After the election of Donald Trump, I was asked by numerous media outlets to speak about Trump and GamerGate in the same breath. Initially, part of me wanted to reject the comparison as trite and absurd, along with the very notion that something that happened in a comparatively small industry could be held up alongside an event that will impact the lives of every American, and many around the globe.

And yet, despite my initial impulse, the connections are undeniably there: I’ve been seeing them for months and just didn’t want to say it out loud, as if my words were a magic spell that might conjure forth a sinewy darkness.

Read my entire essay along with thoughts about the election from eight other writers at Refinery29.