[teucris]

You got a lot of great responses to your observations around 4chan, partly debating whether it should be to blame for the growth of the alt-right. I think it boils down to one simple thing: 4chan was unfettered. Anyone could go there and do anything - learn to code, coordinate a LOIC attack, draft an Anonymous army, or brew an ultra-conservative movement. Those things will happen in places where there aren’t guards in place. The fewer of those places there are, the slower things on the fringe will develop. If an open forum is shut down, these things find new places to grow. But they won’t stop.