[libraryatnight]

When I paid any attention to 4chan, say 12 years or so ago, it always struck me as an odd place with some real creeps. But, I never imagined it'd become the hive of negativity and sadistic nihilism it seems to be today that's bleeding out all over the internet.

The internet feels a lot darker than it did when I was a kid.

[TangoTrotFox]

Does it? I remember as a smart ass kid setting up fake meetings with people in various chat rooms on AOL. My friends and I were doing it thinking we were trolling other young kids who just wanted to meet up but, as an adult, I wonder how many of those other 'kids' so anxious to get into private chat and set up meetings were even kids at all. Also we were too dumb to think about things like indicators of what we'd be wearing/etc (to know how to identify us) were almost invariably unidirectional. Where did A/S/L? even come from?

4chan has turned more into a whipping boy for any sort of inconvenient issue, which is certainly not to say they aren't indeed heavy into trolling and other stuff - but they're also not this hive from which all issues originate from.

People seem to forget that things like worldwide organized pedophilia networks, and worse, exist. And the internet provides an excellent venue for these people to organize and try to further their ends. Many of the 'elsa style' videos extensively feature sexual and sadistic content alongside drugs and alcohol. And then you get into the bizarre messages in the comments for each video. Those videos have been watched for billions of hours by children, on loop.

[ConceptJunkie]

>> But, I never imagined it'd become the hive of negativity and sadistic nihilism it seems to be today that's bleeding out all over the internet.

Yeah, I feel the same way about cable news.