Brianna Wu has gone full theRPGsite

[yosemitemike]

I think it's pretty obvious that Wu has seen that people's patience with this cancel culture shit has run out and he is trying to distance himself from it.

[1stLevelWizard]

I think it's pretty obvious that Wu has seen that people's patience with this cancel culture shit has run out and he is trying to distance himself from it.

This is pretty common behavior with grifter-types too. A lot like the snake oil salesman, once they get upwind and realize their popularity is waning they skip town and try to restart their scam somewhere else. Moving away from regressive leftist politics means setting up shop as the "reformed opposition" only to start the same crap with a different flavor.

[Mistwell]

Brianna Wu has been drifting away from the online nutty progressives for a while now. I quoted her last month on Israel / Hamas.

Well, now she's gone full theRPGsite.

Below are quotes from her over the past few days. You tell me this isn't stuff you could find right here:

So, normally I couldn't care less about what offends you or not, but I was sitting here bored and decided to explain it to you.  Don't worry, I'll use small words so you'll be sure to understand.

You stated above that  Wu has been "drifting away from the nutty progressives."  So, if by your own statement, he is moving "away" from nutty, he must be getting more sane.

No. As in fighting with the nutty progressives. They hate her, and she's not too keen on them, triggers by I think the Israel topic though I don't follow her close enough to see when this began. That doesn't make her more or less sane overall, it just means she's fighting with them and distancing herself from them. A loner nut isn't less of a nut than a groupie nut I guess?

That's the only reasonable explanation of that statement.  You follow this with the fact that you quoted him on another topic... a topic where you agreed with him.

She's anti-Hamas. Lots of people here are also anti-Hamas, that doesn't mean I in-general agree with them, right? But I do at least agree with what she's been saying about Hamas. So there is that.

So, why would I assume that you disagreed with Wu when your support for your first statement is something you agreed with?  There's no way to read those sentences as anything other than support.

You should not assume I disagree with Wu or agree with Wu in general unless, yah know, I say something on that topic. Why are you making assumptions about how I think? It's noteworthy that Wu is fighting with progressives publicly and saying this stuff. That doesn't mean I believe Wu believes what she's saying. It means it's noteworthy she is saying this stuff.

Again, the only person who actually said it looked to them like Wu was actually becoming saner was Pundit. Note you didn't say one damn word to Pundit on that. But you did to me, even though I never made that claim. Almost like it was you making assumptions about me for personal reasons. Which is why I reacted - you could maybe not be a dick all the time? Or not. It's your online persona of course.

Now, the going "full RPGSite" could be read two different ways.  Luckily, either way makes you look like the asshat you are.  First, since the first two sentences could only be reasonably read as supportive, you could read this as saying, "look, guys, Wu is now saying the same stuff that we do!  Isn't that great!"

No, not "isn't that great". It was "And that's odd." Which it is. It's an oddity that someone did a 180 on what they're saying. Doesn't mean she believes it, but it's worth talking about that she is saying it, and saying it a whole lot. Like huge amounts of posts for many days now going on like this.

Because you clearly intended to express some kind of opinion by posting this.  So what was it?  I think that my first interpretation was correct, and you were attempting a "look, guys, Wu is one of us now!" or some other stupidity.  If not, what were you saying?

Yes, my opinion is "This is weird." And not "weird = funny" but "weird = odd." I don't think Wu is "one of us." But I think it's weird Wu is saying stuff that could be said here, after years of saying stuff that would be completely counter to things said here. It would take a lot more for me to think Wu has actually changed her way of thinking about the world but it seems worth talking about and discussing here for the oddness of it. And sure enough, people do seem interested enough in talking about it. Yourself included.

I mean this IS weird, right? Whatever this is, it wasn't on my bingo card for 2024.

[yosemitemike]

I would be more likely to find this credible if Wu didn't start off with the same "muh death threats" tactic he has used to get sympathy and support for years.  His mo hasn't changed a bit. 

[Eirikrautha]

I mean this IS weird, right? Whatever this is, it wasn't on my bingo card for 2024.

No, it's not weird.  The only reason to think it is weird is if you believe that Wu is ever expressing ideas or opinions based on strongly held beliefs.  Which he isn't, because he is a delusional, lying, narcissistic, grifter, who has always been about himself, totally.  He will say anything to focus attention on himself.  He hasn't "turned on his allies", because he doesn't have any.  Wu was "progressive" only insofar as it served him.  It doesn't serve him now, there's a new wave to catch, so he's no longer aligned with what he said 2 years ago.  This is as surprising as the sun rising in the East.

Which is why I said you don't understand us, and you don't understand them.  And posting things because they are "weird" doesn't answer my question.  Why do you think it is weird?  Man up, and express an opinion on the subject matter, not the players.  And while you're at it, grow some balls and stop referring to Wu as "she."  He's a dude in a dress, for exactly the same reason he was progressive...

[Zelen]

Easy way to tell whether this guy is sincere in his apparent change of heart. Has he renounced his past actions, made public apologies for people he slandered, and made demonstrable efforts at repairing the damage he did through his actions & those acting on his behest?

No? Okay then. No need to pay him any attention.

[BadApple]

Easy way to tell whether this guy is sincere in his apparent change of heart. Has he renounced his past actions, made public apologies for people he slandered, and made demonstrable efforts at repairing the damage he did through his actions & those acting on his behest?

No? Okay then. No need to pay him any attention.

Not enough, honestly.  Wu pushed people into suicide and then used the suicide as proof that they were right.  So many people had everything stripped from them because of Wu and allies; jobs, relationships and families, homes, everything.

Only a vow of poverty coupled with actively engaging in rebuilding what they destroyed is acceptable as a form of penitence.  Put the families back together.  Give the victims the money they lost.  Form a legal team to disassemble the DEI monster they created.  In essence, we need true contrition.

[Trond]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Wu recently had a stroke, like Fetterman? Could that have made Wu no longer an imbecile?

Wu is a grifter down to the DNA, so maybe they scent a wind change.

I don't know that much about Wu, but this is certainly possible. Manipulative people are very good at reading the room.

[jeff37923]

Easy way to tell whether this guy is sincere in his apparent change of heart. Has he renounced his past actions, made public apologies for people he slandered, and made demonstrable efforts at repairing the damage he did through his actions & those acting on his behest?

No? Okay then. No need to pay him any attention.

Not enough, honestly.  Wu pushed people into suicide and then used the suicide as proof that they were right.  So many people had everything stripped from them because of Wu and allies; jobs, relationships and families, homes, everything.

Only a vow of poverty coupled with actively engaging in rebuilding what they destroyed is acceptable as a form of penitence.  Put the families back together.  Give the victims the money they lost.  Form a legal team to disassemble the DEI monster they created.  In essence, we need true contrition.

I think BadApple has a good idea, but I don't think that it will ever happen. That would take too much introspection for a grifter like Wu to act upon. I mean, if they were capable of that, then you'd think that they wouldn't have acted the way they did in the first place to cause all this grief.

[Silverblade]

Not enough, honestly.  Wu pushed people into suicide and then used the suicide as proof that they were right.  So many people had everything stripped from them because of Wu and allies; jobs, relationships and families, homes, everything.

Only a vow of poverty coupled with actively engaging in rebuilding what they destroyed is acceptable as a form of penitence.  Put the families back together.  Give the victims the money they lost.  Form a legal team to disassemble the DEI monster they created.  In essence, we need true contrition.

If what you say is true (I don't know as I only looked up the person), then full repentance is necessary.  Anything short is just lip service.

[Valatar]

Yet another person has possibly committed suicide and blamed Wu: https://twitter.com/RinRinYikes/status/1753538791103684741

In a very similar setup to the last one who blamed Wu, this one is claiming that Wu went around poisoning the well in shared social circles to sabotage a gofundme that they wanted to use to cover living expenses.

[BadApple]

Not enough, honestly.  Wu pushed people into suicide and then used the suicide as proof that they were right.  So many people had everything stripped from them because of Wu and allies; jobs, relationships and families, homes, everything.

Only a vow of poverty coupled with actively engaging in rebuilding what they destroyed is acceptable as a form of penitence.  Put the families back together.  Give the victims the money they lost.  Form a legal team to disassemble the DEI monster they created.  In essence, we need true contrition.

If what you say is true (I don't know as I only looked up the person), then full repentance is necessary.  Anything short is just lip service.

The entire Gamergate thing is one big mess.  I was on the periphery of the mess as it was going down and it was ground zero for the cancel culture.  Brianna Wu was one of the central personalities that was organizing the brigading and boycotts.  Anita Sarkeesian is another one of the big personalities. 

Without trying to give you a detailed history, the short answer is that people with journalist degrees looking for work took jobs in the video game publication industry (early 2010s.)  At the time, video games were bigger than Hollywood and still growing.  Largely, both producers and consumers were young men who enjoyed the type of games that were becoming more and more politically incorrect in contrast to the shifting ideologies that were filling the Overton window.  Many of these journalists were simply trying to use video game reviews as a stepping stone to bigger journalism jobs.  Many of these jouros were women and generally turned off by the games and the gaming culture of the time so they put a lot of that in their articles. 

(All of this so far is verifiable.  What comes next is a bit more contested.  While I have sources for everything, there's sources that "debunk" them too.)

One of these journos was sleeping with a developer and was using their personal relationship in their professional life and trying to cause changes in the video game industry.  This got found out and called out.  In response, several of these journos cried sexism.  The all hell broke loose.  Developers and gamers alike were being called bigots, various prominent figures in the industry were getting accused of various sex crimes, investors started pulling out, and mass layoff and site shutdowns happened.  A lot of this was being done with investors, think hedge funds, running inquiry boards that look a lot like the Salem Witch Trials and Brianna Wu was one of the key people acting as both a witness and prosecutor.  Many of those accused didn't even know that there was a problem until they were called into their bosses office and handed their pink slip. (This is way over simplified.  The history of gamergate would ready like the history of WW2 starting in 1934.)

Even at the time, most people knew that much of the official reasons why someone needed to be fired were lies.  This was coupled with the push for DEI from Blackrock.  When the dust settled, several studios were bankrupt, about half of the game developers and programmers were unemployable and lost everything, and DEI was deeply entrenched into the corporate structure of the AAA publishers.  The over all quality of available video games being made dropped significantly.   

Some of the most horrifying stories to come out of this was of some of these guys that got run out of the gaming industry found other jobs, usually minimum wage, in other places and some of these accusers would get them fired from that job too. 

[Trond]

Gamergate really exposed just how rotten journalism had gotten. A number of outlets pushed "gamers are over" articles all at the same time. And the opposing view, easy to find with a google search, was nowhere to be found in the mainstream media.

As far as suicides, I can only remember Zoe Quinn directly pushing someone (an ex) to end himself. Is there a story about Wu here?

[BadApple]

Gamergate really exposed just how rotten journalism had gotten. A number of outlets pushed "gamers are over" articles all at the same time. And the opposing view, easy to find with a google search, was nowhere to be found in the mainstream media.

As far as suicides, I can only remember Zoe Quinn directly pushing someone (an ex) to end himself. Is there a story about Wu here?

That's the only completed suicide I'm aware of but there were a few other attempted suicides that got mentions in the news.  I didn't catalogue them, sorry.  Many of the stories about them came out years later. 

A lot of the people that got pushed out of the industry were just rank and file workers that didn't get press coverage.  Two different stories that were passed to me by friends were about acquaintances of acquaintances that worked in the industry and couldn't find work after getting fired.  I don't know that any of them ever got press coverage.  The thing with playing RPGs in the Seattle area is that you would run into guys that were in the video game industry and the music industry that would come in and just play games with the rest of us.  They were just regular dudes with regular jobs in industries that produced entertainment.

[Silverblade]

Not enough, honestly.  Wu pushed people into suicide and then used the suicide as proof that they were right.  So many people had everything stripped from them because of Wu and allies; jobs, relationships and families, homes, everything.

Only a vow of poverty coupled with actively engaging in rebuilding what they destroyed is acceptable as a form of penitence.  Put the families back together.  Give the victims the money they lost.  Form a legal team to disassemble the DEI monster they created.  In essence, we need true contrition.

If what you say is true (I don't know as I only looked up the person), then full repentance is necessary.  Anything short is just lip service.

The entire Gamergate thing is one big mess.  I was on the periphery of the mess as it was going down and it was ground zero for the cancel culture.  Brianna Wu was one of the central personalities that was organizing the brigading and boycotts.  Anita Sarkeesian is another one of the big personalities. 

*snip rest to save space*

I do have cursory knowledge of Gamergate and I recognize Sarkeesian's name. I just didn't know about Wu. Wu sounds like total trash.

As I said, considering how many lives were permanently damaged, Wu would need to come totally clean with full contrition. A handful of tweets, posts and comments are meaningless at this point.