To me, it's not really the sentiment that causes problems so much as the manner in which it's presented that has led to this. Honestly, I'm someone who is very sympathetic to most of the seemingly overly-sensitive concerns of progressive movements. However, the tone in which a lot of this stuff could be presented could certainly be counter-productive for anything even vaguely aiming to be general discussion, particularly general discussion as it would be expected to exist on a forum that focuses on video games. It could certainly seem at times that the goal for some was just to be unabashedly correct, and deviation from accepting the arguments meant you were inferior.
The fact that bigotry may have arguably been afoot could almost seem secondary to the fact that they were
losing a debate on the internet. I mean, take this post from Timedog in EviLore's thread:
If someone posts something and I use their own logic or their own wording against them, there's nothing wrong with that, it's called arguing. A bunch of people are upset on GAF because they cannot argue or express their views coherently, and then just resort to "I can't post my opinion in X thread or I'll get banned or dogpiled or etc". I can't really feel bad about that.
In general, I like Timedog. But this is almost painfully awkward to read. He just seems so proud to employ basic Debate 101 skills against an audience that clearly does not care about his ability to formulate a thesis with premises that hold up to Critical Thinking 101 critiques. There's just a tad too much adherence to the notion that the important thing is to be
right, gosh darnit. And if you aren't as prepared to debate with the big boys? Well, step aside, 'cause we're in the big leagues now. This is fucking NeoGAF!
