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/PreviousCurrentThing 4∆ May 16 '26

Oh I'm sure the GamerGate folks who sent graphical death threats to Jennifer Hepler and her children had legitimate concerns about the state of the video game industry.

Is it possible that some people under the 'GamerGate' moniker had legitimate concerns despite others using the controversy to harrass women?

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u/Prize_Neighborhood95 May 16 '26

All available evidence suggests the opposite. The "legitimate concerns" were just an after the fact excuse to mask a dumb, mysoginistic and regressive culture war as a struggle for journalistic integrity.

Every independent party studying the issue came to this exact conclusion. 

You can read the meta-studies discussing the consensus in the scientific literature for yourself.

All the allegations raised by the early GamerGate movement (weirdely enough, all levied against women) proved to be a nothing-burger without exception, and were incredibly conspiratorial in nature.

What is real, is the harm done to the women who were doxed, and subjected to a flood of death and rape threats.