As regular readers know, I do not play video games or watch television (other than when Game of Thrones and Mad Men are on). I also don’t read low-consciousness sites like Gawker or Slate, as they are toxic to your brain. How then did I get involved in #GamerGate?
I was writing about the law (especially free speech and other constitutional law issues) long before Danger & Play. I am a radical proponent of free speech. When I heard that the court system was being used to silence a young man, I decided to speak out.
Rather than ignore me or let me speak my mind, Social Justice Bullies (a loose collection of toxic people such as Gawker writers and their supplicants) went on the attack. They harassed me, cyber stalked me, and otherwise spread their stench towards me.
I looked into #GamerGate more and saw some revolting faces. I saw people like Sam Biddle (who bullies nerds), Max Read (who enjoys talking about date-rape drugs) and other vile people.
The more I looked into #GamerGate, the more I realized silence was complicity in evil. I could not stand by while Sam Biddle and Max Read bullied people.
Gawker Media is huge. As Omar cautioned, “You come at the king, you best not miss.”
To attack Gawker, I needed a plan. Then I had to create a compelling spectacle.
The plan: Don’t let the media make you a #GamerGate hero.
Before going into #GamerGate, I planned my strategy backwards. I knew what would happen when I joined the fray.
Here is how backwards planning works:
- Media smears #GamerGate vis-a-vis my involvement.
- Media destroys me.
- Media declares me leader of #GamerGate.
- Media realizes it can’t ignore me.
- Media ignores me.
- #GamerGate notices me.
The mainstream media would declare me a leader of #GamerGate in an effort to discredit the entire movement. Before going in, I had to ensure that others would not be hurt because of me. It would be immoral for me to hurt an entire movement, especially since there was a shared goal – having the bullies and other unethical people fired from Gawker.
When joining the fight, people would be proud to have me next to them. I distanced myself from #GamerGate immediately, truthfully announcing that I was not a leader and telling people, “You are going to disagree with a lot of things about me. Don’t view me as a hero.”
Sure enough, the media quickly and falsely declared me a leader of #GamerGate. I knew why they were doing this, and I knew how to counter their strategy.
Why fight in #GamerGate?
Even though I don’t play video games, I never had any dislike for gamers. We all have our hobbies. I waste my fair share of time. Whatever. Live and let live.
But I hate Gawker Media and all it stands for, as they will not live and let live. Gawker lives to bring people down. They wait for some otherwise decent person like Pax Dickinson to say something stupid. Then they pounce, costing people their livelihoods.
Gawker is a safe haven for bullies like Sam Biddle, date-rape obsessed editors like Max Read, and a whole host of nasty other people. (Gawker is full of horrible people.)
If I could join forces to reform Gawker – even if this meant completely ruining my reputation online – I was willing to take a nuclear blast.
I knew that joining #GamerGate would mean the death of me. I had to take the abuse so that others could fight Gawker in other ways. I accepted my forthcoming death.
“Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears, and swords. Being carried away by surging waves. Being thrown into the midst of a great fire. Being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake. Falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease, or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai.”
Take the fight to them.
When you know an attack is inevitable, you don’t wait for the enemy to bring the fight to you. You fight the enemy on your terms.
You attack them first and with audacity. You fight with such force of will and ruthlessness and fullness of purpose that you will finish your strike even if cut down in battle.
Rather than wait to get on Gawker’s radar, I took the fight to them. They had no idea what would come next or that they would be brought to their knees.
Give them an opening before ambushing them.
I had long written deliberately inflammatory Tweets. Deleting old Tweets is easy, as there are various apps to do so. You can also run a search via Twitter for specific “bad words” and selectively delete Tweets.
It’s not hard, which is why it’s silly that people are writing about my horrible Tweets without actually asking a guy who makes his living online if he knows how to use Twitter.
I left mine up, hoping Gawker would find them, knowing Gawker would find them. They would believe these “secret” Tweets would be the death of me.
Gawker would find these horrible Tweets to make me look like a horrible person. I would run away and hide.
But I knew about the Tweets. They were seeds sowed long ago.
I would embrace the Tweets and own up to them.
The Sam Biddle $10,000 Anti-Bullying Challenge.
I give a lot of money to charity each year, and always have. It’s important to do. I thought of a way to raise money for charity while also increasing awareness that Gawker supports bullying.
Sam Biddle is a pathetic, snarky bully. He is used to tormenting people with Gawker’s highly-trafficked websites. He had a large bully pulpit to harass people with.
When thousands of people read your writing each day, you can make people fear you. “Please don’t write mean things about me on Gawker!” He got cocky.
(Sam Biddle has a nice head of hair; I’ll give him that much.)
Sam Biddle and his best friend Max Read began harassing people. The launched a campaign of bullying from their massive Twitter and blogging platforms.
They went too far by insulting vulnerable groups of people.
(“Neuroatypical” includes people who struggle with conditions such as Asperger’s.)
Sam Biddle didn’t go after men like me – men who live for conflict. He went after what I would call “good kids.” These are the nice guys (and as #notyourshield shows, plenty of gals, too) of the world who just want to play game in peace.
The good kids learned that Gawker is a menace. You are not safe so long as Gawker is in business. Even if you ignore them, they will come to you.
Sam Biddle announced it was time to SMASH THE NERDS. As a nerd, I asked him when he would like to meet. The retweets began and I knew Sam and all of Gawker Media were vulnerable.
Film the video right now. Audacity.
“What are you doing,” my girl asked me. “I’m doing a YouTube video, babe.” She laughed and helped me edit it a bit. Then she went to bed.
“I promise you that this video will appear in your Facebook feed tomorrow. It will be in there from someone you have not talked to in years.” How can you know?
I know.
At 4 p.m. she sent me a screen cap of her Facebook wall. Someone had linked to the $10,000 Boxing Challenge. “I haven’t talked to this girl since college!”
(I was tired. But this shaky video went viral.)
Know your enemy.
Sam Biddle, like all bullies, hates himself. The anger and self-loathing he possess cooks him from the inside out. He lashes out against the world like a petulant child.
That video was a reminder he was a hypocrite. He spoke out against bullying while himself being a bully. He talked tough and yet could not back it up.
He was a keyboard warrior who wouldn’t last 5 minutes in my world. He couldn’t let my challenge pass over in silence.
(Sam Biddle, Gawker in Paradise)
Sam Biddle’s jealousy of Danger & Play.
Unlike Sam Biddle, I own my writing. Danger & Play is mine. Biddle is envious that he will always be living hand-to-mouth writing clickbait, where as I can produce quality on my own terms.
I produce timeless advice by distilling the wisdom of the ages where as Sam Biddle bullies kids with ASD to get clicks so that his boss Nick Denton can earn millions in tax-sheltered income.
Biddle’s writing is garbage snark. Biddle is a no-talent hack who will never write a book or ever have a readership outside whatever his employers give him. He is irrelevant without Gawker or Vice or some other shit site, and it eats him up inside.
Sam Biddle hated me for being his superior. He hated you for being his superior. He hated all of us for standing for everything he is not.
Rather than joining the community and making a commitment to become a better man, he choose to attack me.
Biddle would never fall for the trap. Or would he?
Sam Biddle and Max Read made a fatal mistake. It was such a stupid move that I didn’t expect it. Jezebel has attacked me before, and they attacked Victor, who kicked dirt in their faces.
It would be incredibly stupid to attack me. What would they expect happen?
Their mistake was such folly that I wrongly told a friend, “They will never put my on the front page of Gawker. All that will do is expose more men to my message.”
My phone starts blowing up.
“Mike, what’s happening?”
I look at my phone. It’s 9 a.m. I check my analytics. There are hundreds of active readers coming from Gawker.com.
Those fools. I grabbed an ice coffee and embraced the battle.
It would be a hard fight. Also, my online reputation would be ruined. My name will forever be associated with “mean” things. I knew that going in and accepted it as the price warriors pay.
(Mike Cernovich, D-List Celebrity.)
Gawker made me stronger. They made us stronger.
Friends of mine were concerned. People thought I would cave. That’s what people do, right? You issue an apology and move on and hope they leave you alone.
Hah!
I lit Sam Biddle and Max Read (who has a fondness for date rape drugs) up.
I took the fight to them, exposing all of their hypocrisies and misdeeds.
I have received thousands of tweets (that is not a joke; I cannot keep up with my Twitter stream) and emails telling me they are inspired to fight harder against Gawker.
Gawker lost what all bullies rely on – the element of fear.
Gawker has been revealed as a pathetic bully.
No one has ever stood up to Gawker the way I did. The way we did. Billionaires caved.
Marc Cuban is held up as an alpha male. Yet he kneeled before the mainstream media.
Gawker attacked me. MSNBC attacked me. I laughed and welcomed more. They were afraid to ask me onto their media shows, as they know they would be destroyed by me.
Marc Cuban groveled. Jonah Hill cried.
(Will you forgive me if I cry?)
I was lit the fuck up and begged for more.
The mainstream media and purveyors of Gawker filth learned what happens when you focus on me. Some people enjoy the fight more after they’ve been hit in the head a few times.
If Gawker or any other journalist or Social Justice Bully comes after me again, I will take the fight back to them in ways they can’t anticipate.
In fact, I showed them that an attack from Gawker will make you stronger. There’s an entire subculture of YouTubers growing out of #GamerGate. They are going to transform gaming journalism.
The battle is over, but the war will continue.
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so does a fool to its folly.”
Sam Biddle and Max Read lack any integrity or character. Their conduct has cost Nick Denton money, which is the only thing Nick “Cayman Islands” Denton cares about.
They have already lashed out of advertisers who refuse to subsidize a company that supports bullying. Biddle and Read will wallow in their own vomit soon enough.
My wish is for them to blame me, for them to attack me, for them to stop bullying neuroatypicals and nice guys and gals and to come hard at me.
Here I am, Sam.
What’s next?
#GamerGate has taken up far more time than I had anticipated. I didn’t expect the idiots at Gawker to actually put me on their front page or for MSNBC to lie about me.
Gorilla Mindset was scheduled for a December 1 release. That may get pushed back, as there has been a recent development that will be of interest to regular readers. More later.
(This Gorilla Spartan t-shirt looks cool.)



