Podcast Summary: It Could Happen Here
Episode: "Elon Musk Has Lost the Gamers"
Date: March 27, 2025
Hosts: Mia Wong & Garrison Davis
Overview
In this episode, Mia Wong and Garrison Davis delve into why powerful tech and financial figures like Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried are desperate to be seen as “gamers,” and how recent blunders have triggered unexpected backlash, even from typically supportive demographics. What starts as a lighter episode quickly morphs into a sharp critique of power, masculinity, media gullibility, and the cultural construction of “gamer” identity—tracing the intersection of tech, gaming, politics, and fascism, and looking at how collapsing myths may fracture right-wing coalitions.
Main Discussion Points & Insights
1. Why Do the Powerful Want to Be “Gamers?”
[02:55]
- Video gaming is a $184.3 billion industry—bigger than TV, movies, and music combined, with around 3 billion players globally (Mia).
- Despite a diverse gaming audience (predominantly mobile, often women and non-white players), the public image of "gamer" remains that of a white, right-wing, insecure male—a legacy of “Gamergate” (Mia).
- The “gamer” identity became a potent political tool. Gamergate marked the first “truly effective political mobilization” of gamers as a class, mainly for reactionary and fascist purposes (Mia, [05:22]).
- Mia: “Gaming is contested ground... there are a lot of traditionally left wing demographics that play video games and have made spaces here.” [26:44]
2. The Media’s Gullibility & Myth of the Tech Genius
Sam Bankman-Fried as “The Archetype”
[09:39]
- SBF, founder of FTX (now serving 25 years for fraud), was publicly characterized by author Michael Lewis as an enigmatic, genius gamer addicted to League of Legends and Storybook Brawl.
- Mia criticizes Lewis and "mainstream journalists" for being "genuinely, truly, an unbelievably gullible dumbass" ([17:34])—especially in failing to understand gaming and conflating addiction or eccentricity with brilliance.
- Garrison: “Except in the reversed Sam Bankman-Fried way where the schlubbiness is part of what makes him, like, an eccentric genius.” [12:47]
Sports, Masculinity, and the Nerd Myth
[17:34–23:37]
- Deep dive into Michael Lewis’s “Moneyball” and the Cleveland Browns fiasco under Paul Podesta (trading for Deshaun Watson, a serial sexual predator).
- The “nerd” is lionized—portrayed as oppressed underdogs; in practice, these figures become complicit in, or architects of, oppressive systems (Mia).
3. Gaming, Marginality, and Fascist Co-optation
[23:37–26:44]
- Cites Vicky Osterweil’s analysis: Games offer alienated people a way to embody power fantasies and cope with capitalist boredom, as well as spaces for queer and marginalized creatives. But they are also deeply susceptible to co-optation for violent, reactionary ends.
- Garrison and Mia discuss the trans and queer roots and innovations in competitive genres like fighting games (Sonicfox, speedrunning).
4. The Gender Politics of Gaming
[31:09–34:57]
- Games as outlets for dealing with the “violence of the gender system.” Both marginalized and privileged people use games to cope, but the right-wing solution fixates on blaming marginalized groups.
- Mia: “The Right... experiences violence in different ways, but the solution is to blame it on women.” [31:44]
- Elon Musk’s insecurity is tied to gender, but his immense power complicates the trope of “gamer as oppressed loser.”
5. Elon Musk: The Gamer Persona Falls Apart
Lies, Scandal, and Community Backlash
[34:58–43:01]
- Musk has repeatedly lied about being good at games: posting a nonsensical Elden Ring build ([36:06]), paying people to level his Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2 accounts, and being quickly exposed in a disastrous livestream ([39:04]).
- “It was so unbelievably obvious...this guy has never played this game before.” –Mia [39:18]
- Even right-wing streamers like Asmongold publicly called out Musk’s fakery, signaling a broad-based loss of trust.
Other Musk “Gamer” Scandals
- Musk’s alt gamer handle: “CYB3R G A M3R420”—a nod to meme culture and potentially to Hitler’s birthday ([38:52]).
- Notable hypocrisy: Musk famously claimed he doesn’t play GTA V because it “required shooting police officers”… but the hosts point out this is just another performative signaling ploy ([42:52]).
6. Why Game “Legitimacy” Matters
- Gaming status is now weaponized to signal authenticity to a right-wing base, and to impress media figures who still misunderstand gaming culture.
- But faking prowess is uniquely dangerous: The gaming community is adept at catching cheaters, and Musk has alienated even his core demographics ([41:09]–[44:05]).
7. A Broader Political Lesson: Fracturing the Right
- Mia posits that you don’t have to win everyone over, but fracturing coalitions is powerful: “The only way we get out of this mess is by just systematically tearing away these people’s coalitions so that … they can be stopped.” [47:20]
- Historic analogy: the Bolshevik victory relied on opponents’ supporters simply staying home.
Memorable Quotes
-
On gamergate’s legacy:
“Gamergate was sort of the first like truly effective political mobilization of like the gamer as a political identity … this is an extremely large group of people, because it’s new, no one has sort of defined it as a political identity before. And it’s also filled with people who are extremely insecure about their identity as a gamer.” —Mia [05:22] -
On the perils of media credulity:
“Michael Lewis is … a genuinely, truly, an unbelievably gullible dumbass.” —Mia [17:34] -
On status in gaming:
“There is literally an entire genre of video … that is very, very popular. That is just people exposing people who cheat in video games … Elon has walked just like, directly into this bear trap.” —Mia [41:09] -
On coalition fracture as a left strategy:
“One of the ways you can do this… is get their coalition to stay home … that was enough. Enough people just staying on the fucking sidelines… they can be stopped.” —Mia [47:20] -
On Musk’s hypocrisy:
“At least Musk has some integrity to not harm police officers in GTA 5. That really shows that there’s, like, a moral compass behind all of this, you know, at times, strange behavior.” —Garrison [43:17], mocking Musk’s performativity.
Key Timestamps
- [02:55] – Main episode introduction; why powerful people want to be “gamers”
- [05:22] – Breakdown of who the “gamer” actually is and Gamergate’s impact
- [09:39] – Sam Bankman-Fried as PR “gamer” and media’s misunderstanding
- [17:34–23:37] – Sports analogies; dissecting Michael Lewis’s gullibility
- [23:37] – Vicky Osterweil on gaming’s dual potentials (liberation/co-optation)
- [31:09] – Gender politics, gaming, and coping mechanisms
- [34:58] – Enter Elon Musk’s gamer scandals and livestream expose
- [41:09] – Gamers as anti-cheat watchdogs; Musk’s loss of core support
- [44:19] – Musk’s fake Quake credentials and YouTube takedown by Karl Jobst
- [47:20] – “How to break a political coalition” and lessons for the left
Notable Moments
- Mia’s sports tangent devolving into a mini-rant about the Cleveland Browns’ trade for Deshaun Watson. [19:02–23:37]
- Mia’s reading from Vicky Osterweil’s “Game Boys” — illuminating games’ dual social role. [23:37]
- Elon Musk exposed on livestream, losing the respect of right-wing gamers. [39:04]
- Ubisoft dragging Musk with a savage tweet — corporate pushback even from non-progressive quarters. [45:41]
Tone and Closing
The tone is snarky, personal, and highly online—rich with inside jokes and explicit left critiques. The hosts skewer both the “gamer” archetype and the out-of-touch elites who try to co-opt it, while acknowledging the complex, contested ground gaming represents: a space for both reactionary and radical possibilities.
Takeaways for Listeners
- The "gamer" identity is politically important, contested, and much broader than stereotypes suggest.
- Powerful men’s adoption of the gamer persona is about signaling belonging, leveraging a misunderstood—and powerful—demographic.
- Attempts to fake gamer prowess are uniquely damaging among online communities obsessed with legitimacy and detection of cheating.
- Coalition politics matter: Fracturing your opponent’s support may be as decisive as flipping supporters.
- The episode, while tongue-in-cheek, lays out a clear argument for understanding and leveraging cultural divides in the battle against fascist movements.
End of summary.