Becoming Political: My Journey from GamerGate to the New Right

It was 2014 when things seemed much more simple and black and white. I had recently discovered MundaneMatt's channel although now I hold no strong opinion on the man whatsoever. I had watched his video on the Zoe Post which had become the Quinnspiracy by then and saw it had been pulled down due to a DMCA. Now at the time I hadn't realized this but I had played Zoe's "game" Depression Quest before the GamerGate debacle because for reasons still unknown to me it was in my Steam library. Setting aside my seething hatred for the developer in question I could not consider it a game and considered it akin to one of the Choose Your Own Adventure Goosebumps books I had read during Elementary and Middle School.

Then I had discovered the man, the myth, the legend, Jim the Internet Aristocrat. I know he probably still cringes to this day but behind the layers of comedy and irony I could see he did and maybe still does care about games journalism despite being jaded about his experience with internet activism which is like trying to herd a mob of cats. I can understand his frustration with everyone trying to use a legitimate campaign and turning it into a charity case for every rando and anon looking for a handout. I was guilty of promoting some of these people myself and I still regret it to this day but I'd like to think I have learned from the experience. If anything GamerGate taught me what mistakes to avoid making and the red flags I should be looking for when it came to people supposedly interested in my cause.

Now you might be saying, "But Yellow aren't you proving that you were mindfucked by the ebil alt right looking to radicalize you against their political opponents and are being used like a useful idiot?". Well, quite simply they didn't have to. I had originally for the most part simply observed GamerGate from a distance watching the trash fire burn and engulf the entire horizon that was the internet on my Twitter account which was before joining the ColorCabal was my real name and face. People had actually accused me of being a bot for the rate which my account spread information from certain accounts but it was because speed is what mattered in modern journalism not accuracy as my experience when dealing with games journalism and journalists had taught me. "I LEARNED IT FROM YOU DAD" [wheezing laughter]

The truth of the matter is nothing pushed from being left libertarian to right wing libertarian faster than seeing the baying crowds of hyperbolic screeching activists in the field of journalism pretending to be the vanguard of the medium while using their profession to find weaknesses in the industry and exploiting it for their own personal gain. When I tried to confront these people the responses I got were hands down some of the most childish tantrums I had ever seen and I have been a babysitter. I was bombarded with responses akin to "CRY MOAR RUSSIAN SKINHEAD WHITE TRASH ALT RIGHT NEO NAZI FAT NECKBEARD  BASEMENT DWELLING BERNIE BRO INCEL VIRGIN DC FANBOY BOT". These journos would do anything to avoid actually discussing the topic and simply just shame people who otherwise would be their audience and if they possibly showed even the slightest bit of humility and good will would even agree with them on certain topics. Funnily enough the abuse more often than not came from people against the reformation of the games journalism industry and was hardly ever condemned despite belonging to organizations that in principle were created for the sole purpose of preventing abuse ala Crash Override Network.

Now interestingly enough as a native Massachusetts citizen you notice a pattern when you observed GamerGate. All these figureheads the games journalism industry for the most part came from Massachusetts practically within spitting distance of my own backyard. I understand that people preach about separating internet from IRL but I don't have that luxury when I walk into work and turn on the television and see Brianna Wu raving like a lunatic on NECN about the Facebook controversy. This person who compared a bunch of internet vagabonds roaming from platform to platform as moderators and owners of sites like Reddit, 4chan, etc. banning them because of their personal relationships with the subjects in question were compared to terrorists by this person. Unfortunately this went beyond just a 4 year flame war with the media and the charlatans they parade around. This person is running for Congress in my own fucking home state.

When you look at the leaked chat logs from Reddit moderators, 4 chan moderators, Crash Override Network, and FFShrine it crystallized my perception of these people more than any heresay could. These people were the absolute fucking scum of the Earth and my God would I do anything to crush them under the weight of their own shitty behavior. A lot of the people who were the subject of GamerGate were members of troll forums and went on to become media personalities or the scumbag left. These people condemn the very shitty behavior they took part in as what I can only describe as hypocrital and "troll's remorse". This however does not mean they simply could just be trolling still and just denying you the same pleasures in your online experience considering Zoe, Anita, Randi, and others went to Google and the FUCKING UNITED NATIONS.

This brings me to my final point which is that this no longer was contained to gaming journalism. This mind virus, this meme had infected the journalism industry in its entirety and warped the internet into a partisan battlefield where companies flayed themselves to appease their progressive masters and condemn their readership, their consumers as violent toxic trolls. However by diving headfirst into the bottomless pit that was the culture war had immunized me to the weapons of foes whichever moniker they were given or wore. Social Justice Warriors, Regressives, Scumbag Left, Ctrl Left, Cultural Marxists, Alt Left, Antifa, Anarcho-Communists are all the enemy that stand in the way of actual progress or else we will be stood here lobbing potshots at each other through internet proxy wars and real life protests/demonstrations forever. These communities of anonymous users on places like NeoGaf, 4chan, ResetEra, Something Awful, etc. were merely just crucibles for people to temper their convictions and organize into two partisan fronts before standing on the main stage. The names might change but the game stays the same. Zoe Quinn was right about one thing, August never does end. However, like Edge of Tomorrow these controversies will die and spring back to life over and over again til we finally get it right and are able to discuss these topics as the Overton Window does not shift but rather has stones lobbed through it as the mobs become increasingly polarized.