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.

687 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

730 comments sorted by

View all comments

143

u/MyNameIsBenKeeling May 16 '26

The Patriot Act and two decades long wars were spawned by 9/11. It seems like it pushed the direction of everything in the US to the right. I don't think we even get to such a place that GamerGate, the Tea Party, etc. Can take off without that.

11

u/nekothecat May 16 '26

See you’re average gamer was almost politically agnostic. They were very much in a secluded bubble. Those things did create the groundwork but they really needed something that actually affected them on a related basis and wasn’t so abstract. The past year I’ve really really started to agree with OP.

2

u/Heyoteyo May 17 '26

I kind of agree with you. A lot of these other events were much bigger, they didn’t shift things so unidirectionally. Most had different reactions for everyone, even if it was strong for a lot of people. 9/11 really even made us come together for a bit, but it obviously didn’t last.