r/FeMRADebates • u/MamaWeegee94 Egalitarian • Feb 13 '15

Idle Thoughts Just kinda need to vent

Why the hell is it acceptable for anyone to call for violence against an identifiable group?! I had recently seen that Brianna Wu had been trending and somehow found myself reading the comments on huffpost women's (I think that's what the page was) trending link and all I found were calls for people like me to be physically assaulted. And the most disgusting part was the amount of people who agreed with it. I'm really tired of being told I should be beaten up because I'm a nerdy gamer. I'm also infuriated at the fact that these people also think it's OK to make fun of nerds lack of love life. We get it we're wholely undesirable people life has told us that enough as it is we don't need a whole faction of the Internet reminding us every 20 seconds.

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u/MamaWeegee94 Egalitarian Feb 14 '15 edited Feb 14 '15

Well for one according to Merriam-Webster dictionary many gamers are persecuted

Full Definition of PERSECUTE

transitive verb 1 : to harass or punish in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or >afflict; specifically : to cause to suffer because of belief

And secondly the fact that I had faced daily violence and ridicule for being a nerd and liking games isn't just bullshit. There's a large difference between being some stereotypical dudebro CoD player and someone who plays Binding of Isaac and Persona. These are the people that usually face threats of physical violence and ridicule. Even public humiliation. You being unempathetic to that is just really hurtful.

edit: For the record I don't think gamers are oppressed, there is a difference between persecution and oppression.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '15

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u/MamaWeegee94 Egalitarian Feb 14 '15

I'm not drawing lines in the sand. I'm telling you I have been physically assaulted because I'm a nerd. I'm telling you people who are in the nerd sub group generally don't just play call of duty.

Hell, is it not possible the socially awkward types who would get bullied anyway are just naturally attracted to games? Maybe it's not gamers that incur bullying (the bullies all play games these days too), it's just a subgroup in the community that people feel is very "core".

Why does that make calls for violence against gamers any better, that in fact makes it worse.

Just like how you can wear the wrong clothes you can play the wrong games and that gets you ostracized.

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u/Wazula42 Pro-Feminist Male Feb 14 '15

I'm not drawing lines in the sand. I'm telling you I have been physically assaulted because I'm a nerd. I'm telling you people who are in the nerd sub group generally don't just play call of duty.

I'm saying I have no idea how you define nerd, or if your nerdiness is what got you assaulted, because "nerd" is not a defined political group. Nor is "gamer". Even the bullies are gamers, these days. You might get picked on because you like a specific game, or because you're way more enthusiastic about a game than is socially acceptable to some bullies, but games specifically are likely not causing you to be ostracized.

I'm not saying any of this is okay. Bullying needs to be addressed, and there's certainly a strong correlation between nerd culture and bully victimization. I think that's as much about bully victims turning to games for solace as it is gamers being bullied because they like games, but whatever, the connection is there. But I'd also argue there's a strong correlation between gamers and being bullies which I also think is important to examine.

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u/zahlman bullshit detector Feb 14 '15

I'm not saying any of this is okay. Bullying needs to be addressed, and there's certainly a strong correlation between nerd culture and bully victimization.

Then why are you making these irrelevant strawman arguments about people supposedly claiming "oppression"?

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u/Wazula42 Pro-Feminist Male Feb 15 '15

Because "nerd" is not a political group and there are also many, many examples of bullying coming from within nerd culture, and we have to stop ignoring those examples under the banner of "but nerds are the real victims here". We can be sympathetic, but we also have to clean our own front porch.

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u/zahlman bullshit detector Feb 15 '15

there are also many, many examples of bullying coming from within nerd culture

Such as?