Man Who Attacked Paul Pelosi Says He Was Radicalized by Gamergate
Man Who Attacked Paul Pelosi Says He Was Radicalized by Gamergate

Man Who Attacked Paul Pelosi Says He Was Radicalized by Gamergate

The man told jurors he spent hours listening to far-right podcasts before breaking into the Pelosi home and attacking the then-Speaker’s husband with a hammer.
The dumbest possible thing to be radicalized by.
Right? Gamergate is something I've never understood at all. Like... People try to summarize the whole thing for me and after two sentences I just blank out entirely because it's all so weird, convoluted and dumb.
A gigantic "he-said-she-said" that somehow devolved into tons of harassment, death threats, violence and "calling someone's boss so they'd get fired because they weren't nice enough online" or something...
Your 1-sentence answer to understanding Gamergate has less to do with any of the people involved or a timeline of events. Gamergate, more than anything else, was an opportunity. A springboard to indoctrinate people into far right politics by playing to people's fear of the Other, mistrust in media, and stoking anger at a perceived scandal.
If it never happened, if it wasn't video games, it would just as well be something else. It would be music or sports or anything that people are passionate about. Right wingers were running out of steam with the Tea Party, and Gamergate was in the right place at the right time.
EDIT: Some contemporary discussion on GG actually, prophetically, supports this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GamerGhazi/comments/2k0bpi/whygamergateisarightwingmovement/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AgainstGamerGate/comments/2km45o/afewdaysagoisaidthatgamergatewasaright/
https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/l3fq6t/theteapartyandgamergatewerethingsiwas/
Gamergate started with the premise that professional game reviewers were being biased by publishers due to being granted preferential treatment and access.
All the same stuff people are saying now about Clarence Thomas, which is TRUE, they were saying about video game reviewers back then.
I was actually a game reviewer back then, and, yeah, I got review codes for games and backstage access at Pax... it didn't influence my reviews though and I never had pressure from publishers or editorial to give good reviews for access.
My experience may not have been the norm though:
https://www.gamezone.com/originals/the-fallout-of-the-kane-lynch-debacle/
People are already teetering on the edge. Mental health treatment and awareness in this country is replaced by toxic masculinity and the idea that taking care of your head is for cucks.
Was he radicalized for it, or is it what finally set him over? These are two very different things, even if they may immediately appear “the same”.
How actually historically relevant it is is just mindboggling. It is literally the codification and beginning of the alt-right. Britebart news guy and eventual Presidential advisor Steve Bannon and a massive swack of the early alt talking heads right got their start with Gamergate. It's essentially the proving ground of the model of engagement and the networking that brought the scum together.
I suggest Ian Danskin's talk on "A Case Study of Digital Radicalization " https://youtu.be/lLYWHpgIoIw?si=WD8gi7XXFVrIKg-n
It is one of the best breakdowns of Gamergate I have ever heard while keeping sight of just how bloody insane the whole thing is. It's a really long video yes but it really has some interesting takes on digital Radicalization and a key part of the modern history of how we got where we are.
It's incredibly fucking stupid.
I was even on /v/ at the time and it still doesn't make sense to me.
Just shows how seriously people can take their dumb niches and conflate them to be representative of the whole world.
Idiots.
Ian Miles Cheong got his start with Gamergate. That sholud tell you everything you need to know about what it was.
Game journos got real chummy with indie devs and everybody was fucking everybody. All objectivity was lost and it was full of corruption. Look up the gamejournopros group.