GamerGate, the push for ethics in videogame journalism from 2014, is being directly blamed by Vox and others for the unrest at the Capitol last week.
Writing for Vox, Aja Romano described GamerGate as one of the “root causes and contributing factors” that led to civil unrest at Capitol Hill in Washington DC last week. Instead of putting the blame on the Mike Pence for failing to wield his constitutional power to unilaterally reject Electoral College voters from states with serious electoral integrity issues.
The almost 5,000 word article said that GamerGate was a “watershed moment and learning experience for many future Trump supporters,” and that “as a movement, it showed the trend towards systematized online harassment and increased ideological polarization that emerged in the latter half of the 2010s.”
The article, which had been repurposed and republished from being a general article by Vox about GamerGate to include context from the Capitol Hill protests, included some viral threads from liberals and leftists on the subject.
How a failure to learn from the lessons of Gamergate's hate campaign contributed to the out of control violence at the US Capitol yesterday: https://t.co/xExXiM1CgA
— Vox (@voxdotcom) January 7, 2021
“Seeing some people say this in private to protect themselves so I’ll say it out loud: there is a direct line from the game industry and media’s failure in addressing gamergate to the right wing terrorism we’re seeing today,” wrote Shayna Moon, a Senior Tech Project Manager at Unity. Others said that GamerGate was the “canary in the coal mine” for today, with yet more claiming GamerGate was a white supremacist movement.
https://twitter.com/LeonaThotsky/status/1346928169631141893
It's goddamn depressing how clear a line you can draw from GamerGate to this shit.
— Cassie (@CassieCeleste) January 6, 2021
Fuck facism, fuck Gamergate, and fuck Trump. American friends, I am sorry.
— Jen Simpkins (@itsJenSim) January 6, 2021
failure to address gamergate is just another point of this country's reinforcement and encouragement of white supremacist movements that were already on-going, GG came out of existing fringe movements online https://t.co/OMUntRn37X
— nico nico ni (@appleciderwitch) January 6, 2021
Lol the crazy moron deleted this pic.twitter.com/5retznaCKw
— Venom Rach (@SocialNomadRach) January 7, 2021
As soon as the Vox article gained any traction, it was widely and immediately mocked by many from all across the political spectrum. One Twitter user described GamerGate as being equivalent to “libtard 9/11,” and another said that this framing of GamerGate “is indicative of the inability among many liberals and leftists to avoid seeing themselves as the most important people in the world.”
Future history books will blame WWI on Gamergate https://t.co/nG5ZetCIpE
— Scott Greer 6’2” IQ 187 (@ScottMGreer) January 7, 2021
100% of the takes about this being gamergate come from people whose star waned when everyone stopped giving a shit about gamergate. https://t.co/kEa4MeSOFi
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) January 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/PetiteNicoco/status/1347298907676692480
every problem started with gamergate. I wasnt paying attention to the problems before but once it was about gaming I leanred about the problems.
— Patrick: Year Of The Rascal (@lunch_enjoyer) January 7, 2021
Nominating "Still Talking About Gamergate" for the Trainwreck Awards every year until it stops which will be never
— Gus | ᴾˡᵃᵗᶦⁿᵘᵐ ᴺᵘᶻˡᵒᶜᵏᵉ (@guscraw) January 7, 2021
The absurd attempt to frame Gamergate as the cause for all of the modern far-right is indicative of an inability among many liberals and leftists to avoid seeing themselves as the most important people in the world. Utter egotism devoid of any useful politics.
— Zeria (@_Zeria_) January 7, 2021
2/ and history. The rise of Tea Party conservatism is 10000000000x more important than GamerGate for explaining Trump. Every arguably relevant element of GG is applicable to many other swaths of the internet, anyway.
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) January 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/JohnHaloCE/status/1347283554053595141
gamergate truly is libtard 9/11 https://t.co/NrNVmbE99s
— KFrank (@kylefrankautist) January 7, 2021
Online libs in 2070 explaining how our nuclear annihilation was directly the result of GamerGate. pic.twitter.com/G1be0zHpWw
— Pasta man (@Altsurrealist) December 31, 2020
2021 and Gamergate is being resurrected by grifters and genuinely evil people as a bogeyman to blame all bad things on.
I want to go back to 2020 please. Please. I'm begging you. Turn back the clock.
— Christina is also a Tall Lady (@ChristinaTasty) January 6, 2021
If I keep seeing "this originated in gamergate" / "game industry coulda stopped this" takes im gonna drown on my overflowing acid reflux
— jessica harvey (@oysterFAKE) January 6, 2021
