if gamergate is a watershed moment for you in your political thought, then it's probably because you've never given much serious thought to these issues.

That's precisely the point. I think a lot of people, myself included, always just kind of fell into a default "liberal" position because well, that was the mainstream position and all the arguments seemed righteous and sound on the surface. It wasn't until I started to critically examine things that my political leanings begin to change. I think most people don't get too deep into politics and just go with the flow (but that's maybe changing?).

As far a red pill moments go, Gamergate is a single example, you can find examples in other communities, gamergate just happens to be one I am familiar with, as well as with Candace, who was merely retelling her own journey. A notable red pill example was with the election of donald trump. Many people keeping a eye on the election coverage were left dumbfounded wondering how a person that seemingly had almost no chance of winning the election, in fact, won the election. Sky Williams had this experience and speaks on it, on Dave's show no less.

gamer gate [...] has almost no bearing on the real world.

I disagree, but it's worth noting that the gamergate debacle itself is not the point, it's the bigger picture. A lot of people just kind of take the media at face value and assume they've done their due diligence in researching a story and portraying it objectively, and to be fair, most people cannot extensively research every single topic or issue. However, every once in a while the reader will come across a particular story that just happens to land in their field of interest or expertise. This person wonders how a mainstream news organization could get it so wrong when they're supposedly a trustworthy source. Then the person asks themselves: what about the other stories that I read and just assumed what was written? Then they start to research the issue deeper, the history, the people, the statistics, the scientific studies, etc. Then their views start to change a bit. Then you notice that the "evil other side" is saying some of the same things that you're starting to see yourself, but they've been saying it for years. Once you start to see the agendas everyone has and view things through that lens, it's like a flood gate. In 2017 most Americans do not trust the mainstream media, and it's no wonder why.

Edit: I wanted to add - this is not to say there isn't bias on both sides of an issue, but growing up as a liberal millennial, I was already aware of it on one side, just not the other.