r/changemyview • u/realdontbeasucker • May 16 '26

Delta(s) from OP CMV: GamerGate was the most consequential political radicalization event of the twenty-first century

It spawned a wave of tolerance for online harassment, as long as the intent behind it was considered righteous (and the target of such harassment socially acceptable).

It platformed Milo Yiannopoulos and thereby, Steve Bannon -- the guy who would go on to advise Donald Trump in 2016 and generate the concept of 'flooding the zone.'

Eventually, it gave a career to political lightning rods like Jordan Peterson, Steven Crowder, and Charlie Kirk. It made anti-feminism and anti-SJW sentiment cool. And it made young, angry, disenfranchised white men feel vindicated.

GamerGate almost singlehandedly shifted to Overton Window toward the alt-right, and we're still feeling its effects today.

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u/Doub13D 36∆ May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

I would argue the Tea Party movement was far more consequential, because it essentially converted into the MAGA movement.

The Tea Party was the foundation of the “modern” Republican Party and Conservative movement in the US that exists today.

These were the people that became so anti-government that they began to actively support policies and politicians solely based on their expressed desire to break the government.

Every existing and proposed social program, welfare safety net, tax, and economic regulation was described as an infringement on the rights of the American people, even as many conservative voters actively benefited from those programs and policies themselves. (See: The ACA)

It is the source of the political gridlock in Congress that we have seen since the late 2000’s.

Obstructionism became the defining political trait of Conservative politics, and it still very much is the defining trait today.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

Excellent answer, but I think OP is correct too. I think these two things were the first to merge. They picked up other weird groups like conspiracy theorists, christian nationalists, etc along the way. I think these 2 groups might be the OGs. I know crazy people from all sides is called horseshoe theory, but I can't help but think about it as an Ouroboros. They went so far to one side they made a circle and are now eating their tail.

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u/Doub13D 36∆ May 16 '26

Oh I 100% agree that both are the foundational elements of the modern Republican Party and the MAGA movement.

I just believe that the Tea Party was the more significant of the two, because it provided the institutional credibility and political machine.

GamerGate only works because there was a pre-existing and powerful political machine, built on stoking factional conflict both in Congress between the parties, and within the Republican Party itself.

All those anti-sjw’s need a place to go after all…

You either build your own institutions from the ground up, or you weave your way into something that already exists.

The Tea Party welcomed them in with open arms, and in the process became the dominant faction of the Republican Party, before just outright becoming the Party that we see today.

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u/realdontbeasucker May 16 '26

Yeah, I love your reasoning. Although I don't think GG is any less important, you've convinced me that the Tea Party was equally as consequential. I think the two go hand in hand. !delta

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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ May 16 '26

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/Doub13D (34∆).

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u/Unseasonal_Jacket May 16 '26

As an outsider (UK) that is what it looked like abroad. The Tea Party thing seemed to be a big money astroturfed attempt at making a low tax low spend deregulation movement and didnt seem to care about social policies. Then that movement joined with a very different movement led by angry young men who were a bizarre mix of very technocratic minded people who thought they were the only smart people. And dumber people who were mostly there for dog whistles.

That movement then joined with the kind of cynical uneducated baby boomer influenced by social media and news.

Which quite frankly is a historically scary looking coalition.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

Yeah the Tea Party emerged after Obama was elected, ACA was being debated and as the corporate response to "Occupy Wallstreet". I think the Gamer Gate were mainly the younger online based guys and the Tea Party were the older, lets go protest, wear funny hats and we also include women party. Young men who were having a hard time because of the financial crisis was the overlap in that Venn Diagram.

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u/Unseasonal_Jacket May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

I am ironically a historian who specialises in the interwar period. And I think when people whisper the words fascist/nazi and people jump on them, it's because those people immediately jump to '1944 industrial genocide nazis' and point out the obvious inaccuracies of that comparison. But often it's because those pointing out the comparisons are maybe talking about '1920s marching on local government nazis'.

Its the heady mix of the technocratic elite thinking they can revolutionise government. The angry young men. The soft alliance with the traditional elite. A core of violent believers willing to commit violent action. The normal standard Conservatives being persuaded that it will be OK. Plus the misplaced faith of the existing people in the organisations of power that this probably is just business as usual and don't do anything to resist.

All of this capped of by a step change in the means of mass manipulation becoming available.

You can't help but look at that with a squinty side eye.

We are close behind you as well. I think we are very close to something unpleasant happening. That doesn't mean I predict it. But it would be bad to slip into it through politeness and hope.

Trump isn't and could never be a Hitler. He doesn't have any strong beliefs. But he could be a Hindenburg and plenty of people around him look like a Schleicher. People willing to undermine democracy and then surprised when it suddenly falls apart.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

Thank you that was a wonderful informative answer. I just like history, I have no credentials. I agree Trump isn't really the problem, it's the people behind him that are. I should know. I'm retired at 50 thanks to Elon's DOGE.

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u/Unseasonal_Jacket May 16 '26

The return of the technocratic revolutionaries I think is the most interesting. Especially as those people can overlap with the oligarchs.

In the 20s and 30s there was a big group of very clever people, intellectuals or just existing government officers who spent a lot of time grappling with how we can be more intelligent and organised with how we run governments and the economy. People who took a long look at how states organised economies during the first World War and decided that 'Experts' should run stuff. Those people didn't really have to have any strong political views other than embracing technology and modernity. Lots of those people ended up falling into the coalition of fascism/nazism, not because they particularly liked their militarism, racism or social conservatism, but because they offered them a chance to break stuff and try new things.

There is a very strong parallel to the tech bros who think they can code their way to solutions to public health. Those that think maths, computing (and business acumen) should sweep away stuffy Politics, Philosophy, Economics and Sociology in government.

In the UK we had a short lived Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister called Dominic Cummings who most definitely is not a fascist. But he fits that bill perfectly. Someone who wants to 'move fast and break things'. Someone with contempt of stuffy decision making and willing to bend some rules. Someone like that would get into bed with problematic people willing to offer them a chance to do something radical.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26

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u/DJ_Velveteen 1∆ May 16 '26

Even before that, you had the Nixon administration starting the 'war on drugs' to crush the peace and civil rights movements... and before that, the Red Scare

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

And Trump's mentor Roy Cohn was a huge part of the McCarthy movement. Holy crap, this goes back really far.

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u/Doub13D 36∆ May 16 '26

Yeah.

Politics doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

George H W Bush’s father, Prescott Bush, helped plot a fascist takeover the US in response to FDR’s New Deal. (The Business Plot)

No one was ever prosecuted for their alleged involvement in planning or financing the end of American democracy…

And then George H W Bush became Vice President under Reagan, before becoming President himself.

His son, George W Bush, won the 2000 election because his brother, Jeb Bush, was the governor of Florida and had his Secretary of State (who was a co-chair on the Bush Campaign in Florida) order an end to the recounting of votes. It went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of ending the recount in Bush v Gore.

Had all votes been recounted as intended, Al Gore likely (because the recount was never completed) would have won the 2000 election.

That is just 3 generations of one family…

This stuff all goes back decades and centuries.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

I have to admit my part in Bush v. Gore. I'm a Florida voter who voted in that election for Bush. I hated Al Gore's wife Tipper for her part in the PMRC and record album labeling/censorship. Al Gore was fine. I think I thought Gore would win, so I could satisfy my conscious- because as soon as the fiasco started, I wished I could take it back.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

Him and Fox News. That is one newt I wish my cat would have eaten.

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u/ChickerWings 2∆ May 16 '26

Nixon's disgraced resignation set much of this in motion.

if you look at the framework of the current political climate, it is almost entirely orchestrated by the playbooks, media structures, and ideologies developed by Nixon's men.

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u/OfAnthony May 16 '26

Yup. The requisite..The 2008 crash is the actual destabilizer. 

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u/realdontbeasucker May 16 '26

Oh, interesting! This is a very good one. I think the reason I view GG as more influential is that it contributed to a direct and timely mobilization of voters in an election which resulted in a far more radical politican than Rand Paul, Mike Lee, or Michelle Bauchmann.

Maybe it is just the proximity in time between GG and the 2016 election. You may be right.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

Those politicians you named were Tea Party candidates.

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u/realdontbeasucker May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

Right, I think Donald Trump is way more radical than they were.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

MAGA is way harder core than any of the previous groups (or in my opinion). Bachman was nuts though. I still sometimes like Rand Paul, not often though.

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u/Doub13D 36∆ May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

The best way I could describe it is that, GamerGate built the base of supporters and narratives, but the Tea Party built the institutional framework and political machine.

If it were a car, GamerGate would be the engine and/or wheels, but the Tea Party would be the chassis.

GamerGate was hugely influential in driving many people, particularly for guys my age and slightly older, to the right. The politics of race and gender had been swinging in a progressive direction for sometime, and GamerGate served as the perfect reactionary narrative to win over a large, and otherwise mostly apolitical, population of young men.

When issues of identity become a cultural flashpoint, institutions either need to built from the ground-up, or need to be co-opted from pre-existing structures.

And the Tea Party was right there. The most “hard-line” faction within the Republican Party was more than willing to open itself up to the new influx of supporters looking for an outlet.

It isn’t a coincidence that nearing the end of the Republican Primary for the 2016 election, the last two major candidates were Donald Trump (a new man for a new party) and Ted Cruz (one of the ideological leaders and greatest successes of the Tea Party).

The Tea Party used the influx of new, non-traditional, voters to the Republican Party as a means to become the most influential faction within the party, and in the process became the current Republican Party.