At a time of personal confusion and pain in my life, Jordan Peterson and the alt right gave me direction and purpose. I eventually realized that purpose was spreading a cruel, antisocial worldview — but not before I inflicted that cruelty on those around me.
I almost fell down it around 3 years ago, watching “SJWs and feminists against video games” type videos and actively searching for them but then one day I just stopped. I really am thankful that the Youtube algorithm didn’t hit me that hard.
I’ll never understand how “SJWs and feminists against video games” continues to be a trope.
Portal was released in 2007, and by 2010 I had read a litany of articles about how Portal was a feminist masterpiece, turning the classic First Person Shooter starring a violent male protagonist on it’s head entirely, giving you a gun that makes holes. Each time you pass through a portal, you are rebirthed. There are no male characters. The only “male” coded character is the companion cube, which you are pressed to abandon by GlaDOS.
Anyway, plenty of feminists fucking loved that game, so I don’t understand how this perception continues unabated.
I mean, so many alt-right tropes don’t hold water the moment they’re held up against any sort of critical thought. I think ultimately, the far right isn’t interested in making a logical appeal. But rather, they’re interested in making emotional arguments disguised as logical arguments.
It’s this whole idea that the narrative becomes more important than the facts I think?
I never caught onto any of that I always thought it was just a fun ass game to fuck around with physics
I could be wrong but I have a feeling even if a player doesn’t dissect a game’s deep implications (and why would they?), experiencing a different gameplay like Portal’s has a bigger influence than we might expect.
Damn. I missed all the politics around the game and just enjoyed the hell out of it.
For those who want to catch up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6TrKkkVEhs&list=PLJA_jUddXvY62dhVThbeegLPpvQlR4CjF&index=4