@PlayDangerously's Bad Case of Internet Tough Guy

http://i.imgur.com/3m3tp7I.png

It's time to question @PlayDangerously (Mike Cernovich; I will sometimes call him PD for convenience), his intentions, and his methods. Above are tweets chronicled an a Storify criticle of GG which I recommend everyone to take a look at (https://storify.com/stillgray/matt-binder-nails-gamergate-based-lawyer-mike-cern). Regardless of whether he has "owned up" or tried to play down his past harassment, with such a wretched past on the internet, it's important to question just what exactly his intentions are. Another Storify on PlayDangerously I'd like you to read is https://storify.com/x_glitch/when-the-gamergate-mob-targeted-anil-dash-for-no-r.

While the two story chains I linked to serve to support a tenuous claim of GG harassment, they do illustrate something else. We as supporters of GG need to take more critical looks at those who we accept as leading us to any degree, and should take more than a cursory look at someone's online presence but to try and see if there is something lurking in their past. While the ostensible goals of PlayDangerously are to bring down bullying, he has tweeted out positve statements about doxxing his oppostion recently, and in years past has made very harassing tweets towards individuals, including in 2013, Cernovich tells a user they ought to kill themself (https://archive.today/sn1EA).

What started PlayDangerously's sudden ascension into GG fame? A Twitter tirade targeted toward activist @anildash (Anil Dash) -- someone who might be called a "social justice warrior" by some -- on October 18th. PD believes that Dash implicitly supports bullying by his association with Gawker Media (who employs writer Sam Biddle, someone who who had some lamentable things to say on Twitter about nerds - http://i.imgur.com/xFwv9da.png). The catch? you may not have heard of Anil Dash's controversial criticisms and reporting on gaming culture because Dash doesn't even play games, let alone report on or create them (https://twitter.com/anildash/status/524003383238471680). Cernovich does not have any interest in Dash as an individual or the journalistic ethics breaches he has not had; rather, we can induce that he chose Dash as a target because if he were to capitulate to his demands, this could make an impression on some of his over half a million followers and perhaps win people over to the side of support for #GamerGate. If PD did not intend to target innocent activists, extorting them in the name of donating to charity, then he should be called on and put to task to rescind the comments and make an apology both to Gawker Media and Anil Dash.

While brigading for any purpose may be viewed with scorn, and what PD did was indeed brigading, @anildash did not experience a flood of spiteful and harassing tweets as the Storifies and other commentators would like to be the takeaway from all this. The users of GG made their convictions against bullying very clear in their responses to Dash, but treated as a rational individual rather than a faceless, inhuman target even while he made sneering remarks about the issue he was dragged into. When Dash claimed to be receiving harassment in this spike of attention, GG requested for any evidence of such behavior so it could be reported and denounced. Upon receiving evidence, the users did as they said they would.

In closing I urge all to read the Storifies in the first paragraph by opponents of GG for a full context and understanding of Mike Cernovich, the loud-mouth bully and harasser posing as the philanthropist "based lawyer" of GG.

#GamerGate #NotYourShield #nobully
Please circulate this tweet both publically and via DM if you oppose bullying, harassment, and the hijacking of GG by outside sources.