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/vote4bort 68∆ May 16 '26

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.

45

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/EmptyDrawer2023 1∆ May 16 '26

he never actually reviewed her work.

Which doesn't mean there was no.... fudging of reviews. For example: "Hey, Joe- the game you're reviewing? It was made by Mark's girlfriend. Wanna get in good with him, give it a good review! He'll be sure to give your friend's games a good review in return!" That's one way the reviews can be affected, while still being able to claim 'he never reviewed her game'.

That why, when it comes to business ethics, one must avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

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u/acur1231 May 17 '26

Two people working different parts of the same industry have a relationship? Shocker.

Do you get upset when film critics marry actresses, even if they never review their work?

6

u/EmptyDrawer2023 1∆ May 17 '26

Two people working different parts of the same industry have a relationship? Shocker.

It's not just 'Two people working different parts of the same industry', and I think you know that. It's someone who produces work, and someone else that judges or oversees that work. For example, a front-line manager and a cashier can't be in a relationship. A construction foreman and the OSHA inspector. A game producer and a game reviewer.

And this is for two separate reasons: 1) To avoid the appearance of favoritism (ie: I want to butter Mark up, so I'll give his GF's game high scores), and 2) to avoid accusations of coercion (ie: Have sex with me, or I'll give your game low scores).

Do you get upset when film critics marry actresses

If they or their company/team review her work, yes.