GamerGate

  • 🏰 The Fediverse is up. If you know, you know.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Puppet Pal Clem said:
Gamergate built all of the communities, cultural infrastructure, and media distrust that fomented Trump.
Click to expand...

There is at best a few dozen people who supported both GG and Trump. 4chan and reddit jumped on the Trump train on their own simply because his memes were the most effective at making everyone groan, conservatives and liberals. The initial ironic Trump hype was mostly about clowning on the GOP primary candidates, which turned into genuine enthusiasm once he started winning.

Even /pol/ will tell you that they never expected him to win on election night. But /pol/ was also celebrating election night when Obama won in 2012. Not because it was a liberal board back then, but because conservatives were the easiest to troll with KING BARACK THE ISLAM-O SHOCK etc etc
 
H3LLH4MM3R666 said:
There is at best a few dozen people who supported both GG and Trump.
Click to expand...
People with names.
People with names never do anything of value.

Anonymous mobs control the culture.
Memes are how Trump won, and I realize how utterly ridiculous that sounds, but it's true.
And. As your post states. You don't have to even like Trump in order to make jokes about him and his actions.
You've got an army of spergs who are now totally jaded about news media for shitting on their video games, with a stupid amount of influence on internet culture, another opportunity to fuck with identity politics, and they're all still a bit butthurt about gamergate even though it was pretty effective because there wasn't any friendly media to declare their win.

Gamergate doesn't have to be conservative to have created the culture of media distrust and the creation of alternative media some of which became the alt-right.
There doesn't have to be any sort of battle flag or historical moments or leaders, it's just people tossing dumb image macros around and creating shitty youtube videos laughing at tv news anchors and fake polls and failing late night television.

Ironically or spitefully supporting somebody, is still support.
There doesn't have to have been any sort of genuine appreciation of Trump for the memes and anonymous mobs to have helped him win.
If he's the most entertaining candidate, he's going to get the most attention.
If supporting him, even if you don't like him, pisses off and undermines the news media, then people are going to do that.
 
If anything, Gamergate caused self-described liberals to feel more disenfranchised by the mainstream media, but in very few cases does that translate to switching a vote.

The biggest memes get views in the tens of thousands, spread over a global audience. That's a couple of seconds of attention, from each of them. Meanwhile CNN and MSNBC had primetime nightly viewership numbers in excess of a million, each, and that's just Americans. The network news outlets had ratings several times higher. And altogether the percentage of the voting population that watches the news on any given night is less than 10%, the chunk that get to see those memes are even smaller.

I've heard the same song and dance about the anonymous mobs vaulting Ron Paul to presidency in 2008 and again in 2012. Remember when John Edwards opened a campaign office in Second Life? There is a hard limit to the reach of internet culture. Futhermore, the number of people that had their feet in both the alt-right and Gamergate pools can be counted on one hand. It allowed Breitbart and Milo to temporarily cash in on a wedge issue but even they've moved on.
 
I disagree about the reach of the influence of chan and reddit communities, but I obviously haven't any real data.
I think they have a phenomenal influence on global culture, though obviously they weren't the only factor.

If I had to I would appeal to the amount of money-backed shilling and media attacks on /pol/ and The_Donald, as well as Pepe taking hits from the ADF and getting a shoutout during a Hillary Speech.
 
Puppet Pal Clem said:
If I had to I would appeal to the amount of money-backed shilling and media attacks on /pol/ and The_Donald, as well as Pepe taking hits from the ADF and getting a shoutout during a Hillary Speech.
Click to expand...

To most people, that appeared to be completely insane raving about a cartoon. I'd say the fact that Hillary even publicly went batshit crazy about a cartoon 99% of the public has never even seen had more to do with her losing than the meme itself. That and the fact that she had to be hauled off apparently in a comatose state during that same time period also decimated confidence in her.
 
Puppet Pal Clem said:
Gamergate doesn't have to be conservative to have created the culture of media distrust and the creation of alternative media some of which became the alt-right.
Click to expand...
Right-wing hatred of the media has been festering for decades. Trump was simply the first GOP nominee who said "fuck it" and made no attempt to play nice with them. Gamergate had nothing to do with anything, and Trump would have energized the Republican base regardless of whether 4chan was churning out dank memes.
 
SkeletonBias420 said:
Gamergate had nothing to do with anything
Click to expand...
Except right-wing media distrust had never successfully translated into influential online cultures, especially not with young people.
Gamergate while not inherently politically affiliated was openly opposing radical politicization of video games largely propped up by the left.

It made it trendy to make fun of radical leftists, even for moderate leftists.
It's a hop-skip from laughing at radical liberals faux-academic papers and protests about video games into laughing at radical liberals faux-academic papers and protests about anything else, about their asinine college protests, or identity politics, which are mostly and suspiciously ignored by MSM.
 
SkeletonBias420 said:
Right-wing hatred of the media has been festering for decades. Trump was simply the first GOP nominee who said "fuck it" and made no attempt to play nice with them.
Click to expand...

The fact that this was so popular should have been a wake up call for the media, but it hasn't been. If anything, they've become even scummier and more reprehensible in their impotent rage when they couldn't install Shillary.
 
Gook Choy said:
No, it didn't.
Click to expand...
It did not but it did become a thing some people used in thinking it made Trump win, never mind the average Trump voter not knowing or even caring about vidya related drama.
 
c-no said:
It did not but it did become a thing some people used in thinking it made Trump win, never mind the average Trump voter not knowing or even caring about vidya related drama.
Click to expand...

Boogeymen will always be Boogeymen. This is simply the generational swing of the Overton Window.
 
Trump won because he had a more appealing message than Hillary and did a better job of getting it out there. His internet friends helped by keeping the faith when it all could have fallen apart, but the people who came through for him in the end were old blue collar folks who often times don't use a computer at all.

This is also why Brianna Wu is going to get something like twenty percent of the vote in her primary- setting aside the people who dislike her, the vast majority of the primary voters will be people who don't follow this online stuff at all. And if you take that away she's just some crazy person primarying an incumbent.

edit: And remember video game fans have been hating on games journalism for decades, if anything Gamergate decreased that hatred- if only because it made support of games journalism a thing that left-wingers were supposed to do.
 
Lou Wrong said:
Trump won because he had a more appealing message than Hillary and did a better job of getting it out there. His internet friends helped by keeping the faith when it all could have fallen apart, but the people who came through for him in the end were old blue collar folks who often times don't use a computer at all.

This is also why Brianna Wu is going to get something like twenty percent of the vote in her primary- setting aside the people who dislike her, the vast majority of the primary voters will be people who don't follow this online stuff at all. And if you take that away she's just some crazy person primarying an incumbent.

edit: And remember video game fans have been hating on games journalism for decades, if anything Gamergate decreased that hatred- if only because it made support of games journalism a thing that left-wingers were supposed to do.
Click to expand...

I don't think John will even crack the high single digits.
 
You'd think that, but people vote in weird ways. If a primary candidate spends any money they should typically be able to take at least ten percent, even if they are a total loony.
 
She is right in saying the incumbent is a part of the Democrat establishment. There's probably a market for a challenge, probably just not her version of technocratic identity politics.
 
Since this discussion of Autism War 1 is going on, I figured I'd chime in here.

Short Version: Trump wasn't caused by GG, and the people pushing this are retards.
Trump did benefit from GG indirectly, but that was more just watching cause-and-effect.

Kiwis familiar with my coverage of GG during its heyday will remember that I mentioned quite a few times that the biggest thing to come out of GG was not the damage done to the various self-proclaimed Journalists involved, nor the dozens upon dozens of lolcows to emerge as a result of GG itself, but rather in the ripple effect this had on the internet as a whole.

Demographically, GG was predominantly center-left, mostly encompassing classic liberals, libertarians, and centrists, as evidenced by the many, many demographic studies done during this time. What changed is that people started to realize that conventional political ideology (left-vs-right) was less important than sane-vs-insane, resulting in many people on the left recognizing not only why the left went off the rails, but giving tacit examples of just how bad things had gotten. But to get into how this ties into Trump, you need to look a little deeper.

Look at it from the prospective of a GG supporter, circa 2014-15: Imagine you're just enjoying your nerdy/weeb shit in peace, not bothering anyone, not giving a fuck about politics, being a productive hobbyist. You don't give a fuck, you've got the shit you enjoy, you're happy, your fellow hobbyists are happy. Then all of a sudden a bunch of entitled fucks show up, accuse you all of being misogynists/racists/etc, demand the entire industry change to suit the whims of someone who isn't the consumerbase, attack said consumerbase, and finally brings the piece de la resistance by making your hobby the latest battle in a culture war nobody within your hobby fucking wanted or cared about when you just wanted these shits to fuck off. You're fucking pissed, and that rage directs pretty much all of your Autism directly at the source of your irritation: The fucks that did this to your hobby in the first place. You channel all of your Autism into mocking those reponsible and catching them in every stupid fuck-up they make.

To the surprise, horror, and amusement of many, somehow, it works. Anti-GG is a cavalcade of fuck-ups with deep personal problems and a huge number of them are either borderline lolcows or outright lolcows. Many of them have psychiatric issues and are entirely new levels of absolute pants-on-head fucking insane. Despite the cooperation of Social Media heads, the mainstream press, and even the UN, it becomes clear to you that the dumbasses who fucked with you were not prepared for this type of war. Directly contrary to their posturing.

This incident paves the way for literally every other fight with Social Justice Warriors to follow - including and especially the ones leading up to the election. Other hobbies facing their own infestations of SJWs are now borrowing from GG's playbook. Over and over again it becomes apparent that the entire apparatus of Social Justice is fueled by outrage politics and shit nobody cares about, and that the only safe move when facing the outrage police is to never apologize, and never back down, because they have basically no power to shame you if you don't give a fuck.

Trump's candidacy is fueled by internet veterans, and while Trump himself isn't a strong candidate, he has quite a bit of broad appeal and pisses off all the right people. Trump was pretty much already using the right tactic by default when it comes to dealing with Social Justice Warriors from the start, as Trump provably does not give a fuck, to the point where the dude has it up to competition standards. So soon after the loss to the spergs of GG, the powers that be have learned absolutely nothing and no amount of attempting to shame Trump or his supporters works. Many democrats and libertarians, fed the fuck up, vote Trump - not because they like him, but because man, fuck the democratic establishment.

It comes to a head on 11/9, when the powers that be, desperate to blame everyone but themselves for the fuck-up, throws it at the feet of the group that gave them their first really big black eye to begin with.
 
Jaimas said:
Since this discussion of Autism War 1 is going on, I figured I'd chime in here.

Short Version: Trump wasn't caused by GG, and the people pushing this are retards.
Trump did benefit from GG indirectly, but that was more just watching cause-and-effect.

Kiwis familiar with my coverage of GG during its heyday will remember that I mentioned quite a few times that the biggest thing to come out of GG was not the damage done to the various self-proclaimed Journalists involved, nor the dozens upon dozens of lolcows to emerge as a result of GG itself, but rather in the ripple effect this had on the internet as a whole.

Demographically, GG was predominantly center-left, mostly encompassing classic liberals, libertarians, and centrists, as evidenced by the many, many demographic studies done during this time. What changed is that people started to realize that conventional political ideology (left-vs-right) was less important than sane-vs-insane, resulting in many people on the left recognizing not only why the left went off the rails, but giving tacit examples of just how bad things had gotten. But to get into how this ties into Trump, you need to look a little deeper.

Look at it from the prospective of a GG supporter, circa 2014-15: Imagine you're just enjoying your nerdy/weeb shit in peace, not bothering anyone, not giving a fuck about politics, being a productive hobbyist. You don't give a fuck, you've got the shit you enjoy, you're happy, your fellow hobbyists are happy. Then all of a sudden a bunch of entitled fucks show up, accuse you all of being misogynists/racists/etc, demand the entire industry change to suit the whims of someone who isn't the consumerbase, attack said consumerbase, and finally brings the piece de la resistance by making your hobby the latest battle in a culture war nobody within your hobby fucking wanted or cared about when you just wanted these shits to fuck off. You're fucking pissed, and that rage directs pretty much all of your Autism directly at the source of your irritation: The fucks that did this to your hobby in the first place. You channel all of your Autism into mocking those reponsible and catching them in every stupid fuck-up they make.

To the surprise, horror, and amusement of many, somehow, it works. Anti-GG is a cavalcade of fuck-ups with deep personal problems and a huge number of them are either borderline lolcows or outright lolcows. Many of them have psychiatric issues and are entirely new levels of absolute pants-on-head fucking insane. Despite the cooperation of Social Media heads, the mainstream press, and even the UN, it becomes clear to you that the dumbasses who fucked with you were not prepared for this type of war. Directly contrary to their posturing.

This incident paves the way for literally every other fight with Social Justice Warriors to follow - including and especially the ones leading up to the election. Other hobbies facing their own infestations of SJWs are now borrowing from GG's playbook. Over and over again it becomes apparent that the entire apparatus of Social Justice is fueled by outrage politics and shit nobody cares about, and that the only safe move when facing the outrage police is to never apologize, and never back down, because they have basically no power to shame you if you don't give a fuck.

Trump's candidacy is fueled by internet veterans, and while Trump himself isn't a strong candidate, he has quite a bit of broad appeal and pisses off all the right people. Trump was pretty much already using the right tactic by default when it comes to dealing with Social Justice Warriors from the start, as Trump provably does not give a fuck, to the point where the dude has it up to competition standards. So soon after the loss to the spergs of GG, the powers that be have learned absolutely nothing and no amount of attempting to shame Trump or his supporters works. Many democrats and libertarians, fed the fuck up, vote Trump - not because they like him, but because man, fuck the democratic establishment.

It comes to a head on 11/9, when the powers that be, desperate to blame everyone but themselves for the fuck-up, throws it at the feet of the group that gave them their first really big black eye to begin with.
Click to expand...
so a bunch of losers of indeterminate political affiliation fucked up america because they thought their video games were in danger :story:
 
Jaimas said:
Since this discussion of Autism War 1 is going on, I figured I'd chime in here.

Short Version: Trump wasn't caused by GG, and the people pushing this are retards.
Trump did benefit from GG indirectly, but that was more just watching cause-and-effect.

Kiwis familiar with my coverage of GG during its heyday will remember that I mentioned quite a few times that the biggest thing to come out of GG was not the damage done to the various self-proclaimed Journalists involved, nor the dozens upon dozens of lolcows to emerge as a result of GG itself, but rather in the ripple effect this had on the internet as a whole.

Demographically, GG was predominantly center-left, mostly encompassing classic liberals, libertarians, and centrists, as evidenced by the many, many demographic studies done during this time. What changed is that people started to realize that conventional political ideology (left-vs-right) was less important than sane-vs-insane, resulting in many people on the left recognizing not only why the left went off the rails, but giving tacit examples of just how bad things had gotten. But to get into how this ties into Trump, you need to look a little deeper.

Look at it from the prospective of a GG supporter, circa 2014-15: Imagine you're just enjoying your nerdy/weeb shit in peace, not bothering anyone, not giving a fuck about politics, being a productive hobbyist. You don't give a fuck, you've got the shit you enjoy, you're happy, your fellow hobbyists are happy. Then all of a sudden a bunch of entitled fucks show up, accuse you all of being misogynists/racists/etc, demand the entire industry change to suit the whims of someone who isn't the consumerbase, attack said consumerbase, and finally brings the piece de la resistance by making your hobby the latest battle in a culture war nobody within your hobby fucking wanted or cared about when you just wanted these shits to fuck off. You're fucking pissed, and that rage directs pretty much all of your Autism directly at the source of your irritation: The fucks that did this to your hobby in the first place. You channel all of your Autism into mocking those reponsible and catching them in every stupid fuck-up they make.

To the surprise, horror, and amusement of many, somehow, it works. Anti-GG is a cavalcade of fuck-ups with deep personal problems and a huge number of them are either borderline lolcows or outright lolcows. Many of them have psychiatric issues and are entirely new levels of absolute pants-on-head fucking insane. Despite the cooperation of Social Media heads, the mainstream press, and even the UN, it becomes clear to you that the dumbasses who fucked with you were not prepared for this type of war. Directly contrary to their posturing.

This incident paves the way for literally every other fight with Social Justice Warriors to follow - including and especially the ones leading up to the election. Other hobbies facing their own infestations of SJWs are now borrowing from GG's playbook. Over and over again it becomes apparent that the entire apparatus of Social Justice is fueled by outrage politics and shit nobody cares about, and that the only safe move when facing the outrage police is to never apologize, and never back down, because they have basically no power to shame you if you don't give a fuck.

Trump's candidacy is fueled by internet veterans, and while Trump himself isn't a strong candidate, he has quite a bit of broad appeal and pisses off all the right people. Trump was pretty much already using the right tactic by default when it comes to dealing with Social Justice Warriors from the start, as Trump provably does not give a fuck, to the point where the dude has it up to competition standards. So soon after the loss to the spergs of GG, the powers that be have learned absolutely nothing and no amount of attempting to shame Trump or his supporters works. Many democrats and libertarians, fed the fuck up, vote Trump - not because they like him, but because man, fuck the democratic establishment.

It comes to a head on 11/9, when the powers that be, desperate to blame everyone but themselves for the fuck-up, throws it at the feet of the group that gave them their first really big black eye to begin with.
Click to expand...
Will you read me stories before bedtime?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom