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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
I can agree with everything you’ve said, I think we were just talking about two different types of people.
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.