this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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Eventually you have to step back and wonder, "Am I just a piece of shit?". Ask yourself this question, then look at your screen. Are you on 4chan? Do you have Pepe images on your post? If you answered yes to these questions, there's a high probability that you're just a piece of shit.
Reducing 4chan to its mediatic extremes is like reducing Reddit to the_donald or Lemmy to Hexbear.
This ignores that 4chan is widely known as the cesspool of the internet and attracts those types. It's like going on Hexbear and being surprised at the communists. People gather where their banners are. Shit attracts shit. This reduction is apt.
Sure it kind of does some good ish things sometimes, but more often than not, it's just an internet mob internet mobbing. That's essentially all it is: chaos waves constantly crashing back in on itself. Any good that comes from it is incidental at best.
Also, defending 4chan on the wider Internet is a little odd, 4chan itself revels in its shit reputation....
I'm actually not saying it brings more good or whatever. I'm saying it's mostly an anonymous forum with people just discussing like many other places on the internet.
I can't help but project an old version of myself on you. I can't imagine defending 4chan unless I was actively using it a lot... It did used to be basically my only internet community, so I understand being particularly fond of the cesspool.
However, I don't actually understand your reactions here. Why are you defending it when it seems like 4chan itself wouldn't even go this far except maaaybe as a limp wristed attempt at an excuse when something truly horrific happens because of them? I genuinely don't think I understand
Like, to currently vilify it is easy, just take a screenshot of pol. I remember looking pre2016 and seeing HYPERPARTISANSHIP all caps everywhere. It's an anonymous forum with people discussing plans to make life shittier for various groups, essentially at all times.... And before pol it was b (my era was back when pol was a boring place, I don't know the current state of any board, but I know some of the history and what motivates some normies of my niche who fuck with it)
I just don't understand the downplaying of it, normal people participate in shit ways on 4chan specifically because of the anonymity. The anonymity is why it's such a cesspool in the first place. It's toxic keyboard warrior syndrome to the extreme.
I'm not using it a lot just checking by curiosity sometimes because I like internet culture. And you probably do too, otherwise you wouldn't be in this community.
What I particularly dislike is tribally colported stereotypical opinions. For exemple Reddit considering Musk as a genius a few years ago and a complete idiots nowadays. I find similarly stupid to reduce 4chan to its racist/sexist users, there's also a lot of good quality social satire as we can find in this c, and overall a lot of uninstering normal internet discussion between nerds of different specialities. You focus on pol and b, like people could focus on Hexbear and lemmygrad to judge Lemmy, I think Lemmy cannot be reduced to those.