Poll: Taking criticism of large groups personally.

[Thoric485]

It's mostly the bunch of preachy internet columnists that get to me. Article after article they put up the image of a misogynist basement-dwelling disgusting nerd, and lo and behold they manage to knock it down, and again, and again, and again. And for some reason they're not getting bored of it, unlike the last ten times this topic has been brought up over the years, among other favorite regulars such as "is X platform/genre/the industry dying" and "are violent games bad". (and you thought you wouldn't miss Jack Thompson)

And, predictably, they've started running in circles now. This whole thing started with complaining about cons being sexist by indulging nerds with eye candy. But I'm pretty sure a lot of the people that cheered at EE and PAX banning booth babes, are the same ones that are now telling nerds to stop being so stuck up about fake geek girls and just enjoy the eye candy. So it shouldn't be much longer before everyone drops it like always.

Personally, in the meantime, I'll be focusing on the fantastic upcoming movie season - The Hobbit, Django Unchained, Les Misérables. Something for everyone. Cinemas are seriously going to break the bank.

 

[Thoric485]

It's mostly the bunch of preachy internet columnists that get to me. Article after article they put up the image of a misogynist basement-dwelling disgusting nerd.

Out of genuine interest, have you got any specific examples of where people have done this?

Yeah, go check out Luke McKinney at Cracked, one of his is on the front page right now, he has a bunch of others. Used to have a thing for using virgin as an insult too (It was kinda weird). Also didn't enjoy RPS' coverage of #1reasonwhy. Going on about how complacent with sexism men are, with generous swearing and exclamation marks, while the writer himself describes how he wanted to say something to someone he disagreed with in real life, but didn't.

There's just some refusal to acknowledge that the root of the problem might be more complicated than "a portion of male nerds are inherently evil assholes, the others don't care, we must convert them to the light so everything becomes nice."

 

[Muspelheim]

Well, quite a few feminist probably took offence when they were lumped together with the rabid "Men are shit"-crowd that are less about equality and more about getting back at old offences. It's just how these sorts of things tend to work out...

But I agree, the root problem is the refusal to see the nuance of the "other side", and a tendency to just stick to a tired old strawman so that no one has to do some real thinking.