#who unironically blamed GG for JD vs. AH

[unpopularly-opinionated]

I’m not about to take an ideological U-turn when it comes to GamerGate, but hearing it brought up again (what is this, like the 643,493,214,928th time?) made me think about all those posts that were (and still are being) made about how big of a cultural impact it had on not just gaming, but politics and society overall, at least with regards to online society, and I have to say I kind of agree.

It’s not the perpetual boogeyman they claim it to be, more like the scapegoat, but with their incessant need to push this false narrative about what it was, what its intentions were, etc., it’s become undoubtably one of the biggest cultural events in history. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but they basically forced it onto a pedestal for all to see, good or bad.

If it had succeeded in its initial goal, then it would’ve changed the gaming industry, and possibly by extension the world of journalism, but that would’ve been it. There was nothing about race, or gender, or sexuality, or politics, or any of the other nonsense they’ve tacked onto it posthumously. But because they pushed those narratives, they’re to blame for it impacting nearly every far-reaching facet of society.

GamerGate had nothing to do with the far-right until they said it did, then it undoubtedly did. GamerGate had nothing to do with harassing women until they said it did, then it undoubtedly did. GamerGate had nothing to do with mass shootings, Donald Trump, Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard, etc. etc. etc. until they said it did, then it undoubtedly did.

GamerGate wasn’t any of these things originally, but when you blame the world’s problems on an entire subsection of people for nearly a decade it’s really not difficult to understand why some, just some, of them might actually become the horrible awful things you’ve claimed they always were.

So if we’re really going to sit here and pretend GamerGate is responsible for the Uvelde mass shooting (fucking retarded, there’s no other word to describe this), then I’m going to sit here and tell you that it’s not GamerGate that is to blame, but the journalists who lied, and lied, and lied until their lies became reality.