The Paranoid Style of Internet Politics: Gamer Backlashes and “Politics” as Imposition

Abstract

The 2014 Gamergate movement has since become a model for backlashes and attacks against the inclusion of marginalized identities within the gaming industry. In the decade since the Gamergate movement, a number of similar backlashes have continued to occur, finding new reasons and rationales to attack the inclusion of marginalized people in the narrative of games as well as in the industry more broadly. In early 2024, one of these Gamergate-esque backlashes emerged around the company Sweet Baby Inc., first noticed by anti-woke movements in late 2023.  This article examines two Reddit threads discussing Sweet Baby Inc. and analyzes the discourses produced around the company and how this reflects on the ways that anti-woke: gaming backlashes conceptualize notions of ‘politics’ and ‘diversity’.