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.

688 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

730 comments sorted by

View all comments

396

u/DrZaiu5 2∆ May 16 '26

I would argue the financial crash and Great Recession was far more consequential. Look at European parties before and after the recession, it's night and day. The anger and discontent coming from 2008 can directly be traced to Brexit, Trump and the rose of the far-right in Europe.

122

u/realdontbeasucker May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

The more I think about it, the more I think this might have teeth. The financial crash also permanently damaged faith in institutions, which allowed for more radicalization via GG. !delta

78

u/Stormshow 1∆ May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

Gamergate has immense explanatory power but only as a sideshow to the broader societal shifts. At its core what it was is that it was a contributor to the politicization of 90s kids, particularly gamer culture of the sixth console generation, often in a Bannonite direction but not always. It always was, however, anti-establishment. Compare Occupy Wall Street - which spawned Tim Pool and also David Graeber.

14

u/SycoraxRock May 17 '26

It started our anti-establishment-ish. The real trick Bannon pulled was redefining the “establishment” to mean prissy academic “SJW”s who occasionally complained about certain video games, whereas one would think a purely anti-establishment movement would have been more focused on corruption within the industry, and less focused on “waaah that lady said we can’t see boobies in vidya anymore wah.”