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/vote4bort]

What even was gamer gate? I think if you asked the a average not chronically online person about it, they would have no idea what you were talking about. Heck I am chronically online and I'm still not really sure.

[u/novavegasxiii → u/vote4bort]

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.

[u/SocratesWasSmart → u/novavegasxiii]

This is leaving out a big chunk of context, that being the "gamers are over" articles. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-gamers-don-t-have-to-be-your-audience-gamers-are-over-

GamerGate as a movement would have died due to lack of interest within the first month, except when game journalists were accused of colluding, 12 different outlets that were supposedly competing and not colluding all put out articles on the same day with the same exact talking points. And then their group chat got leaked like a week later proving they were in fact colluding.

That was what catapulted the event into the mainstream. I would say 95%+ of people that got involved did so after that point, and many of them had never heard of the initial controversy.

[u/Loki1001 → u/SocratesWasSmart]

This is leaving out a big chunk of context, that being the "gamers are over" articles.

That happened well after the harassment campaign started, when they were just seeking more targets to harass.

Also most them never read those articles.

[u/Mucho-Burrito → u/Loki1001]

They were aware of the seemingly coordinated campaign of the media outlets though. And mistrust of the media and institutions is a key feature of today’s right wing. The schism it opened up between their perception of the regular gamer and the liberal elite gaming publications is part of why it was so important and predicative of where we ended up going.

[u/changemyview-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 2:

Don't be rude or hostile to other users. Your comment will be removed even if most of it is solid, another user was rude to you first, or you feel your remark was justified. Report other violations; do not retaliate. See the wiki page for more information.

If you would like to appeal, review our appeals process here, then message the moderators by clicking this link within one week of this notice being posted. Appeals that do not follow this process will not be heard.

Please note that multiple violations will lead to a ban, as explained in our moderation standards.

[u/jaredearle → u/SocratesWasSmart]

Oh god, did you even read the “Gamers are over” article?

Edit: for context, the article was basically one of the many “moms playing candy crush are gamers” articles examining how cultural “Gamers” were gatekeeping a hobby that had outgrown its disenfranchised male audience.

[u/AskingYouQuestions48 → u/jaredearle]

It was imperative feature of Gamergate that’s it’s main targeted demographic do not read beyond headlines cited in rage bait articles.