3 ms·

There are bits of this story which simply don't add up or end up feeling quite embellished. The reaction from the principle seems quite far-fetched and the endi

There are bits of this story which simply don't add up or end up feeling quite embellished. The reaction from the principle seems quite far-fetched and the ending feels like it was meant as a call back to the beginning rather than something that actually happened. Regardless though, this story is generally correct in how the alt-right appeals to younger and more vulnerable individuals. They tend to recruit through avenues like video games, discord and so forth. A lot of memes can also help drag people into the fold with not-so-subtle racism and xenophobia which kids might not be able to fully grasp at their age. It's one of those things I find strange because I grew up heavily addicted to the internet as well and it's hard for me to think of many memes which were weaponized to such an extent.

yasp 8y ago
For all the talk about Russian social media meddling, I'm surprised no one ever speculates about foreign meddling in media such as the chans. To what extent has chan culture been influenced by foreign agitprop?
- soulofmischief 8y ago
  Outsiders, maybe, but many within these kinds of boards understand the extent of the psy ops going on more than anyone speculating from outside.
- yellowapple 8y ago
  > I'm surprised no one ever speculates about foreign meddling in media such as the chans I feel like plenty of people do speculate about that - and for good reason, given that anonymity includes not knowing the nationality of any given "anon" (and even 4chan's operators won't ever really be able to know, given how common it is for non-Americans to use American VPNs for other things - e.g. bypassing region locks on media services). Same goes even for places that don't have a concept of an "anon" per se, like reddit or even Hacker News. I might claim to be an American citizen living in the SF Bay Area, but that doesn't mean I actually am an American citizen living in the SF Bay Area. Y Combinator might be able to see that my posts are more-or-less consistently coming from American IP addresses (barring a point in time where one of the GeoIP data providers believed my home IP to be Canadian, thus locking me out of various content on Spotify and shunting me over to the Canadian version of Newegg, much to my combination of chagrin and amusement), but it's quite possible that those IP addresses are just the far ends of VPN connections from, say, Russia.

yasp 8y ago

For all the talk about Russian social media meddling, I'm surprised no one ever speculates about foreign meddling in media such as the chans. To what extent has chan culture been influenced by foreign agitprop?

soulofmischief 8y ago
Outsiders, maybe, but many within these kinds of boards understand the extent of the psy ops going on more than anyone speculating from outside.
yellowapple 8y ago
> I'm surprised no one ever speculates about foreign meddling in media such as the chans I feel like plenty of people do speculate about that - and for good reason, given that anonymity includes not knowing the nationality of any given "anon" (and even 4chan's operators won't ever really be able to know, given how common it is for non-Americans to use American VPNs for other things - e.g. bypassing region locks on media services). Same goes even for places that don't have a concept of an "anon" per se, like reddit or even Hacker News. I might claim to be an American citizen living in the SF Bay Area, but that doesn't mean I actually am an American citizen living in the SF Bay Area. Y Combinator might be able to see that my posts are more-or-less consistently coming from American IP addresses (barring a point in time where one of the GeoIP data providers believed my home IP to be Canadian, thus locking me out of various content on Spotify and shunting me over to the Canadian version of Newegg, much to my combination of chagrin and amusement), but it's quite possible that those IP addresses are just the far ends of VPN connections from, say, Russia.