Guess i'll expose myself to downvotes and being called crazy. Do prepare for some dark shit towards the end though.

When the whole shitstorm started with the Quincident, i was neutral, leaning towards "please get away with that crap from me".

That crap was everywhere, like someone farting into a 2x2 room. I was annoyed with it.

I discovered Ghazi then. "How wonderful, i might actually find some entertainment in this shitstorm."

Spoiler: it didn't work out like that in the long run.

You see, the thing about Ghazi is that its content doesn't fit with the stuff written on the side bar about it. I expected mocking, pointing out idiotry, possibly even hints of quality humor.

What i found was reactionary outrage, but very rarely with something you could actually consider as substantiated proof behind the outrage. Sometimes i agreed. Other times, it was all forced and not funny nonsense. This is a constant on Ghazi, most recently demonstrated here for high outrage content, with low credibility: http://www.reddit.com/r/GamerGhazi/comments/2syrju/8chans_swating_attempts_finally_turns_violent/

There's also a habit of quoting stuff from pro-GG individuals or sites, but in a way that the context is not exactly clear, so you gotta actually read all of it. That was kind of a double-edged sword.

But that wasn't what pushed me towards GG, it was just what started pushing me away from Ghazi back to being "fuck off with anything mentioning Gamergate". Or so i wished.

My morbid curiousity got the better of me and i kept visiting Ghazi when bored.

You see, when you're a subreddit that merely reacts to the actions of another one, you don't exactly generate what one would call original content. Combine that with the fact that most of it was delivered in a way that expected you to be familiar with the subject, and you've got a bad combo. The nature of Ghazi forces its subscribers to familiarize themselves with Gamergate.

So i started getting familiar with it when i felt i had to. Which is quite often on Ghazi, due to its aforementioned reactionary nature. A shame, at least Encyclopedia Dramatica is funny, Ghazi seems like it's trying to emulate it.

And jesus, the rabbit hole was deep, way deeper than i anticipated. It wasn't a small "movement". It wasn't as black and white as i thought. It was an unholy mess on both sides. This side abusing that side of doxxing, abuse, threatening and whatnot. There was stinking shit on both sides, but that's how it always is in conflicts of this size. There are always extremists and fringe individuals or subgroups.

But there was a critical difference. The Anti-GG side didn't publicly denounce their extremists. If anything, the opinion of a majority of the anti-GG side was set in stone and any kind of disagreement was not discussed - it was rejected due to generalization and implied association. The Anti-GG side had actual figureheads - various members of the mainstream gaming media. The Anti-GG side had actual figureheads, people that were pushing themselves into mainstream media to tell their side of the story, always the same story and very, very rarely was there ever a debate. In the rare instances when there was a debate, their single-minded opinions made them look like zealots, incapable of NOT generalizing everything. It was ironic.

The pro-GG side was still claiming that its main goal was the elimination of corruption and background promo deals in mainstream gaming media. The gaming media responded aggressively. Which was stupid of the media, i think that we can all agree on. Don't pour fuel on the fire. Various shit happened. GG actually got some results done, as much as they get dismissed by Ghazi. Almost every major mainstream gaming site now has disclosure. Surprisingly, GG supporters are open for debate. Which, contrary to what Ghazi was presenting, made KiA seem much more rational in comparison.

Now, this still isn't the moment that pushed me pro-GG. I still just wanted to avoid it completely. Didn't want to declare myself as anything anymore.

The moment that did push me pro-GG involved my girlfriend. We're seemingly a typical couple, both white, European. We were with a group of friends, all gamers and somehow the topic of Gamergate came up.

I kept quiet and listened for a while. Surprisingly, my girlfriend was apparently pro-GG. She was way more into it all than was. A (now former) friend snapped at her, telling her she supported child molesters, women haters and all that.

Generalizations and assumptions are fucked up.

My girlfriend was sexually abused by her uncle when she was 6 years old. If that wasn't enough, she was raped by a stranger on her way home from visiting a friend when she was 13 years old. Let's just say that some former Yugoslavian countries can be pretty fucked up.

So after she went ballistic on that former friend and the argument finished, i asked her how come she felt that way about it all and didn't tell me. Turns out, since i mentioned GG and Ghazi a few times, she figured i was anti and just didn't want to start any arguments.

Now, bit of background - we're both passionate gamers, we met playing League of Legends.

She went pro-GG because, as an abuse victim, she was sick and tired of seeing her favorite hobby dragged through the mud, sick and tired of seeing one-sided articles on mainstream gaming media and finally went pro-GG when the "Gamers are dead" thing happened. She couldn't stand the fact that those attacking GG were throwing misogyny and pedophilia and whatever the hell not around as a counterargument of sorts. Let's just say that you don't react kindly to such things when you've been a victim of it in your childhood.

How else was she supposed to react to an attack from multiple fronts, one that jeopardized gaming for her, and another that basically declared her a misogynist and pedophile?

It was madness. And i agree with her. It's utter madness.

So yeah. Went from Ghazi to pro-GG like that.