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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35478 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023

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June 22 2020, PCGamer - Chris Avellone accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women

"He got me blackout drunk on Midori Sours (on the company dime). He and two friends somehow got me back to my room, where he pounced in front of the other guys. They left after a few moments (also drunk), and one of them told me what he had witnessed the next evening. I had very vague impressions that someone had made out with me when I woke up that morning, but thought it was a dream," she wrote(opens in new tab).

"When I asked Chris about it, he told me that I had eventually refused him. When more of the night came back to me, I realized the ONLY reason I was able to refuse him in my blackout stupor was because I was on my period that weekend. The ONLY reason."

Karissa said she witnessed Avellone act in a similar fashion with multiple other women at the event, and eventually reached the point where she, backed by two men who were also aware of his behavior, reported him to organizers, who immediately blacklisted him.

"His behavior didn’t stop, though. If anything, it got worse. It took years for his employer to finally fire him (I honestly don’t recall the exact reason he was given, it was a while ago and I wasn’t there personally—this was relayed to me by a friend who also worked there)," she wrote. "He moved to other studios. Other projects. Other conventions until they stopped inviting him on their own accord (whether due to behavior or relevance, I don’t know). I pushed him out of my memory, as did my dear friends, and we only discussed our anger and disgust if he happened to come up.

June 29 2021, PCGamer - Chris Avellone files libel suit over last year's sexual misconduct allegations

Barrows stands by her allegations. "The only statement I will make at this time is that I stand by my story," Barrows told PC Gamer when reached for comment this week. "I told the truth. I am not at liberty to speak further until legal proceedings have concluded."

Along with the lawsuit, Avellone published a blog post titled "It's Come To This"(opens in new tab), in which he claims that Barrows became antagonistic toward him when his relationship with a friend of hers soured. In 2020, Barrows claimed that her best friend "endured over a year of heartache, gaslighting, and emotional abuse at [Avellone's] hands." Avellone says that the friend in question did become "unhappy," but that they had not been in a committed relationship. (The friend is only identified in the post as someone named Jackie. She is not identified in the lawsuit, either.)

March 25 2023, Chris Avellone's blog - JOINT STATEMENT FROM KARISSA BARROWS, KELLY BRISTOL, AND CHRIS AVELLONE

Mr. Avellone never sexually abused either of us. We have no knowledge that he has ever sexually abused any women. We have no knowledge that Mr. Avellone has ever misused corporate funds. Anything we have previously said or written about Mr. Avellone to the contrary was not our intent. We wanted to support women in the industry. In so doing, our words have been misinterpreted to suggest specific allegations of misconduct that were neither expressed nor intended. We are passionate about the safety, security and agency of women, minorities, LGBTQIA+ persons, and every other community that has seen persecution in the video game industry. We believe Mr. Avellone shares a desire to protect and uplift those communities. We believe that he deserves a full return to the industry and support him in those endeavors.”

March 25 2023, PCGamer - crickets

March 25 2023, Kotaku - crickets

It's remarkable that rpgcodex had the coverage that aged best.

Erik Kain working his beat as a based games journalist as well.

I'm not sure what more to add to this that hasn't already been said. Mostly I felt like summing up the entire event from primary sources for posterity and clarity, so that it's obvious who the liars are, and who the good faith actors are.

in which fucking large numbers of your groupies is no longer socially acceptable.

While that would seem a silly outcome, if that was the sexually conservative upshot everyone acknowledged and codified it'd actually sufficiently more rational and tolerable (in that the mores would be clear) than the current situation.

The current situation is not a general norm that sleeping with groupies or casual sex is bad, quite the opposite - the sex positive norms are still parroted (though some feminists do insist on this infantilizing view). Case in point: Roiland and Avellone were both taken down for alleged assault and grooming teenagers.

It would honestly be better if we went back to a Victorian "being a cad is bad" norm since then you wouldn't need to accuse someone like Avellone of being a sexual assaulter to smear him.

Every major liberal social movement of the past century has one goal in mind: sustainable development.

Transgenderism, Feminism, Gay Rights/Equality, Abortion are the best because they sustain development.

The goals of “MeToo” and the issues of “Groomers”, “Creepers”, “Cheaters” and “Power Imbalances” are all about one thing: sustainable development.

Turning the age old practice of seducing a younger woman or a workplace subordinate into an unthinkable social crime is about one thing: sustainable development.

These are cultural safeguards set in place to ensure our betters “guide reproduction responsibly” (their words).

Is this darkly hinting? I'm not sure what the externalities/failure modes of false accusations of sexual harassment/assault are supposed to do for "sustaining development." Development of what? The economy, civilization in general?

You’re not?

The more barriers to men and women having sex with one another, the less babies there will be. I’m not sure where you’re getting tripped up. Every major social standard we have left is fundamentally dedicated to damming this drive.

“Darkly hinting?” Sustainable development is the U.N.‘s term. Haven’t you heard? There are too many humans. “Sustainable development” is a euphemism for the correction of this large problem.

I don’t have a counter argument to this(although I do think the truth is more nuanced than that, it’s probably at least directionally correct) but I agree with @halloweensnarry that it could and should have been worded more plainly.

That's what I'm getting at: you're using euphemisms. If you want to argue that "the chilling effect of MeToo on sexual relations is not a bug, but a feature intended to drive population control as desired by The Shadowy They," you can just argue that plainly. It may be declasse, it will probably attract a hard counterargument, but you won't get the likes of me noticing their own confusion.

I don’t think there’s anything “Shadowy” about the U.N. or their explicitly stated goals. Sustainable development is also a good thing, and the effect of “MeToo” isn’t chilling, it’s necessary.

One mustn’t alert whom one is forced to deceive.

Being out of fashion has never bothered me. I’d like to hear your counterargument if you have one.

I don’t think there’s anything “Shadowy” about the U.N. or their explicitly stated goals.

Yes, but "To achieve our stated goals, we will manipulate social media to amplify accusations of sexual misconduct, creating a chilling effect against casual sex that reduces fertility" is a strategy that, if it exists, exists in the shadows. As do whatever organs the UN is using to enact said strategy.

This approach would be dubious IMO, as casual sex rarely results in children these days, and the hypothetical blowback from the ploy being discovered is immense.

Unless you're suggesting the coordinators have such an iron grip that discovery or blowback are non-factors? In which case, why are they pussyfooting around the issue with sneaky psyops rather than just putting contraceptives in the water supply or something?

Every major liberal social movement of the past century has one goal in mind: sustainable development.

Your ideas suppose the elites are amazingly powerful and coordinated in pursuing this end, but at the same time, they've contented themselves with a 100 year policy of slowly changing gender roles through ad hoc puppeteered social movements, rather than just enacting the New World Order and having done with it.

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