I listen to a couple of anime and gaming related podcasts. This one recently mentioned that Otakon had a gamergate-related panel, "Politics in Video Games". https://www.otakon.com/events_schedule_detail.asp?eventID=25&id=49102 Oddly, I don't see any mention of it here.
http://www.anigamers.com/podcasts/064-cannon-busters-under-the-dog-eating-contests-otakon-2016
Skip to 58:45 for relevant section
The hosts and guests on the podcast include people that I consider to be pretty smart. They present multiple informative, well-researched panels at multiple conventions. These are people who go deep enough to know about the production staff and sometimes stories about the creation process in the new and old anime they discuss. People who don't subscribe to the regressive idea that violent video games or violent anime/cartoons are harmful to society. People who call out bullshit business practices when they see it from media and games companies. People who see nuance and gradients where others might see black and white.
And yet, the reaction when the GG label comes up is the usual harassment mob of misogyny. The main concern is "how was this panel allowed in otakon, and are the organizers aware so it's never allowed again?" without regard to whether or not the panel might have had valid information or the quality of its delivery. Granted, it may well have been a shitshow judging by the description alone but neither me nor anyone on the podcast actually attended the panel and there is no recording that I have seen online. My point is in the discussion they create this cartoonish caricature of a hate-spewing ogre, card-carrying member of the Little Rascals' He-Man Woman Haters Club, ridiculous to the point that it makes me question how someone wouldn't stop for a moment and consider if this image is maybe a bit overblown. I have difficulty reconciling the fact that these generally well-informed people would ignore or dismiss things like the evidence of media bias and continued demonizing of games. Did they meet one too many actual autists in person or online that reinforced the image? Is their knowledge of GG based entirely on just what they read on mainstream publications and their contacts in the industry? Is the idea of complaining about biased journalism and industry mutual back-scratching considered just stupid as a whole when admittedly, there are bigger problems in the world to be concerned with than things like sex scenes removed on english localized games?