Nerd spaces get unbearably boring when politically driven people dominate them. On the left, it turns into endless lectures about being “respectable,” rigid social rules, and performative “respect,” with a constant obsession over identity topics. On the right, you get people abusing gatekeeping as an excuse to spam shock content, forget what the fandom is even about, and call everyone else tourists while acting like tourists themselves. Both sides end up doing the same thing: pushing politics while pretending they hate it, and refusing to just put real-world fights aside and enjoy the medium.

I’m starting to move away from the idea that the left alone ruined nerd spaces and leaning more toward the idea that politically driven thinking in general did. I say this as someone who was deep into the whole “culture war” idea years before Gamergate happened.