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Sea-Lioning

Sea-Lioning

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Updated Jan 29, 2018 at 04:47AM EST by Y F.

Added Dec 01, 2014 at 05:51PM EST by Don.

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About

Sea-Lioning is an Internet slang term referring to intrusive attempts at engaging an unwilling debate opponent by feigning civility and incessantly requesting evidence to back up their claims. The term was coined in September 2014 by anti-GamerGate Internet users to mock perceived online discussion tactics employed by GamerGate supporters.

Origin

On September 19th, 2014, artist David Malki published a comic titled "The Terrible Sea Lion" on his webcomic site Wondermark,[1] which features a sea lion who intrudes on a private conversation to debate a woman saying she "could do without sea lions" (shown below).


WONDERMARKDa MALK summon up WONDERMARK. COM I DON'T MIND MOST MARINE MAMMALS. BUT SEA LIONS? PARDON ME, I COULDN"T I COULD DO WITHOUT SEA LIONS.|HELP BUT OVERHEAR... I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A CIVIL CONVERSATION ABOUT YOUR STATEMENT. DON'T SAY THAT NOW YOU'VIE DONE IT OUT LOUD! WOULD YOU MIND SHOWING ME EVIDENCE OF ANY NEGATIVE THING ANY SEA LION HAS EVER DONE TO YOU? THERE'S NO NEED TO RAISE YOUR VOICE, IM RIGHT HERE. TOLD YOU. DUDE.1 HAVE BEEN SEA LIONS.A UNFAILINGLY YOU'RE IN MY HOUSIE Go AWAY POLITE, AND YOU TWO HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT RUDE TM JUST CURIOUS IF YOU HAVE ANY SOURCES TO BACK UP YOUR OPINION2 YOU MADE A STATEMENT IN PUBLIC FOR ALL TO HEAR. ARE YOU UNABLE TO DEFEND THE STATEMENTS YOU MAKE2 OR SIMPLY UNWILLING TO HAVEA REASONED DISCUSSION? I AM TRYING TO EAT BREAKFAST VERY WELL. WE SHALL RESUME IN AN HOUR

Spread

On October 9th, Redditor Plaguearist submitted the Wondermark comment in a post titled "New term for GG behaviour – Sealioning?" to the /r/GamerGhazi[7] subreddit. On October 20th, Kotaku writer Patricia Hernandez tweeted[5] that she informed someone that had been "sealioned" in real life (shown below). On October 23rd, Wondermark[6] published a blog post titled "'Sea Lion' Has Been Verbed," highlighting several tweets containing the term.


Patricia Hernandez @xpatriciah Follow I just said 'he just sealioned you' to someone IRL RETWEETS FAVORITES 18 12:39 AM- 20 Oct 2014

On November 20th, the anti-GamerGate blog Simplikation[2] published an article titled "Why Sealioning is Bad," which argued that responding to "demands for evidence and answers to questions" was an "insidious trap" to waste people's time. On November 23rd, Redditor TheThing submitted a post to the /r/AMRsucks[4] subreddit titled "Sea-lioning: A hip, new term to describe that teribble, horrible circumstance when you have to actually back up your statements with evidence." On November 25th, Twitter[9] user Richard Olsen criticized the term as a means of killing a discussion when asked a challenging question.


richardoisen → Adam G. Yoksas , a few seconds ago This sealioning thing is just a refuge for weak individuals who want to be able to drop words and not have to back them up. According to the logic above, anytime a citizen asked a politician a question they didn't like, they'd be sealioning. Every time a journalist asked an uncomfortable question or asked for evidence of something, they'd be sea-lion- ing. If this is where humanity is heading, then we might as well just all put on noise cancelling headphones, disconnect from the internet, burn down the libraries and just listen to music all day long. somewhere and settle down in life as a hermit.

Sea Lion Fund

On November 25th, a #GamerGate donation page was created on the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) website, calling for GamerGate supporters to donate money for sea lion conservation. That day, the page was posted on the /gg/ board on 8chan, where a user suggested the sea lion be named "Ethics" and his habitat named "Games Journalism" (shown below).


The Leader of Gamergate 11/25/14 (Tue) 21: 10:13 ID: 9584ed No.593271 22593308 22593348 592879 We name the Sealion Ethics, and his home Games Journalism. So now we can always say it's about Ethics in Games Joumalism

On November 26th, Redditor catpor submitted the page to the /r/KotakuInAction[8] subreddit. By the following day, the page received 100% of its $5,000 goal.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

[1] Wondermark – The Terrible Sea Lion

[2] Simplikation – Why Sealioning is Bad

[3] World Wildlife Fund – Welcome to #GamerGate Page

[4] Reddit – Sea-lioning

[5] Twitter – @xpatriciah

[6] Wondermark – Sea Lion Has Been Verbed

[7] Reddit – New term for GG behavior

[8] Reddit – Were funding a Sea Lion

[9] Twitter – @lxRich

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