The interview between Sargon of Akkad, otherwise known as Carl Benjamin, and David Pakman can be found here.
First, I want to say a honest thank you to David Pakman for continuing to follow the #GamerGate story, giving it a platform where the stronger voices from the community can speak. I do not think he wanted to bring Sargon on to chide him about this clickbait tweet, but that was a... well, odd part of the conversation.
Second, a hearty cheer for Sargon for being himself and not letting Pakman mischaracterize Sargon's videos, statements, or positions. Rather than play the victim, Sargon stood up for what he believes, and did so in a fair, reasoned, and calm manner.
Off to my take away: Sargon did miss an opportunity to better characterize what #GamerGate has been about. He maintains the reflexive defensive response that #GamerGate is about ethics and corruption in games journalism, only to follow up with rigid focus on those subjects. Honest assessment, even from Sargon in other places, strongly indicates #GamerGate, as Pakman was attempting to talk about, is about two different topic which have been conflated.
#GamerGate is primarily focused on ethics in games journalism. There is no doubt there. Ethics, cronyism, corruption, and nepotism comprise 80%+ of #GamerGate's focus. That is a simple and rather focused list with clear and direct actionable steps to correct issues surrounding them. The other 20%-ish of #GamerGate is about dogmatic social justice attempting to shape gaming. This topic is so much more broad, with many more facets, elements, and variables, that it gives the impression of superiority. Ask anyone in #GamerGate what the purpose is and you will hear about ethics. Read Twitter feeds, watch YouTube videos, and browse blog posts and you'll see much more discussion around dogmatic ideology and how it is attempting to dictate how games ought to be made, played, and sold.
Pakman see this trend and asked Sargon about it. Unfortunately, Sargon remained driven to hammer home the point of ethics. Good on him for that, but the rigidity of that move leaves outsiders curious as to why the obvious concurrent discussion about feminism is not being talked about. An important point was made, however, when Sargon emphasized people can compartmentalize their world views as so they do not overlap into other political arenas. This does not describe or help us to understand why there is a vast amount of discussion around feminism and social justice in regards to games and gaming culture.
Dogmatism is a problem in all walks of life. It has infected gaming in a few ways, most notably are the anti-violence people and now the anti-"sexism" people. It is vital to identify dogmatism where it occurs so it may be weeded out appropriately. Not by vile or aggressive tactics, but by clear demonstration of the ill effects of dogmatic believe and action, leaving the final conclusions to be found by the people who are curious. I openly accept you cannot win everyone over to your side of an argument, either because of lived experience, deep indoctrination, fear of appearance, or indifference. It isn't my job to tell people what to think, but I do take it upon myself to reason out problems, lay out my facts, state my conclusions, and let the final impression be accepted or rejected by onlookers.
One more major point before I wrap up here: what is this fucking spineless shit, Sargon? "Saying it in a video is different from saying it to someone's face." Sargon, if you cannot say it to their face, then you have no grounds on saying it in a video, either earnestly or mockingly. You laid out in a brilliant and humorous manner how Matt Binder is a fucking idiot. Randomly I will hear his voice in my head screaming "Chattel!" because of that video. You demonstrated, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Binder earned that criticism. Don't back off of it because you're playing polite. Says something coming from a Canadian, too.
Last points: I wonder if Sargon is about to take the big leap into a professional role? I have been following Sargon now for about 16 months after one of his videos popped up in the suggested section after I watched a video by Thunderf00t. There was a Google Hangout one time where his name did come up as Carl, but I had never heard his name or saw his face otherwise. It's curious with the timing of his son, Daniel, and suddenly he's willing to show his face? Also, why the hell hasn't he been showing his face? I think too many Al Borland references.
I don't think so, Jim. #GamerGate
This has been an unedited rant. @nrokchi
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