Maddy Myers: The Last Unicorn

Today we’re going to be talking about Unicorns, by extension the Gamer Girl as expressed in Maddy Myer’s blog post: “The Cool Gamer Girlfriend, a.k.a. UNICORNS AREN’T REAL” which focuses on movies like “Fanboys” an indie movie about the misadventures of Star Wars geeks that objectifies Kristen Bell and nerd women in general? Then Ms. Myers attempts a blistering critique of gamer girls in gaming culture, but instead relates her abusive relationship(s) with “gamer” males…and well, it’s just a hot mess.

Now this is where my ideological back yard and a right-wing stooges ideological front yard touch a bit. I don’t care for this current trend of “social justice” that’s enrapturing millennial and younger generations. I don’t think every single construct needs to be politicized, ESPECIALLY things like video games, intrinsically connected to capitalism, the great equalizer. I’m especially not fond of the gulf of a lack of ideas to be had by those who practice social justice. They just seem to be bullies of extreme political correctness and whose most ardent practitioners appear to be bored, naïve, idealistic white twenty-something’s. They merely lean on the notion “Who doesn’t agree that we need Social Justice everywhere?” If you flinch at this, you’re a sexist, bigot, misogynist…and so on. Never you mind the flaws and hypocrisy, there are feelings involved.

Taking Ms. Myer’s blog post on it’s own is a bit of thin endeavor, so I decided to couple it with another of her writings, this one on a recent visit to Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East) in Boston. To say she had a bad time is an understatement.

Ms. Myers, like other social justice advocates, is a hammer and as such everything socially relative is a nail to her. She isn’t merely writing about issues that effect gaming, she’s actively looking for problems to hone in on and harp about ad nauseam. A lot of social justice advocates don’t care much for Penny Arcades or any other “politically incorrect” entity. These “anti-p.c.” denizens can’t be swayed by feelings and put upon nonsense and as such social justice tends to deride them at any given opportunity. Ms. Myers even admits in the opening paragraph of her anti-PAX article that she has said pretty much the same thing before: PAX makes me feel unsafe therefore we need a new space for us who refuse to acclimate!

In both cases, the nonexistent gamer girl and the toothless boycotting of what PAX stands for, Ms. Myers provides no real reason for regular people to care. This is much in line with social justice advocacy, where the feelings are the foundation and you MUST make sure that they feel safe so that they can…do what exactly?

Oddly enough it is PAX itself that is doing more for “diversity” in gaming that any social justice advocate. They feature and promote games from EVERYONE, even if the definition of “game” is being stretched mighty thin. To Ms. Myers, however, this is because Penny Arcade itself is in bad need of positive PR. Not that they have a good idea of what the games culture is in need of or anything, or better yet, perhaps educating all those “intolerant dudebros” that make people like Ms. Myers want not to attend PAX in the first place.

Under the guise of “doing it for the readers” did Ms. Myers attend this years PAX East. She relates that she’s attending this event with as “open a mind a possible”. So not at all apparently? Because this open mind line comes in well AFTER lambasting Penny Arcade for all their supposed sins against social justice, and the much needed PR line. She even says she doesn’t respect the company itself, so there is no reasonable amount of open mind available.

The hammer, already looking for nails, has issues with the Boston weather, a bag check that wasn’t there the last time she attended the event (I do love the editor note, it appears Ms. Myers couldn’t be bothered to check and see when this started.), and then…she starts eavesdropping on a couple of guys who are talking about the proceedings. With a sad sense of desperation the hammer starts to swing wildly!

The guys were excited to be there, heaven forbid! They spent their hard earned money on tickets and dared to say aloud that PAX was where they could be kids again?! Did they not know that people like Ms. Myers, were there to be adult about things! She was having an open a mind as possible, and these two “dudebros” DARE to feel!? Ms. Myers then laments that she too used to feel that way about conventions.

With the rise in social media the access to individuals has never been thus. People are now over sharing aspects of their lives that should remain personal. It has now infected writing in general, on to reviews and so on. Ms. Myers is an expert craftswoman at injecting all sorts of benign personal bullshit in to her reviews and writing all with no payoff. What does her feelings about a characters design or motivations have to do with whether the game is worth your time and money? Nothing.

As I approach the right-wing side of my ideological back yard I gag at the next few paragraphs of Ms. Myers PAX hit piece. She prattles on about having social anxiety, which the giant convention hall triggers. She talks to friends on the “autism spectrum” and they too are not having a good time. I have to gag, because I’m dizzy from eye rolling so hard at this ridiculous nonsense. I have to take umbrage with a bunch of people so desperate to be marginalized they HAVE to have a mental disorder. This is their disability! Now, could they take their medication and go to PAX just fine, or could they avoid giant social gatherings that MAY trigger them? Well, it’s much more dramatic if you go and have a meltdown than, I don’t know…take care of yourself?! Ms. Myers then doubles down on this notion by exercising the old partisan chestnut of “overhearing” that someone saw someone “vomit from panic” on the convention floor. Was that someone witness a doctor? Did that fan cry out “I’m in so much panic *BARF*”? Probably not, but Ms. Myers has an agenda to propel, only time to lay on more hyperbolic bullshit.

At the end of her PAX piece Ms. Myers writes: “I’m not sure that PAX is ever going to be the right place to address concerns in the gaming community about safety, sexism, homophobia, racism, ableism and other issues of exclusivity.” Which it shouldn’t. That is your job Ms. Myers, and people like you that seem to think this is of utmost importance in the gaming community. Which it isn’t. PAX is and will continue do it’s best to educate it’s fan base to these sorts of things, but as you can see by the farcical fallacy of a list that Ms. Myers puts up, it’s just never going to happen. With social justice advocates, it’s never enough. PAX may very well do it’s best in the future, and it’s past misdeeds will continue to be thrown in it’s face. What about social justice’s own PAX: GaymerX? It performed so woefully that there wasn’t going to BE another one. A quick little crowd funding spree later, and it’s back on, but the corporate sponsors of previous years are not going to be in full force because this demographic is caustic to the gaming community at large. Social justice advocates don’t buy games like the “dudebros” do, and the games they promote aren’t so much games as over hyped “experiences” that contain little of value for their price or game play. Game companies are only looking for profit, the only question is “Will this make us money?” And for the bulk of these social justice games, there answer is no. It’s not to say these games shouldn’t exist, but perhaps the money and time could be better spent educating the gaming community than brow beating it in to submission, which is not working at all.

The Gamer Girl blog piece is problematic in that it’s only relevant to ten years ago. There’s no such thing as the thing Ms. Myers is bashing the nerd community over. On top of this, there’s the real notion that Ms. Myers is talking of current day nerd culture and is completely ignoring the grand divide in the definition of the term “nerd”.

To those of certain age nerd is a science, technology based construct. Future scientists, doctors and engineers. The modern nerd is a pop culture based entity, and is a poorer product for sure. It’s the mainstream-ification of any minority class. It’s when you can distill an identity down to a punch line. Nerd reached that points decades ago, but now that there’s an abundance of money to be made by slinging the word “nerd” around, all types has sprung up with the claim of marginalization.

For me this goes back to an earlier time, when everyone and their brother is now on the autism spectrum. To the point where people with actual problems can’t get the real help they need because someone’s 13-year old daughter is moody, can’t focus in school and talks back too much. Where being awkward and anti-social is a “disability”. It’s laughable to say the least.

Ms. Myers then doubles down on this idea of a super nerdy girl that aims to please in her Gamer Girlfriend piece by NOT admonishing mainstream culture for mishandling “gamers” and the vaunted “gamer girl” in general. But that it’s an impossibility for girls to obtain on top of being: “racist, sexist, sizeist and ableist construction of beauty“. That’s a lot of “ists”!

Of course it is! Hasn’t Ms. Myers been privy to culture at all in the nearly three decades of her life? Oh wait, never mind that, it’s about to get personal.

Lucky for her this Gamer Girlfriend piece is hosted on her blog, so it can be forgiven for it’s personal tone and general meandering pace. Again, this is how ALL of Ms. Myers’ writing is. There’s a lack of distinction between having a voice and propelling an agenda. She can’t help herself! This then becomes a story of Ms. Myers doing what she has accused many young “gamer” men of doing: gaming hobby as substitution for personality.

Now, is this a bad thing for a young person? Not necessarily. More often than not as one is navigating the choppy waters of self they will tend to grasp tightly to that one hobby and then make that define them. Eventually that falls to the background and becomes the hobby itself and not merely a personality graft. Apparently Ms. Myers failed to fix that herself as she delved further on in to her twenties.

It’s revealing the lengths Ms. Myers goes through in her pursuit of being around “gamer” guys and being desired by them. To the point of abuse of the physical and mental variety. What’s curious is that she doesn’t seem to grow from these experiences, she merely develops a misandrist view of most male “gamers”. Which assists her greatly with her and social justice advocates notion that all men are closeted rapists just waiting for the perfect opportunity to rape women. It’s absurd right?

She then goes on to everyone’s favorite “my friend said this one thing that is super relevant to just this very topic” kismet moment: Guys don’t WANT a “gamer” girlfriend, they just want a girl to watch them play games. The fuck? Yeah, maybe a few dipshit teenage boys, but no one actual male has said that. Or are we under the assumption that “gamer” males don’t want or crave sex? That in between stifling their rape urges, eating, sleeping and the like, they secretly want a girl to watch them play games? Does Ms. Myers even have real friends that are male…I mean aside from the beta dipshits that clog up social justice advocacy.

Ms. Myers message of “hey that gamer girl is a real WOMAN” and “let her play her games and leave her the fuck alone!” is completely muted by her tales of being abused and mistreated by men in general. Her general lack of self worth compounded by her “disability” of mental disorder and an antiquated view of the current gaming culture. Much liker her derision of the two guys at PAX, Ms. Myers only sees “gamer” males as rapist assholes, who make fun of trans people and mock rape victims. When in fact they’re more than likely just dipshit teenaged boys that haven’t learned yet. It’s in her deliberate messaging that women are perpetual victims that undermines her argument of the gamer girl and by extension the fallacy of the Gamer Girlfriend. It’s goes further in this constant desire for people largely free from discrimination and isolation (for example white middle class cis gendered people) trying desperately to be marginalized themselves.

Ultimately social justice advocates like Ms. Myers have no real solutions to their perceived societal ills, only complaints and finger pointing. They offer nothing of real value that would perhaps promote the kind of world they want to live in. But if that was to be the case, then they wouldn’t have anything to be marginalized by, there would be no enemy or ideological movement subverting them. Hence, nothing you say or promote will ever be satisfactory, and that is why they reject ALL ideas that may mainstream their viewpoint in any way.

Writing E-Mail Forwards with Thomas Sowell

I talk about the old white men of the GOP/right-wing pundit class needing to retire quite a bit in these here minutes, and upon reflection, perhaps ALL the men over the age of 45 should retire from the pundit class. It’s not like the right-wing pundit class is hurting for misinformed, malformed prognosticators that will more often than not be wrong. 45 year old men are still respected for their vigor and youth, perhaps having a bit of salt-and-pepper in their hairdo’s, you get the drill. Because this notion that with age comes wisdom is proving to be an utter fallacy for those in the right-wing who bow at the feet of a Krauthammer, Will and in today’s case: Jack Krier’s one Black Friend™ Thomas Sowell.

Maybe the day he farted out his article “Random Thoughts” 84-year old Mr. Sowell was in need of a nap. Perhaps he’s about to go on vacation, because this article reeks of someone getting one of those apocalyptical e-mail forwards from their right-wing buddies, manifested some words around it, and called it a day. It covers all the current day bases…wait a minute did Thomas Sowell just flesh out a GOP/right-wing talking points memo? It’s got all your usual suspects: a new GOP presidential darling, extolling the virtues of a lack of an education, Obama writ dictator, immigration, ceaseless war, academia hating, the IRS, feminism, Democrat/Liberal bungling foreign policy, and then double dipping on another GOP presidential darling! I was merely going to be hyperbolic with the talking points accusation, but it looks to be ABSOLUTELY true!

Fun Fact: Did you know hat Thomas Sowell is an economist? It’s true! He even wrote a book about economics. I watched a college kid try to read it on a plane trip recently. The boy kept shaking his head at what he was trying to read, I sneaked a peek at the pages from time to time, and also shook my head. Utter and complete inane bullshit. So the amazement that he doesn’t write about economics 98.9% of time should be tempered somewhat. But you would like to think that perhaps in these trying economic times that Mr. Sowell’s supposed economy expertise would be quite handy, and that his prodigious banal right-wing also ran baloney writings could be stemmed somewhat.

Let’s break down these random thoughts, that I’m most assured will crop up as a carefully reworded Jack Krier penned editorial in the coming weeks.

He opens with a Obama slam. Yawn. There is also apparently a joke in here that goes over my head. Uh…Har har?

That blasted “mainstream media” is at it again, this time trying to topple Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s rise in the polls! What polls? The GOP/right-wings pants? Exactly! The condemnation: Walker didn’t finish college! The horror! Mr. Sowell then rattles off that LOTS of GREAT people didn’t finish college. Like “[…] Bill Gates or Michael Dell. The Wright brothers didn't finish high school. Neither did Abraham Lincoln or George Washington.” As if this means something. I have also never ceased to be amazed at the bulk of GOP/right-wing pundits with multiple college degrees that then go and admonish a higher education. So academia wasn’t the veiled Satan you say it was while you were in school? Now that you’re out it’s this brainwashing, free thought crushing, useless endeavor? Give me a break. There’s research that shows that the smarter one gets the less inclined they are to be conservative and by extension Republican, maybe that’s why?

Mr. Sowell then notices that there are a ever growing number of things you’re not supposed to say in public anymore. Like what exactly? He doesn’t elaborate. I wonder if like Jack Krier, old man Thomas Sowell said something inappropriate and got mean mugged by some old white lady, or his wife, or daughter. Hell, when you’re that old the amount of stupid bullshit coming out of your old ass mouth is more likely than anything cogent. Which explains the bulk of Mr. Sowell’s output.

Netanyahu’s address to Congress is brought up, only to elucidate the notion that it will finally prove to the American public just how fucked up it is in the Middle East. Really? Americans don’t need to just look back over the past decade of two useless wars, countless lives and money lost, and so on and so forth? That an Israeli provocation in the area and the ensuring retaliation from neighboring countries or vice versa could lead to yet another World War? Nah! With his speech to Congress Netanyahu all but made certain that conflict was not an “if” but “when” for that region and the U.S. better get ready for more war. 

Mr. Sowell then Andy Rooney’s us with a look in to his office space. Calling it a “paper jungle” and…Oh, did you fall asleep? I’m sorry, I don’t know why he needed to put this in here. I hope later in the article he talks about what he looks for when he buys fruit and how he likes to keep it in his house. Perhaps an update on his prostate, and/or how hard or soft his shits were on this particular day.

Ah yes, securing the border, never you mind that according to polls we’ve spent more on the border patrol in recent years than in all other decades combined. That immigration from Mexico to the U.S. is basically a net zero. No, we must pour more treasure in to the useless wedge issue. Then Mr. Sowell asks a rhetorical question about the movements and designs of congress. Really? Aren’t you one of those pundits that applaud the fact that the GOP/right-wing is always jamming up congress with useless grandstanding bullshit?

Now this next one is the very reason I decided to write about this article and nothing else. I wanted to write about Kathleen Parker’s recent navel gazing, hell Tom Purcell had a good one recently too. But no, Thomas Sowell had to write one of the most stupid things ever. In regards to terrorists Mr. Sowell writes:
    “State Department official Marie Harf said, "We cannot win this war by killing them" but instead we need to get to the "root causes" of jihads by providing "job opportunities." We tried getting at the "root causes" of crime back in the 1960s -- and crime rates skyrocketed. But we stopped the Nazis in World War II by killing them, instead of setting up a jobs program in Germany.”
Now, because Mr. Sowell is black, I guess it’s okay to just assume that “we” tried getting to the “root causes” of crime in the 1960’s and not really flesh that first part of the “random thought” out. What does he mean by that? Was there an actual real concerted interest in getting to the “root causes” of black crime in the 1960’s? Or are we just giving Mr. Sowell a pass because he’s merely facilitating his job of saying racist things because his fellow white conservative couldn’t get away with saying baseless bullshit like this in the first place? More importantly, are we talking about black crime skyrocketing in the 1960’s or crime in general. Specifically are we talking crime in the broadest since of the word, or murder, theft, etc?

Then the whole Nazi’s thing is another ball of wax. Oh to live in a time when right and wrong were so patently black and white! But I guess you can cut Mr. Sowell some slack seeing that he’s an economist and not a historian, that he would go ahead and assume that “we” didn’t try and get to the “root causes” of Germany’s problem in the aftermath of the first World War and how their lack of outlook is what let to a little thing like Nazism gaining a foothold in the country. Nah, you see we totally eradicated the hateful rhetoric off the face of the planet by killing Nazi’s right? What’s that? Oh…Neo Nazi’s, the Ku Klux Klan…and so on and so forth? But according to Thomas Sowell, who was ALIVE during WWII, we stopped the bad guys by killing them! The End! Their hateful legacy died with them too, you’d be naïve…or forcibly ignorant if you think that diplomacy works on ANY level. All you need is to crank up the ol’ War Machine® and just drive it in to whatever country or people that are foolish enough to trifle with freedom! The Internets says that Mr. Sowell served in the Korean War, so he more than most of his conservative peers should know the cost of war. Now, The Internets doesn’t specify if Mr. Sowell saw any combat, but at a certain point, and so many more decades of war hawking under his belt, it doesn’t really matter.

Going back to the victimizing Israel well for the next thought. Mr. Sowell’s hyperbole gun is on full blast with this one. Signing a deal with Iran is paramount to throwing Israel to the wolves? Never you mind that the agreement is of the international flavor with U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia all on board. One would like to think those other countries are at least a bit closer to a nuclear Iran than we are. And I have to wonder if Mr. Sowell even knows what the agreement is about. It’s express purpose is to make sure Iran doesn’t get ANY centrifuge capabilities, and that their nuclear ambitions stay in check. What should be more alarming to conservatives is that Iran is able to rebuild a nuclear program that would normally take two years down in to two months.

Then we hit the ol’ academic piñata again! If you’re sensing a lot of de ja vu in these here “random thoughts” don’t worry, it’s actually happening. This is why I’m supposing Mr. Sowell needed a nap or something. Better yet, he just farted this column out over a weekend and that’s why it apparently loops back over on itself, as he forgot that he just lambasted academia earlier. And so I repeat what I wrote earlier with the addition that Mr. Sowell himself has served on several university faculties, graduated from both Harvard and Columbia…and the University of Chicago…and the think tank he works for, The Hoover Institution, is at Stanford University! Hell, it’s on the campus…so where the hell does Mr. Sowell get off on this “academia is a veiled Satan” rhetoric? Now this “random thought” might hold a bit of water as it approaches the notion that “The young are indoctrinated with demographic "diversity" that contrasts with a squelching of diversity of ideas on social issues.” But he doesn’t elaborate. Aside from stating that campuses are filled with more taboos and intellectual intolerance in America. This is because of professor tenure? In coupling that with Chris Rock’s recent comments that he doesn’t like performing at college campuses because of an intolerance to dirty jokes and taboo topics, perhaps Mr. Sowell has a point. But then there are his fellow conservative writers who are also tenured professors who spend a fair amount of column space crowing about the fact that their tenure allows them to be a racist, regressive conservative blowhard and no one can touch them. As with any social/ideological movement there will eventually be some push back. Social justice isn’t for everyone, and it’s current overreach will be met with a stronger push back as with all movements eventually.

I find it funny in the next “random though” that he takes the IRS and other social entities to task for “losing” things. Is it better to lose things that might disprove something, than to just pretend it doesn’t exist…or by extension matter? These “random thoughts” and their lack of context is pretty damning if the idea is to have other people, aside from his ditto-head readers, read this and then decide they’ve had enough of that mainstream media and Obama’s liberal agenda. Is he talking about the data climate scientists lost a few years back that would lead to the disproving of man made global warming? Also, would it be so bad if conservatives just agreed that global warming is real and stop pretending nothing is happening? You don’t have to like it, and in fact you can just out and out say that you’re being paid by the fossil fuel industry and the other earth hating corporations to be in constant disbelief and call it a day. This “random thought” is fucking loaded! He even slides in a dig at “affirmative action” for some reason. I feel like with this “random thought” there’s plenty of data he has failed to recognize that would combat his bullshit, but then the randomness and his conservative bonafides would be in question.

I don’t understand this “radical feminist” “random thought” not being couple or tripled with these previous anti-academia talking points. Hell, I think it would’ve been neat had Mr. Sowell actually taken the time and fleshed out an article on this straw man argument. You see, radical feminists are strangely silent about this whole ISIS thing. You know the most evil current boogeyman to the GOP/right-wing? According to Mr. Sowell, the “radical feminists” have sure been quiet on the whole ISIS front. But that makes me wonder if he’s just out of touch, and not that “radical feminists” aren’t saying anything about ISIS. Would having “radical feminists” on your side actually help the saber-rattling for war that is currently possessing the GOP/right-wing? “Well you know, we weren’t so sure about going in to more ceaseless war’s, but then all these “radical feminists” joined our cause, and now it is most just!”

A “random thought” about John Kerry is next, who made the mistake of saying the world isn’t so dangerous now. But then someone else said it wasn’t! Which is in line with the conservative world view that ever single thing is awful and terrible and the apocalypse is JUST around the corner, OH MY GOD EVERYONE HATES AMERICA AND IS COMING TO ATTACK US…somehow! Give me a fucking break. Is the GOP/right-wing not going to be sated until the U.S. just becomes the imperialistic overlord to the world?

Finally, book ending his “random thoughts” another dig at Obama. “We should never again put a first-term Senator in the White House.” But then goes on to list three other first-term senators for the Republican Presidential Candidate Clown Car Rally™! Oh, because they’re YOUR guys, I get it now! And also he’ll be ready in 2020! Ah, so clever Mr. Sowell. Since Marco Rubio admitted he was so wrong on immigration, he gets the Thomas Sowell seal of approval for the far flung future! You wanted something substantive as a better reason to be a GOP presidential candidate? Did you forget that you’re reading a Thomas Sowell column, come on!