I was an MRA in the 2000s and there was plenty of standing up then.
Gamergate was simply the first time it was effective. A lot of stars aligned by it being completely unrelated to SocJus and Leftism at the outset, which made a lot of people who wouldn't have believed it join in.
Unfortunately, those same normies and Leftists are what would kill it a few years later anyway. Fortunately the damage had already been done and the entire anti-SocJus industry had formed, for better or worse.
I was an MRA in the 2000s and there was plenty of standing up then.
Gamergate was simply the first time it was effective. A lot of stars aligned by it being completely unrelated to SocJus and Leftism at the outset, which made a lot of people who wouldn't have believed it join in.
Unfortunately, those same normies and Leftists are what would kill it a few years later anyway. Fortunately the damage had already been done and the entire anti-SocJus industry had formed, for better or worse.