It's like, at first, it was relatively apolitical except maybe the New Atheists who got popular by criticizing the mostly right-wing religious nutjobs.

But then, I think around the mid-2010s, it started to get super political. Suddenly, everybody started to talk about how the evil wacky removed SJWs were trying to destroy gaming and our culture?

At this point, it seems like many people have snapped out of it and are making fun of these "anti-woke" crazies, but what materially caused this phenomenon to happen in the first place and why does it still persist to an extent?

  • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    8 months ago

    Nerds have always been "apolitical" and nazis were always nerds (seriously, look at some of the shit Himmler got up to, dude was a massive LARPing loser)

    So any "apolitical" group is vulnerable to fascists, because being openly anti-fascist is a political statement, and demanding a fascist leave the group is also a political statement. But trying to "find a compromise" isn't "political."

    So fascists infiltrating a group will always test the waters, saying things that are offensive, but juuuuust short of the dreaded "political." Usually in the form of insisting "It's not political, it's just how it is." (insert statement about the absurdity of the anti-semite here).

    So you get facists constantly normalising fascist ideas, while acting like anyone calling them out is being "political" and therefore trying to "ruin" a fun hobby forum (such as a gaming forum) by "talking about politics." Over time decent people will just leave a group that tolerates fascists, and in turn, they use the apolitical's fear of things becoming "political" to make disagreeing with them a "political" statement.

    This generally only works in communities full of privileged people who can afford to not have an ideology and don't feel a need to care about things other than their latest distraction/treats, and people who generally don't get out too much. So Gamers are a perfect cross section of those two most of the time.

    • Sickos [they/them, it/its]
      ·
      8 months ago

      Yes. Any space that is not actively anti-fascist will become fascist.

      I was at a shitty crustpunk bar once getting an after-work beer. One of those shitholes where the bartenders clearly hate you. So the bartender and I were ignoring one another when someone sits next to me and he immediately says, "no. get out."
      And the dude next to me says, "hey i'm not doing anything, i'm a paying customer." and the bartender reaches under the counter for a bat or something and says, "out. now." and the dude leaves, kind of yelling. And he was dressed in a punk uniform, I noticed
      Anyway, I asked what that was about and the bartender was like, "you didn't see his vest but it was all nazi shit. Iron crosses and stuff. You get to recognize them."
      And i was like, ohok and he continues.
      "you have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in and it's always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don't want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too.
      And then THEY bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh shit, this is a Nazi bar now. And it's too late because they're entrenched and if you try to kick them out, they cause a PROBLEM. So you have to shut them down.
      And i was like, 'oh damn.' and he said "yeah, you have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people."
      And then he went back to ignoring me. But I haven't forgotten that at all.

      • Michael B. Tager / iamragesparkle
      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Turns out all those Nazis accusing immigrants of being invasive vermin were projecting all along. Shocking.

    • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      8 months ago

      I would hardly say that nerds are always apolitical, many nerds are some of the biggest leftists out there, with even massive personalities like George Lucas personally gushing over the Soviet Union while making a not so subtle commentary on the United State’s imperialism.

      The sad part is that Nazis and fascists often hijack or force their way into communities that were originally leftist, or for leftist media, and use it for themselves. Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Star Trek, Helldivers, etc etc.

      • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        8 months ago

        Sorry, I meant more that internet nerd culture in general has always focused on "I don't want to talk politics, I just want to talk about this cool game etc."

        The people who make the media may not be apolitical, but a lot of people, especially in the west, demand an apolitical reading of any and all media. That's how these groups get infiltrated, though Sickos below put it much better.

        • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          8 months ago

          I would kind of push back on that first point though, as politics has always been part of the conversation. In my experience the ones demanding “apolitical media” and the ones saying “I don’t want politics in my XYZ” are usually the Nazis masquerading with faux-care, because to them the existence of women, black people, lgbt people, and minorities is “political”.

          Most nerds seem more then eager to discuss the politics of certain media, however the same can be said for the fascists frothing at the mouth to infect the conversation or shut it down in the guise of being apolitical.

          Sadly, I would agree with you and sicko that this is how it usually goes with media, but I will say that I hardly think it’s most nerds, as the ones that talk loudest and end up occupying once good spaces are usually the Nazis. Which in turn attracts more Nazis and so on.

          • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            8 months ago

            I think we may be talking about two different kinds of "nerd" here. In this specific example, I'm not just talking about people with nerdy hobbies, I'm talking specifically about a very particular kind of (usually white, male, middle class) guy whose understanding of politics begins and ends with the South Park "everyone is dumb for caring about things" mentality. Spaces like that were very common prior to gamergate stuff, I would say they were the majority of "nerd" spaces online, but not the only spaces (people who didn't want to tolerate that bullshit didn't)

            I wouldn't say that these people were concern-trolling nazis, but rather people who were useful idiots for them, and had their "let's just not talk about politics because it starts fights, and just enjoy the media we talk about here." twisted into the "politics is when wamens and minorities." sort of stuff we see today.

              • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                8 months ago

                Yeah, I don't disagree with your stuff at all, I've known plenty of nerds who do care about politics and political ideas in their media as well.