Hi,
after seeing one of my tweets quoted here, I decided to make an account ('MatterOfFact' was taken already
).
I've been following this tragic story from the beginning and ... it makes me angry. It makes me angry how all those at fault are now doing their best to silence debate about it, hiding what happened and pointing ar the usual scapegoat ('ALT-RIGHT! GAMER GATE!!1).
Let's make this utmost clear, there's three involved parties that have blood on their hand aka drove Alec Holowka into committing suicide:
1.) His colleagues from 'Night in the Woods' as well as other fellow developers who outcast him at a mere accusation and without a second thought. The accusation's case happened 5 years ago, it's entirely 'he said/she said', and they didn't hesitate even a moment.
2.) The outrage crowd, lead by ResetEra, Kotaku and Engadget, aka the 'Court of Public Opinion'. "Well, going to the police wouldn't have helped", they say, to which I ask: SO WHAT? That is how a lawful, fair, just society works. It does NOT work by organizing a modern day-public lynching on Twitter et al. Courts and authorities exist exactly to prevent this, and I hope that this case has politicians looking into making new laws that help prevent and, at least, harshly sanction such behavior. Make it a hefty fine, and it could be a nice additional income for the country.
The lesson for us should be to teach victims of abuse to go to the police ASAP. If you go there directly, you gave the best chance to prove your case. Waiting fir weeks, months or years means there's nothing but words. The reason why many rape cases end without punishing the rapist is because there's no evidence to get - which is good, because no men should be imprisoned on a woman's word alone. But if you go asap, justice can happen. Not 5 yesrs afterwards, though.
3.) And Zoe Quinn.
At the end of all of these discussions, one fact will remain:
Had Zoe Quinn not randomly decided to throw out a public rape accusation on a random Tuesday, Alec Holowka would still be alive. That is fact.
What makes me especially angry is that in her own message she SAYS that Alec had been undergoing therapy. That he had apologized to her years ago. That 'thisl wasn't about him, but about what happened to her. In other words: She knew he had changed and she claims she had no intention to throw him under the bus ... BUT DID SO ANYWAY. "Just for funL, I'm almost inclined to add.
I've seen her gross apologists argue that 'victims' have all the right to tell their story. Let's be real here: Zoe Quinn, for unbeknownst reasons, is an internet celebrity, with well over 100k followers on her now closed Twitter-account. Alec Holowka was a small indie developer with maybe a couple dedicated fans, but nothing much. When you have a following like Quinn, you have a raised responsibility when you drop someone's name and tell everybody 'he raped me'! She knows how the internet works. She basically sicc'ed her 100ks of followers against this small Polish indie developer. The rest is history. Zoe Quinn is not the victim here, and she doesn't represent other victims. Abuse victims happen from an imbalance in power. This here was imbalanced by far in her favor. And she didn't care.
And here we are. Resetera closed the thread on this topic to make everybody forget about their involvement. Users there like popular user 'mazi' edited postings because they're scared shitless of getting caught by investigation. Their affiliate press (Kotaku, Engadget, Polygin, Eurogamer, etc) are spinning the story in favor of Quinn, trying their hardest not to mention that Alec committed suicide, instead speaking about 'has died', as if nobody but an unfortunate case of nature being cruel was at fault. But we know that's not true. We know who it was, because we know who it always is when someone has their life ruined over silly joke on twitter, for something they said 10 years ago, or for simply having a 'wrong' opinion.
Personally, I've had enough of this shit and I will keep mentioning what 'they' did. Because it's the least I can do. We're past the time of 'being the bigger manl, nu-uh. They shove us out of the discourse, they de-legitimize our opinion, they brand us as alt-right (even though I couldn't be more politically left), nazis (even though they are in favor of censorship), transphobes (everybody is transphobic for not wanting to date trans women, get that!) and so much more. Whatever it takes to de-legitimize us so that the mainstream media takes their side - because nobody wants to take the side of the alt-right. What they're basically doing is cover us in the aura of pedo-criminals. Making our side untouchable, because we're gross and they're right. For all that, I'm no longer being 'the bigger man'. #ScorchedEarth it is.
A hell of a first posting and I apologize if it was a bit much, but this whole thing has me truly upset and they been getting away for too long. Now someone died because of them. My hope and plea to all of you: Don't let them shrug it all under the rug. Keep mentioning it on your social media feeds, talk to others about it. No more mob justice, no more one-sided harassment. No more deaths.
#nightinthewood #nitw #scorchedearth