I chose to avoid most of the coverage about #GamerGate because I already knew how the liberal media would spin it. It took little time before the claims of “misogyny” and “sexism” trumped any level of honest reporting. Only a handful of media outlets interviewed GG supporters, and most of those interviews continued to peddle the “all gamers are sexist men” trope.

The death threats against Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu, and Zoe Quinn continue to receive attention while the numerous threats and doxxing of GG supporters largely goes unmentioned.

What bothers me most, however, are the attacks on gamers in general. It is not that the attacks any different than the usual “they’re basement-dwelling losers” nonsense. It is that I assumed that people were past this kind of invective. I assumed people had seen enough evidence that gaming did not make anyone violent or hateful. I assumed that people had seen enough attacks on gaming to know that most gamers only want to play games. I assumed people had seen enough to know that gamers are people, too.

Instead, I saw people falling back into old habits, lambasting gamers as pasty white, unshaven, unwashed men living in their mom’s basements. I saw people who write for gaming publications calling for bringing back nerd bullying. I saw a geek culture icon attacking the very community that made his so-so film a $1.5 billion success.

Yet none of that prompted a need for a response. After all, these are far-leftists. There is little more that one could expect from them.

One article, however, did necessitate a response. Former NFL player Chris Kluwe took to The Claudron to attack supporters of GamerGate. His invective and ad hominem-filled rant perfectly demonstrates why the anti-GamerGate side has not won despite every attempt to do so. Below is my response to Kluwe’s rant:

Dear Chris Kluwe,

Do you know why you piss me the fuck off?

Because your immediate response to gamers criticizing those who attacked them was to resort to name-calling. It speaks volumes about the level of stupidity and the lack of character involved for a person with at least nominal intelligence to assume that all Gamergate supporters are trash because they to do not like being attacked.

That is, after all, how the #GamerGate hashtag began. It did not begin with attacking Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, or Brianna Wu. It began as a response to nearly a dozen online gaming magazines telling their audience that they did not matter anymore.

Think about that for a moment. Imagine if the NFL called its largely male fan base all sexist, racist homophobes because they do not want sports announcers engaging in political commentary while calling games, and would like said announcers to disclose their connections to the teams they are talking about. Is that remotely logical? Is it remotely sensible?

Of course not.

Yet that is what occurred. Any threats made against anyone are horrible and should not happen. However, the vast majority of the GG supporters do not make such threats. A handful of people (who may be sockpuppets created by feminists and their ilk) sent threats. Indeed, Newsweek’s recent failed hit-job proved that. Over 90% of the comments made by GG supporters in the last month were neutral. They were not sexist, not attacks, and not threats.

Granted, no one pays any attention to that. One could visit Twitter and read the tweets as they appear and see that the vast majority are at worst snarky. Most of the hateful attack comments come from people like you, Kluwe, who mock gamers, call them names, support and encourage violence against them, and then complain when someone calls you on it.

That is rather juvenile, and although, given the language you chose to use and your former profession, one could hardly expect a mature response from you, one would think that as a person who considers himself a gamer you would put yourself in the shoes of those you are attacking. Because they are gamers, just like you. They have spent just as many hours playing games as you, had as many LAN parties, and spent as much money facilitating their hobby. They have nice homes, girlfriends and wives, boyfriends and husbands, and children. They wash their bodies, groom their hair, clothe themselves, and even go outside for more than twenty minutes.

They are people, just like you.

I know it makes you feel good to attack them. You are, after all, defending a woman’s honor, and everyone likes a white knight, particularly one who beats up small, wimpy men who should know better than to even look at a woman, let alone disagree with her.

However, it does not make you look good. It makes you look like a bully. It makes you look like the type who would beat up boys who talked too much about Link and then brag to you jock teammates before you go home to Ocarina of Time.

Oddly enough, that is exactly the crowd of people you sided with wants. You sided with people who call male gamers “rapists” and “pedophiles” because they like Bayonetta. You sided with a group who doxxes GG supporters who disagree with them. You sided with a group who sends out death threats and gets people fired from their jobs because they do not support a political position.

You think you have the moral high because you said a bunch of mean things about gamers, a group who, let us be honest, you clearly do not like.

But you do not have the moral high-ground. You are simply a bully.

I know bullies quite well. As a survivor of child abuse, I grew up with them. I spent the first 14 years of my life being abused by them. As an advocate for male victims of sexual abuse, I have dealt with them in the support community. I know them when I see them.

You are a bully, and you have sided with bullies.

I am not a member of GamerGate, however, I am a gamer. I do not want politics in my games. I do not want feminism or Marxism or neo-conservatism or Evangelical Christianity in my games. I just want to play the games.

I know I am a bad person. That was made very clear to me when I was a child, made clearer by the social workers when I got out of that home, and made even clearer by feminists when I spoke out about the abuse I suffered. I accept that.

I will not accept, however, that I am a bad person because I want my games politics-free or because I agree that gaming journalists should be upfront about their connection to the game developers or because I agree that Anita Sarkeesian conned the gaming community and should be called out on it.

You can call gamers whatever names you want. That will not change that the people you sided with are bullies exploiting people’s willingness to mock an ostracized group in order to take control of the industry so as to push their political agenda. And it will not change that the moment you sided with them you became a bully yourself.

Or rather, you reveal what you had always been: the jock who beats up nerds during the day while playing the same games you pummeled them for at night.

There is a word that kind of person: poser.