Submitted by ziq in chapotraphouse
hogposting wrote
"Gamer culture" took a major turn when peer-to-peer communication became common. It produced an environment where calling people horrible, bigoted insults with no real pushback was normalized. And there's an old, well-worn path from that to "ironic" bigoted memes, to "I'm just asking questions" bigotry apologia, and eventually to open bigotry.
idunnowhoiambuthey wrote
I agree. I also think that the way video games have been marketed as a product for the guys plays a role too.
celebratedrecluse wrote
i think you are right, this created the social conditions for gamergate because there was no countervailing influence to push many people towards more interesting trajectories
hogposting wrote
The medium of communication is a factor, too. If interactions are adversarial, relatively short, and dominated by bigoted insults, it's pretty difficult to communicate an effective counterargument. And even if you can communicate that counterargument, it takes a decent amount of knowledge to come up with it in the first place.
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