fight in the comment sections. Please don’t demand evidence, I’m not here to do your bidding. If you are not a friend or follower, this really is quite irrelevant to you. I really do just want to be left alone and want us to focus on creating safe spaces, not partaking in boring anger of people who hate me for reasons I will never understand. If you’re “neutral” about this, I don’t want to hear from you either, thanks. This isn’t a court proceeding. Find a better subject: It’s not me.
“People asking for evidence don’t care about evidence.”
This is both untrue and anti-skeptical. You cannot reasonably expect self-identified freethinkers to simply listen and believe if you refuse to at least provide a few examples of the alleged harassment.
Appreciate the support.
“… self-identified freethinkers …”
No, it’s true that they don’t want evidence. Being a self-identified something-you-think-sounds-cool doesn’t make you that thing — these are people completely enslaved to their ideology, and asking for ‘evidence’ is just a rhetorical gambit. When you show them evidence, they argue it’s not evidence — not out of a sincere belief, but because they will automatically, without thinking, attack anything that doesn’t fit their preferred narrative. Everyone who’s had any experience with this type of person knows their whole line of enquiry is disingenuous time-wasting.
I don’t know to what extent this is just Gamergate or a wider culture of reactionary social media behaviour, but you can pretty much take it as read as soon as someone starts demanding ‘evidence’ that they don’t want to see any.
To be fair, reading it now, I assume by ‘self-identified freethinkers’, you’re referring to people on this network, not the Twitter users I’m referring to.
@1. Damion Reinhardt, wow you are an asshole. Go look for some evidence yourself, demanding it from the person attacked when it is public is abusive. A favorite tactic of the GG assholes in fact, see “sealion”.
Maybe you’re aware of some evidence of the alleged weeks of harassment? Looking through what IACB pulled together, I’m seeing maybe two or three nasty tweets among dozens.
That’s nice, Damion. Bye.
Sorry – I never entered Twitter for exactly the reason you left it. That’s obviously not going to change, so I’m not going to fight any battle over there.
To me Twitter is something to avoid, just like I avoid some bad neighborhoods where I can expect to be robbed and beated as an outsider.
What Damion said, which is why I went through the trouble of putting together a timeline on Storify of what actually took place:
https://storify.com/Iamcuriousblue/tauriq-moosa-leaves-twitter-what-actually-happened
If I’ve made any errors of fact, I welcome your corrections!
I’m sorry to see you got caught in a Twitter pile-on. This happens to many people who have said something that has, however inadvertently, angered a large number of people, and the phenomenon of large numbers of individuals each jumping into someone’s mentions to each get their dig in can be overwhelming to person on the receiving end. I think Twitter should better design the platform so that people can better customize the level of interaction they’re exposed to; a general ethic against “piling on” on social media is something else I’d like to see come about.
That said, I think it was very unfair to implicitly label Sargon of Akkad and FuyutsukiSama, neither of whom had made any contact with you, as “harassers” simply for disagreeing with your publicly-made claims.
At the end of the day, you have every right to express your opinions on places like Twitter and other platforms. Other people have every right to publicly disagree with them. Hopefully, we can all be civil and adults about it.
Thank you for the support. I don’t really want to deal with this right now. I really, really want to move on.
Why am I not surprised that a vocal Elevatorgate/anti-“FTBullies” proponent is involved with this subject too? Is there an anti-social justice movement you don’t align yourself with?
“Don’t debate them, help promote us.”
I don’t think so.
This is what you wrote.
https://rejzor.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/ttis_tauriqmoosa1.png
“I know basically nothing about Steam or ports or graphics cards or framerate or whatever.”
You know basically nothing about the things you’re supposed to be an expert writing about. Paired with the extremely irrational and outright nonsensical mindset that those who ask about evidence don’t care about evidence, is there any particular reason why I should promote someone who would just be incompetent at their job?
And since you acknowledge that writers have experienced pushback long before any hashtag movements (although most probably wouldn’t describe it as “harassment”), if you write articles like you did on the Witcher 3, or the monumentally stupid tweets you made about the “PC Master Race”, then why is it so difficult for you to acknowledge that you yourself ought to be susceptible to the same treatment? How many “POC” writers do you think there have been writing about films, art – games – before you and not resorted to “harassment” and racist accusations when called on? Maybe you should reflect on that.
This is a post to his supporters, not to his enemies and detractors.
It’s evident from this very post that your whole approach to the issue is extremely dishonest and disingenuous. If you were arguing in good faith – rather than simply trying to get your licks in – you would have no problem realising that ‘graphic cards’ and ‘framerate’ are only one aspect of games and gaming culture and that a lack of interest in them shouldn’t prevent anyone having expertise – or a relevant point of view – in other areas.
I don’t really need to argue this or explain it because you already know it, really, and professing otherwise is simply dishonesty on your part. This is why he says that those who say they want evidence don’t want evidence – it’s all just a rhetorical tactics. When presented with evidence, your sort simply set about attempting to dismantle it with whatever sophistry you have to hand.
I never claimed to be an expert on Steam, PC or even games. I’ve no idea why you have to be this harsh to someone. I’ve done nothing to you. Please leave me and my friends alone.
He writes about games, does an art critic need to be an expert in brushes, paint types and how to construct a canvas? No, they respond to the aesthetic, something you clearly do not understand. Although if you are a GG’er I suppose it is not surprising since they laughingly demanded all reviews are free of politics, bias and personal opinion. So a review could only be an anodyne recitation of the framerate, polygons etc.
It’s like that Polygon reporter (senior) who instead of taking a cursory interest in the product he was there specifically to review, he chose to spend his time discussing politics in the Philippines.
I’m not going to waste my time promoting someone who doesn’t even care. The criticism aimed at that person is not harassment, is not racism, is not sexism – it’s criticism and well deserved at that. You should recognise that.
You seem really upset by this. It’s really, really creepy. Goodbye.
I’m going to miss you, but you know what’s best for you. Enjoy your break now, you sexy beast
It’s good to hear from you again.
Many of us are thinking of new ways to address abuse and harassment on social media. Naturally, it’s hard to say when we’ll have something or how long it will be effective, but as we get better at it, we should be able to respond with some immediacy.
Cheers.
OK, the core message is “Don’t debate them, help promote us.”
In my personal experience, the problem is this: debate is much more reflexive and simple, because it’s reactive. I can see what people are saying about you in my social media stream, I can see that it’s said in bad faith and I can call them on it with a couple of clicks and a splash of the keys. I can also see an #IStandWithTauriq tag and retweet it without any lengthy engagement.
The same mechanisms aren’t in place to make promoting minority writers easy, particularly if you’re not someone with any promotional power (I only started on Twitter late last year and have less than 400 followers, most of whom aren’t interested in gaming). Yes, I could put a lot more effort into doing it, but in a world where, inevitably, there are constant distractions and difficulties in organising time, keeping your head above water, doing right by everyone you know, it’s the simple mechanisms that need to be developed. That’s why clicktivism is so successful.
Tauriq, I hope you feel like coming back some time soon, look after yourself and in the meantime we’ll miss your great sense of humor.
“People asking for evidence don’t care about evidence.”
That’s a brilliant insight! So very, very true.
Hi Tauriq, Sorry to hear about this… I check out your articles from time to time – and I find them well written and thought out. The latest one which caused all the scum to rise to the surface was enlightening to say the least. Unfortunately you are preaching to the choir, which is part of the problem. I’ve spent a substantial amount of time on gaming websites/forums and it really depresses me. The only way forward is for the companies to tow a harder line – ie the mods of the forums need to ban people for being rascists, sexists – or just plain assholes. Until companies like CD Red speak up and act nothing will change.
They claim they want evidence, but when they get evidence they work to put doubt in people’s minds or just discount it entirely. Look at Anita Sarkeesian. “We spoke to a police officer and he doesn’t know about these alleged threats!” “It’s an open case with the FBI.” “But she keeps alleging ‘threats’ so she can’t be taken seriously!”
The evidence for threats and harassment keeps piling up as it keeps affecting women of all colours and men of colour, but nothing is good enough for the deniers. They seriously remind me of climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, tobacco deniers, and so on. No matter what evidence is presented, it’s never good enough. The people making the claims have an “agenda” of some sort so everything they say is suspect.
This needs to end, but sadly it won’t. Privilege is threatened, and that doesn’t go quietly. Too many white people (and shockingly some non-white people) keep shouting “RACISM IS OVER!” as Black churches are being burned.
I’d love to say it’ll get better, but it won’t. Our species sucks. We’re no pinnacle of evolution as we keep trying to delude ourselves we are. We have intelligence, but we let our baser instincts override it all the time. Sure, the worst of us might quiet down for a while, but they’re always there until something happens to get them shouting again.
I’ll miss following you on Twitter. Lots of good stuff there
Really sorry you had to put up with so much bigotry, abuse, and harassment. I wish the best with staying away from it.
Also glad you’re still blogging, of course. Including game reviews.