4 ms·

For some people, 4chan is one of the best places on the internet. At a personal level, if I want to hear a point of view I never heard, or that is a blind spot

For some people, 4chan is one of the best places on the internet. At a personal level, if I want to hear a point of view I never heard, or that is a blind spot for me about a specific topic, it's one place where I can find it. If I need to find extreme arguments against my own point of view, or total opposite passionate takes on something I'm sure about, it's one place where I can find it. It I need to be surprised, if I'm looking for deviant creativity, if I want to learn something weird and new or be taken out of my comfort zone, it's one place where I can find it. In that sense, 4chan is, paradoxically, one of the most genuine, purest human forum experience you can get. And yes it's terrible because of this. It's insulting, full of bullshit, hosting plenty of people with dangerous ideas. But that's also its value. I don't want to live in a world where people can only write things I could think about, or things that would not hurt me.

crazygringo 4y ago
You keep saying "it's one place where I can find it." But it's not the only place. Nor is it even a main place. Nor is it a place to find high-quality versions of any of these things. There are far better places to find opposing, passionate points of view. Far better sources for creativity and weird things, far better places to find a wide range of views. The way you write, it basically sounds like you're mistaking 4chan for the internet as a whole. Trust me -- if 4chan disappeared, there's still practically an infinity of things written that you couldn't think about. Hell, forget the internet, you'll find an awful lot of them just in a research library. Especially from roughly the 1930's to the 1970's, artists, political theorists, and psychotherapists were coming up with a lot "edgier" stuff and ideas than you're probably even remotely aware of, just to pick a few areas.
- kodyo 4y ago
  Not your role to tell other people what they should read.
- shrimp_emoji 4y ago
  There are other places on the Internet where enough trolls hang out that they started a far-right political movement based on a tripcode shitpost? In fact, forget engaging with human beings -- try a library? >4chan is, paradoxically, one of the most genuine, purest human forum experience you can get This is unimpeachably true, imo. There's something equal parts magical and horrible about unfiltered humanity, especially after living in digital mind-prisons where we have to be careful about not angering our advertiser jailers while self-aggrandizing and posturing on a feed instead of actually talking directly to people, all of us anonymous and shed of baggage and upvotes and reputation. I still believe this, even after I stopped using 4chan cuz edgy teen humor gets old after a while and the horrible parts of it start being unhealthy. :p Modern "social" media makes me miss it sometimes though.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mind-blight 4y ago
For a website that's been consistently documented as a breeding ground for extremism and linked to multiple mass killings, you'll need something more concrete than "some people love it." Most terrible things at least some people love. That doesn't mean they're not terrible. Edit: comment was edited with more detail while I was typing
- xwdv 4y ago
  No you don’t. People are so afraid to acknowledge the existence of extremism and people plotting mass killings. If you didn’t have a place like 4chan people might think everything is fine, perfectly fine, in this corrupted world.
- kodyo 4y ago
  Are you talking about the New York Times or 4chan?
- AbrahamParangi 4y ago
  It is not clear that the optimal amount of terrible things is 0. It may be that what is lost by constraining the madness of humanity is greater than what is gained. It is not clear, but there are people who would fight tooth and nail to see the madness, and the value they find within it, remain. Personally, I do not want to live in a monoculture of mutually-acceptable perspectives.
  - mind-blight 4y ago
    > It is not clear that the optimal amount of terrible things is 0. Totally fair, but there's a lot of options between "monoculture" and "total free-for-all" I also think your discounting that many cultures are unable to exist in free-for-alls. There isn't a clear line from "fewer boundaries" -> "more diversity". There's a sweet spot that allows the maximum amount of freedom for the most people, and that isn't laissez-faire
    - AbrahamParangi 4y ago
      Also fair, but then I would draw a line at the maximum amount of freedom of expression which still does not usually result in the extinction of cultures/subcultures (I say usually only because things come and go, some rate of attrition should be expected).

crazygringo 4y ago

You keep saying "it's one place where I can find it." But it's not the only place. Nor is it even a main place. Nor is it a place to find high-quality versions of any of these things. There are far better places to find opposing, passionate points of view. Far better sources for creativity and weird things, far better places to find a wide range of views. The way you write, it basically sounds like you're mistaking 4chan for the internet as a whole. Trust me -- if 4chan disappeared, there's still practically an infinity of things written that you couldn't think about. Hell, forget the internet, you'll find an awful lot of them just in a research library. Especially from roughly the 1930's to the 1970's, artists, political theorists, and psychotherapists were coming up with a lot "edgier" stuff and ideas than you're probably even remotely aware of, just to pick a few areas.

kodyo 4y ago
Not your role to tell other people what they should read.
shrimp_emoji 4y ago
There are other places on the Internet where enough trolls hang out that they started a far-right political movement based on a tripcode shitpost? In fact, forget engaging with human beings -- try a library? >4chan is, paradoxically, one of the most genuine, purest human forum experience you can get This is unimpeachably true, imo. There's something equal parts magical and horrible about unfiltered humanity, especially after living in digital mind-prisons where we have to be careful about not angering our advertiser jailers while self-aggrandizing and posturing on a feed instead of actually talking directly to people, all of us anonymous and shed of baggage and upvotes and reputation. I still believe this, even after I stopped using 4chan cuz edgy teen humor gets old after a while and the horrible parts of it start being unhealthy. :p Modern "social" media makes me miss it sometimes though.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mind-blight 4y ago

For a website that's been consistently documented as a breeding ground for extremism and linked to multiple mass killings, you'll need something more concrete than "some people love it." Most terrible things at least some people love. That doesn't mean they're not terrible. Edit: comment was edited with more detail while I was typing

xwdv 4y ago
No you don’t. People are so afraid to acknowledge the existence of extremism and people plotting mass killings. If you didn’t have a place like 4chan people might think everything is fine, perfectly fine, in this corrupted world.
kodyo 4y ago
Are you talking about the New York Times or 4chan?
AbrahamParangi 4y ago
It is not clear that the optimal amount of terrible things is 0. It may be that what is lost by constraining the madness of humanity is greater than what is gained. It is not clear, but there are people who would fight tooth and nail to see the madness, and the value they find within it, remain. Personally, I do not want to live in a monoculture of mutually-acceptable perspectives.
- mind-blight 4y ago
  > It is not clear that the optimal amount of terrible things is 0. Totally fair, but there's a lot of options between "monoculture" and "total free-for-all" I also think your discounting that many cultures are unable to exist in free-for-alls. There isn't a clear line from "fewer boundaries" -> "more diversity". There's a sweet spot that allows the maximum amount of freedom for the most people, and that isn't laissez-faire
  - AbrahamParangi 4y ago
    Also fair, but then I would draw a line at the maximum amount of freedom of expression which still does not usually result in the extinction of cultures/subcultures (I say usually only because things come and go, some rate of attrition should be expected).