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A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

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Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#31

Post by jeffry233 »

fiblye wrote: post #9
peruvian wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's crazy is that in the Bush/early Obama years 4chan was fairly liberal in terms of politics.

I think one important question to ask here is: what caused the huge shift? Because it's something I noticed as well. Something happened that has pushed much of the general internet and large swathes of the "geekier" parts of the net to the right, and it doesn't seem to be letting up. The media ran with the "Russian shills" thing for a while, but it seems to be running out of steam and people I've known for years who…

The contrarian aspect of 4chan is important, but I think theres more to it than that. Contrarianism on 4chan during the Bush years wasn't nearly as violent and widespread as it's been lately, and I think it goes back to gamergate, which was the first time a lot of 4chan users experienced politics having an effect on something central to their culture. The only groups speaking out against "SJW culture" happened to be far right wing groups, so they listened and adopted the rest of the platform. There was also always an undercurrent of racism (spamming the n word goes back to the early days of /b/) and the alt right gave these people a community, and talking points for a bunch of other issues.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#32

Post by Stanish »

anon6778 wrote: post #11
peruvian wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's crazy is that in the Bush/early Obama years 4chan was fairly liberal in terms of politics.

I think the thing is that 4chan is mostly anti-establishment. Obama promised CHANGE (anti-lobbying, supporting lower classes) and at the same time bringing troops home, something that would also appeal to conservatives. Plus he was fairly open and media-savy which provided a lot of material for memes, e.g. the situation room photo when they got osama. When he failed to achieve his promises - certainly due to republic…

He failed to achieve his promises because he was a bank-backed stooge who never intended to fulfill his promises. I know you want to believe the fairy tale, but if you're going to force all of us to hear that ridiculous fabrication (that he was a good guy who just couldn't get his peoples' policy thru cuz republicanz), you get to hear the truth.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#33

Post by dijit »

devmunchies wrote: post #29
aphextron wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm definitely falling into the "X.com used to be so much better back then!!" trope but I really hate how much /pol/ culture spread throughout 4chan. I think most of us who grew up on 4chan since '04 feel the same. The cancer of /pol/ and the rise of the 'alt-right' completely took over the culture of the site. It's sad, but I can't bring myself to visit even the SFW boards anymore.

I hope its easy to see that the rise of this "cancer" and the alt-right was a natural response to the rise of the extreme left throughout popular media and in society in general. There is nothing wrong with moderate conservatism, but when one must keep their conservative views in the closet, and anything conservative (on Reddit, Twitter, or simply at work) is seen as an inferior view point rather than just a differen…

It's a controversial opinion but I agree with you. The inability to even have a discussion with people about left vs right inevitably leads to echo chambers in both camps.

The smaller the echo chamber the louder the volume.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#34

Post by akhilcacharya »

peruvian wrote: post #4

I'm definitely falling into the "X.com used to be so much better back then!!" trope but I really hate how much /pol/ culture spread throughout 4chan. I spent a lot of time between 2006-2014 on various boards like /a/, /mu/, /g/, and /int/ until suddenly everyone was an "SJW cuck" and everything was politicized/full of angry wannabe-right wingers. Made me quit the site (well, that and other things). Sometimes you just…

It's truly bizarre to see how big of an impact one random, completely irrelevant event (ZoePost, GamerGate) had on the sites culture.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#35

Post by woodruffw »

devmunchies wrote: post #29
aphextron wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm definitely falling into the "X.com used to be so much better back then!!" trope but I really hate how much /pol/ culture spread throughout 4chan. I think most of us who grew up on 4chan since '04 feel the same. The cancer of /pol/ and the rise of the 'alt-right' completely took over the culture of the site. It's sad, but I can't bring myself to visit even the SFW boards anymore.

I hope its easy to see that the rise of this "cancer" and the alt-right was a natural response to the rise of the extreme left throughout popular media and in society in general. There is nothing wrong with moderate conservatism, but when one must keep their conservative views in the closet, and anything conservative (on Reddit, Twitter, or simply at work) is seen as an inferior view point rather than just a differen…

The extreme left throughout popular media? I watched a neoliberal win the democratic primary this past year. We can talk about whether the media was biased in her favor, but that would strengthen my point: they chose her over the progressive candidate.

I really don't like this sort of "look what you made me do" thinking, especially when the reaction is to their own boogeymen. If the alt-right wants to blame the left for their rise, they should be honest about their origins: culture wars on the internet, not society as a whole.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#36

Post by anon6778 »

jeffry233 wrote: post #31
fiblye wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one important question to ask here is: what caused the huge shift? Because it's something I noticed as well. Something happened that has pushed much of the general internet and large swathes of the "geekier" parts of the net to the right, and it doesn't seem to be letting up. The media ran with the "Russian shills" thing for a while, but it seems to be running out of steam and people I've known for years who…

The contrarian aspect of 4chan is important, but I think theres more to it than that. Contrarianism on 4chan during the Bush years wasn't nearly as violent and widespread as it's been lately, and I think it goes back to gamergate, which was the first time a lot of 4chan users experienced politics having an effect on something central to their culture. The only groups speaking out against "SJW culture" happened to be…

> There was also always an undercurrent of racism (spamming the n word goes back to the early days of /b/)

You are conflating message with actual sentiment. Using racist language is simply a subset of inflammatory language and trolling. Calling people a retard or a faggot fulfills similar goals. It does not really tell you much whether the anonymous poster actually discriminates based on those attributes or just uses the language to maintain a vulgar atmosphere. Slur words will always exist, attempting to ban them will just make the political correctness treadmill spin faster.

> which was the first time a lot of 4chan users experienced politics having an effect on something central to their culture.

Not quite. cartoon child porn has always been seen as a canary in the coalmine. If they go after that, which other deviant thing will next be branded as a thought crime?

4chan is radically free speech. Any political movement that restricts free speech in any way at all will have that as a black mark on them. The philosophy is that only deeds matter, words are free. If you post on /b/ that you'll shoot up a school tomorrow nobody will give a fuck. If you then continue to actually shoot up a school tomorrow then a) that's the actual crime b) great lulz will be had.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#37

Post by devmunchies »

woodruffw wrote: post #35
devmunchies wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope its easy to see that the rise of this "cancer" and the alt-right was a natural response to the rise of the extreme left throughout popular media and in society in general. There is nothing wrong with moderate conservatism, but when one must keep their conservative views in the closet, and anything conservative (on Reddit, Twitter, or simply at work) is seen as an inferior view point rather than just a differen…

The extreme left throughout popular media? I watched a neoliberal win the democratic primary this past year. We can talk about whether the media was biased in her favor, but that would strengthen my point: they chose her over the progressive candidate. I really don't like this sort of "look what you made me do" thinking, especially when the reaction is to their own boogeymen. If the alt-right wants to blame the left…

Agree to disagree I guess. I wasn't even talking about politics. I was talking about the left-wing PC culture that is throughout society for the last few years. Can you say with an straight face that most universities, for example, aren't more extreme left than in the past?

EDIT: In the past a progressive candidate wouldn't have even stood a chance, now one of them almost won.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#38

Post by stevenh »

peruvian wrote: post #6
Kec71 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nevertheless, /pol/ and r/the_donald were one of main factors why Donald Trump got elected. This crowdsurfing phenomenon holds tremendous amount of power.

What's crazy is that in the Bush/early Obama years 4chan was fairly liberal in terms of politics.

It seemed like most of them supported Ron Paul.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#39

Post by jeffry233 »

devmunchies wrote: post #29
aphextron wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm definitely falling into the "X.com used to be so much better back then!!" trope but I really hate how much /pol/ culture spread throughout 4chan. I think most of us who grew up on 4chan since '04 feel the same. The cancer of /pol/ and the rise of the 'alt-right' completely took over the culture of the site. It's sad, but I can't bring myself to visit even the SFW boards anymore.

I hope its easy to see that the rise of this "cancer" and the alt-right was a natural response to the rise of the extreme left throughout popular media and in society in general. There is nothing wrong with moderate conservatism, but when one must keep their conservative views in the closet, and anything conservative (on Reddit, Twitter, or simply at work) is seen as an inferior view point rather than just a differen…

I see plenty of conservatism all over Reddit and all of those other places you mentioned. It happens in boring threads on boring articles that aren't politically charged.

What causes the downvotes is the way the ideas are presented. If you write your comment like you're a writer for the Rush Limbaugh Show, you're going to be downvoted. There is plenty of room to discuss conservative ideas without resorting to the rhetoric that Fox News and talk radio have been pumping out since 2008.

I can't tell you how many times i've seen someone make a really good point about, say, the connection between rent control and the housing shortage but in the middle they go off on a tirade about the 'welfare state' and 'handouts' which causes their entire post to get downvoted into oblivion.

I will give you that socially conservative ideas are frequently completely off limits to discussion, and I think thats unfortunate.

Re: A Study of 4chan’s Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web [pdf]

#40

Post by Trill-I-Am »

devmunchies wrote: post #37
woodruffw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The extreme left throughout popular media? I watched a neoliberal win the democratic primary this past year. We can talk about whether the media was biased in her favor, but that would strengthen my point: they chose her over the progressive candidate. I really don't like this sort of "look what you made me do" thinking, especially when the reaction is to their own boogeymen. If the alt-right wants to blame the left…

Agree to disagree I guess. I wasn't even talking about politics. I was talking about the left-wing PC culture that is throughout society for the last few years. Can you say with an straight face that most universities, for example, aren't more extreme left than in the past? EDIT: In the past a progressive candidate wouldn't have even stood a chance, now one of them almost won.

How much exposure to "extreme leftism" would you say you get on a day to day basis at your job, in your informal social interactions, etc.?
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