I don't think there's anything to actually substantiate this assertion and it's not really helping discourse to keep downplaying people with opposing viewpoints without merit.
EDIT: to make this clear, I am absolutely not defending any specific gamegater or gamegater adjacent person. I'm only stating a belief that a majority of people are just parroting the beliefs of the larger personalities out of ignorance, and immediately dismissing them as the same type of garbage means no one is there to talk to them to explain why it's garbage and they never learn how incorrect those views are.
This all goes back to my earlier statements on how I worry this situation is essentially a huge alt-right breeding ground because if you assume everyone out there is arguing in bad faith, you start looking like a fanatic and unintentionally reinforce the "me vs. the world" mentality.
Wait, you're seriously calling me a gamergater now? Just because I don't think a majority of people are terrible?
With allies like these, who needs enemies?
I literally never defended anyone who is actually legit saying terrible stuff. I just think there are a lot of people who don't know any better that get caught up in the big personalities and endless drivel being spit out by those that are.
If you want to think the worst of me for having some hope in humanity, then hate away. See how far that gets you. I hope you don't turn into what you hate while you're at it.
I want to make this perfectly clear because I think my viewpoints are being grossly misrepresented:
I am absolutely not defending any specific gamegater or gamegater adjacent person. I'm only stating a belief that a majority of people are just parroting the beliefs of the larger personalities out of ignorance, and immediately dismissing them as the same type of garbage means no one is there to talk to them to explain why it's garbage and they never learn how incorrect those views are.
This all goes back to my earlier statements on how I worry this situation is essentially a huge alt-right breeding ground because if you assume everyone out there is arguing in bad faith, you start looking like a fanatic and unintentionally reinforce the "me vs. the world" mentality.
So I think L Thammy's covered this very well, but I just wanted to say that while I appreciate that you are saying this in good faith, you are being naive and pretty insulting on top of it.
What is the "ignorance" here? What are they "ignorant" about? The fact that Vic did do these things? Because that's not really the problem. They are completely willing to disregard anything many many people say, many women in particular, because they inherently distrust their accusations of sexual harassment/assault. No matter how many people back it up or what reputation those people have, they are absolutely ready to ignore the facts and instead buy into conspiracy theories that explain it away. To operate that way is not good faith on their part. Some of these people may be "reasonable" to talk to, but it is hard to reason with someone when this is their default.
And I just cannot believe that many of these people are actually fans of him. Now, it'd be very reasonable to assume that a large portion of them watched and enjoyed the dubs of FMA and DBZ. But I do not think they care about him in particular; I believe that's not what's clouding this for them. And I do think, in comparison, there is a lot of overlap with GG- not necessarily the earlier stuff (though the conspiracy theories about people involved certainly is similar), but the later "they're censoring my anime games!!!" crowd certainly gets pulled in here. Or else - they might not be channers, but channer idealogy has trickled down to them and they buy into it.
Are these people lost causes? No. But miss us with this "don't turn into what you hate", "if you assume everyone out there is arguing in bad faith you start looking like a fanatic", etc. garbage. They readily believe some vile nonsense and that's on
them. We're not reaching out to them in our discussions here, so we're free to call a spade a spade. If you want to spend your time trying to get them to see how fucked their beliefs are, go for it; it might not be entirely wasted. But please don't get all high and mighty about how everyone else is becoming "the same type of garbage" when they write off people who are
readily believing in hateful conspiracy theories, because that is some incredibly gross bullshit.
