TheBoost said:
I'm tangentially following the #Gamergate crap on the net right now.
I dont say anything, but I'm going to explode if I don't let off some steam.
The logical fallacy commonly called CHERRY PICKING does <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> mean simply selecting data that proves your point. Saying "I got death threats, look at all these horrible death threats" is NOT cherry picking.
Cherry Picking means to selecting data that proves your point and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">ignoring data, usually a lot of data, that is contradictory.</span> The claim of cherry picking doesn't even make sense rhetorically.
The statement "Threats of violence and rape are the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">only</span> messages on twitter" would be a claim that would be supported by a cherry picking tactic.
Watching these assholes, I'm less upset by them being assholes, and more upset by their abuse of academic language.
The Feminist Frequency lady uses extremely academic style language 90% of the time, but the dudes who try to tear her down try to use it, and it's like a monkey trying to build a rocketship after looking at a drawing of one. There might be certain similarities, but it doesn't fly.
The most feminist friend I have can't stand Anita Sarkeesian. She thinks Anita has a tendency to cherry-pick her evidence and focuses on too menial menial of issues for the amount of funding she received; and this is coming from someone who constantly complains about objectification of women in media.
I'd also like to point out that she decided to bring to the forefront that she received bomb threats when receiving an award in San Francisco -- now. The threat, and the news, was from back in March. I'm not condoning those actions in any way, shape, or form, but she seems to like playing the victim a little bit.
Am I for Gamergate? Not at all. It has just led to more unnecessary harassment of both her and Zoe Quinn (even if Quinn is a pathological liar.) However, it's worth pointing out that both sides are giving each other a bad name. Just as every female gamer isn't a "hipster with a cultural studies degree" as some might define Sarkeesian, so is every male gamer not a neckbearded fedora-wearing crusader.
This sucks as a whole and makes me ashamed to be interested in that culture.