Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by vkou 2041 days ago
> Oddly enough 4chan still seems the only place for discussion outside the overtown window.

Most of the outside-the-overton-window discussion on 4chan is discussion of national socialism, with an occasional call for genocide.

I don't think people not participating are missing much.
2 comments
_mt3y 2040 days ago
> Most of the outside-the-overton-window discussion on 4chan is discussion of national socialism, with an occasional call for genocide.

4chan attracts people with extreme, elitist opinions on everything. Nazism is just one manifestation of this.

Saying "I like systemd" on /g/, "I like Murakami" on /lit/, and "I support the State of Israel" on /pol/ will garner roughly the same reaction.

link
vkou 2040 days ago
Yes, but because other forums tolerate extreme opinions on other subjects, people who hold them don't have a particularly burning desire to congregate there.

I don't think anyone's been banned here for liking systemd, or for expressing their support for Israel, but they will be for calls to genocide the Middle East.

link
oscribinn 2041 days ago
>Most of the outside-the-overton-window discussion on 4chan is discussion of national socialism, with an occasional call for genocide.

If your impression of 4chan as a whole is just /pol/. 4chan as a whole is much more ideologically diverse than reddit due largely to the site's format and lack of censorship, but if you're an outsider to 4chan's (often outlandish and intentionally offensive) cultural norms you're just going to think it's a nazi site. Mainstream media has tried and failed to understand it for decades now.

link
krapp 2041 days ago
>Mainstream media has tried and failed to understand it for decades now.

Yes... because even after decades of industry-wide integration with the web and a generation of people working in media who have grown up with it, somehow they still can't grasp the true nature of this one forum full of shitposting edgelords.

link
oscribinn 2040 days ago
You're actually on point even though you're being sarcastic. Communities aren't hiveminds, and the edgiest members of a group don't constitute the whole picture. Upvotes and downvotes definitely work to make communities act more like them, however.
link
9HZZRfNlpR 2040 days ago
4chan is very much mainstream and much more than /pol/, it's one of the most popular websites on the internet.
link