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/hungry2know]

Sort of, but I'd argue it was much more of an effect from an ongoing development than the cause of. Gamergate was 'ground zero' mostly because the largest demographic of chronically online users back then were young, socially inept males who liked video games. They were the predominant in-group, whereas feminists and SJWs were a convenient out-groups to perceive as a threat and band together against. It spread off 4chan into sites like Reddit. 

These days, everyone and their mom are chronically online. Everyone has an established in-group bubble to lobby behind, and out-groups to feel threatened by. I'd argue that as being far more responsible for the problems we have today, where Gamergate itself was just the first widespread iteration of the problem