The AI bit I disagree though. I have yet to see it being used to make up an enemy. Unless you mean doing fake news bits to convince people, like those recent fake deportation videos.

I feel like we aren't disagreeing on anything important, just giving different weights to certain elements. I don't know what else to say.

If the common people at the US are so selfish and self-centered, I don't expect them to react in any meaningful way. And by meaningful, I mean "organized" and "willing to risk their lives".

That Gamergate was a factor instead of the War on Terror killing 4.5 million people, forcing 38 million to flee their homes, and turning cities into places where children will still be born with the wrong number of organs a century from now... it's so petty!

costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs

jewishcurrents.org/the-genocide...

But if they didn't happen, something else would be used. The US sociopolitical framework has been hypocritical and benefiting only the wealthy for a long time.

data4democracy.substack.com/p/money-does...

I understand that it was co-opted by opportunists, culture war grifters and legit fascists, but if it didn't happen, they would co-opt something else.

The Gamergate itself wasn't fundamental, anymore than the Brazilian manifestations of 2014, which also were co-opted here to marginalize the left.

For someone outside US, like me, Gamergate was meaningless. The far-right radicalization worldwide used many sources of angst and discontent. For example, Bannon tapped into the growing pessimism towards the future before Analytica.

Also, fuck Dems, because:

www.lemonde.fr/en/archives/...

Bannon himself was sidelined in 2017, but the pandora box was already open.

www.propublica.org/article/guns...

It worked as "emotional" fuel, but it wasn't the engine. That blame lies on Steve Bannon using Cambridge Analytica for optimizing the spread of fake news, thus ensuring Trump 2016, Brexit and Bolsonaro 2018.

english.elpais.com/elpais/2018/...