As befits a man who has authored a book called 365 Ways To Drive A Liberal Crazy – opening gag: “Why was Obama so disappointed when he went to a screening of The Men Who Stare at Goats? Being a Muslim, he thought there would be more romance” – it was only a matter of time before James Delingpole saw fit to wade into GamerGate.
For those who haven’t heard of this (and this Mole envies you), GamerGate is an astroturfed outrage which claims to be about corruption in video games journalism, but which actually is a bunch of players railing against imaginary “social justice warriors” polluting their pastime with ideologies like “feminism”. (One female games developer at the centre of it has had a particularly awful time.) A common accusation is that there is a conspiracy within the games media, as journalists “push” their socialist agenda on gamers without their consent. It’s part McCarthyism, part-Tea Party, and perfect for Delingpole’s tried-and-true tactic of opportunistically stoking a fire beneath furious right-wingers while winding up lefties at the same time.
So, here he goes, in the Spectator:
He goes on:
And yes, maybe games like GTAV are all those things, but it doesn’t seem to do them much harm at the box office. Au contraire: on its release last year GTAV became the most successful entertainment product in history, earning $1 billion within its first three days of release. No doubt the superb gameplay was a draw. As were the groovy soundtrack and state-of-the-art graphics. But the clincher, I suspect, for a lot of its young male fans, was the sheer joyous escapism into a universe where you can still act out your most politically incorrect fantasies without some professional victimhood group like 350.org or Everyday Sexism demanding you be carted off in the Outrage Bus for compulsory re-education.”
Yeah! Up yours, feminazis!
No point getting wound up about this stuff, like one reviewer did for the Daily Mail when the game was released last year:
What troubles me about Grand Theft Auto V — which has an 18 rating that will be ignored by thousands of younger teenagers — is not just the message it sends out to youngsters (drugs are cool; crime pays; violence is fun), but what it says about the coarsening, the decadence and the hopelessness of our modern culture.
It’s the electronic equivalent of those gladiatorial contests the Romans used to stage in the dying days of their empire, involving ever more exotic beasts and ever more elaborate sets.
It may be entertaining, particularly to young men with a penchant for such nihilistic spectacle, but the sensibility to which it appeals is warped, jaded and riddled with the deepest, blackest despair.
The fact that this is the most popular computer game on the market should make us all shudder, and pray that the violence on the screen doesn’t bleed into Britain’s streets.”
Damning, we’re sure you’ll agree. But such is the typical style of the author: James Delingpole.
As a bonus round, try to tell which of these is the intro to his 2013 piece, and which is the intro to his 2014 piece:
The last – and only – time I had sex with a whore she was so impressed by my performance that she begged me to do it all over again. I thank the drugs. Before popping out in my stolen car for my rendezvous with my skanky ho, I had smoked a couple of fat blunts which I’d found ready prepared for me by my bitch next to my beer fridge and it put me in just the right mood.”
Yesterday, in the process of robbing a bank, I beat up an elderly security guard before shooting dead perhaps 15 policemen, exulting in their murders with the flip dismissal: ‘Shouldn’t have been a cop.’ After that, I stole a succession of fast cars, evading my pursuers by driving on the wrong side of the road, mowing down passers-by and killing more police by ramming straight into them. Then I went home for a change of clothes, a nap, a beer and a joint before getting into my stolen vehicle to wreak more mayhem, pausing briefly to enjoy the services of a prostitute.”
Of course, this isn’t even the worst thing about his Spectator piece – that would be the bit where he writes this:
As for the feminazis, they’re everywhere aren’t they: all over Twitter and Mumsnet and Change.org like a dose of thrush, brandishing like badges of honour the supposed rape threats and death threats from the men they’ve so assiduously goaded.”
Careful James. Looks like the game’s rubbing off on you.
(It is also worth pointing out that Delingpole tells his readers to search for a number of – abysmal and hateful – pieces on GamerGate by a man he employs as a columnist at Breitbart, without disclosing their relationship. The irony is noted.)
Content from our partners
Related
