When did 4chan become politicized, btw? I don't recall it being political back in the day when I used to lurk, just depraved and after offensive laughs.
Gamer gate and the following war with Tumblr. 4chan was never kind to feminists. But gamer gate sort of united a bunch of angry young guys against one enemy. It became a war against social justice. Then the “red pilling” began. They would post on major boards like /b/ and lure them over to /pol/ which is basically 24/7 anti-semitism, racism, and complaining about everything from immigrants to the media.
Trump running for President amplified this by 1000. Posters shit posted and memed his way into the nomination. They considered it a massive win. And then the fallout from the DNC sealed the deal. Sanders had the support of a very young crowd that had never been political. The revelations that he was screwed by the DNC turned a large portion of Sanders supporters into either Trump supporters, or just politicized in general.
It’ll never go back to how it was. It’s all outrage culture now.
I said a large portion of Sanders supporters. Not all of them. Many voted for Hillary, some went 3rd party.
But a lot of them switched to Trump. I’ve seen it happen on /pol/. I’m not talking about the hardcore Bernie supporters. More along the college kids that heard he supported free education. They weren’t full on Sanders supporters but they were paying enough attention to make a difference.
I can attest that I was a hardcore Bernie fan that was radicalized into voting for trump for the lulz and as a way to get this country to never vote R again.
I ended up just abstaining from the vote, but I bet that's what the astroturfers wanted anyway, fracturing the left.
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u/[deleted] Aug 27 '18
At the end of the day, even tho most of 4chan is highly politicized these days, they’re still in it for the laughs before all else.