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Unlike the other commenters here, who seem to believe Al Jazeera "just got trolled", I think the rise of 4chan - and reddit - as politically-aware entities is g
by JoachimSchipper 16y ago
Unlike the other commenters here, who seem to believe Al Jazeera "just got trolled", I think the rise of 4chan - and reddit - as politically-aware entities is genuinely fascinating.
Of course, there's lots of trolling, grandstanding and silliness going on, but there's also a real, mostly well-intentioned attempt to change the world: redditors have given quite a lot of money and organized a political rally; 4chan has been fighting against Scientology and has (apparently?) been involved in Tunesia; etc. Wrong or right, it seems hard to explain this exclusively in terms of "lulz".
I will admit that my opinion of either group isn't/wasn't very high, and that I'm genuinely surprised by this behavior.
- samatman 16y agothe kids are all right man; the kids are all right.
- JoachimSchipper 16y agoI'm terribly sorry, but I don't really understand what you mean. Care to expand your comment a little?
- samatman 16y agoreddit and 4chan, I am guessing, came onto the internet after you did; they have a reputation for being a younger crowd generally. Certainly this is true of Anonymous. There's a very human tendency to look at youth and see their culture and its expression as unserious and flippant, because, well, it is. But they (and it wasn't that long ago that 'they' were 'we' for me) also tend to be deeply passionate about changing the world. "The kids are all right" is kind of an idiomatic American was of referencing all of this. Sorry it didn't come across.
- jabyrd3 16y agoDon't forget that while they may overlap, IRC anon is usually an entirely different beast from 4chan anon.