It’s no surprise that geeks, nerds, and gamers have a pipeline that leads them to the far right. I want to know if the reverse is true because I’m an angry gamer who ended up here on the left.
I think you have to start by understanding that “gaming” or “geek” culture seeming like it leads to reactionary views or pipelines has a lot more to do with who “gamers” actually are, not what their hobby happens to be.
In most cases, videogames, table top RPGs, Warhammer 40k, pretty much any of the stuff you’d typically associate with the subculture, all of these things have been nearly entirely out of the reach of the vast majority of poorer working class kids in the past 30 odd years. As tough as it might be to hear, these have always been expensive and toys, hobbies and privileges to take part in, with maybe the exception of comic books, nearly everything else has a fairly steep entry fee, needing to buy computers, several books, figurines, videogames, merchandise etc.
It’s really no wonder then, that the majority of people who are actually able to keep up with these costs will disproportionately be cis white men from the imperial core, as the group that happens to be at the top of the social structure of the world with the most amount of disposable income. And I think this is where the problem really stems from.
It’s not that geeks and gamers just happen to be more likely to become reactionary, it’s actually somewhat the opposite. Reactionaries, through their inherent privileged position in the world, are simply more able to get into this lifestyle in the first place. Geek culture and fascist/reactionary views might seem correlated, but they’re both just part of a path of least resistance for a certain type of person.
This isn’t limited to “gamers” though, if you are part of the privileged imperial core, you are indoctrinated to be a consumerist. Gamers just happen to consume games, but whether you are into cars, guns, pokemon, PC parts, phones, music, social media, clothes, or whatever other fad of the week is, the link isn’t gaming, it’s conspicuous consumption.
As far as the OP’s questions about a pipeline leading to communism, I doubt it. People arrive at the immortal science of Marx by a myriad of paths, many that have nothing to do with their hobbies. Whereas a consumerist constantly has the status quo passively reinforced upon them at basically every aspect of society. It’s impossible to escape, and the only refuge is constant examination through, at least, a socialist lens.
One thing I wanted to note, while expensive now, 3d printing is gonna annihilate a lot of these steep entry costs when it becomes easier to use/to afford. Can’t wait to see it happen.
Growing up I was lucky my dad was a machinist. Being on the border of millenial and Gen Z a lot of the old windows XP shitters were getting tossed out with some pretty hefty graphics cards for the time for CAD and design. When we had electricity it was pretty nice to be able to play space pinball and learn how to use a computer. Without that, I probably would’ve never been interested in the internet; for the better or for the worse.
I agree, this is going to hopefully change over time, in the past 10 years these sorts of hobbies have begun to take off in the global south as well, and particularly in places like China, but naturally here on the English speaking side of the internet we won’t see their views represented nearly as much as the average chud crackerite redditor who also have the same interests.
This along with videogames and many other digital media become cheaper over time, not to mention piracy almost being the norm in places like Brazil, Russia and India, should hopefully make the sub-culture less reactionary in the future.
I’d say it depends on the environment. TTRPG tends to attract analytical types and when there’s actual roleplay, is effectively an exercise in taking on the perspective of others. As well, classical RPG fare tends to come down hard on people who act in an oppressive way.
There are many video games that are exercises in empathy (That software company), looking at the bigger picture, and sorting through noise to figure out what’s going on (Torment, Disco Elysium). Additionally, mega corporations are so vilified as to be useable as comedy (Portal). Additionally, there are games which paint the government as morally gray (Control, and yes I know but still).
Then, of course, there’s Fallout.
Games like this are useful because they are narrative simulations; they let you try out different ideas by playing them out. As long as there is some critical thinking and/or media literacy skills present, engaging with these will challenge right wing thinking on different levels.
As NovemberHotel put it, there are certain narratives than can only be experienced in video games.
That was me. Went from angry reactionary gamer guy to angry communist trans woman.
How?
When I started my transition, I was forced out of the bubble I put myself in. See the world for what it is - seeing capitalism for what it is - is what drove me towards leftism in general. Eventually, I started reading Marx and the rest is history.
If you play Fursan Al-Aqsa, then turn to leftism, I think it’s possible. Unfortunately, most gamers are pissed at much dumber things such as complaining about in-game females not being naked enough.
Fursan Al-Aqsa
looked based, until you realize no linux support :(
Especially when the in game female is still hot by their own standards even with the less sexualized design. As far as I am concerned people who cry about women, minorities, and queers in games are no different from both people screeching “GaMiNg Is DeAd” and disingenuous gaming “journalism” outlets who think teabagging in a video game equals SA.
Once again lemmygrad suggests another unfathomably based game. Wishlisting this.
Fursan Al Aqsa?
Knights of Al Aqsa, name of some defenders of Palestine
Ok. Sadly my SSD is full so I will have to buy it another time.
If given everything happening around us you get angry over video games, probably there’s no direct path to the left.
But “angry about genocide / abject poverty / failing social services / so on and forth” pipeline to the left exists and that’s the important one.
angry over video games
Depends on the reason why. In my case it’s the prevalence of bullshit MTX and Marvel-tier playing it safe
And that was what pushed you left?
What really pushed me left was when Matt Walsh did a collab with PragerU. At the time I was a neocon who hated PragerU so I immediately unsubbed. What cemented my left wing stance was when I started applying a left wing lens on the issue of why gaming is in such a terrible state.
Do you reckon abolishing imperialism and capitalism will improve the state of the gaming industry from the perspective of a Western consumer who wants a steady supply of innovative and vibrant video games and related media like twitch streams etc, not to mention the hardware needed to play them?
That’s literally my stance as a gamer. My biggest reason being if we abolish capitalism a lot of the video games that revolutionized history - especially the GOATs like Halo CE and Halo 3 - will not only be preserved but made playable on a wider variety of devices now that hardware and IP are non-issues. Even franchises like CoD can improve with this, instead of being neocon propaganda disguised as Fortnite we would see much more nuanced perspectives and even (hopefully with No Russian type missions and Zombies mode still in). Personally I want folks in communist society understand why gaming in in the 2000s was considered a golden age.
As for streams, hopefully folks like N3on, Adin Ross, and Jack Doherty get sanctioned much quicker when they do crazy shit.
Angry or not, is geek/nerd/gamer really even a coherent grouping of people?
With that said, I think that some, perhaps many, BreadTubers originally thought their project was to pull these people away from the alt-right pipeline and toward “the left.” But BreadTube was/is largely anti-communist; it’s mostly radlibs, socdems, and anarchists. On lemmy.ml, the admins ended up booting the anticommunist c/breadtube mods and making me mod.
One thing to consider is that the far right actively recruits in gamer circles. They are very good at slowly exposing angry guys to more and more extreme views. There is very little comparable on the left.
I wonder as to whether left wing folks also recruit in those circles.
I believe pointing out the scummy practices by major game companies (i.e., EA, Nintendo, etc.) and how Capitalism allows and encourages such practices is probably a good start. Although we should also prepare for the inevitable pushback from the Right, which has long established itself in most gaming circles already.
Yeah. Personally I barely see folks on the left cover these issues, which is why I decided to stick to gaming content even after my leftward shift.
I mean, nerds usually learn history, so therefore if they do learn actual history then yes.
Not if they “learn history” by watching YouTube history channels.
That’s not history, that’s fanfiction.
That’s actually a really good point. Interesting games tend to make me read books. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t at least a social democrat, but reading definitely pushed me over the line to the actual left.
I don’t know. I can tell you, seeing what the game industry did to video games certainly helped me adopt an anti-capitalist lens. It was influences significantly beyond that though, that got me all the way to communism.
I mean, the game industry killed most of my passion for video games in a death by a thousand cuts. But that didn’t on its own get me in front of people who were talking anti-imperialism, talking Lenin, George Jackson, Michael Parenti.
I was already anticapitalist during my neocon days thanks to casually watching Hakim
I’m not sure about the angry part (I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be angry about in this context), but I’m a lifelong gamer, and I’m here. The circles I inhabit tend to be fairly progressive, usually pretty liberal, but occasionally actually leftist. I don’t usually feel unsafe hoisting the red flag in my groups, so perhaps I am part of a pipeline to the left.
I don’t do twitch or youtubers, so I haven’t really noticed much of a pipeline to the right. But I do occasionally see nonsense about random games being “woke” for insane reasons, so I am vaguely aware of their existence. It’s just not a crowd I associate with.
WHen I say angry, I mean people disenfranchised by the enshittification of media.
Oh, yes, then I would be very angry.
Yeah
Well, I’d rather ask why gamers have that far right pipeline
To know why gamers are led to the far right, it’s probably cuz the most vocal of them are in places where the wealth has flowed to (hint: unequal exchange), thus having more money to invest in not only Internet but gaming consoles and devices
This includes North America, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea… (Tis no wonder gaming blew up in 1990s, after the Cold war)
Liberalism and fascism, the ideological defenses of capitalism, weren’t needed much anymore
And thus their conditions for such growth in gaming are set…
Anything that disturbs the status quo of those ideologies, could be viewed as an attack on all, including gamers…
That’s my half brained explanation…
(Ask me for anything else)
So essentially it’s the same reason why clowns keep getting elected in capitalist governments (i.e. booj class interests)? Mk, makes sense. That’s an even bigger reason for left wing/leaning gamers to support ending poverty (outside of not having empty servers in our regions).
I’m also an angry gamer but I’m Black, so that probably helped
If it doesn’t, let’s build it.
Yeah.
