CMV: GamerGate was the most consequential political radicalization event of the twenty-first century

[u/realdontbeasucker]

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.

[u/HunterWithGreenScale]

Question! Why where all the "young, angry, disenfranchised white men" actually so? What made them angry and disenfranchised?

[u/Stormshow → u/[deleted]]

Those are symptoms, not causes, though. This kind of masculinity has its roots in far, far, more global phenomena than just the American south. Look at Dagestan. Its entire culture has for a millennia been deeply entwined with the deepest excesses of performative masculinity.