This was passing the rounds on Twitter via a comment on a Polygon article and it made me think of how many 'gamers' or people who are enthusiastic about video games have fallen prey to far-right ideology and their messages:
You have an obnoxious amount of white male gamers doing angry low-budget youtube videos where they yell and spit into a webcamera about feminist illuminati and SJWs; you have many online communities where bigotry is encouraged (e.g. RPGCodex); you have popular Youtubers like JonTron and Pewdiepie doing dumb nazi shit and racist jokes; you have online game chats filled with racist and sexist garbage; and of course you have the irrational response to women saying anything that rocks the boat (Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian as the most obvious examples). In the wake of Gamergate, I feel as if a lot of otherwise well-meaning people were more than fine with being in the company of MRAs, white supremacists, neo-nazis, and their ilk, and then have them run into the arms of this type of oppressive and toxic ideology.
It's as if geek masculinity is so fragile that when some buttons are pushed and some questions are asked, they run into the arms of neo-nazis and white nationalists to feel safe and secure from the groups who are asking questions about representation of women in games, employment opportunities as a minority, the toxic culture of gaming communities, and so forth. As Sarah Nyberg tweeted:
This is a good comment about the link between the nerd community and white nationalism from an article on Polygon.
You have an obnoxious amount of white male gamers doing angry low-budget youtube videos where they yell and spit into a webcamera about feminist illuminati and SJWs; you have many online communities where bigotry is encouraged (e.g. RPGCodex); you have popular Youtubers like JonTron and Pewdiepie doing dumb nazi shit and racist jokes; you have online game chats filled with racist and sexist garbage; and of course you have the irrational response to women saying anything that rocks the boat (Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian as the most obvious examples). In the wake of Gamergate, I feel as if a lot of otherwise well-meaning people were more than fine with being in the company of MRAs, white supremacists, neo-nazis, and their ilk, and then have them run into the arms of this type of oppressive and toxic ideology.
It's as if geek masculinity is so fragile that when some buttons are pushed and some questions are asked, they run into the arms of neo-nazis and white nationalists to feel safe and secure from the groups who are asking questions about representation of women in games, employment opportunities as a minority, the toxic culture of gaming communities, and so forth. As Sarah Nyberg tweeted: