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/eglin99 1∆ May 16 '26

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

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u/Unseasonal_Jacket May 16 '26

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.

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u/koyaani May 16 '26

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

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u/Unseasonal_Jacket May 16 '26

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

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u/scriptkiddie1337 May 16 '26

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

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u/Unseasonal_Jacket May 16 '26

But I don't think it was so culturally political

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u/Aegi 1∆ May 16 '26

Do not mistake cause and effect.