Gamergate was an INSANELY complex situation, involving thousands of actors with differing and intentionally unclear motivations. It was eventually labeled as a "movement" by the opposition, not by the "members" of the "movement", in order to paint a picture of their persecution, whether valid or invalid. They wanted a platform. They were given one. And they exploited it.
I mean, Jesus, just read the wikipedia article.
> Frank Lantz of NYU's Game Center wrote that he could not find "a single explanation of a coherent Gamergate position". Christopher Grant, editor-in-chief of Polygon, told the Columbia Journalism Review: "The closest thing we've been able to divine is that it's noise. It's chaos [...] all you can do is find patterns. And ultimately Gamergate will be defined—I think has been defined—by some of its basest elements."
That's because there Was No Movement! The pattern recognition centers in human brains go beyond confusion when presented with a situation like this. You know how whenever Anonymous comes up in the news, it's always labeled "the online hacker group Anonymous"? It's utter insanity. It's not a group. It's not a movement. They don't have weekly meetings down at the VFA. It's just an asshole with a computer. And, in the case of Gamergate, there was a cultural zeitgeist involved. A thousand people send disgusting messages on Twitter; our brains have to believe there's a pattern, that there's organization. But what if there isn't? Because, well, there wasn't with Gamergate. It was just mob mentality.
Frankly, we're all better off just putting both sides of that whole shitstorm behind us, like most internet food fights. The assholes who harassed people were, well, assholes. The women they harassed didn't deserve what happened to them, but they also handled it very poorly. Streisand Effect hits. Now Anonymous has a spotlight, and you know they're going to abuse that. It's no longer about what they actually believe. Now, it's about Chaos. Because Chaos is Fun. You call them sexist. You call them bigots. They laugh. They don't care what you call them. But: You care what they're calling you. Now, they're in control. They have the power. You gave it to them.
Afterward, everyone rational is trying to figure out what happened, trying to derive a pattern and point fingers. It has to be someone's fault; we need content for this clickbait we're writing about it. The people involved are still laughing, because they're STILL controlling you. Just stop. Don't engage terrorists.