My experience with 4chan did change. As I mentioned in another post on this thread, I have aged significantly and that may be to blame. But /b/ in particular went from being a community where unrestrained creativity was rewarded to a community where unrestrained cruelty was. For me, the change was absolutely obvious, but again, I was in my mid twenties when 4chan launched and I'm 38 now...
I don't think it has changed really at all. I think you have. I was on in the early days, and it was terrible. It was full of dark people looking to get a rise out of each other. It was full of brilliant individuals using that brilliance to get a rise out of each other. It was awful and amazing, it was brilliant and it was pants-on-head retarded at times. Those people were the closest friends I've never known.
It still is. All of that. For many people. But the difference is that you've aged. 4chan in general, but specifically /b/, was, is, and will forever be the best introduction to the anonymous internet for young people. You can say whatever you want to whomever you want, and you don't really have to worry about being bullied. It gives juvenile individuals a way to express themselves, and experiment with just how horrible and creative they can be.
All that said, I'm in the same boat as you. I used to go there, but I avoid it now, because my tastes have changed. It's still good for a quick chuckle once every three months or so, but that's about it.
You can say whatever you want to whomever you want, and you don't really have to worry about being bullied.
This is a complete load of shit and I can't imagine how stupid you have to be to think it's true other than being an apologist for 4chan. If you said the wrong thing to the wrong person, you wouldn't just get "bullied", you'd be dog-piled by dozens of abusers all egging each other on, doxed, swatted, hounded IRL and anything else the rabble could come up with. That's what Gamergate was: this mob going over the top with how big a bullies they could be when you had the audacity to say the wrong thing, be the wrong gender, in the wrong place.
I believe the NSA (and other organizations) are responsible for this.
I believe there is a force actively preventing people on the internet from organizing political protests/ideas so that they can maintain a status quo.
Even when political protests do happen, they're protests allowed by these organizations to give people a false sense of accomplishing something.
The "RadFems" are a big part of the problem, but so are the "racists". Most of the people who do the dirty work are "useful idiots" who have no idea what's going on.
You've been downvoted by someone, but I think that was premature. I want to hear you expand on this. In particular:
- By what mechanisms do you think that they are preventing protests and ideas?
- Do you think they are trying to be secret doing so? If so, how much manpower do you think they have and how do they prevent someone from defecting in a game-theoretic sense?
My experience with 4chan did change. As I mentioned in another post on this thread, I have aged significantly and that may be to blame. But /b/ in particular went from being a community where unrestrained creativity was rewarded to a community where unrestrained cruelty was. For me, the change was absolutely obvious, but again, I was in my mid twenties when 4chan launched and I'm 38 now...