Essay:Eron Gjoni is an abuse victim

I want to be clear at the start that I am not a "GamerGater". I don't care about journalistic ethics in video games. I do care about journalistic ethics in general, but I frankly don't care for video games journalism at all, so I don't care about video games journalism ethics. I only like old games from the 80s and 90s - DOSBox is my preferred gaming platform. And I deplore anyone involved in sending bomb threats or death threats or other such illegal activities (but Eron Gjoni has not been sending bomb threats or death threats to anyone.)

Eron Gjoni's primary concern was never video game journalism anyway. His concern was the suffering he endured. Video game journalism was really someone else's war piggybacking on Eron's hurt and pain. Eron worked with these people because they would listen to him, but they have been using him, and never really cared about his plight.

I also want to be clear that I am not a supporter of "men's rights activism" (MRA). Rather than talking about "men's rights" or "women's rights", I'd prefer we talked about human rights. I like Cathy Young and Christina Hoff Sommers, but that doesn't mean I agree with everything that either of them say. (Nor does it mean I agree with all the opinions of those with whom they choose to associate with - and the same is true for them - Sommers works at AEI, but that doesn't mean she agrees with everything everyone else at AEI says, or with every position AEI as an organisation takes - nor do I so agree by mentioning her approvingly.)

I believe that Eron Gjoni is a victim of abuse. Infidelity is a form of emotional abuse. Professor Lynn D. Wardle of Brigham Young University School of Law writes "Adultery is a very severe form of spousal abuse". Now, of course, Professor Wardle is referring specifically to marriage relations, and the relationship we are discussing here never got that far; but, if infidelity in marriage is abuse, why would not infidelity in a non-marital relationship also be abuse? Of course, if the relationship is less serious -- something true of many but not all non-marital relationships -- it might be argued that the degree of abuse is less: even so, a less serious form of abuse is still a form of abuse.

If Eron Gjoni was a woman who had been cheated on, what would have the reaction be? No doubt Jezebel (etc.) would have been applauding her bravery. Well, I applaud his bravery.

Eron Gjoni has suffered, not just through an abusive relationship, but also through the violation of his 1st Amendment rights. Eugene Volokh has published an incisive analysis of this matter on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. Eugene Volokh is a law professor at UCLA, and one of the foremost experts on 1st Amendment law today. He is a genius - law is his second career, after a successful career as a computer programmer (starting at 12), and graduating with a Bachelors in Math and CS at the ripe old age of 15. Volokh Conspiracy is one of the top legal blogs in the US, and at least one Supreme Court justice reads it every day. . It is hosted by the Washington Post. (It is editorially independent of the Washington Post, but the fact that the Washington Post is willing to host it is a sign of its esteem.)

Unfortunately I cannot link to Eugene Volokh's incisive analysis, because certain individuals on this site have decided that anyone who dares link to Eugene Volokh's post on this matter will be blocked. Why? For it mentions a name which to them is unspeakable - they treat it in the same way as observant Jews treat the Tetragrammaton. (Is this the beginning of a new religion?)

Eugene Volokh is not "doxxing" anyone. He discusses many legal cases on his blog, and when he does so he uses the party's legal names (except where those names are legally suppressed, which has not happened in this case.) Other blogs run by law professors or lawyers follow the same practice. To accuse him of doxxing is a absurd. If he is doxxing, then the entire legal blogosphere is doxxing all the time. And, if Eugene Volokh is not doxxing, neither is it doxxing to link to him.

Eron Gjoni is a victim of legal abuse - the improper use of the legal system to suppress his constitutional rights. He is a victim of lawfare.