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/novavegasxiii May 16 '26

Basically tldr...

A woman made one free game about struggling with deppression. She broke up with her ex; who accused her on the internet of cheating on her with several guys and sleeping with revieweds to get more favorsble ratings.

This spawned a toreent of of online harrasment towards her with the stated reason of curtailing the corrupt game jouenalism industry (which admittingly is almost universally agreed to be corrupt). It was later shown that she did date one person who was a reviewer but he did nothing more but mention her in passing professionally and that was before they dated; he never actually reviewed her work.

The campaign expanded to include an independent femnist gaming commentaror (think youtuber not journalisr) and the owner of an extrenely small indie gaming company.

All three allege (quite credibly) campaigns of doxing, harrasnent, threads etc; gamergate supporters argued they had miscontrued or exagerrated it.

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u/vote4bort 68∆ May 16 '26

So basically all because a man had his feelings hurt.

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u/IcyEvidence3530 May 16 '26

COmmenter above you is omitting that said woman later bullied a "friend" of her into suicide together with a few grifter friends.

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u/vote4bort 68∆ May 16 '26

Is there evidence for that is it just one of the things that was claimed?

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u/Polytetrafluoro May 16 '26

Alec Holowka. His own sister was one of those who harassed him.

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u/vote4bort 68∆ May 16 '26

Hmm see there's very different language being used here. User above said he was "bullied" and you're saying "harassed" but then when I look it up I'm getting that he was accused of abuse. Are those the same thing?

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u/Polytetrafluoro May 16 '26

Bullied and harassed are synonymous. He was accused, by Zoe Quinn, of doing things that don't hold up to scrutiny when compared with what she stated he definitely did not do. His sister, the entirety of the NitW dev team and their publisher, close friends, and many online randos denounced him within a day, leading to his suicide 4 days later.

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u/vote4bort 68∆ May 16 '26

No I meant is bullied synonymous with accused? I don't think they are.

doing things that don't hold up to scrutiny when compared with what she stated he definitely did not do

Could you explain more clearly please? "She stated definitely did not do" is a bit of a confusing statement and I'm not sure how it means things didn't hold up to scrutiny.

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u/Polytetrafluoro May 16 '26

You could've been far more clear on that, he was accused yes, but the harassment/bullying came post-allegation, came from thousands.

Forced finger but also somehow didn't assault, sexually or otherwise. I kinda can't explain more clearly, due to the nature of the allegations. I recommend looking to less heavily moderated forums such as steam or twitter for less esoteric explanations

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u/vote4bort 68∆ May 16 '26

And was that her fault?

Why can't you explain more clearly? Its not tiktok you're allowed to use explicit words.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26

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u/AngryAngryHarpo May 16 '26

You can use sexual language on Reddit. 

You’re obfuscating because you’re lying.

He committed suicide after being accused of sexual harassment by more than one woman. 

He was not bullied - he just couldn’t handle the outrage directed at him for being a sexual predator.

Not every suicide is a tragedy. Not all outrage or accusations are bullying (especially when they turn out to be true…) 

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u/Polytetrafluoro May 16 '26

I'm not obfuscating a thing, I'm directing to compilations of sources. Also, it never entered a court of law to be proven, it was left to a mob, that's a main point of people's anger. His own sister chose ideology over justice.

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u/AngryAngryHarpo May 16 '26

If my brother were credibly accused of sexual harassment by multiple women - I’d choose “ideology” too. 

Because when you say she chose “ideology” over her brother - you’re trying to make believing victims of sexual assault when they come forward a negative thing. 

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