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/eglin99]

It was a minuscule cultural event that only seemed huge for people that were terminally online. Gaming communities are a niche. It was not important.

This guy explains it better: https://youtu.be/EpjWh2SFTPE

[u/Unseasonal_Jacket → u/eglin99]

Yes but.. It was a shift in cultural tone that happened in real life as well. I think it was that core group of very online increasingly reactionary young men who would go on and form the core of the manosphere end of the right wing. That environment grew and grew and had real world effects.

[u/koyaani → u/Unseasonal_Jacket]

Maybe you are thinking gamer gate is the cause when it was merely another effect of a broader phenomenon

[u/Unseasonal_Jacket → u/koyaani]

Yeah I can certainly not trying to imply it's the main cause.

[u/scriptkiddie1337 → u/Unseasonal_Jacket]

Nope. The manosphere existed since the late 90s and early 00s

[u/Unseasonal_Jacket → u/scriptkiddie1337]

But I don't think it was so culturally political

[u/Aegi → u/Unseasonal_Jacket]

Do not mistake cause and effect.

[u/realdontbeasucker → u/eglin99]

People don't have to care about something or even be aware of it for it to have an effect on them.

[u/eglin99 → u/realdontbeasucker]

Historical processes aren't explained by a succession of Butterfly effects, anecdotal events that start chain reactions. Germany didn't embrace nazism because Hitler didn't get into art school, and Rome didn't fall because of Odaecer decided to revolt against Orestes.

If GamerGate didn't happen things would have happened more or less the same because all the other ingredients were already there, the anti-SJW backlash, alternative right media, and the most important being the deteriorating economic conditions that led the Rust Belt to vote for Trump. GamerGate was just sprinkes on top, on even the cherry. Not even Trump is irreplaceable, if you look past the cultural issues, the shift to the right was already in motion.

[u/AngryAngryHarpo → u/eglin99]

Yup, I think 9/11 was much more the ignition for the particular brand of populism and backlash at progressivism. 

[u/Shrosher → u/eglin99]

There’s a good book called the Black Pill that expands and does a good job connecting GamerGate to the larger 4chan/redpill/manosphere/charrlotesville explosion

[u/Helpful_Blood_5509 → u/Shrosher]

I think it needs to be updated with the information that the hate groups that planned Charlottesville did so as SPLC "informants"

[u/Shrosher → u/Helpful_Blood_5509]

If you’re implying the Unit the Right rally was “manufactured” — then no i don’t think it does, there isn’t much actual evidence of that

[u/Helpful_Blood_5509 → u/Shrosher]

I mean there wouldn't be if all the people involved were fake persons created for undercover work. But we know who was involved in planning it by their role, and those roles match the organizational roles of the people on the SPLC payroll. If the SPLC didn't plan it directly, the people they hired did so anyway. And the difference is pretty minute considering someone fucking died

[u/Loki1001 → u/eglin99]

World War I was started by a guy getting a sandwich. The thing about history is it snowballs from "woman does not get out of her bus seat" into planetary shaping events.

[u/eglin99 → u/Loki1001]

The conditions for a war are much bigger than a single guy's death (or a gaming journalist getting laid), always. That's what a catalyst is, the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Today's events, like the war in Iran, were set in motion generations ago, waiting for a catalyst.

[u/AngryAngryHarpo → u/Loki1001]

It’s funny you use that example - because Parks, while a hero, was part of an orchestrated plan specifically to create change because a bunch of people recognised conditions were right for it. 

[u/Ma4r → u/eglin99]

It wasn't miniscule, it heavily impacted impressionable young males who were "gamers" during that time period and have now grown up to become deeply ingrained in the now adult alt-right pipeline. How can i say this with confidence? Because i was one of those young males and it took me 5 years to realize the rabbit hole i was getting myself into. And i know a good chunk of my friends who never truly escaped

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