[enlyth]

Yeah you can argue that /pol/ sways far right and you'd be correct, and I don't personally condone most of the opinions that are represented there, but take a look at the general threads, you have a pro-ukraine one and an anti-ukraine one, both with equal representation. I can't think of any other site that has this. Any other website following the classical formula of pseudonyms and upvotes/downvotes, like Reddit, hackernews, and so on, are destined to be an echo chamber. You can feel it here too, even though HN is heavily moderated.

And say what you want about 4chan, but the most popular open source machine learning frontends come from /g/, that is, Automatic1111's stable diffusion, ComfyUI from Comfyanomyous, and oobabooga text-generation-ui for running LLMs locally. It's a place which is hostile to the lowest common denominator of the internet, which functions as a great filter for better or worse.

If you want a comfortable safe space that shields you from being offended, the popular social networks are great for you, but if you have thick skin and can handle unfiltered conversation, there is nothing more visceral and organic than 4chan, despite all its warts.

[bestcoder69]

Laughing to myself imagining the people believing you, thinking “hmm methinks I could use a little intellectual diversity in my bubble”, they click over to 4chan, take a big sip of coffee, and… actually look at it. lol

e: I’ll concede you can find different opinions there. Just, I wanna see a video feed of an unsuspecting person actually trying to go there to, like, learn.

[corbulo]

There's an adjustment period to understand each boards specific signal:noise. You can't just walk in and find Aristotle and Kant figuring shit out.

Each board has its ridiculous bullshit, groupthink, absurd extremists, edgelords, etc. once you know how to parse that you can quickly navigate to quality posts.

Each board of course has different signal:noise though, somewhere like /lit/ is probably 1:20 whereas /pol/ is probably 1:500-1/1000. But the quality posts are totally different from what you'll find anywhere else. Different users and audience.

[gruez]

>e: I’ll concede you can find different opinions there. Just, I wanna see a video feed of an unsuspecting person actually trying to go there to, like, learn.

Learning about opposing viewpoints doesn't count as learning?

[bestcoder69]

Imagine I said whatever you wanted me to say to that and have fun with it, man. You deserve it.

[velox_neb]

Surely at this point half the content on /pol/ is from professional propagandists and LLM-powered bots, trying to create the impression of a "4chan consensus" to sway anyone stupid enough to be taken in by that.

[gruez]

Why would professional propagandists care to influence a mongolian basket weaving forum? Even if they do succeed, their audience is going to be largely social outcasts with very little power or influence in society.

[corbulo]

Respectfully, meme magic says otherwise

[lisasays]

Take a look at the general threads, you have a pro-ukraine one and an anti-ukraine one, both with equal representation.

And this is ... a good thing?

[marcosdumay]

This doesn't make a site right-wing.

I don't think it's good, that's why I don't go there. But the discussion was never whether it was good.

[generalizations]

What, you prefer a bubble? Things were far better before the opposing viewpoints walled themselves off and refused to communicate with the people who disagreed with them. Isn't the political divide one of the big problems in (US) society these days?

[lisasays]

What, you prefer a bubble?

False dichotomy.

Just because I don't like the same radio station you like - doesn't mean I want to live in a bubble, and only listen to my own music.

[kelipso]

When 50% of the population likes that radio station, then yeah it means you want to live in a bubble.

[lisasays]

So if 50 percent of the town I live in watches Fox News, and I don't -- I'm living in a bubble?

[kelipso]

If Fox News is different enough from the news you watch, then yes, obviously.

[throwaway202303]

yes

[account42]

> Yeah you can argue that /pol/ sways far right and you'd be correct, and I don't personally condone most of the opinions that are represented there, but take a look at the general threads, you have a pro-ukraine one and an anti-ukraine one, both with equal representation. I can't think of any other site that has this.

It's not so much the voting that makes things lopsided but when posts are ordered or deemphasized based on those votes or if the actual moderators are opposed to free speech ideals. I can think of at least two low-moderation forums that do manage to host people of opposing opinions for the Ukraine war and other topics so it's not like 4chan is particularly unnique, just bigger and better known.

[kcatskcolbdi]

Also elevenlabs ai started as an offshoot of the MLP voice generation threads.