Butts is currently trying to launch her followers, currently, at the Escapist:
KIWIS, I FIGURED IT THE FUCK OUT.
I've been studying this burgeoning shit-storm for a while now. Since my first encounters with Nyberg in regards to GG, at least, though I didn't realize it at first. Analytically-speaking, I haven't been able to find a single goddamned thing she's done that warrants this kind of zealous defense. Bear in mind, we've seen other crazy transpeople who
have overstepped their boundaries, and, in turn, which the Antis
haven't gone to bat for: Sophia Banks is probably the best example, but we can easily look at Chloe Sagal for another and Devi Ever for a third.
All of this led me to ask: "
Why is Nyberg so fucking important?" And that, Kiwis, is when it hit me.
Prevalence.
The Antis have a lot of attack-dogs, ranging in strength and posting history from Geordie Tait (says what you all believe, and
that's the problem), to Arthur Chu (about the closest thing your side has to a reputable intellectual). The thing is, all of these attack dogs tend to keep to their own personal domains, and with good reason - they know they can't win fights outside the hugbox, so they cage it.
Seriously, take a good goddamned long look at the most prominent harassing Antis - Margaret Pless, for example, sticks to where she can maintain platform control and where she can keep a handy screen of useful idiots. This is true of Randi Harper, Alex Lifshitz, and many other Antis with a long-as-hell history of harassment. In most cases, if you don't wander into their personal stomping grounds (or encounter them directly in a way that opposes them outright), you will
never encounter these people.
...That
isn't true of srhbutts.
Nyberg posts
everywhere. Viewed a video on youtube supporting Gamergate?
Chances are, srhbutts has posted on it antagonizing people in the hopes of getting someone to say something mean to her that she can use. She posts on Reddit. She's showed up on Tumblr. She has a massive Twitter presence that comprises actively antagonizing GG supporters. She's been on SA (who now wants nothing to do with her). She's even had a Tumblr presence. She's popped up on Vimeo, on political communities, and more.
Nyberg is, without exception the single most prolific Anti-GG harasser. Arthur Chu, Randi Harper, Alex Lifschitz, Chris Kluwe? None of them have
shit on the sheer volume of posts Nyberg has made to antagonize Gamergate supporters. To give you an idea of just how prolific she is? Prior to GG, she had under 10,000 posts. She has, in the span of a year, managed to out-shitpost
Brianna Wu - One of Anti-GG's most infamous Twitter addicts
. I am
not fucking kidding.
Nyberg rose to prominence by not just being one Anti-GG attack dog - she rose to be
the Anti-GG attack dog. This, I feel, is why she's viewed as such a critical commodity. When you rely on narrative as much as the Antis do - and indeed, a narrative as provably full of
open fucking lies as the Antis do - then you goddamned
better have someone willing to literally generate thousands of posts to attack on command and essentially operate as a field commander for Anti-GG operations. She's
the one-stop shop for Anti-GG offensive resources. Every single one of these Anti-GG dickheads (except Wu, curiously enough) have sourced her shit even when she's been caught lying in it, because she provides so much usable content. Kluwe, Quinn, Harper, Lifschitz, Cross, all of them have sourced her on occasion, and with good reason: Nyberg's
raison d'etre isn't based on a victory condition, it's just to piss people off. As such, she can do the one thing most Antis won't: Operate outside the hugbox. Nyberg is also more savvy than the other Antis in knowing how to internet.
The Antis don't care that her figures are put together from fucking lies, they care that she can justify their prejudices in a sound-bite, and make tons of them that, in their eyes, make GG look bad. It doesn't actually have to, mind - as we've established, facts are optional in their world and nobody fact-checks anything in the Anti camp anyway.
The Antis
cannot afford to let such a demonstrably useful propaganda apparatus (and that's
exactly what Nyberg is) fail. That she's trans, honestly, is outright irrelevant compared to the fact that she's such a useful asset otherwise. We know how the
Tumblr Economy of Privilege works by now, so I needn't get into that, but the general gist is that Nyberg herself justifies a lot of the Antis' campaign positions. Nyberg enables OAPI and CON by giving them out-of-context quotes that the Antis can
claim are examples of harassment and threats. Discredit one, and Nyberg's made about a quarter-billion more. It's the equivalent of a
Chewbacca Defense.
All of this - and I do mean
all of it - is centered around one thing: Maintaining the rapidly-decaying illusion that Gamergate and anyone who supports it is a toxic shitlord, and thus anyone who opposes it is thusly morally correct and incapable of wrong-doing.
If Nyberg goes down, they lose what is, unquestionably, their
biggest propaganda arm and source of easy narrative boosting.
Ironically enough, this theory also explains why Wu's done the intelligent thing and
butted the fuck out beyond basic lip-service.
Wu herself is as big a liar as any of the other Antis. Virtually
every single case of "harassment" Brianna Wu claims is either an outright fabrication, something she did to herself, the result of her trying to sensationalize blastback to something she herself did, or an attempt to portray an out-and-out hoax as (to coin a CWC-ism) TRUE AND HONEST threat to her person. Like many Antis, Wu
literally has no career without Gamergate to run off of.
However.
Unlike the others in Anti-GG, who struggle to maintain a unified front, Wu doesn't give a shit about the rank and file. Because Wu tends to focus on how she, is uniquely, Gamergate's
biggest victim, and because Wu is too much of an Egoboo, Brianna Wu simply does not have much use for the likes of a Sarah Butts to provide her with ammunition, because Wu, ultimately, doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself in regards to Gamergate. Wu will sing Sarkeesian's praises, bolster support for Randwhale or Quinn, but in the end, it's
all about Brianna Wu. She has bigger connections (in her eyes) than Quinn, Sarkeesian, or Harper. She has several friends who will openly post pretty much anything she wants, people who will help her ban people on Twitter, and people who will even help her game get positive reviews. In this regard, Wu not showing much direct support for Nyberg makes sense - Wu has no need of her, and probably doesn't even understand how Nyberg is important beyond her being an Anti, curiously enough.
