Thanks for being willing to sit back and think about why people responded the way they did, Wil.

Game producer, writer, editor, howling maenad. Tour of duty @ Microsoft, now PM @ Paizo. #yayhamlet Opinions are my own. No interest in talking to MRAs/GGers.

Feb 5, 2016

I wasn’t defending terrible behavior, but I understand why it seemed that way.

Wil Wheaton

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Thanks for being willing to sit back and think about why people responded the way they did, Wil. Privilege is a tricky thing, but being willing to do that is, I think, the difference between having privilege (which we can’t help), and abusing it (which we can help).

There are plenty of good reasons not to vote for Hillary (and plenty of good reasons TO vote for her ). I think it essentially boils down to whether you believe a president can effect revolutionary change, rather than evolutionary change, in the face of a hostile Congress. For those who believe it’s possible, Bernie is the president America needs. For those who don’t, Hillary is the president who can actually get things done.

I’m not sure who’s right.

But I do know this: about a year ago, when they polled independents and Democrats who weren’t interested in voting for Hillary about why they weren’t planning to vote for her, the #1 answer was “she’s not qualified enough.” Given that on paper, with her experience, she’s the most qualified candidate in living memory, that answer seemed nonsensical, until you found out that the #2 answer was “the country’s not ready for a woman president.”

I’ve been a Woman on the Internet too long to be surprised anymore that misogyny isn’t limited to the right-wingers, but in this case it’s made me distrust anyone who’s leveling criticism of Hillary that isn’t solely about her *policies* or her corporate ties. Because all of the other stuff — that she’s “inauthentic,” that she’s too oblique or doesn’t say what she means, that she’s too “shrill” or “strident” — well, that stuff is coded, and the double standard is obvious to anyone who’s looking at it clear-sightedly.

So yeah, I’m still on the fence, and I’m not going to let the behavior of internet randos overcome the actual policy issues I care about when it comes to who I vote for, but I’m coming to resent the Sanders campaign for the fact that any time I see a woman talking about why she supports Hillary, the response she gets from Sanders supporters is GamerGate all over again.