6 ms·

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

by Kec71 9y ago

sotojuan 9y ago
What's crazy is that in the Bush/early Obama years 4chan was fairly liberal in terms of politics.
- fiblye 9y ago
  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 used to lean firmly left are now either fairly far right, or left leaning but absolutely hate the left establishment and support the right purely out of spite.
  - aphextron 9y ago
    >I think one important question to ask here is: what caused the huge shift? Because it's something I noticed as well. It was 8 years of a Democratic, fairly liberal president. People like to rebel against whatever is in fashion. The right wing is now "edgy" because it rails against the prevailing political power The generation of kids who are now posting on 4chan grew up in a world defined by the Fox News anti-Obama 'liberalism is a disease!' rhetoric which has taken over our media in the past decade. Be prepared for a radical push back from Trumpism by the subsequent generations that grow up under the current political climate. I imagine the pendulum will swing back with a vengeance after this one.
    - rtx 9y ago
      I am not sure why would you call someone who drones children liberal.
      - digi_owl 9y ago
        I find that "liberal" standing alone is useless these days. You really need to prefix it with "social" or "economic".
    - vim_wannabe 9y ago
      >The generation of kids who are now posting on 4chan grew up in a world defined by the Fox News anti-Obama 'liberalism is a disease!' rhetoric which has taken over our media in the past decade. Absolutely false, kids do not watch Fox News, and I'm not sure what you mean by 'taken over our media'. The generation of kids now posting on 4chan actually group up watching shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which took one sentence sound bites from people, put labels (you might know which ones) on them and made them into a huge spectacle.
      - aphextron 9y ago
        >The generation of kids now posting on 4chan actually group up watching shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which took one sentence sound bites from people, put labels (you might know which ones) on them and made them into a huge spectacle. It's two sides of the same extreme, both of which have driven people to the far right (Trumpism) and left (Antifa) respectively. Stewart is a perfect example of this childish false dichotomy created by the media to set people against one another. There's clearly a lot of money in tribalism. As far as 'taking over our media', what I meant is the rise of far right talk radio and things like Alex Jones being taken legitimately. These things have made it impossible for a normal person to filter out the nonsense these days.
    - LyndsySimon 9y ago
      > It was 8 years of a Democratic, fairly liberal president. People like to rebel against whatever is in fashion. The right wing is now "edgy" because it rails against the prevailing political power I'm 33. From my perspective, the GOP has been steadily gaining power my entire adult life. Obama's election in 2012 seemed mostly a result of the GOP choosing a fairly lame candidate and Obama's own personal charisma. I'm not sure it makes sense to "rebel against" the faction that has held the House for only 4 of the last 22 years.
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Rabid SJW busybodies, with Clinton presenting herself as their champion.
  - TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
    I think it's a combination of several factors: The skewed, unequal recovery since the recession has tons of people extremely bitter about the state of the economy and our country. Theoretically our economy is doing much better than it was in the 80's, but only a few cities are experiencing growth. This general sense of stress and displeasure among many people amplifies bipartisanship, and our two-party political structure just makes that worse. Right now, it is mostly seen as bad socially to hold non-PC viewpoints. With increased bipartisanship, it's only natural that the side with non-PC viewpoints would grow on an anonymous forum. The internet has become a massive avenue for media. People are constantly bombarded with unfiltered, unedited information that shows that our economy isn't for us, the media isn't for us, our employers aren't for us, heck, even our police and neighbors aren't for us. It just amplifies any us-vs-them mentalities that people have. Propaganda. State actors would aim for media that is both popular and anonymous. 4chan is a great avenue for that. Liberals and media are running with the propaganda angle because it sounds sexy and starts a faux Cold War, but I really think the real issues are our economy and media. People need to feel safe. If they don't, instability occurs on both sides. Sanders was a huge upset too, and shows us that it's everyone who feels pressured, not just the right.
  - jelly 9y ago
    It was quite possibly gamergate in 2014. I don't think dragging up the whole culture war here is valuable, but clearly a large portion of the gaming community were left feeling mistrustful of the gaming media. That war continues as background noise at this point, but is still a powerful influencer on many left-vs-right subjects.
    - ZenoArrow 9y ago
      I've never really understood gamergate. I vaguely recall there were some accusations of favouritism by games journalists towards some female game makers. What I don't understand is how this spiralled out of control. Was it mostly fueled by people jumping on a bandwagon or is there something I'm missing?
      - Solarsail 9y ago
        With the disclaimer that I don't fully understand Gamergate myself, and the following account sounds possibly incomplete, it seems like a workable summary of part of the subject. https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g9tit/eli5_gamergate_zoe_quinn_anita_and_everything_else/ckh2eat/ https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g9tit/e... Edit: I suppose I could note, some of the Youtube personalities who (I have heard) supported the movement are currently staunchly anti-feminist. I'm not certain how central they were to the movement at the time, but they may be relevant to the comments others have made involving the impact of the group.
  - dghughes 9y ago
    I'm on mobile so I didn't read the pdf. But I'd say related to the itle is overly PC people highly vocal aka SJW as people say. It's the left equivalent of far right. The other thing I think is US style politics as a Canadian it amazes me that is is so absolute you're Democrat or Republican. Most western countries have multiple political parties covering many shades politics. People in the USA from my viewpoint seem to have become convinced they can only be one or the other. And it seems there is a huge gap between the two parties more than I can recall seeing. The other thing is the US president is treated like a king he's just a politician. In western countries with prime ministers he can be thrown out easily and most people don't care who the person is. Age also seems to be a big part maybe it's a Millenia/Boomer thing big groups with opposing views. And of course there seems to be a huge lack of trust about what to believe. The tackiness most paranoid websites which years ago were called trashy tabloids are now seen as actual journalism. A person claiming to be a conspiracy theorist acts as if it is a badge of pride. Overall I don't know lack of education, no mentors, lack of direction, lack of a moral guide.
    - blfr 9y ago
      it amazes me that is is so absolute you're Democrat or Republican This may be true in general but isn't true of alt-right communities who coined the "cuckservative" meme. They were no fans of the GOP.
  - jeffry233 9y ago
    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.
    - anon6778 9y ago
      > 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.
      - jeffry233 9y ago
        >You are conflating message with actual sentiment Yeah, thats a fair point. >cartoon child porn I think you're misunderstanding what i'm saying here. Gamergate was a massive controversy that played out over the course of many months, was covered on national news networks and ruined many careers. It was a galvanizing event that brought people together in defense of their hobby. Cartoon child porn is a symbol of the belief system that you've described, but I don't think its possible to say that defending it galvanized the 4chan user base like gamergate.
  - yedava 9y ago
    I think part of the reason is the changing demographics of the geekier parts of the Internet. As hitherto absent groups of people entered geekdom, it produced a defensive reaction. The way I see it, it is easier to express liberal sentiments than to actually walk the talk. Kind of like how it's easier to profess feminism when it doesn't require any effort from your side than when you are married and have kids and are expected to equally share household responsibilities.
    - thescribe 9y ago
      I know several software engineers who always smile and nod when politics come up, they have been here forever but the last few years has pushed them over some tipping point where they became vocal.
  - ThrustVectoring 9y ago
    The social "tax rate" of things you must do in order to be a "good person" according to the establishment left got way too high. So if your choices are to make excruciatingly sure you don't accidentally forget the TQQIAAP part of LGBTQQIAAP alliance, or fuck all that noise and stop caring about what the left thinks, well, a bunch of folks are going to stop caring about what the left thinks.
  - Mikeb85 9y ago
    What caused the shift? The fact that 8 years of Obama didn't help the working class, and millenials are kind of in a shit situation.
  - A_COMPUTER 9y ago
    It's pretty simple, we moved left too fast for even many on the American left, and there was a backlash. Most people want to do the right thing, and the left's brand is "nice for people" but past a certain point people need to have some social, political and economic stability and the changes just came too fast and hard for that. I was a straight-up supporter of Occupy Wall Street. I know a lot of people who were. We all changed.
- anon6778 9y ago
  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 republican blockades to some extent - he was seen as a disappointment and trump became THE spanner in the works of washington. Another important polarizing issue is the vocal social justice movement in colleges, on tumblr, in the media etc. Since it is seen as infringing on free speech where it matters to 4chan (games, porn, unfiltered non-PC conversation, trolling) they are seen as a threat. If the left does not radically defend free speech, even when it is unpleasant or could be considered as hateful while the right promises small government and has crazy libertarian subcurrents then this is actually more value-aligned, at least on the surface, with 4chan interests. I don't think a timeline where bernie had been the 4chan favorite would be inconceivable.
  - Stanish 9y ago
    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.
- nobodynoes 9y ago
  They don't like being told what to do or say. That's pretty much their main tenet. So when the liberals started policing them they rebelled.
- wyager 9y ago
  The chans (or at least the political parts) are fundamentally anarchist (which reflects the structure of the board). Since there are only two successful parties in the US, neither of them anarchist (or even libertarian) in any substantial respect, the intersection of chan politics and US politics manifests in weird ways.
- stevenh 9y ago
  It seemed like most of them supported Ron Paul.
- xorium 9y ago
  >the Bush/early Obama years That was 4chan's "Ron Paul for President" and "Jews did 9/11" phase. 4chan was never liberal.
eru 9y ago
Citation needed.
- Kec71 9y ago
  You will never get citation for that. I've been following those two communities for last three months before election happened (and few months after) and what I can state is onyl empirical. The things they do are amazing. More than 25k+ people working 24/7 to elect Trump is big influence. Note that they were all unpaid and did it by their free will. They even had paid members from opposition (ShariaBlue) to influence their opinions and destroy hegemony of site, but they failed. What do you think who financed this study? You think they were bored so decided to study /pol/ just so they have something to do? Pro Donald sites had much bigger influence in election than most of people will ever realize. Trump himself acknowledges them and his team follows them because news get there fastest.
  - Eleopteryx 9y ago
    I was following /pol/ since Trump's campaign started, back when I was certain he was just a sideshow distraction. Donald Trump's twitter account even winked at /pol/ at one point by tweeting what a 4chan poster asked, as well as copying their meme images. There was and is a very close connection there. It would be difficult to quantify the notion that the absence of /pol/ would have lost Trump the election, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were true.
KirinDave 9y ago
This is a statement without a lot of actual backing. Folks claim it, but it's difficult to prove. Meanwhile we can prove that Republicans suppressed certain types of voters post VRA-repeal. We can prove that laws banning felons from voting impact some groups more than others (unfairly, I might add). We even have evidence (if not conclusive proof) that spearfishing attacks on US voting staff changed voter rolls. It is part of /pol & the altright's rhetoric that they're a large and influential body. They certainly can grab media attention. But I don't think we really see them in particular exhibiting political power.
- TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
  I agree that those are issues that should be addressed, but if you feel that Trump's rise wasn't legitimate, then I urge you to spend some time in an area of the country that voted for him. There are many, many areas of the country where people feel like their quality of life has been on the decline for decades and who have lost faith in normal politicians. The "altright rhetoric" may not be influential to you, but it is very influential to a large chunk of the population.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - gizmo 9y ago
    Trump's rise wasn't legitimate because it was essentially a con job. Folks in rural parts of the country have been hurt by 30 years of anti-worker policies and, to an extent, globalization. In part they got neglected by regular politicians, but in part simply because jobs moved as the world changed they got left behind. Trump ran a campaign blaming immigrants and Muslims while promising to bring back coal and renegotiating all trade agreements, a.k.a. "winning". The entire campaign was a big lie. Trump lies on a scale that is not comparable to what regular politicians do -- his salesmanship skills allow him to tune in to whatever people want to hear. When the connection between campaign promises and policy gets totally severed democracy dies. White rural America has every right to be angry, but that doesn't excuse embracing a racist con artist like Trump.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

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

by Kec71 9y ago

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

sotojuan 9y ago

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

fiblye 9y ago
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 used to lean firmly left are now either fairly far right, or left leaning but absolutely hate the left establishment and support the right purely out of spite.
- aphextron 9y ago
  >I think one important question to ask here is: what caused the huge shift? Because it's something I noticed as well. It was 8 years of a Democratic, fairly liberal president. People like to rebel against whatever is in fashion. The right wing is now "edgy" because it rails against the prevailing political power The generation of kids who are now posting on 4chan grew up in a world defined by the Fox News anti-Obama 'liberalism is a disease!' rhetoric which has taken over our media in the past decade. Be prepared for a radical push back from Trumpism by the subsequent generations that grow up under the current political climate. I imagine the pendulum will swing back with a vengeance after this one.
  - rtx 9y ago
    I am not sure why would you call someone who drones children liberal.
    - digi_owl 9y ago
      I find that "liberal" standing alone is useless these days. You really need to prefix it with "social" or "economic".
  - vim_wannabe 9y ago
    >The generation of kids who are now posting on 4chan grew up in a world defined by the Fox News anti-Obama 'liberalism is a disease!' rhetoric which has taken over our media in the past decade. Absolutely false, kids do not watch Fox News, and I'm not sure what you mean by 'taken over our media'. The generation of kids now posting on 4chan actually group up watching shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which took one sentence sound bites from people, put labels (you might know which ones) on them and made them into a huge spectacle.
    - aphextron 9y ago
      >The generation of kids now posting on 4chan actually group up watching shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which took one sentence sound bites from people, put labels (you might know which ones) on them and made them into a huge spectacle. It's two sides of the same extreme, both of which have driven people to the far right (Trumpism) and left (Antifa) respectively. Stewart is a perfect example of this childish false dichotomy created by the media to set people against one another. There's clearly a lot of money in tribalism. As far as 'taking over our media', what I meant is the rise of far right talk radio and things like Alex Jones being taken legitimately. These things have made it impossible for a normal person to filter out the nonsense these days.
  - LyndsySimon 9y ago
    > It was 8 years of a Democratic, fairly liberal president. People like to rebel against whatever is in fashion. The right wing is now "edgy" because it rails against the prevailing political power I'm 33. From my perspective, the GOP has been steadily gaining power my entire adult life. Obama's election in 2012 seemed mostly a result of the GOP choosing a fairly lame candidate and Obama's own personal charisma. I'm not sure it makes sense to "rebel against" the faction that has held the House for only 4 of the last 22 years.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Rabid SJW busybodies, with Clinton presenting herself as their champion.
- TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
  I think it's a combination of several factors: The skewed, unequal recovery since the recession has tons of people extremely bitter about the state of the economy and our country. Theoretically our economy is doing much better than it was in the 80's, but only a few cities are experiencing growth. This general sense of stress and displeasure among many people amplifies bipartisanship, and our two-party political structure just makes that worse. Right now, it is mostly seen as bad socially to hold non-PC viewpoints. With increased bipartisanship, it's only natural that the side with non-PC viewpoints would grow on an anonymous forum. The internet has become a massive avenue for media. People are constantly bombarded with unfiltered, unedited information that shows that our economy isn't for us, the media isn't for us, our employers aren't for us, heck, even our police and neighbors aren't for us. It just amplifies any us-vs-them mentalities that people have. Propaganda. State actors would aim for media that is both popular and anonymous. 4chan is a great avenue for that. Liberals and media are running with the propaganda angle because it sounds sexy and starts a faux Cold War, but I really think the real issues are our economy and media. People need to feel safe. If they don't, instability occurs on both sides. Sanders was a huge upset too, and shows us that it's everyone who feels pressured, not just the right.
- jelly 9y ago
  It was quite possibly gamergate in 2014. I don't think dragging up the whole culture war here is valuable, but clearly a large portion of the gaming community were left feeling mistrustful of the gaming media. That war continues as background noise at this point, but is still a powerful influencer on many left-vs-right subjects.
  - ZenoArrow 9y ago
    I've never really understood gamergate. I vaguely recall there were some accusations of favouritism by games journalists towards some female game makers. What I don't understand is how this spiralled out of control. Was it mostly fueled by people jumping on a bandwagon or is there something I'm missing?
    - Solarsail 9y ago
      With the disclaimer that I don't fully understand Gamergate myself, and the following account sounds possibly incomplete, it seems like a workable summary of part of the subject. https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g9tit/eli5_gamergate_zoe_quinn_anita_and_everything_else/ckh2eat/ https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g9tit/e... Edit: I suppose I could note, some of the Youtube personalities who (I have heard) supported the movement are currently staunchly anti-feminist. I'm not certain how central they were to the movement at the time, but they may be relevant to the comments others have made involving the impact of the group.
- dghughes 9y ago
  I'm on mobile so I didn't read the pdf. But I'd say related to the itle is overly PC people highly vocal aka SJW as people say. It's the left equivalent of far right. The other thing I think is US style politics as a Canadian it amazes me that is is so absolute you're Democrat or Republican. Most western countries have multiple political parties covering many shades politics. People in the USA from my viewpoint seem to have become convinced they can only be one or the other. And it seems there is a huge gap between the two parties more than I can recall seeing. The other thing is the US president is treated like a king he's just a politician. In western countries with prime ministers he can be thrown out easily and most people don't care who the person is. Age also seems to be a big part maybe it's a Millenia/Boomer thing big groups with opposing views. And of course there seems to be a huge lack of trust about what to believe. The tackiness most paranoid websites which years ago were called trashy tabloids are now seen as actual journalism. A person claiming to be a conspiracy theorist acts as if it is a badge of pride. Overall I don't know lack of education, no mentors, lack of direction, lack of a moral guide.
  - blfr 9y ago
    it amazes me that is is so absolute you're Democrat or Republican This may be true in general but isn't true of alt-right communities who coined the "cuckservative" meme. They were no fans of the GOP.
- jeffry233 9y ago
  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.
  - anon6778 9y ago
    > 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.
    - jeffry233 9y ago
      >You are conflating message with actual sentiment Yeah, thats a fair point. >cartoon child porn I think you're misunderstanding what i'm saying here. Gamergate was a massive controversy that played out over the course of many months, was covered on national news networks and ruined many careers. It was a galvanizing event that brought people together in defense of their hobby. Cartoon child porn is a symbol of the belief system that you've described, but I don't think its possible to say that defending it galvanized the 4chan user base like gamergate.
- yedava 9y ago
  I think part of the reason is the changing demographics of the geekier parts of the Internet. As hitherto absent groups of people entered geekdom, it produced a defensive reaction. The way I see it, it is easier to express liberal sentiments than to actually walk the talk. Kind of like how it's easier to profess feminism when it doesn't require any effort from your side than when you are married and have kids and are expected to equally share household responsibilities.
  - thescribe 9y ago
    I know several software engineers who always smile and nod when politics come up, they have been here forever but the last few years has pushed them over some tipping point where they became vocal.
- ThrustVectoring 9y ago
  The social "tax rate" of things you must do in order to be a "good person" according to the establishment left got way too high. So if your choices are to make excruciatingly sure you don't accidentally forget the TQQIAAP part of LGBTQQIAAP alliance, or fuck all that noise and stop caring about what the left thinks, well, a bunch of folks are going to stop caring about what the left thinks.
- Mikeb85 9y ago
  What caused the shift? The fact that 8 years of Obama didn't help the working class, and millenials are kind of in a shit situation.
- A_COMPUTER 9y ago
  It's pretty simple, we moved left too fast for even many on the American left, and there was a backlash. Most people want to do the right thing, and the left's brand is "nice for people" but past a certain point people need to have some social, political and economic stability and the changes just came too fast and hard for that. I was a straight-up supporter of Occupy Wall Street. I know a lot of people who were. We all changed.
anon6778 9y ago
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 republican blockades to some extent - he was seen as a disappointment and trump became THE spanner in the works of washington. Another important polarizing issue is the vocal social justice movement in colleges, on tumblr, in the media etc. Since it is seen as infringing on free speech where it matters to 4chan (games, porn, unfiltered non-PC conversation, trolling) they are seen as a threat. If the left does not radically defend free speech, even when it is unpleasant or could be considered as hateful while the right promises small government and has crazy libertarian subcurrents then this is actually more value-aligned, at least on the surface, with 4chan interests. I don't think a timeline where bernie had been the 4chan favorite would be inconceivable.
- Stanish 9y ago
  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.
nobodynoes 9y ago
They don't like being told what to do or say. That's pretty much their main tenet. So when the liberals started policing them they rebelled.
wyager 9y ago
The chans (or at least the political parts) are fundamentally anarchist (which reflects the structure of the board). Since there are only two successful parties in the US, neither of them anarchist (or even libertarian) in any substantial respect, the intersection of chan politics and US politics manifests in weird ways.
stevenh 9y ago
It seemed like most of them supported Ron Paul.
xorium 9y ago
>the Bush/early Obama years That was 4chan's "Ron Paul for President" and "Jews did 9/11" phase. 4chan was never liberal.

eru 9y ago

Citation needed.

Kec71 9y ago
You will never get citation for that. I've been following those two communities for last three months before election happened (and few months after) and what I can state is onyl empirical. The things they do are amazing. More than 25k+ people working 24/7 to elect Trump is big influence. Note that they were all unpaid and did it by their free will. They even had paid members from opposition (ShariaBlue) to influence their opinions and destroy hegemony of site, but they failed. What do you think who financed this study? You think they were bored so decided to study /pol/ just so they have something to do? Pro Donald sites had much bigger influence in election than most of people will ever realize. Trump himself acknowledges them and his team follows them because news get there fastest.
- Eleopteryx 9y ago
  I was following /pol/ since Trump's campaign started, back when I was certain he was just a sideshow distraction. Donald Trump's twitter account even winked at /pol/ at one point by tweeting what a 4chan poster asked, as well as copying their meme images. There was and is a very close connection there. It would be difficult to quantify the notion that the absence of /pol/ would have lost Trump the election, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were true.

KirinDave 9y ago

This is a statement without a lot of actual backing. Folks claim it, but it's difficult to prove. Meanwhile we can prove that Republicans suppressed certain types of voters post VRA-repeal. We can prove that laws banning felons from voting impact some groups more than others (unfairly, I might add). We even have evidence (if not conclusive proof) that spearfishing attacks on US voting staff changed voter rolls. It is part of /pol & the altright's rhetoric that they're a large and influential body. They certainly can grab media attention. But I don't think we really see them in particular exhibiting political power.

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
I agree that those are issues that should be addressed, but if you feel that Trump's rise wasn't legitimate, then I urge you to spend some time in an area of the country that voted for him. There are many, many areas of the country where people feel like their quality of life has been on the decline for decades and who have lost faith in normal politicians. The "altright rhetoric" may not be influential to you, but it is very influential to a large chunk of the population.
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- gizmo 9y ago
  Trump's rise wasn't legitimate because it was essentially a con job. Folks in rural parts of the country have been hurt by 30 years of anti-worker policies and, to an extent, globalization. In part they got neglected by regular politicians, but in part simply because jobs moved as the world changed they got left behind. Trump ran a campaign blaming immigrants and Muslims while promising to bring back coal and renegotiating all trade agreements, a.k.a. "winning". The entire campaign was a big lie. Trump lies on a scale that is not comparable to what regular politicians do -- his salesmanship skills allow him to tune in to whatever people want to hear. When the connection between campaign promises and policy gets totally severed democracy dies. White rural America has every right to be angry, but that doesn't excuse embracing a racist con artist like Trump.

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