It Could Happen Here: "Elon Musk Has Lost the Gamers" (CZM Rewind)

Podcast: It Could Happen Here (Cool Zone Media / iHeartPodcasts)
Date: November 28, 2025
Hosts: Mia Wong, Garrison Davis

Episode Overview

Theme:
This episode takes a critical and humorous look at why powerful tech figures like Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried are so obsessed with being seen as "gamers." Through the lens of internet culture, politics, gender, and race, hosts Mia Wong and Garrison Davis explore how the "gamer" identity became cultural capital, and why Musk’s attempts to ingratiate himself with the gaming community have dramatically backfired.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Cultural Power of "Gamer" Identity (02:41–06:51)

• Industry Size & Demographic Reality:
  • Gaming is a $184.3 billion industry—bigger than TV, movies, and music combined.
  • Most gamers play mobile games, and the majority are women and people of color, despite the "gamer" stereotype being white and male.

    “Gaming is in $184.3 billion industry...more money than tv, movies and music combined. So this is the largest entertainment market in the world...” — Mia Wong (04:03)

• Political Weaponization of ‘Gamer’ Identity:
  • The idea of "the gamer" as a political class only solidified during Gamergate, which was a fascist movement centering white, right-wing men.
  • Being “a gamer” became culturally meaningful—political figures on both the left and right (e.g., Hbomberguy, Hasan) came up through gaming.

2. The Dark Side of Gaming Culture & Tech Elites Co-opting It (06:51–14:06)

• Fascist Roots and Exclusion:
  • Anecdote about “Remove Kebab,” a meme used by mid-2010s gamers—highlighting the embedded nature of right-wing extremism in gaming spaces.
• Tech CEO Gamer Branding:
  • Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) presented himself as a “gamer genius”—playing video games constantly as a supposed marker of eccentric brilliance, which baffled mainstream media figures like Michael Lewis.
  • Explains how traditional media’s lack of gaming knowledge allows these narratives to flourish unchallenged.

    “Michael Lewis is sort of angle...was him as, like, the gamer. And this sort of just like baffles Michael Lewis...he just doesn’t understand someone who just...plays video games all the time and doesn’t give a shit.” — Mia Wong (11:01)

• Media Gullibility:
  • Traditional journalists don’t “get” gaming, making them easy to bamboozle.

3. Media Mythologizing and Sports Analogy (17:10–22:59)

• Unpacking Michael Lewis’s Mythmaking:
  • Critique of Michael Lewis (author of "Moneyball") for championing so-called analytics "geniuses" who, in reality, make disastrous ethical and business decisions.
• Sports and Gaming as Cultural Roles for the Right:
  • Sports and gaming occupy similar roles as masculine, competitive cultural spaces, historically aligning with right-wing identity and exclusion.
  • The narrative of the oppressed nerd vs. the jock is a myth; elites have always been at the top of these hierarchies.

4. Gaming as Contested Ground: Power, Identity, and Resistance (23:01–27:24)

• Multifaceted Nature of Gaming Spaces:
  • Gaming can reinforce “white male power fantasies,” but also serves as a space for queer, trans, and people of color to find community and alternate realities.

    Games “give white men aggrandizing power and vengeance fantasies...but they are also capable of giving everyone else the fantasy of an alternative to white supremacist patriarchal capitalism." — (Read by Mia Wong from Vicky Osterweil’s "Game Boys," 25:20)

  • Speedrunning and competitive gaming often have significant queer/trans representation (e.g., SonicFox).

5. Gender Politics & Reactionary Mobilization (30:36–34:24)

• Gaming and Gendered Violence:
  • Both marginalized and privileged people use gaming to cope with violence from the gender system. However, the right transforms this grievance into misogynist and racist blame.
  • Host critique: “Most of us don’t become mass shooters...You’ve become Nazis.” — Mia Wong (31:44)
• Mobilization for Harassment:
  • Gamers, especially right-wing ones, have been used as “scabs and Pinkertons” against games industry workers, especially during controversies like the broken release of Cyberpunk 2077.

6. Elon Musk’s Gamer Grift and the Backlash (34:25–44:26)

• Elon’s Desperate Gaming Persona:
  • Multiple incidents where Musk either lied about his gaming prowess (e.g., Elden Ring, Path of Exile 2, Diablo 4) or was exposed faking skilled play by hiring "ringers."
    • Elden Ring incident: His “build” outed him as clueless.
    • Path of Exile 2: Used an alt (“CYB3R G4M3R420”), paid someone to play for him, got caught streaming—gamers instantly recognized he had no idea what he was doing.

    “It is immediately obvious that he has no idea what he’s doing...anyone who plays video games, this guy has never played before.” — Mia Wong (38:19)

• Backlash from All Sides:
  • Even right-wing gaming personalities (e.g., Asmongold) and non-leftist YouTubers (e.g., Karl Jobst) denounce Musk.

    “Fucking Asmongold is watching this video and being like, this guy is a lying piece of shit. What the fuck?” — Mia Wong (40:49)

  • Ubisoft's social media accounts publicly roast Musk.
• Gaming Scene No Longer His Base:
  • Mia observes that Musk’s attempts to use right-wing gaming culture as cachet to launder his reputation are “so obviously transparently pandering” that he's lost credibility even among those he once pandered to.

7. Why This Matters—Coalition Fracture and Political Lessons (45:28–47:41)

• Exposure as a Path to Weakening Power:
  • Important takeaway: Destroying the base of support for dangerous figures like Musk often means getting enough people to stay home—not necessarily flipping everyone to your side.

    “The way that you destroy a coalition isn’t necessarily by flipping everyone over to your side, right? ... Enough people just staying on the fucking sidelines…was enough for [the Bolsheviks] to take power.” — Mia Wong (47:23)

Notable Quotes & Moments (With Timestamps)

• “[Gaming] is the largest entertainment market in the world by such an astounding margin...” — Mia Wong (04:03)
• “When people say the word ‘gamer’... you’re thinking of a bunch of weird incel right wing dipshits who are white and suck ass.” — Mia Wong (05:11)
• (On SBF) “He is a League of Legends addict, which is, as any gamer will know... one of the worst categories of people who’s ever existed.” — Mia Wong (09:08)
• “League of Legends makes you a worse person. It simply does.” — Mia Wong (13:34)
• “Speedrunning... a very, very trans genre.” — Garrison Davis (26:43)
• (On Elon Musk’s gaming blunders) “It is immediately obvious that he has no idea what he’s doing... It was so unbelievably obvious.” — Mia Wong (38:19)
• “This is the guy who runs the country now. Oops.” — Garrison Davis (35:50)
• "That’s like a classic Elon Musk story: he claims he’s a gaming legend, but it’s because he had more money than everyone else until he ran into someone else who had money too, then got destroyed.” — Mia Wong (44:26)
• “Enough people just staying on the fucking sidelines...was enough for [the Bolsheviks] to take power. The actual serious point of this is that the only way that we get out of this mess is by just systematically tearing away these people’s coalition so...they can be stopped.” — Mia Wong (47:23)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 02:41 — Start of episode; why tech billionaires want to be seen as gamers
• 04:03 — The true size/demographics of the gaming industry
• 06:51 — Gamergate and the roots of right-wing gaming culture
• 09:00 — The myth of the ‘gamer genius’ (Sam Bankman-Fried)
• 11:58 — Media gullibility and image manipulation
• 17:10 — Sports, cultural narratives, and mythologizing “nerd” genius
• 23:07 — Gaming’s dual role: oppression and escape
• 26:34 — Queer and trans visibility in competitive gaming
• 30:36 — Gaming, gender politics, and reactionary grievance
• 34:25 — The “gamer schtick” among tech CEOS (Altman, Musk)
• 35:54 — Elon Musk’s history of faked gaming accomplishments
• 38:19 — Public exposure of Musk’s inauthentic gaming persona
• 40:49 — Backlash from the right—loss of the “gamer” base
• 44:26 — Quake anecdote: wealth doesn’t equal skill
• 45:28 — How exposure leads to coalition fracture
• 47:23 — Political implications: weakening fascist support coalitions

Overall Tone

• Language: Casual, irreverent, combative; lots of internet in-jokes and meme references
• Approach: Analytical, critical, humorous, frequently exasperated with both the current state of the world and the pretensions of tech billionaires
• Perspective: Leftist, anti-fascist, pro-queer and trans, deeply skeptical of both mainstream media and gaming industry structures

Conclusion

This episode delivers a pointed, funny, and insight-rich deep dive into how the "gamer" identity became cultural capital for tech elites, and why figures like Elon Musk are increasingly failing to control that narrative. The hosts highlight the ways in which the political use of gaming is double-edged, both perpetuating reactionary movements and serving as contested space for liberation and community. Ultimately, the rejection of Musk by the gaming scene is portrayed as one small but significant crack in his coalition—a valuable lesson for dismantling the power of would-be autocrats.

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