If you’re not up to date on the messy details of the ongoing fight between Davis Aurini and Jordan Owen — co-creators of the forthcoming pro-Gamergate documentary The Sarkeesian Effect — you can read up on it over at We Hunted the Mammoth. (See here and here.)
The Cliffnotes version: Jordan Owen had promised that a finished version of The Sarkeesian Effect would be set to premiere by the end of July, but his erstwhile partner and self-described “white nationalist on paper” Davis Aurini claimed otherwise.In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Aurini likened the movie-making process to chiseling a piece of marble into a fine sculpture and begged his fans for an additional $15,000 to finish the project.
In turn, Owen responded with his own video, effectively calling Aurini out as a scam artist and flatly denying any involvement in Aurini’s fundraising request. Then, Aurini shot back by posting 40 minutes of rough, unedited footage straight to YouTube.
Now, Aurini is appearing on an episode of The Matt Forney Show to dish on his former comrade, comparing him to a child and wondering aloud whether Owen is secretly attempting to sabotage the documentary.
Prior to the interview, however, Matt Forney revealed that he would be headed to a Gamergate meet-up in Chicago over the weekend. Saying that he won’t be there as a “guest” but rather as a supporter of Gamergate, Forney stated that if the white supremacists at American Renaissance were able to accept him (with a couple of exceptions whom Forney denounced as “homos” and “queers”) then he should have no trouble fitting in at a Gamergate convention. Finally, something Matt Forney and I can agree on.
I’m not involved in Gamergate in Chicago at all. I’m just attending as a fan. I’ll be there with some of my friends. Uh, you might be surprised at the people I’ll bring, I’ll just leave it at that. But, I will be at Gamergate in Chicago. Now, I wasn’t going to announce this publicly because I was wondering if my presence might, you know, be a little disruptive.
I’m not sure. I don’t think so. But, basically, I realized something, like…like, for example, when I went to the American Renaissance conference back in April, I didn’t announce it publicly, because I was a bit worried about the reaction I would get because some of the people there are a bit…edgy in regards to me because I’m apparently a Filipina-fucking race traitor.
But, I came away from AmRen just…pretty much everyone I met was civil, cordial, I had a great time, made some new friends there. I said the only negative experience I had was with…well, I won’t say their names, they don’t deserve to be remembered. But, those homos…but aside from those two queers, everything went great.
So I’m figuring, you know, if a bunch of evil, supposed white supremacists — they’re not white supremacists, despite what the left would make you believe — if the supposed white nationalists of American Renaissance can accept me just fine, I don’t see why a Gamergate meet-up wouldn’t.
It isn’t until Davis Aurini’s interview begins that the sparks begin to fly, however. Matt Forney began the interview by laying into Owen, saying he’s “gone completely insane” and accusing him of “committing actionable character defamation” of Davis. Davis walked listeners through his side of the story, claiming that they did, in fact, require more money to finish the film and saying that Owen “grenaded [sic] the project.” Both Forney and Aurini joined in mocking Owen for allegedly being “high off a million anti-anxiety meds” which, in fairness to Owen, is pretty low.
Forney: Davis, basically, The Sarkeesian Effect…your partner, I mean, to put it politely has gone completely insane. He is committing actionable character defamation. Uh, he has more or less destroyed the entire project, cut you out of it, and well, basically you wanna start off from the top? I don’t wanna put words in your mouth.
Aurini: Well didn’t we have this conversation already? I feel like we’ve had this conversation.
Forney: We have had this conversation, but that was in, uh, yeah that was back in March. You managed to reconcile and also, that was in a Defcon, I guess, 3? This is Defcon 1, where all the missiles are launched.
Aurini: Well exactly. So, what happened is…I’m just gonna say what happened. Um, I posted a video doing a Fund Anything campaign because we do need more money to finish this frickin’ movie — although it is really starting to come together. So I post this video, you know. The mediator, Michael Whitacre, he’s been talking to Owen about this for two frickin’ weeks. And I’d said, you know, like Owen’s even, he’s refusing to send me any living expenses. You know? Same as last time, he always does this right before the end of the month because he’s that sort of a guy. You know, and…
Forney: You stay classy, Mr. Owen.
Aurini: Yes, stay…something like that. Yeah, stay classy. So, you know, two weeks go by, I’m like, ‘Alright. You know I told you I was gonna upload the video.’ And plus, this guy [Michael Whitacre] has a real job. You know, he’s got a frickin’ life. He’s got a wife! He’s got a dog to take care of. And he’s babysitting Owen all the time. So I upload the video, and I say all sorts of nice, wonderful things about Mr. Owen. Within a few hours Owen goes online calling me a ‘scam artist’, saying this, that, and the other thing. Saying that now he’s gonna finish the documentary all by himself and…whatever. And that I’ve just been wasting money on the project, that I’m a destructive influence, I refuse to do any work…uh…derpa derpa derpa derp. You know, I posted an update video yesterday that, uh…what am I talking about? I posted an update video about ten minutes ago, and I’m frickin’ exhausted right now.
Forney: Well, it’ll technically be Wednesday when this comes out so it was yesterday, so…
Aurini: Well, for the folks in the time warp, it was yesterday.
Forney: Yes.
Aurini: Coming to you live from yesterday afternoon. So he just goes absolutely nuclear. Like, when he grenaded [sic] the project it was pretty bad. It was embarrassing. You have him all green, pale, and sweating. Having a major panic attack. Um…
Forney: High off of a million anti-anxiety meds.
Aurini: Highest possible dosage as he loves to tell people. And, that was bad enough. And, you know, as I’ve pointed out, he’s never explained or justified that. But this time he is calling me a ‘scam artist’. He is saying that I am lying. That I refuse to do any work. That I’m just mooching off the Patreon. You know he’s not even saying that I made unwise decisions or investments with this money. He is saying I am intentionally and psychopathically mooching off the Patreon supporters. That, um, I have absolutely no emotions whatsoever. That he has all the emotions, I’m an unthinking, unfeeling machine just trying to manipulate him and hurt him.
Things get progressively worse as the duo call Owen overly sensitive and compare their mockery of him to “kicking a rabid puppy” or making fun of a “retard.”
Forney: Owen gives me the impression that he’s a very sensitive individual who never properly learned how to take a ribbing.
Aurini: (Laughter) Every successful man in his life he thinks is like a misogynist that hates and abuses women.
Forney: Yeah he was like…when he was growing up, a kid, I can just imagine he was the one who, when the guys were busting each others’ balls and when guys tried to bust his balls he goes and cries to teacher, ‘Teacher, they said I was fat!’
Aurini: (Laughter) He is the Harry Kim of the Internet, for all of you Voyager fans out there. And this is the terrible situation I find myself in, man. Anybody that I actually…it’s like kicking a puppy with rabies. The guy is just such a hot mess, that if you know all the details, it’s like cruelty. You know, he’s like this child wandering around the adult world but has no idea that, you know, don’t touch the stove, it’s hot.
Forney: Yeah, dealing with someone like him is literally like picking on a retard. If a retard keeps shitting on the floor, but at the same time he’s a retard, what do you expect him to do?
Aurini: You know what? The thing is there are…retards can be assholes, too. I know, I know, we’re all supposed to think that if everyone is a retard it’d be a better world, retards are great people. No, retards are frickin’ assholes sometimes.
Aurini then offers an armchair psychoanalysis of his former partner, stating, “This is why I screwed up in the first place trusting him. Because he behaves with a lot of confidence. He, uh, you know what? He wishes he were Michael Whiteacre. He wishes he were me.”
As Aurini put it, Owen is “the Dunning-Kruger effect manifest” — a reference to the psychological phenomena by which incompetent people fail to grasp their own incompetence, and even hold a false sense of superiority. Aurini also believes that Owen is willing to throw a monkey wrench in their own movie production in order to blame him and gain sympathy from their SJW foes.
Forney: What – What exactly is the motivator? How exactly does he think he’ll be able to have a movie ready by the end of next week? Uh, does he legitimately think this? Is there some kind of ulterior, do you think he has some sort of ulterior plan? I mean, from a rational perspective it doesn’t make any sense what he’s doing.
Aurini: Again this is my observation on him, and this is why I screwed up in the first place trusting him. Because he behaves with a lot of confidence. He, uh, you know what? He wishes he were Michael Whiteacre. He wishes he were me. And he started off with a bit of hero worship when the whole project began. But he acts so frickin’ confident. And so it’s, you know, it’s the Dunning-Kruger effect manifest. He has no frickin’ clue what he’s doing, but he walks around confident like he knows what he’s doing. So you — the idiot — you assume he does know what the hell he’s doing. So, what happens? Like, the story of his life is that he shows up and he just assumes everything’s gonna work for him. And, you know, other people are actually busting their humps to make stuff work, he never notices it. He thinks that things just work for him. And if they don’t work, it’s somebody else’s fault.
Though I kind of suspect — and I said this in the update video — see, I don’t think he’s doing this consciously. This guy keeps changing the facts in his own mind. You know, I mentioned he kept arguing about money, and I showed him the frickin’, you know, ‘This is what everything costs!’ And yet two weeks later he’s arguing about it again. It’s madness.
So what I think he’s doing is he is going to…he blames me for everything. You know, because I’m a terrible filmmaker, and I’ve been lazy, and I’ve been wasting the budget. And so he’s gonna punish me by not allowing any more fundraising. Like, who the…what kind of filmmaker doesn’t want more money, for crying out loud? What retard does not…and not even from a greed perspective! From a purely artistic perspective, you always want more money!
Forney: Yeah, especially considering that when it came to your monthly Patron [sic] goals, you came in under-budget every single month. You weren’t making the amount of money you asked for. Though you still ended up making the movie.
Aurini: Yeah. And I think, uh, I think we really pulled something good together. Like, I know movies are a lot of money, and I hate asking for money. Especially…it sounds like a lot of money. Like, Lust in the Time of Heartache, ten thousand dollars? Sounds like a lot of money. And SJWs say (whining sounds)…It looks bloody great. Go look up any other ten thousand dollar film, folks. It’s expensive.
So what I think he’s doing is, he is just going to release a big, steaming, heap of smelly garbage. Then he’s gonna say, ‘It’s Davis’ fault.’ And then all the SJW hugbots from Gamerghazi are going to surround him and tell him he’s a good little boy.
Forney: Yeah.
Aurini: Except I screwed that up for him by releasing something surprisingly half-decent for being deep in rough draft.
In other words:
Angry White Men 