@wrongthink @xianc78 @alex @gnusocialjp @ryo I like to think they lost control because I grew up in a household where Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes were on the radio, along with the MSNBC SXM simulcast. I used to in my early days online even be a left-wing agitator doing it for free just to get a reaction out of boomers, partially because of what i was told to think however.

I was already starting to laugh at SJWs but GamerGate for a lot of people (especially nerds) was one of the earlier wake-up calls that the media/popular narrative was fake. I should have mentioned too that GamerGate all but wiped out the apathetic nerds who wanted to be left alone, either they ended up taking a side or laying low to avoid being attacked for it.

Their use of Discord communities as a way of influencing people has been a very mixed bag, simply because when discord implosions happen they happen fast and in a very dramatic fashion. Case in point, when drama with Fallout The Frontier including a lot on the Discord spiraled out of control into /v/, leading to a hilarious shitshow that also helped make the sneed meme mainstream:
https://youtu.be/p9yTWTiV80s

There was also a HOI4 mod implosion around the same time too, and some others. I've also been witness to a few myself as well, and recently prevented one from happening.