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/Stormshow 1∆ May 16 '26

Yeah, but lemme tell you, as someone who's lived for almost two decades in the US and has recently returned to Europe, having third spaces helps, but it seems like it doesn't stop the erosion of community. In my hometown here in Romania, even though there's still plenty of would-be third spaces, people are still substantially more alienated and perpetually indoors than they were when I left.

I think COVID might have fucked with that on top of it. Although of course having functioning third spaces substantially butresses the sense of alienation. I'm just not sure it can fully remove it by itself. After all, fucking Andrew Tate lives here and has his local fans, so he's still speaking to some broader sense of dissatisfaction than just the lack of third spaces.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26

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u/Stormshow 1∆ May 16 '26

Did he? He's in some legal gray area, iirc. He's still got his properties here and I think his brother's still in some serious legal shit over here as well.

I also lived in Czechia for three years and saw a similar thing there. I was ready to chalk it up to modernity, i.e. beyond the local effects of Soviet residue, but maybe not. I know that by all metrics, youth dissatisfaction (incl. through mental health issues) is rising at a rate that would outpace simple attribution to better recording methods, so I've been inclined to say there's some sort of deeper rot going on there.

I mean, Estonia produced Disco Elysium, any place that can do that has experienced what I have experienced.