“On this day, I stand before you to say that I did my part to hand the Legislative branch of the American government to the Republicans.” Wrote Todd Wohling of Techraptor in his article back in Nov 2014 “it’s one down and three to go: Super majority in the Senate, the Presidency, and one Supreme Court justice.” Todd was a lifelong Democrat who apparently never voted republican. However, after Nov 2014 he decided to hand all branches of Government to the party he had opposed for many years. What happened? Gamergate happened.
In August 2014, the gaming community started to raise questions about conflicts of interest in gaming media (that´s one of the reasons why the site deepfreeze.it was created). As it became publicly known that journalists and the developers whom they wrote about were having close relationships, and having financial connections via Patreon or in some cases living together and not disclosing it. The discussion caused a flame war on the Internet, and all the different brands of gaming media came out strongly in favor of the gaming media at large, and then they attacked the gamer identity. However, that was not all, as the mainstream media came in support of the gaming media. Reports from MSNBC, NYTimes, LATimes, etc. And it wasn’t just the media a Democratic Congresswoman tried to prosecute Gamergate as if you could prosecute a twitter hashtag.
This repudiation of Gamergate and Gamers by the liberal media is what caused gamers like Todd Wohling to feel rejected by a left-wing that is now concerned by identity politics, safe spaces, trigger warnings or a gaming media that acts horrified if run over a woman in GTA as if it was a real person. Many other gamers are not even politically active, but got tired of reading articles blaming the ills on the world on them because they’re white, or because they’re male or both and that caused them to become active against the left.
But was it really enough people to make a difference? Let´s check the numbers shall we? The Gamergate subreddit has 70,000 subscribers, and there are also Youtubers who have made videos supporting Gamergate that have very big audiences: Shoe0nHead 500,000 subscribers, Sargon of Akkad 440,000 subscribers, Thunderf00t 650,000 subscribers and there are many other small and medium-sizeed Youtube channels as well. So even if a fraction of those people refuse to support the Democrats or go third-party or even worse, vote Republican, it will be a disaster for the democrats. So what conclusion can we draw from this? It´s hard to say exactly how much of an impact #GamerGate had on Donald Trump´s road to victory. However, there is no doubt in my mind that GG helped Trump to gain votes. As GG has been against corruption, censorship and political correctness since day one (2014), and that just happens to be what Trump is against as well.
Furthermore, Milo Yiannopoulos (a British journalist, entrepreneur, public speaker, and technology editor for Breitbart News, and a well-known #GamerGate supporter) did tons of PR for Donald Trump during his whole US campaign race. In other words, Milo got the word out about Trump, and that probably gained Trump quite a few votes I bet. So in my opinion, GG did indeed play a role in Donald Trump´s road to victory in the US 2016 presidential election. Sure, it´s hard to tell how big of a role GG played, but they sure helped Trump to win his presidential election with no doubt.
I would also like to point out that “if” Milo becomes the US press secretary, then #GamerGate would literally have a place in the White house. Well, I don´t know about you, but I find that to be a rather entertaining thought. You see, #GG started of as a consumer revolt movement in 2014 (August) that were against corruption in the games industry (better ethics in journalism were one of GG´s goals). My point would be that GG has gone from pretty much nothing to everything in a very short period of time (from 2014 uptil this point). So let´s just say that 2017 is going to become a very interesting year with no doubt.
Since I (Robin Ek) just happen to live in Sweden (for now) I have had the great pleasure to experience a very “special” (aka “biased”) news coverage of the US presidential election. Well, for those who don’t know the Swedish main-stream media like I do. They (the Swedish MSM) work in the same way as they do in the US (for most part). Simply put, they favoured Hillary Clinton and trash talked Donald Trump 24/7. That´s also why I´ve been using alternative media a whole lot during the US election (not to mention non Swedish news sites). Even so, I still think that social media played a very important part in the US election, because it worked as a path way between Trump his supporters and potential new supporters of his.
In my case, even though I´m not allowed to vote in America. I really got interested in Trump´s campaign thanks to all the meme´s, videos and tweets by people who truly wanted a positive change in America (in other words, people who have had more than enough with the corrupt establishment). So in a way I guess that I saw a lot of #GamerGate-like aspects in Donald Trump, because he is indeed very politically incorrect. Furthermore, he speaks up about things that most people don’t even dare to think (less speak). That´s also why I find it to be very entertaining that the Swedish (and US) media doesn´t understand how Trump could win against Hillary, because according to MSM Trump supporters only consist of angry and racist white men. Something of which is a fat lie, because Trump could never have won the US election without the Black, Asian and Latino vote (the people of color vote).
Well, my theory is simply that people got united and voted for Trump, no matter their race, class, belief or sexual orientation. As they want a change for the better. So in a way, the US election has a lot in common with #GamerGate, because just like the case with GG. Gamers from all walks of life got together to make a change in the games industry for the better (just like the Trump supporters did). However, like Jack stated earlier. It´s hard to know how much of an impact GG had on Trump´s road to victory as a whole. Nevertheless, I´m quite certain that GG played a key role in Trump´s success. You see, GamerGate has not only worked as an industry watch dog, GG has also worked as an eye-opener for regular folks (aka “blue pill people”). Simply put, GG works as a massive red pill transformation movement as well (Mark Kern stated that as well just recently, as seen in the pictures down below).
Nevertheless, if you want my honest opinion on what it was that really helped Donald Trump win his election. Then it would be a combination of Wikileaks, #GamerGate, alternative media (especially Breitbart and Infowars), social media, personalities like Milo yiannopoulos, and Youtuber´s like Sargon of Akkad, and millions and millions of Americans who stood up against the establishment (wall street, the globalists, the corrupt media, etc.). That´s at least my theory on how it all went down. So I´ll tell you what, let Donald Trump drain the political swamp in the US, while GG continues to drain the swamp in the games industry.
And with that said, what´s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!
Source:
NeoGaf
The Portland Mercury
The New York Times
Everyjoe
Breitbart
Wikileaks
John Cook
Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor and co-writer
Mark Kern
Whenindoubtdo
Best Mom Eva
A King in Yellow
***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.
Jack Davis
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround
More by Jack Davis:
Tags: #GamerGate, America, Donald Trump, Gamers, Gaming