This right here is why I've never understood the such intense disdain for her.
Like, she's obviously extreme. People will listen to her, but literally nobody is going to take her at face value except the types of guys who feel compelled to appease women LIKE Anita.
Just...ignore her. It's not like she's going to influence everyone and it's not like she has any real power to change people's established tastes.
The only reason Anita became as well-known as she is, is because the incel weirdos that took a disliking to her HATED her SO MUCH that the responses and attacks to her videos became bigger than the videos themselves.
Anita's haters are what made her lol.....and they're the reason she will never die.
Maybe.
The reason this all happened is plainly obvious though.
A previously unknown person enters an established community and proceed to talk trash about said community.
The problem is that this person is talking shite and some of their "takes" are just flat out nonsense.
So, like most communities online, people want to present a counter argument and take her shitty takes apart.
However, comments are shut off and likes and dislikes are shut off.
What's worse is anyone who has a go at criticizing her is branded an "incel weirdo" or whatever.
So this creates a feedback loop.
On top of all that people with a bit of clout in the community support her AND misrepresent her critics.
Lets say a new poster comes to NeoGAF and talks trash about Playstation.
People try to debunk their points but no no no this person has the entire forum on ignore and usually just makes an OP then bails.
However, they DO go to Twitter and moan about "XBox harassers" then come back to the forum and have another ill informed take on Playstation.
THEN mods and community leaders here start promoting the anti-Playstation threads and calling anyone who speaks out childish names.
You think this would not cause absolute outrage here?
The problem with Anita and the gaming community was always that criticism of her work was never really given any mainstream platform.
Like criticism of gaming was held up as this really good and amazing thing. Yet, criticism of the criticism was a huge no-no.
If Trump says videogames cause violence you will get plenty of articles pushing the counter argument.
If Anita says videogames cause misogyny it's just accepted as fact and no counter argument will be given the time of day.
It's true. Anita made her haters and then Anita's haters made her. This was facilitated by a mainstream media and industry that seemed determined to outright demonize anyone who said she was full of shit.