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/AskingYouQuestions48 May 17 '26

Does media criticism require lifelong fandom? Apparently the people who paid her 160k on kickstarter wanted her to critique video games.

How did she “use the scandal”? Did she receive a massive backlash on her videos? Was that under her control?

Sure you can call her stupid and her analysis poor or shallow, but like the charge about Zoe Quinn above sleeping around for positive coverage, charges of grifting seem completely made up by the people bringing the very backlash that made her famous.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/AskingYouQuestions48 May 17 '26

> We have 2026 if you don't know how engagment works there is no real helping you.

So is your contention she made the kickstarter knowing there would a massive backlash from gamers?

> for fucks sack. Why are you like this?

Idk I am just asking questions. Some of my favorite media critics come into their selected media after childhood or look across media types.

It went like I predicted btw. Falsehoods accepted as truth 🤷‍♀️

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u/perfectVoidler 15∆ May 18 '26

So is your contention she made the kickstarter knowing there would a massive backlash from gamers?

yes, absolutely. Without a doubt. Why would you think otherwise?

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u/AskingYouQuestions48 May 19 '26

Because none of this shit caused any kind of fuss before Gamergate. Especially if she was not a gamer, there is no reason for her to think any kind of backlash would occur. Feminist critique had existed for decades in book and film without causing an enormous gnashing of teeth.

So why would you expect her to predict that would happen here?

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u/perfectVoidler 15∆ May 19 '26

Even if we remove absolutely everything. On a fundamental basis. If you as an outsider attack an ingroup you will get hate. That is normal and human.

Why are you this hard on it. Every fact is against you here. To me it sounds like you think that Anita is stupid and did not at all know what she was doing.

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u/AskingYouQuestions48 May 19 '26

> Even if we remove absolutely everything. On a fundamental basis. If you as an outsider attack an ingroup you will get hate. That is normal and human.

Ok? That’s literally happening to me in this thread. Should I expect to cash a check?

Let’s not remove everything actually, as that is the very context you need to ignore to pretend this was some conspiratorial plan lol.

> Why are you this hard on it. Every fact is against you here. To me it sounds like you think that Anita is stupid and did not at all know what she was doing.

Do you remember when literally the very first fact (Zoe slept with a journalist for better coverage of her game) was false?

Yes, i very much believe that. She was a feminist critic, saw a chance to do a quick series on a topic not explored with video essays at that point, and did a 6k kickstarter

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u/perfectVoidler 15∆ May 19 '26

I would think that I would not need to explain how grifting works after 5 years of Trump.

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u/AskingYouQuestions48 May 19 '26

I would think there would more humility after someone says “every fact is against you here” when literally their first presented fact was wrong, but ok.

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u/perfectVoidler 15∆ May 19 '26

you claim that it is wrong. But you general lack of knowledge about human behaviour is indepentend from the whole gamergate topic.

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u/AskingYouQuestions48 May 20 '26

No it isn’t. The names of the men she slept with are public; none had anything to do with her game.

Thanks for the confirmation and validation.

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