VidCon Responds to Feud Between Sarkeesian and Sargon of Akkad
Controversial feminist social critic Anita Sarkeesian was back in the hot seat after publicly insulting fellow YouTuber Carl Benjamin (a.k.a. Sargon of Akkad) at last week's VidCon convention, but in the end, it looks like she may have come out on top.
Last Thursday, Benjamin sat with several friends in the front row of Sarkeesian's "Women Online" panel at a convention center in Anaheim, California. After spotting him in the audience, Sarkeesian proceeded to call Benjamin a "s**thead" and a "garbage human," claiming that he and other critics constantly make videos at her expense and say "the same s**t over and over again."
Following the incident, the rival factions quickly began to wage war online over what actually occurred at the event, with Sarkeesian’s supporters dismissing Benjamin as a “harasser,” while her critics called for VidCon officials to condemn the panelist's behavior for breaking their official code of conduct.
The next Monday, Sarkeesian ran a follow-up post on her blog Feminist Frequency, which accused Benjamin of profiting off harassing her online and offline. In echoing her sentiment, the feminist pop culture site The Mary Sue reported that Benjamin made a living off “misogynistic and otherwise hateful videos.”
That same day, Benjamin appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, during which he relayed his side of the story, while expressing little surprise to some of his supporters' notion that news media has been rather openly taking Sarkeesian’s side.
As the tension continued to build up on social media, VidCon officials released a statement via Medium, in which they apologized to Sarkeesian for subjecting her “to a hostile environment” and warned against those who would attend the conference to “focus the outrage of their followers on individuals,” a message many believed was intended for Benjamin.
Needless to say, VidCon's press release was met with mixed reactions, with Sarkeesian's supporters welcoming the official response as a victory against online harassment, while YouTube personality Philip DeFranco, who had previously slammed Sarkeesian for equating criticism and debate with “harassment," called out the statement as "ridiculous." Furthermore, others standing behind Benjamin alleged that VidCon officials are biased in favor of Sarkessian, due to her fame and political leanings.
In response to VidCon's press release, Benjamin tweeted that he had not been contacted about the incident from Hank or John Green, the co-founders and organizers of Vidcon, while asserting that the Green brothers took "the abuser's word at face value."
And at the end of this debacle, we are left with one one question: when will these absurd culture wars ever end?
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MonsieurOignon
I think I hate both. Anyone else?
Cyphon
w2gMk
So… she goes to a public (i know you have to pay or be invited but if even I can somehow get into it its public) event, and is the focus of a special panel… and expects literally everyone there to be one of her sheeple, as well as expecting people who (I remind you they are youtube creators)… have been listening to her arguments, and find the flaws within them to not be there?? VidCon is possibly THE ONE PLACE you could EVER EXPECT a youtube personality such as Sargon to be… and you are surprised and shocked that they visited your panel. VidCon is THE event for youtubers, how ignorant of the place in which you are going to be speaking are you, if you expect a person who is a part of the demographic to be there, is there? Are you going to tell me you did'nt expect a fish to be in an aquarium next? Stupidity knows no bounds does it.
UnKewln00b
Of course he was going to defend Anita Sarkeesian. If they didn't there'd be no VidCon next year as every. Single. Website that's not called Breitbart will go going down VidCon's throat with hitpiece after hitpiece proclaiming how VidCon is sexist, racist, homophobic and transphobic. Unfortunately in today's political climate the only move is to side with people like Anita because unfortunately everyone else is.
Ganondox
New conspiracy theory: Anita and Sargon are BOTH professional victims who need each other to victimize them for publicity. The whole thing was arranged by the two of them as a publicity stunt.
BigK64
I smell a shiiiiip~!
DirkDiggums
conspirception: Anita is a deep cover far-right conservative who is acting like a crazy feminist SJW in order to drive people away from the political left. I don't think Sargon is a deep cover SJW though, he's not /pol/ enough to be a deep cover operative.
Youyou Meme
This.
MLG_Waluigi
It's a shame that such a good boy as Boogie had to share the spotlight with Anita.
DirkDiggums
I know right, he said he didn't even know that she'd be on the panel. I would have noped the fuck out of there if I was him.
StringFish
(Warning: personal, maudlin sh*t here; you may not wanna read)
With each new story about Anita Sarsleezeian shows up in the news mistreating someone, I feel a deepening sense of guilt and obligation. Most of the people who have stood up to her have been white men, and she has no problem portraying them as harassers. But I am a dark skinned (Guyanese) person who was born a female- if I were to go to one of her meet-ups, she would let me in without a second thought, and she'd let me talk without a second thought, too. And if she gave me the slightest lip or tried to talk over me, I could pull out the race card on her ass so fast, she'd think she was in a time warp (not because I actually think she's a racist, but because people like her have a severe phobia of being seen as the "oppressor").
I know I have these powers, and I know that I must use them to help in the fight against this con artist, and still I sit here, unsure of how to even take the first step.
DirkDiggums
Hey, you could always start a blog or tweet out some stuff about how you are not about what Anita is selling. The problem is that she'd say you have "internalised misogyny, sexism, racism, etc". You can't win with these idiots.
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I mean, nothing short of a bullet would pierce her thick skull and I don't think it's worth going to prison over because the entirety of academia and media would still be fucked
Smash Bro 35
-news article by don
-first word in it is "controversial"
Stuckman
Either Vidcon chickend out because they new the media would take Anita side… or they just bent the rules for her over ideology.
Either way, Sargon did nothing wrong and anyone regardless of who you agree with can see that.
DirkDiggums
They took the easy way out. I can't stand run of the mill conservatives, but I will be the first to admit that they don't get a fair shake with the MSM. All these bullshit "news" websites would have been on them like white on rice, claiming they sided with a "serial harasser" instead of the anointed one, St. Anita of our lady of video games are misogyny.
TheDoctor64
>Anita Sarkeesian