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I'm pretty sure /r/the_donald started out as a joke and slowly turned real at some point. I still don't quite understand what happened. It would make an interes

I'm pretty sure /r/the_donald started out as a joke and slowly turned real at some point. I still don't quite understand what happened. It would make an interesting investigation.

mcbuilder 8y ago
/r/T_D was such a strange mix of Russian bots, trolls, true believing incels, and meme spitting grandpas that I'm sure it could be studied for years by social scientists.
- gumby 8y ago
  It alway felt to me like an enormous, manually-computed Markov chain.
- atypicaluser 8y ago
  As could /r/politics, /r/srs and other extreme subreddits infested with bots, trolls and other societal rejects. How unfortunate that this generation's social scientists are interested only in grinding and swinging the axe in one political direction. ;-)
  - russdpale 8y ago
    In no way is TD and politics the same. TD is a cess pit of stupidity.
pcwalton 8y ago
Same with 4chan, from what I've heard. There's a lesson here about social media: if you tolerate people pretending to be Nazis "as a joke", then you will soon become overrun with actual Nazis.
- pasabagi 8y ago
  I can confirm. I was on 4chan a lot as a teenager (some ten years ago, now), and the Nazism was generally more a joke about how nasty and intolerant the board was. There were even 'raids' (essentially cyber-bullying) on racists. I can only guess that things must have gone downhill when the site was taken over by Hiroyuki Nishimura, who has some pretty right-wing political views. That said, there's also a kind of natural affinity in the humiliated-outsider-mentality that 4chan had that fits with Nazism in a way that I feel has become more and more clear in recent years.
  - jmcgough 8y ago
    4chan hasn't really changed much, /pol/ (where most of the right-wing memery and conspiracy posts are) was always awful; it was created years ago to keep those kinds of posts away from other boards.
  - hkt 8y ago
    I was on the site a little over ten years ago too, and see the same affinities, in retrospect.
AgentME 8y ago
I love the Kurt Vonnegut quote "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." I think people who decide to like a thing "ironically" generally progress to liking it unironically without realizing it. Some continue to claim it's ironic, but when all their actions (including voting) are fully consistent with someone that likes the thing unironically, you have to wonder if the word "ironic" still has any meaning.
- FlyMoreRockets 8y ago
  > "...you have to wonder if the word 'ironic' still has any meaning." This is perhaps the most ironic thing.
  - duckMuppet 8y ago
    Pretty sure most news agencies consider anything remotely conservative fake news now. I rarely ever see corrections or retractions from ANY of the big outlets. It's largely become infotainment, and everyone drinks from the fire hose of their own perspective. It's no wonder there is so little tolerance of any other perspective. This will likely lead to another push for controlling the internet/media a la net neutrality, because we all know people can't be left to do their own research, use any amount of discernment, or have an alternative viewpoint. Bring forth the gulags, the people need jobs...
    - jmanderley 8y ago
      This makes no sense, but is a common talking point. How is net neutrality "another push for controlling the internet/media"? If anything, it's the pure opposite, ensuring that all views can be accessed equally.
      - burfog 8y ago
        The old "net neutrality" did nothing directly for end users. It did not ensure anything for all views. Before it was even terminated, mass censorship (privately by the internet giants) had already started. Instead, it benefited the likes of Netflix at the expense of the telecom industry. It also put the internet in a legal classification that would allow more government control of speech, though this had not yet been much of an issue in practice. None of the above seems to have made much of a difference to end users. It would be great to have a new sort of net neutrality, focused on end users. A nice thing about the end of the old one is that a new one could replace it, giving people what they mistakenly thought they had.
wmeredith 8y ago
This is true. The same thing happened with the r/pcmasterrace subreddit-parody subs that were taken over by people not getting the joke.

I'm pretty sure /r/the_donald started out as a joke and slowly turned real at some point. I still don't quite understand what happened. It would make an interesting investigation.

mcbuilder 8y ago

/r/T_D was such a strange mix of Russian bots, trolls, true believing incels, and meme spitting grandpas that I'm sure it could be studied for years by social scientists.

gumby 8y ago
It alway felt to me like an enormous, manually-computed Markov chain.
atypicaluser 8y ago
As could /r/politics, /r/srs and other extreme subreddits infested with bots, trolls and other societal rejects. How unfortunate that this generation's social scientists are interested only in grinding and swinging the axe in one political direction. ;-)
- russdpale 8y ago
  In no way is TD and politics the same. TD is a cess pit of stupidity.

pcwalton 8y ago

Same with 4chan, from what I've heard. There's a lesson here about social media: if you tolerate people pretending to be Nazis "as a joke", then you will soon become overrun with actual Nazis.

pasabagi 8y ago
I can confirm. I was on 4chan a lot as a teenager (some ten years ago, now), and the Nazism was generally more a joke about how nasty and intolerant the board was. There were even 'raids' (essentially cyber-bullying) on racists. I can only guess that things must have gone downhill when the site was taken over by Hiroyuki Nishimura, who has some pretty right-wing political views. That said, there's also a kind of natural affinity in the humiliated-outsider-mentality that 4chan had that fits with Nazism in a way that I feel has become more and more clear in recent years.
- jmcgough 8y ago
  4chan hasn't really changed much, /pol/ (where most of the right-wing memery and conspiracy posts are) was always awful; it was created years ago to keep those kinds of posts away from other boards.
- hkt 8y ago
  I was on the site a little over ten years ago too, and see the same affinities, in retrospect.

AgentME 8y ago

I love the Kurt Vonnegut quote "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." I think people who decide to like a thing "ironically" generally progress to liking it unironically without realizing it. Some continue to claim it's ironic, but when all their actions (including voting) are fully consistent with someone that likes the thing unironically, you have to wonder if the word "ironic" still has any meaning.

FlyMoreRockets 8y ago
> "...you have to wonder if the word 'ironic' still has any meaning." This is perhaps the most ironic thing.
- duckMuppet 8y ago
  Pretty sure most news agencies consider anything remotely conservative fake news now. I rarely ever see corrections or retractions from ANY of the big outlets. It's largely become infotainment, and everyone drinks from the fire hose of their own perspective. It's no wonder there is so little tolerance of any other perspective. This will likely lead to another push for controlling the internet/media a la net neutrality, because we all know people can't be left to do their own research, use any amount of discernment, or have an alternative viewpoint. Bring forth the gulags, the people need jobs...
  - jmanderley 8y ago
    This makes no sense, but is a common talking point. How is net neutrality "another push for controlling the internet/media"? If anything, it's the pure opposite, ensuring that all views can be accessed equally.
    - burfog 8y ago
      The old "net neutrality" did nothing directly for end users. It did not ensure anything for all views. Before it was even terminated, mass censorship (privately by the internet giants) had already started. Instead, it benefited the likes of Netflix at the expense of the telecom industry. It also put the internet in a legal classification that would allow more government control of speech, though this had not yet been much of an issue in practice. None of the above seems to have made much of a difference to end users. It would be great to have a new sort of net neutrality, focused on end users. A nice thing about the end of the old one is that a new one could replace it, giving people what they mistakenly thought they had.

wmeredith 8y ago

This is true. The same thing happened with the r/pcmasterrace subreddit-parody subs that were taken over by people not getting the joke.