8chan was where everyone went during gamergate because they thought Moot was a feminist/ anti freedom of speech. Weekendgunnit on reddit also ended around the same time. A lot of angry young men who believed the world was out to get them, consolidated in one place. It was a powder keg.
I’m super grossed out to say this, but I was one of them. I was there. It was bad. As soon as I matured and gained a SINGLE ounce of human decency, I immediately disavowed 8chan. It’s not the platform, it’s the people.
I was already a married ‘adult’ with a child of my own by the time 4chan arrived on the scene and had spent enough time online since the early 90s to know what had arrived. It was created by a 15 year old so there’s no surprise that it was populated by 1. kids and younger adults without life experience having any regards for ethics, morals, legality, or even thoughtful reasoning, and 2. evil creepy older fucks that migrated from Usenet’s darkest corners looking to take advantage of those kids, together who created the most fucked up collection of forums with the some of most vile and evil content possible because moderation was just not done. It fucked up a lot of social radars for the young people that became engrossed the chan-troll lifestyle and community.
I even attribute it to why we have Qanon grandmas now, the Q conspiracy made the jump from chan conspiracy trolling to my in-laws cousins believing its real because their Facebook feed is where they do all their best research. I even give it a lot of credit for the rise of Trump in 2015-2016, as I watched The_Donald on reddit explode from the chan kids pouring in with their obvious trolling, then the braindead right wingers embracing the literal crazy.
It sounds like you got into the worst subset of people within gamergate, the type on Kiwifarms too. But, that wasn’t the vast majority of people, my interaction with gamergate was just seeing what was on Twitter, and Youtubers like Thunderf00t.
I remember during Occupy Wallstreet, 4chan was in someways seen as like a robinhood type community. Connected with Anonymous. I agree 4chan was bad even then, if only because of the glorification of violence/gore. But it wasn’t as hated.
4chan is and always was bad, and 8chan was just more of the same 4chan.
8chan was where everyone went during gamergate because they thought Moot was a feminist/ anti freedom of speech. Weekendgunnit on reddit also ended around the same time. A lot of angry young men who believed the world was out to get them, consolidated in one place. It was a powder keg.
I’m super grossed out to say this, but I was one of them. I was there. It was bad. As soon as I matured and gained a SINGLE ounce of human decency, I immediately disavowed 8chan. It’s not the platform, it’s the people.
I’m glad you grew out of it.
I was already a married ‘adult’ with a child of my own by the time 4chan arrived on the scene and had spent enough time online since the early 90s to know what had arrived. It was created by a 15 year old so there’s no surprise that it was populated by 1. kids and younger adults without life experience having any regards for ethics, morals, legality, or even thoughtful reasoning, and 2. evil creepy older fucks that migrated from Usenet’s darkest corners looking to take advantage of those kids, together who created the most fucked up collection of forums with the some of most vile and evil content possible because moderation was just not done. It fucked up a lot of social radars for the young people that became engrossed the chan-troll lifestyle and community.
I even attribute it to why we have Qanon grandmas now, the Q conspiracy made the jump from chan conspiracy trolling to my in-laws cousins believing its real because their Facebook feed is where they do all their best research. I even give it a lot of credit for the rise of Trump in 2015-2016, as I watched The_Donald on reddit explode from the chan kids pouring in with their obvious trolling, then the braindead right wingers embracing the literal crazy.
It sounds like you got into the worst subset of people within gamergate, the type on Kiwifarms too. But, that wasn’t the vast majority of people, my interaction with gamergate was just seeing what was on Twitter, and Youtubers like Thunderf00t.
…they thought this because Moot banned the topic from 4chan. Which…isn’t a thing that happens often.
I remember during Occupy Wallstreet, 4chan was in someways seen as like a robinhood type community. Connected with Anonymous. I agree 4chan was bad even then, if only because of the glorification of violence/gore. But it wasn’t as hated.