Examining Gamergate: On Corruption

A few months ago an old friend of mine started posting about Gamergate. Gamergate hasn't been in the news as much lately, though maybe I only think that because I've personally been avoiding it as much as possible. Regardless, this was clearly something my friend was passionate about, so we started talking.

I generally try to avoid seeing another group as an "other." For opponents of Gamergate, the rule of thumb was "do not engage," as if its proponents are not worth your time. I don't like to think of people that way, especially friends, so I broke the rule. I engaged, and my friend provided me with tons of reading material to show me what he's talking about.

I've since read a lot, thought a lot, and examined this issue for the sake of my friend. Here's what I've found:

Resolutions for 2016

Though I basically ditched my 2015 resolutions, I do believe in the resolution model so long as the resolutions have the following qualities:

• Realistic - Goals I can reasonably achieve in the given time frame and given my schedule.
• Concrete/Measurable - Goals I can work towards, producing results I can demonstrate.
• Personal Improvement - Goals that enhance my knowledge or abilities.
• Habit-Changing - Goals that I wasn't already going to reach without making them goals.

Through resolutions like this, I've played and finished more games, finished more books, gone on more hikes, watched more movies, and wrote more than I otherwise would have. These resolutions kept me active, kept me thinking, and generally gave me a greater appreciation for the arts than I had before.

2015 in Review

I started this blog as part of a New Year's resolution in 2014. The goal was to end the year with 365 blog posts, and I ended up with 364 (due to a failure to hit a final Publish button properly). The year 2014 was a good year for keeping resolutions. The year 2015 was not. However, given all that's happened in the past year, I'm pretty content with that. It's been an active year, and tossing a few personal goals to the wayside was necessary in order to seize some unexpected opportunities that seemed more important than weekly blog posts and finding new music.

Some highlights of 2015:

Fighting an Attitude

A few days ago, a group of #BlackLivesMatter activists interrupted a Bernie Sanders event to call out the candidate for his lack of vocal support for their movement. Their movement is focused on bringing about real change in response to the recent, frequent, and increasingly hard to deny string of unarmed black people killed by cops. It's a worthy goal, and this is a problem that should be one of the key issues our politicians should be addressing today. However, that specific event troubled me.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement received some backlash for the incident from fans of Senator Sanders, of course, even while it was happening. Many people don't understand why the movement would show up to protest a man who has dedicated his life to progressive causes, including marching with Dr. King in the 60s, and whose campaign is focused on narrowing the income gap and providing assistance to the poor.

There's an unspoken connection there, in which black people are assumed to be poor and, to be fair, poverty rates are much higher among black people than they are among white people. However, as several response articles defending the activists' actions note, there is a difference between economic disparity and racial disparity. Black people are more likely to get denied a job, passed over for promotion, arrested, or shot by a cop than white people with the same education and income level. It's a separate problem, and one that needs to be addressed.

That said, I still can't condone the way those #BlackLivesMatter activists handled that situation. (I'll clarify here that #BlackLivesMatter is a loose organization with no real leadership, so it's difficult to say how the movement as a whole feels about the actions of those activists. This is a common problem among movements without central organization.) It was poor form, disrespectful, and misguided. Which is fine: the activists are human and are allowed to make mistakes. However, the true test of character is that, when you make a mistake, you have the grace to apologize. They have not apologized. Instead, they have dug in their heels.

Their defense is, basically, that you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Their message is important, and they shouldn't have to apologize for interrupting someone else's event to spread their message. Word needs to get out. Something has to be done.

Which is all true. Their message really is important, and disruptive behavior will call attention to their cause. But will it help? Maybe so. As I understand it, Bernie Sanders has been a lot more vocal about plans to solve the problem of cops killing black people, as well as several other instances of institutionalized racism. However, I can't help but wonder how many supporters of #BlackLivesMatter were discouraged at the activists' behavior, allowing their disgust at their treatment of a friendly candidate to obscure the purpose of the movement.

Methods matter. When fighting for a good cause, it's important to maintain a level of respect for everyone involved, whether or not they respect you in kind, and whether or not they're deserving of respect. When you walk the path of righteousness, you must watch your every step, not for yourself but for your cause. Don't give people an excuse to be distracted from your message. Don't belie your own cause.

At its core, the fight for racial equality is a battle for respect. Minorities (blacks, hispanics, my fellow natives, etc) are not respected as equals by many people. They can deny it, but evidence proves otherwise; that, time and again, all other things being equal, the person with the lighter skin wins over the one with darker skin. However, showing an equal lack of respect for those who don't respect you won't solve the problem. It's hard, but the only long-term solution is to be the better people, respecting everyone equally, even and especially when they disrespect you in return. With time and persistence, public perception will acknowledge the truth: that those who strive to be better are, in fact, better, and those that do not make the effort will find themselves left behind. This is how progress is made, and it's made over the course of years, decades, and sometimes lifetimes. It's not easy, but there are no shortcuts. It's the only way.

The alternative is to have the same attitude as the people you fight against, which is exactly the sort of thing Martin Luther King, Jr. preached against in his book Strength to Love:

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

I think the "love" he's referring to, "agape" as theologians term it, is similar to what I mean when I speak of respect. Disrespect breeds disrespect, as seen in the incident between Senator Sanders and the #BlackLivesMatter activists. The only cure is respect, which Sanders has shown by taking their concerns to heart despite their methods.

Eye for an eye is not and never has been an effective or sustainable policy. Let's fight it.

Buying a House Part 2: Figuring Out What You Want

When buying a house you'll want to be very careful to find a place you can still see yourself occupying several years from now, perhaps even for the rest of your life. Unlike an apartment, you can't just up and move in a year or so once you realize that the location is a little too far away from your job, or perhaps you don't have enough room for your growing family, or you wish you had more/less yard to work with. Selling a house is a lot tougher than waiting out or breaking a lease.

Given that, there are countless things to consider when finding the perfect place or, as is more likely going to be the case, the place that's "good enough." Houses come in all shapes and sizes with all sorts of features you may never have considered. To some degree you're going to need to keep an open mind once you start touring actual houses, but you're definitely going to want to have an idea of what you want before you start your search. Just remember that you're not just looking for what you need now, you've also got to keep in mind what you may need in the future.

For the purposes of this step we're going to keep things fairly general.

Buying a House Part 1: Figure Out Your Budget

A few months ago I found myself very suddenly in the market for real estate. Having recently come out the other side, decompressing after buying a house, I find myself with an abundance of information for anyone interested in the process. In fact, it's is not nearly as frightening as you might think, so I hope I can demystify the process for you. I'm going to lay out the process in 8 steps:

1. Figure out your budget
2. Figure out what you want in a house
3. Find an agent
4. Check out houses
5. Choosing a house (earnest money/early negotiation)
6. The inspection period
7. Negotiation and paperwork
8. Closing

This first post will be entirely dedicated to that first step.

Finding New Music

One of my resolutions for the year was to find a new album every month that I can add to my playlist. My music playlist hasn't really changed much in the past few years, with maybe a new album or two catching my attention each year, if I was lucky.

So, I delved into the world of music recently, trying to find something that speaks to me. In this blog I'll talk about what I'm looking for, where I've looked, and why I should have known this would be so difficult.