It’s easy to agree that Gawker screwed up in outing a man without any newsworthy motive for doing so. Writers from across the political spectrum have condemned Jordan Sargent, whose journalistic instincts steered him, once again, to the scummy non-story.

It’s clear Gawker has struck a nerve when Glenn Greenwald takes a break from blowing open the surveillance state to attack Gawker’s limp editorial rationalizations. But the celebration in one corner of the online dumbassosphere — Gamergate — couldn’t be more misguided.

Gawker Media Takes Down Post, Gamergate Reacts

It seems the Gamergaters — for all their finger-probing of Gawker’s sins — don’t realize that they’re hated for the exact same reason Jordan Sargent’s post was derided and pulled.

Gawker is attacked for outing a normal person without good reason. Their target was not a legislator who sponsored anti-gay bills. Nor was he a pundit for an anti-gay TV network . He was a media executive in New York.

Gawker editor-in-chief Max Read tried to offer a reason:

His improvised standard for newsworthiness was torn apart everywhere, as it should have been.

Over at r/KotakuInAction , the subreddit that is now the most legitimate face of Gamergate, gloating and grandstanding dominates:

Gamergate affiliates in the Manosphere and MRA circles joined in on the righteous condemnation.

Here’s Mike Cernovich, enthusiastic cheerleader for Gamergate harassment and movement hero:

His moral tuning is such that he can condemn Gawker for gay bashing and also spread nice, little sentiments like…

It’d be hard for Cernovich to provide more clear evidence that his attacks on Gawker are unmoored from any genuine moral outrage. The level of cynicism on display is typical of the movement (though not true universally, Gamergate is full up with the earnest).

Gawker and the Quinnspiracy

Despite the grand displays of outrage directed at Gawker, Gamergate itself was founded entirely on a grotesque public airing of a private person’s sexual history.

Denying the simple facts of the Quinnspiracy deserves to be an insult to reason, like a school board re-litigating the reality of evolution. But here we are:

1. Zoe Quinn’s ex-boyfriend did his damnedest — over weeks — to push a long, shaming tell-all on video game forums.
2. It worked and the harassment of Zoe Quinn began.
3. The Quinnspiracy was a post-hoc rationalization based on the false idea that Quinn had exchanged sex for a good review.

Zoe Quinn’s alleged sexual improprieties are exactly as lacking in public interest as Geithner’s, yet Gamergaters haven’t managed to shut up about “Five Guys Burgers and Fries” in nearly a year.

The galvanizing moment of your movement is important, Gamergate, and your origins shame you. Imagine if the world had reacted to Gawker’s publication of Geithner’s sex life by harassing him to the point where he had to flee his home. This was the world Gamergate offered Zoe Quinn.

Gamergate is condemned far more than ratified by the public drubbing Gawker is taking over their Geithner post. Just like Gawker, Gamergate hopped on gossip that fit their agenda. Only for Gamergate it was feminism invading video games and SJW overreach.

Now we’re supposed to listen to their preening moral superiority over Gawker’s same failings?

Gamergate Knows They And Gawker Are The Same

Gamergate supporters are perceptive enough to understand the parallels between the two posts. Comparing Geithner’s outing and the ZoePost have already become commonplace on pro-Gamergate Twitter.

How Gamergate supporters can make this comparison and not see that it also damns them is a mystery. The obviousness of the similarities does Gamergate no favors, yet the crowing over Gawker’s sins is deafening.

There is one key difference between the general reaction to the Zoe Post and Gawker outing Geithner, and that difference is the reaction of Gamergate supporters.

Everyone is condemning the Gawker post. It was universally seen as a monstrous thing to do, including by Gamergaters. But, unlike the rest of the world, those very same Gamergaters defend Eron Gjoni’s Zoe Post. Smells a little opportunistic...

Sure, go ahead and live it up, Gamergate. Gawker, one of your ideological enemies, looks terrible. Moreover, they deserve the anger directed at them.

But don’t imagine this validates your own movement.

You and Gawker have become perfect bedfellows. And there’s nothing in Jordan Sargent being a piece of shit that in any way exonerates you.