Big question: Why have alienated young men, especially in America, found their home in the populist political right? Part of the answer is that the populist right takes video games seriously.
Mind the gap: Games have typically been treated as a bit of a joke by wider society. Long-held stereotypes about games being worthless, provoking violence or turning players into addicts has created a gap between the experience of the millions who play games and the perception of the medium in wider society.
The art of persuasion: For most of us who love games, our way of dealing with this problem has been to try to change minds. We’ve talked about games as an economic powerhouse. We’ve argued that games have cultural power. And we’ve sought to support research that’s provided a level-headed perspective on whether games make people aggressive (they don’t) or if they negatively affect mental health (again, a pretty firm nope).
Tunnelling down: But others reacted differently. A small number of ‘always online’ ‘transgressive’ young men, especially in America, have seen the rejection of games in liberal democratic culture as part of a wider betrayal of their personal and political identity.
Worrying development: And according to James Ball, Political Editor at The New European and author of The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World, those disaffected people have successfully been courted by the populist right and authoritarian governments - fuelling their causes with activism and energy that is helping dismantle the liberal order.
Tbf, there’s also been a large online culture against those exact things in games - we live in a post GamerGate society, and there’s a frighteningly large online presence of “antiwoke” people ready to brigade any game they perceive as “woke”.
I mean, all you have to do is watch any new game’s discord, voice chat, or even Steam “curators” - there’s even a dang spreadsheet
I’d argue that this is a symptom, not the cause.
The real issue is that these guys are what most people would call “losers” who sit at home, isolated, playing video games and browsing the internet all day. The right noticed this and targeted them specifically with a bunch of propaganda telling them that it’s not their fault they’re losers, it’s the fault of the left, women, and immigrants.
I used to game with two guys who fall into this category, and over time, their language got more harsh and militant until I couldn’t take it anymore. They always had someone to blame like “SJWs” for their own personal decision to sit at home all day rather than work on their shortcomings. They expected attractive women to want then even though they’d do absolutely nothing to make themselves attractive to others. They’d have wild opinions on far-flung groups that they never actually interacted with personally since they’d cut themselves off from the real world. I saw Steve Bannon’s tactics playing out in real time in their words.