Guest Editorial by @ChristiJunior
The Iowa Caucuses are soon upon us, and everything points to them becoming a two-horse race between Businessman Turned Troll Donald Trump and Canada/Texas Senator Ted Cruz. I’m not American, but I’ll definitely be rooting for Trump, for pretty much all the reasons Ralph outlined in his recent editorial, and also because Trump’s proposal to suspend Muslim immigration is LOOOONG overdue, and exactly the kind of common sense policy solution to a growing problem that political correctness until now has prevented us from even publicly proposing, let alone seriously debating.
But I’m not here to talk about Muslim atrocities. Well, in a sense I am, but they will merely provide the backdrop to this particular story. See, not long after GamerGate first erupted (I’ll get to why this is relevant later), Ted Cruz appeared at an event in support of persecuted Middle Eastern Christians (By the way, Christians are actually the world’s most persecuted people, though that’s hardly a narrative you encounter very often from the people often shouting loudly about oppression). Nice thing of Cruz to do, right? Actually, it turns out he used this event as an opportunity to force Middle Eastern Christians to affirm their devotion to Israel – and when some of them reacted poorly to that, he turned Professional victim:
When Cruz took the stage, however, after two days of declarations of Christian unity and recognition of the widespread persecution of peoples of all faiths, his remarks emphasized his devotion to the state of Israel. The crowd applauded faithfully as Cruz made the argument that ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah, as well as Syria and Iran, were all equal participants in genocidal bigotry. Cruz then transitioned. After saying, “Our purpose here tonight is to highlight a terrible injustice. A humanitarian crisis. Christians, are being systematically exterminated,” Cruz then turned to the 1948 formation of Israel, a sensitive subject for many Palestinian Christians, and declared that “today, Christians have no greater ally than the Jewish state.”
It was at that point that some in the audience objected to Cruz turning a celebration of Christian unity into a lecture on a divisive subject that many in the crowd experienced as part of their everyday lives. Cruz returned accusations of hatred.
Cruz wasn’t just content with whining about his speech being badly received – he ran to major Pro-Israel conservative outlets to push the false Narrative that he was this brave defender of the Jewish people taking on vile Anti-Semites, basically smearing the very same persecuted Christians he had just a few days ago pretended to support. And smear them he did:
Cruz released a statement after the incident saying what should have been a “night of unity” deteriorated “into a shameful display of bigotry and hatred.”
Less than 2 weeks later, Cruz was outright calling Middle Eastern Christians who disagreed with his views on Israel terrorist sympathizers:
“[I]f he was to share a stage with terrorist sympathizers, he was going to loudly proclaim his support for Israel and the Jewish people. And that he did.”
Forget for a moment how ridiculous it is to turn an event dedicated to the persecution of Christians into a session of Israel Worship (a country that, while more civilized than its Muslim neighbors, still discriminates against Christians); forget how dishonest it is to conflate criticism of Israel with Anti-Semitism; hell, even ignore how dangerous and counterproductive it could potentially be for Middle Eastern Christians to be seen back home as joined at the hip with Israel.
What’s truly sickening is that Ted Cruz in all likelihood only went to this event supporting marginalized people in an attempt to make himself Look Good, and that he when this backfired figured that he was instead going to smear and slander a persecuted religious minority to help his political career. Sickening, but not unique.
See, this all happened just a few weeks after InternetAristocrat and many other people blew the lid of the Quinnspiracy – how Zoe Quinn had used her connections to various gaming journalists (at least one of which she was sleeping with, behind the back of her boyfriend) to advance her profile in the gaming world, turning a no-talent SJW who hardly even qualified as a game developer into an “indie darling”. But that was hardly the only way Zoe Quinn had abused her connections to various gaming journalists to self-promote.
Indeed, even before she became a Full Time Professional Victim due to all the “harassment” she received in the wake of the Quinnspiracy being exposed, Zoe Quinn had discovered that crying about harassment (which pretty much covered any criticism of her) and playing the victim could a profitable endeavor – and the first well-known victims of that were users of an imageboard called Wizardchan.
Most readers of this site probably remember the Wizardchan scandal, but to summarize: Wizardchan is an imageboard primarily used by male adult virgins (generally involuntary virgins, not merely celibate), who as you might imagine are rather prone to depression, some even being suicidal. Meanwhile, Zoe Quinn’s “game” Depression Quest was supposedly made to help people with depression, by giving people a greater understanding what having depression is like (it apparently involves doing nothing while crappy piano music plays).
Fascinating then, that Zoe Quinn first made her name precisely by throwing Wizardchan under the bus, accusing the site’s users of harassment and ensuring they were subjected to smear campaign by the gaming media, happy to Listen and Believe the apparent damsel in distress, that bore more than a passing resemblance to ACTUAL harassment. And of course, this was based on lies: At best Quinn greatly exaggerated the hostility expressed towards her on Wizardchan – and given the nature of the internet and online anonymity, she may even have been the one who brought up Depression Quest there in the first place, and then staged “harassment” when it was clear the game had no appeal. Hey, if you can’t get your game famous on the basis of merit, you can always go the Professional Victim route.
So in both the cases of Ted Cruz and Zoe Quinn, we have individuals quickly turning on and smearing the kind of marginalized people they were supposedly very keen on helping, and even unleashing major media smear campaigns against those very same marginalized people – all conveniently elevating their own profiles. And the hypocrisy doesn’t end there – Zoe Quinn, who was all for bullying a bunch of depressed virgins for fun and profit, now heads a supposed anti-harassment group, Crash Override. Ted Cruz meanwhile, is if possible even more brazen.
Now as it happens, I happen to agree with (current) Ted Cruz on this. I, too, favor western countries only taking in Non-Muslim Syrian refugees, primarily Christians, on the basis of cultural compatibility, the reality of Christians being the world’s most persecuted religious group and the well-known downsides of Muslim immigration – and this is despite me personally being an atheist. But for a guy like Ted Cruz, who a year ago was smearing Middle Eastern Christians as Anti-Semite terrorist sympathizers, to now pose as their greatest defender is beyond dishonest and opportunistic. If I was American there is no way I’d ever vote for him, not even to stop Hillary Clinton, he’s just that contemptible. If you’re having trouble choosing between Cruz and Trump, just remember this – Ted Cruz is the Zoe Quinn of the Republican Party.
