Academia had had 10 years to prepare for being gamergated and hasn't, because (like journalism) it doesn't understand how to counter bad faith
Academics look outside of your immediate peer group challenge: impossible
And because academia didn't listen to the Black women who sounded the alarm in 2014. It's not a coincidence that Harvard failed their first Black woman president. Nor that Shafiqah Hudson, who created #YourSlipIsShowing, died recently at age 46 because she couldn't afford healthcare.
I think not understanding how is half of it, and not bothering to learn out of disdain for the early targets (racial minorities and white women) is the other half.
Honest question, how does one counter bad faith?
I think we need to redo debate rules from High School on upwards to include a "Go fuck yourself" clause. If somebody is just standing up there ignoring your arguments and making bad faith claims and otherwise being a tea party republican, you get to tell them to go fuck themselves, and win.
"aaa! aaa! they're releasing new data at us! they're providing primary sources!!!"
One of the weaknesses of academia and journalism is that their leadership is even more packed with rich white men with contacts they value with conservative interests than gaming ever was
The thing is, I have yet to see any evidence that any academic actually gives half a shit about what Chris Rufo has to say. It's all coming from the regents and lawyers and MBAs
It is sad that the discourse over the female Ghostbusters and Gamergate are a Rosetta stone for our current political climate
While an imperfect analogy, I agree!