Woke up this morning to a dumpster fire in my mentions (I mean it's always a dumpster fire tbf). These fools are still spreading bullshit conspiracies that are so bonkers they aren't worth repeating but it's just so exhausting. I guess being a misogynist asshole never gets old.
But here's the thing -- these conspiracy theories they've been spreading about me for six years seem ludicrous on the surface but they actually work to infect the cultural understanding of me and my work on a much larger scale than their tiny little woman-hating communities.
These conspiracy theories range from: I'm embezzling money, I never finished my kickstarter project to bleaching my skin to appear more white and apparently now progressive I'm somehow responsible for the death of an activist.
Here's a recent example: an academic I met at an event gave me a copy of her book in which she wrote a section about me and was curious what I thought about it. It was a book about feminist discourses and overall she seemed supportive. I had a bit of time so I gave it a read.
It was enraging to read for many reasons including the lack of basic fact checking but the real problem was she literally quoted GamerGate conspiracies about me as if they were well researched facts... in her academic book!
Her defense was that she quoted journalists -- as if there aren't a whole slew of journalists who are fully supportive of GamerGate and never do any actual research. This is someone who is SUPPORTIVE OF MY WORK and she bought into these myths.
These myths are so easy to dispel with just a few google searches but it doesn't matter. These harassers are so loud and persistent that when you hear something enough times, the public starts to believe they are facts.
If you want to learn more about how toxic these conspiracy theories are check out this talk I did at @xoxo a few years back:
