I can't find any of the comments you refer to. All of the responses I've seen have ranged from supportive to mildly critical. He does seem to indicate that he's getting some harsh backlash though, so I've got to sympathize with that. He clearly has his heart in the right place.

I have to say, I think his desire to not make anyone angry is kind of hurting his case here because he is leaving so much open to interpretation. For example, he said the petition was a positive thing. Well did he mean that he approves of the petition, or that he thinks it is an improvement on previous efforts? I certainly agree that "apologize for discussing issues of sexism in gaming openly" is an improvement on "burn Kotaku to the ground and salt the scorched earth". But I don't agree that it is "positive" because I think blaming critical discussions of gaming culture in general for negative perceptions of gaming culture is a crock of shit. If you want to make the point that a specific article or writer is guilty of lying about gaming culture, feel free to make that point. If you want to make the point that there is a pattern of this behavior in gaming, feel free to make that point as well. But suggesting that nuanced criticism of gaming culture that comes from within it is somehow responsible for ugly stereotypes which existed long before these discussions were even happening on a large scale in gaming culture is sophistry plain and simple. It honestly baffles me that anyone could watch that SVU episode and think the problem was those writers just spent too much time on Kotaku.

But still, I'm not at all sure where Levine stands here. The guilt by association stuff as well. He could mean a lot of things by that. If what he means is "stop criticizing people for associating with gamergate". Well I would definitely not agree with that. In that case it isn't guilt by association. The association itself is what they would be guilty of, not the harassment. But maybe he means that he is sick of gamers as a whole portrayed as the most negative elements of gaming culture like they did in that SVU episode. In that case, I agree with him.

So I don't know, I'll withold judgement. Hopefully he chooses to clarify his position at some point but I get the sense that he is being vague on purpose so I won't hold my breath.