Pokemon of War: an introduction

In what could be the oddest thing ever, Anonymous has declared war on the KKK. One is a group known for harassing random people, wearing masks, and promoting ideas from Hitler. The other believe bed sheets and guns will protect themselves from some random hacker in Germany.

The details on the how and why involve the protests in Ferguson Missouri. Basically, the KKK threatened violence on anyone that dared to fight back against the police while waiting for the grand jury verdict. Needless to say it has caused a lot of thought provoking ordeals. The first is that the GamerGate harassment can’t be coming from Anonymous, because Anon pretty much destroyed their competition within a few days. The second is that Anon is defending the Ferguson Protesters. The third is that this means having to explain the Pokemon of War.

Within a week, Anonymous pulled down every website owned by the KKK. The personal information of anyone belonging to the KKK was revealed online, and shown to the world. Then multiple accounts for social networks like twitter were taken over. The response was so swift, and complete that the KKK didn’t even have a chance to blink.

This is in complete contrast to how GamerGaters have used information to attack antigamergate promoters. Yes, a few people have had their personal information revealed, but no where near the amount or at the speed that happened to the KKK. In fact, if you checked, the majority of the GamerGate movement has been to record information, and show proof of their complaints. The comparison of angry hacktivists out to destroy someone does not appear to work.

The Ferguson protest has hit me personally. A good friend of mine, who has helped out with many of my own studies, went to the protests with his students to investigate the matter. He posted pictures, videos, and stories about the events. It shook me pretty hard, because this was the guy who let me borrow his car when I was trying to move. When I first began to study videogame culture, this guy helped out.

His videos and posts were shocking. He was arrested, and called several things for trying to interview people. There was a police enforced idea, and any reporter, investigator, or student who asked about other theories was arrested. It is as bad as you can imagine it.

Anon is now part of all of this. A group of random hackers who are known for just as much evil as good is now part of the entire ordeal. Not only that, they specifically went against the KKK. If this continues, they will likely be going against the city of Ferguson as well. A protest movement will enter into attack mode online.

Now that we have this confusing knowledge, we are left asking how Anon can be going against the City of Ferguson, the KKK, and yet also do things that are not so great? The answer is in the same part within GamerGate.

If you remember, the GamerGate crowd is accused of misogyny and racism. The problems is that many of the proponents are black, gay, female, and not really fitting the descriptions being made for them. This is why #NotYourShield became important.

At this point, I need to explain what is going on, and why. You see, Ferguson, GamerGate, and a lot of other things are being treated like a sport of some kind. I nicknamed it the Pokemon of War. We will be going over this subject for the next few chapters, but here is an outline.

The basic concept is that when reporters talk about things, they can only give a limited amount of information. If there is conflict, they try to show that conflict and why it happened. Within this, they try to show the sides, and often it becomes a two sided battle.

Within every culture is a bunch of smaller cultures, and people vying for attention. Because of modern philosophies, there is a common binary belief that one group is fighting the other. Even if the cultures themselves get along, the outsider will believe there must be a deep seeded conflict because of these differences.

The outsider then chooses a side. The good side will be viewed as noble, correct, moral, and of high standing. The other side is evil, unmoral, and stupid. Go ahead, check out whatever modern conflict we find today and see how those binaries work.

Many of the ongoing conflicts are being caused by people who honestly don’t understand what is going on, and therefore are picking sides. You can choose out one person whose views you enjoy as your pokemon. So when you argue with people, you are using someone else’s opinion, on a conflict you don’t understand.

The groups inside feel this conflict as a threat to them personally. They have people they know who are part of this conflict. The outside groups promote the idea of separation, and the various stereotypes as the only way to view things. In some cases, the only way a group gets support is for battling the other group.

Because the US, and everywhere else has such a myriad of cultures we are constantly talking about, conflict is a common thing. The reporter is just trying to show the important information. Because we lack better understanding, we choose sides and people within these conflicts. The binary will have moral implications, as well as how things are supported. We end up playing a large game of pokemon with no real winners.

#NotYourShield and its ilk is from people who specifically want to end this binary. They are sick of being pulled into conflicts like GamerGate by someone who has a chosen field of Pokemon. Not only is it not true, but it stereotypes the people involved.

Because of the nature of these conversations, expect as much detail as I can give on such conflicts. Then I will go into the various stereotypes of protest movements, and how they are specifically stereotyped. After that, we will go into the nationalism of videogames, and finally how cultures slowly take power. It should be a lot of fun, and I promise to make it as videogame related as I can.

Until next time, go play some games.