Thread by @WiredInZero

1) I have no clout and almost no friends on this site, but consistently the most liked things I post here relate to my experience going from someone that lurked 4chan and was present at the beginning of GamerGate to... well, me. Not sure how long this'll be but:

Thread

2) It was so freaking easy to get sucked into it in hindsight. 4chan is an edgy teen's paradise. You can say literally anything you want on there with no repurcussions. Everyone's on an equal level of discourse there, namely: shitflinging of the highest calibur

3) But to someone without social skills, it allowed you to participate in conversations on any subject without fear. Someone says you're dumb for liking Oblivion over Morrowind? Yelled down for misusing a meme and told to lurk? Just leave and that doesn't follow you.

(4) For me, and I'd imagine most people on there, it became a crutch for interaction. And when you're around people long enough you pick up recommendations, opinions, topics...

Ideas

(5) CW: Translated stupid shit I remember people saying, violent language

"SJWs are ruining gaming!"
"These cucks are saying Bayonetta's sexist!"
"I love women yet everyone that plays Dragon's Crown's sexist!?!?!?"
"Fuck Sarkeesian! That bitch needs to shut up or Ill make her!"

(6) Or my favorite, "All these SJWs are caught up in their little hugboxes and echo chambers!"

This one's by far the most ironic to me in hindsight because that's exactly what 4chan is. It's one massive echochamber where people parrot the same opinions and shout dissenters down

(7) All of this came to a head for me with GamerGate. All of these opinions, all of these ideas that had been planted finally had a target. And fuck me, I fell for it.

(8) I remember wanting to get involved! Gaming Journalism was corrupt! They were all in bed with each other!! This Sargon of Akkad guy's saying what I've been thinking! So's Mundane Matt and Internet Aristocrat!

Oh shit, this Milo Yinnopolous guy's on our side!

(9) "Sure", I'd think, "women were being harassed! Threatened and bullied even! But that was just the fringe part of the group! I'm in this for ethical gaming journalism!"

There. Right there is the stupidest thing I think I've ever thought.

(10) And I GENUINELY believed it too. So when people would rightly get ANGRY that I was aligned with it, my (literally) autistic, ignorant ass couldn't get why people would assume I was misogynistic. Hell, I WAS, yet I was so far in denial that I couldn't see that.

(11) So, as the months progressed and more and more outlandish shit happened surrounding the movement I started looking at the other content those people I'd been listening to put out and branching into other people too, but something seemed off...

12) Actual CW: Transphobia, Sexism

"This Week in Stupid: people want trigger warnings in college classes!?!?"
"Transgendered people don't exist and are just gay men screaming for attention"
"WHEN WOMEN ARE SEXUALLY LIBERATED, SOCIETIES FALL!"

13) As I went from icon to icon realized that their politics beyond GG were harmful, hateful, even violent in some regards. By allying with them, I was assosciated with it, slowly being indoctrinated into it. However, I hadn't fully realized it yet.

14) As GG ended I went silent about it. Hearing people chew out anyone that said they were for GG had me scared to talk about it.

Side note: dont be afraid to tear into people that support things like this. It worked to keep me from talking about it, so...

Nazi furs fuck off

15) Years passed and I eventually got off of 4chan for less meaningful reasons. College got busy, I had work, yadda yadda yadda. I didn't do much relevent growing in the interim. Really not until the 2016 election, specifically the months after.

16) Trump's ascent was strikingly familiar to me in terms of discourse. People shouting about "triggering the SJW cucks" by voting him in, yes, but also organizations supporting him. Specifically Steve Banon, his advisor at the time, his publication Breitbart, and Yinnopolis

17) All of the shit they spewed about Trump's opponents, all of the rhetoric, all of the headlines. It was literally GamerGate 2.0 on a much bigger scale. I finally, FINALLY saw their tactics for what it was: propaganda.

18) All of these extremists, misogynists, even literal Nazis: they had realized they could piggyback off that movement to introduce and indoctrinate their ideas into people's heads. Make it mainstream. And 4chan, the ultimate echo chamber, made that possible.

19) And it apparently paid off. A man that bragged about assaulting women and made fun of a disabled reporter on international television was celebrated as a Godly man by some, a hero to others, and was elected president.

I uh... I rethought a lot of things after that.

20) The rest is pretty low-key. First I was exposed to people like @()Hbomberguy and @()shaun_jen that made informative and entertaining content. Then I found @()InnuendoStudios's Alt-Right Playbook, which forced me to really think about the shit I'd been a part of

21) I actually LISTENED to Anita Sarkesian's content and realized that all of those people SCREAMING about her were blowing her opinions WAAAAY out of proportion. All of the shit they peddled was just to make money off of gullible white boys.

Like me.

22) Finally, a few months ago I finally got inundated(?) with furry Twitter, and with it was exposed to a number of AMAZING people that I would have hated back then. @ReadingRidley, @CaseyExplosion, @PixylByte, @Atma505, @RachelTheSeeker and, yeah, @olivebrinker.

23) The craziest thing about it is I dont really know them, they don't know me, but they changed a great deal about who I am just by being themselves and speaking their minds. I really wish I could know them better, but hey! Anxiety sucks

24) When you insulate yourself in a sheath of hate and negativity it's so depressingly easy to be a monster. I never sent a death threat to anyone, but by throwing my support in with GG I made myself culpable in it, supportive of it.

25) This was a lot. Jesus, 25 Tweets? Still, I just hope my experience can help someone learn from my mistakes. I'm not completely great on everything, but I'm learning.

I hope this has been at least informative. Maybe someone'll learn from my idiocy.

/end

Oh shit I didn't expect this many people, uh...

I'm heading to bed, but thank you all so much for this response! I'm honestly speechless, I genuinely don't know what to say

Oh boy! One of the YouTubers I remember watching a bit of from around then found my thread! Hopefully there's no dogpile, but it'll be interesting to see it from the other side if there is!