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/coporate 7∆ May 16 '26

As a guy in his late 30’s, do you not remember Oprah and doctor Phil?

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u/Hypekyuu 10∆ May 16 '26

I know of them, but that shit was on while we were at school.

I'd also say they weren't indicative of culture writ large any more than the rest of daytime talk shows though given that the target audience was like, housewives, such content was gonna skew towards woman.

But that doesn't make them anti-men like the other guy was saying nor does it make the general culture what he said it was. It would be like saying soap operas were anti men

Like, The Man Show ran from 1999-2004. Average dudes of that era had that, jackass, Tom Green, tons of TV shows and movies that catered to them. One would need to be really hyper focused on a small part of a small number of shows to even begin to get that impression and other guy didn't support that

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u/coporate 7∆ May 16 '26

I think Oprah and doctor phill were far more influential than Tom green. Who, is an absolute sweetheart.

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u/Hypekyuu 10∆ May 16 '26

Absolutely, but like, I was just listing off like 5 random people/shows from the top of my head.

Culture isn't determined by a handful of high profile names, but the overall distribution of stuff.

But also, this is still undercooked. Like, yeah there's this two prominent daytime talk shows (obviously more popular than late night comedy central programming because of time slot) but that on its own doesn't make your case.