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I think you're conflating causation - GamerGate was an expression of /pol/ culture, not the cause of it. I'm sure that the fact that the event made news spread

I think you're conflating causation - GamerGate was an expression of /pol/ culture, not the cause of it. I'm sure that the fact that the event made news spread that culture, but ultimately the ideas didn't change.

LyndsySimon 9y ago
I disagree. GamerGate was the cause for the rise of right-wing social media power. Milo wasn't know outside those circles until after the controversy got the mainstream consciousness, and now he's a staple on all of the right-wing sites I frequent. The idea that the largest gun forum on the internet would be regularly discussing posts by Milo and Gavin McInness would have been laughable before GamerGate. "Based Stickman", "Dave", etc. wouldn't exist if not for it. From the perspective of the "new right", GamerGate was the first time a community does up against the cultural warfare of the left and won. It was the point where the left went from being counter-culture to being "the establishment". For the first time in generations, the social outcasts were conservatives, not liberals. It's now rebellious and cool to want to marry and start a traditional family. You can be booed off a stage for saying things like "the husband should provide for his family". The right has grabbed this and incorporated it into their identity; the left hasn't figured out yet that they've become what they thought they were fighting. They're the Man.
- slang800 9y ago
  > Milo wasn't [known] outside those circles until after the controversy got the mainstream consciousness Yeah, I watched Milo get popular too, going from an occasional guest on Sky News to someone that people riot about... He's pretty amusing for the amount of controversy he generates. However, I don't think he has changed the culture of /pol/ (as OP said), I think he was propelled by it. > It's now rebellious and cool to want to marry and start a traditional family. I don't think GamerGate focused on that particular aspect. From what I saw, GG was just about bashing the media and exposing how journalists will work together to push certain narratives. Traditionalism is more prominent within the alt-right, and that wasn't pushed into the media spotlight until Hillary did a speech attacking them around August 2016. By that time, GG had died down and even Milo had pivoted his brand to alt-(right|light) talking points.
- akhilcacharya 9y ago
  >It's now rebellious and cool to want to marry and start a traditional family. Uh.. what? I've never actually seen family values being part of the discussion given most GG adherents trend teenage or older unmarried on KiA (the target male demos of video games).
  - LyndsySimon 9y ago
    I mean that a traditional family is seen as somewhat counter-cultural today. I don't mean that this is literally a central topic for /pol/.
    - akhilcacharya 9y ago
      ....is it? I don't know any non-traditional families and I'm in a pretty metropolitan social circle.
      - somecontext 9y ago
        For some context for those interested: It's not entirely clear what "traditional family" means, but a plausible definition is married parents with children, where the husband is employed but the wife is not. (This is the direct sense implied by the context of the post originating this discussion, but is also the definition used by many other sources.) According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t04.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t04.htm there were ~7 million families in the United States fitting this definition in 2016, which corresponds to approximately 20% of families with children (and thus fewer than 10% of families total). Among said families with children, it is twice as common to have both husband and wife employed (~40%), and it is slightly more common to have a mother with no opposite-sex spouse present (~25%) -- though she may be unemployed. I was unable to find statistics as to the geographic distribution of different family structures, eg whether they are more or less likely to live in metropolitan or rural areas.

LyndsySimon 9y ago

I disagree. GamerGate was the cause for the rise of right-wing social media power. Milo wasn't know outside those circles until after the controversy got the mainstream consciousness, and now he's a staple on all of the right-wing sites I frequent. The idea that the largest gun forum on the internet would be regularly discussing posts by Milo and Gavin McInness would have been laughable before GamerGate. "Based Stickman", "Dave", etc. wouldn't exist if not for it. From the perspective of the "new right", GamerGate was the first time a community does up against the cultural warfare of the left and won. It was the point where the left went from being counter-culture to being "the establishment". For the first time in generations, the social outcasts were conservatives, not liberals. It's now rebellious and cool to want to marry and start a traditional family. You can be booed off a stage for saying things like "the husband should provide for his family". The right has grabbed this and incorporated it into their identity; the left hasn't figured out yet that they've become what they thought they were fighting. They're the Man.

slang800 9y ago
> Milo wasn't [known] outside those circles until after the controversy got the mainstream consciousness Yeah, I watched Milo get popular too, going from an occasional guest on Sky News to someone that people riot about... He's pretty amusing for the amount of controversy he generates. However, I don't think he has changed the culture of /pol/ (as OP said), I think he was propelled by it. > It's now rebellious and cool to want to marry and start a traditional family. I don't think GamerGate focused on that particular aspect. From what I saw, GG was just about bashing the media and exposing how journalists will work together to push certain narratives. Traditionalism is more prominent within the alt-right, and that wasn't pushed into the media spotlight until Hillary did a speech attacking them around August 2016. By that time, GG had died down and even Milo had pivoted his brand to alt-(right|light) talking points.
akhilcacharya 9y ago
>It's now rebellious and cool to want to marry and start a traditional family. Uh.. what? I've never actually seen family values being part of the discussion given most GG adherents trend teenage or older unmarried on KiA (the target male demos of video games).
- LyndsySimon 9y ago
  I mean that a traditional family is seen as somewhat counter-cultural today. I don't mean that this is literally a central topic for /pol/.
  - akhilcacharya 9y ago
    ....is it? I don't know any non-traditional families and I'm in a pretty metropolitan social circle.
    - somecontext 9y ago
      For some context for those interested: It's not entirely clear what "traditional family" means, but a plausible definition is married parents with children, where the husband is employed but the wife is not. (This is the direct sense implied by the context of the post originating this discussion, but is also the definition used by many other sources.) According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t04.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t04.htm there were ~7 million families in the United States fitting this definition in 2016, which corresponds to approximately 20% of families with children (and thus fewer than 10% of families total). Among said families with children, it is twice as common to have both husband and wife employed (~40%), and it is slightly more common to have a mother with no opposite-sex spouse present (~25%) -- though she may be unemployed. I was unable to find statistics as to the geographic distribution of different family structures, eg whether they are more or less likely to live in metropolitan or rural areas.