RE: @possumpattern, and all Redditors who have joined us.

I’ve read the articles (yes, both of them) in their entirety twice, and have consistently referred back to sections of it when in discussions about it. I also went to school for history and one of the first things we learn is how to identify a source that cannot be trusted. And this might blow your mind, but no, it is not simply a matter of what it presents, or how it backs it up (which if you're wondering, no, Gio doesn't do a good job of that either).

When analyzing the source for a claim, it is important, fundamental even, to be aware of the writer's biases, as well as your own as a reader/researcher. We do not do that becuz, as people like to say when they wish for their absence of an opinion to sound smart, "the truth lies somewhere in the middle". That, you see, is a cop-out, as it looks to claim objectivity that cannot be proved by sources. To look at conflicting data and to claim that the real truth is a combination of both sides instead of analyzing which side corroborates its data better is how you get a low grade and a very disappointed teacher.

It is not done for the sake of neutrality either, as there is simply no such thing, and you'll never see any serious academic (or so-called journalist, for that matter) claim so. In fact, to claim an unbiased view, I've been taught by many professors, is seen as a sign of a faulty source in it of itself. To claim yourself as an unbiased observer of anything is to lie. And you shouldn't reference liars.

So, while Gio's so called evidence is already nothing to write home (or a blog) about, as one must accept the pretense Andrew Hussie hates their fans and this is why any of the actions against Mr. Journalism were taken, even the things that ring true -- i.e., the Hiveswap kickstarter being, indeed, a mess, or the hilariously true fact that Hussie does not like Gio for reasons we can only speculate on (and I loathe speculation) -- are not to be trusted due to the writer's history and, yes, the way he says things.

Gio's language is inflammatory and engineered to cause panic among impressionable people. He is a very good writer, in the sense that he'll very carefully word things to imply Hussie is taking down the UHC, when it is fact, still up, just not through Gio, who is not the creator of the UHC to begin with. That is, of course, not to mention the fact that Gio's fork of it was still up for a full day after the article was posted, but I digress.

He then proceeds to bring up "the brutal assault of Aysha U. Farah", previous writer of Homestuck, against him. By which he means, a woman sharing his article in her personal Discord server, while clearly panicked, calling him a stalker for using a source cited by multiple members of What Pumpkin as someone who made people feel legitimately unsafe, as well as digging around personal stuff that is really not his or my place to discuss, and saying "go get his ass". Becuz she was mad. The irony that Gio responded to the accusation of stalking by somehow getting access to Farah's personal vent and then proceeding to air that out for his audience is somehow lost on him.

He also goes after another writer who has since all but begged not to be cited even by those who wish to defend her, and while it makes the job of explaining why Gio should not be trusted harder, I shall respect that wish. Becuz I actually care more about making trans women comfortable than I care about owning sycophants without profile pictures. So, I'll simply say that Gio is very keen on weaponizing the fact people are, in general, more prone to believe anyone but trans women. You can see that fact perfectly illustrated on how many Gio defenders will take his claims about trans women as inherently valid, but forever bark “do you got proof” when we bring up his transmisogyny.

As a side point: to ask for proof that a trans women got harassed on the internet is, academically speaking, very funny. To claim a transfem identity has no bearing on the amount of harassment they receive when something negative is said about them is twice as funny. To then accuse people of derailing the thread for bringing it up is at least eight times as funny. Some would be a little more subtle about the fact they aren’t close to any transfems.

Let's then look at how Gio treats anything that Hussie does as a personal attack against him. Such as how they, hilariously, spend a chunk of the article claiming Hussie has formed a fictional cult where killing your critics is acceptable behavior. By which he means, Hussie wrote Pyscholonials, a visual novel I did not particularly enjoy. Among the reasons I did not enjoy it, however, I can't say that "I actually think clowns will come to my house and murder me if I send Hussie a mean tweet" is one of them.

This leads us to how Gio presents himself as the eternal victim, and hero, and martyr. As his BlueSky bio says, he has "saved Homestuck" (presumably to his computer). He is like "Atlas, holding up the world". He conjures up the image of a domestic abuse victim, and equates Hussie's dislike of him as being negated the right to exist (doing so, additionally, in the footnote where he equates himself to the Jews in their prosecution by the Nazis). All of these things, in turn, are made to equate Hussie to a Nazi clown-cultist wife-beater abusive boss, if you're following.

It is, to quote insufferable people online, deeply unserious. What it is, however, is effective. It gets teens who don't know any better, who don't know Gio's shtick, scared to be sued for writing fanfiction, and they then spread that concern around, which gets people taking that concern as something that is actually happening, which then in turn leads people to Gio's "reports" with an already sour opinion of Hussie, who has in the past, observably, not handled things the best way possible. It’s a pretty good con, I must admit.

TL;DR

We don't trust Gio becuz he is a liar. He is not a journalist, as becoming one would require an amount of scrutiny to his reporting which he would be thoroughly incapable of enduring. Which is why, if you’re wondering, the most notable works in his blog’s portfolio is the blog itself (lol) and some work on Befriendus, which is, yes, now associated with FRAF (lmao)

He is bitter becuz Homestuck, after years of silence that was itself partially a consequence of his own behavior, has come back better than ever, offering an unrivaled support to its fanworks.

And we do not want him around.