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Hype sells. A secretive back room internet where nefarious types hang out en-mass evading law enforcement is more marketable than reality. As someone who's don

Hype sells. A secretive back room internet where nefarious types hang out en-mass evading law enforcement is more marketable than reality. As someone who's done a fair bit of 'dark web' browsing, still the most frightening things I've seen have been on 4chan. And of course the govt would love for you to think that the dark web is something only for criminals.

SomeStupidPoint 11y ago
I don't believe you've been to the same parts of the dark web as me if 4chan is even if the running for top 10 worst sites you've seen. There are literally dozens of websites on the darknet that source much of the content that is disturbing on 4chan and act as exchange points for such content. However, both you and the article are correct that there's nothing particularly surprising or disturbing about this -- there are plenty of other dark corners of the internet where such things lurk. The interesting parts of the dark web are the same parts as the normal web -- the deep web. Just like with the normal internet, you need to know where you're going and a few of the right knocks before you see anything really interesting. On the open internet, a few magic nondescript addresses, a few specific keys that are indistinguishable from random ones -- and suddenly, you're playing fluid dynamics engineer on someone's hardware instead of just reading about fluid dynamics. Similarly, there are dark net sites that are essentially access portals to other places on the internet, are generally not advertised to people (and so don't make the news rounds like Silk Road or Tor Wiki or Freedom Hosting), and are considerably more interesting than things like hosting child pornography, selling drugs, or instructing on how to make bombs (which is what most of the surface dark net consists of). Everything else is just showrooms and advertising posters.
- ikeboy 11y ago
  >and are considerably more interesting than things like hosting child pornography, selling drugs, or instructing on how to make bombs You can't just leave it at that, tell us more!
Lawtonfogle 11y ago
There are areas of reddit you can go to watch children being killed. Gore abounds on the normal web and is legal (at least in the US due to First Amendment protection). What have you seen that is more frightening than that?
- innguest 11y ago
  Revisionist history. That is a lot more frightening to most people than anything related to violence and gore.
  - Lawtonfogle 11y ago
    Mind going a bit more into detail? Not sure exactly what you mean.
    - innguest 11y ago
      I was talking about revisionist interpretations of the events leading to and surrounding WW2, up to and including questioning the number of victims, the methods of killing, and the systematic nature of the killing. This is so scary it even got brave skeptic Michael Shermer in some hot water and he is a trained arguer in this very topic. Another frightening thing, since we're on the topic, is a bit more complex for me to explain, but if you search for "Perth Group" you will find there is a group of people who seriously question the viral model in Biology and to what extent it explains AIDS and HIV.

SomeStupidPoint 11y ago

I don't believe you've been to the same parts of the dark web as me if 4chan is even if the running for top 10 worst sites you've seen. There are literally dozens of websites on the darknet that source much of the content that is disturbing on 4chan and act as exchange points for such content. However, both you and the article are correct that there's nothing particularly surprising or disturbing about this -- there are plenty of other dark corners of the internet where such things lurk. The interesting parts of the dark web are the same parts as the normal web -- the deep web. Just like with the normal internet, you need to know where you're going and a few of the right knocks before you see anything really interesting. On the open internet, a few magic nondescript addresses, a few specific keys that are indistinguishable from random ones -- and suddenly, you're playing fluid dynamics engineer on someone's hardware instead of just reading about fluid dynamics. Similarly, there are dark net sites that are essentially access portals to other places on the internet, are generally not advertised to people (and so don't make the news rounds like Silk Road or Tor Wiki or Freedom Hosting), and are considerably more interesting than things like hosting child pornography, selling drugs, or instructing on how to make bombs (which is what most of the surface dark net consists of). Everything else is just showrooms and advertising posters.

ikeboy 11y ago
>and are considerably more interesting than things like hosting child pornography, selling drugs, or instructing on how to make bombs You can't just leave it at that, tell us more!

Lawtonfogle 11y ago

There are areas of reddit you can go to watch children being killed. Gore abounds on the normal web and is legal (at least in the US due to First Amendment protection). What have you seen that is more frightening than that?

innguest 11y ago
Revisionist history. That is a lot more frightening to most people than anything related to violence and gore.
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago
  Mind going a bit more into detail? Not sure exactly what you mean.
  - innguest 11y ago
    I was talking about revisionist interpretations of the events leading to and surrounding WW2, up to and including questioning the number of victims, the methods of killing, and the systematic nature of the killing. This is so scary it even got brave skeptic Michael Shermer in some hot water and he is a trained arguer in this very topic. Another frightening thing, since we're on the topic, is a bit more complex for me to explain, but if you search for "Perth Group" you will find there is a group of people who seriously question the viral model in Biology and to what extent it explains AIDS and HIV.