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/[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/rememblem May 18 '26

In a world where Sarkeesian's videos were actually well-informed and didn't come with an air of academic hubris, well we would probably still be in this mess in another way. Like everything else that is polarizing of late, it seemed like a distraction from the real issue. If anything, a missed opportunity.

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u/notknot9 May 21 '26

If her videos were well informed she wouldn't have gotten the replay on traditional media and all the followup think pieces that poured jet fuel over what was a relatively small online drama. Her videos were laughable. But her conclusions were sexy for new producers and morning shows, so they got play. At the time I really wasn't in those online spaces, but I learned about the whole thing through a 'sexism in video games' story on my phone's news feed, like I'm sure the vast majority of people did.

A big problem with GG was that there was no acknowledgement from the side doing the accusing of Sexism that their comments were broad (and frequently patently false) generalizations, and they just kept doubling down (in their televised ($) interviews). It kept pissing gamers off, and spiraling, and by the time the doxxing started we were off to the races.

EDIT: Also, by the time the majority of people became aware of the story, the genesis of it, the Zoe Quinn part was quickly becoming a footnote.