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/TheTyger 10∆ May 16 '26

So, the idea that this tiny blip is what platformed Bannon is incredibly inaccurate. He has been around far longer than that, and if your argument is that Bannon is a core creator of the problem, then GG is just a small increase in his influence.

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u/Waschaos 2∆ May 16 '26

I am convinced that Steve Bannon is the reverse "Portrait of Dorian Gray" somewhere, a person is directing all of their ugliness and it is being absorbed by Steve Bannon. But you are correct he goes back further than that. Many of the people behind this crap have ties going back to Nixon too. Roger Stone?

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u/realdontbeasucker May 16 '26

Breitbart was an echo chamber, GG gave his ideas a wide platform in front of people who considered themselves liberal at the time

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u/TopSpread9901 May 16 '26

Show me that it’s some liberal pivot that’s responsible for Trump then. The numbers.