4chan is an online message board that has gained an enormous amount of popularity among diverse groups of people as a platform for communication, exchange of ideas, and social activism (both online and in real life). One of the major reasons for this is that people can post there completely anonymously, and are thus uninhibited and free to express any ideas they want. You could see it as either the ultimate form of anarchy, or the ultimate form of free speech.
4chan has been the original cradle for countless memes that have become immensely popular, as well as the starting point of many activist groups (such as Anonymous) in their quest to fight against corrupt organizations (such as the Church of Scientology).
One activity... maybe we could call it "game", that the users of 4chan have been engaging in recent years is trolling the regressive leftist mainstream media. What they will do is to come up with the most asinine, crazy, and quite obviously humorous and non-serious connection between an everyday innocent thing, and "white supremacy", or "nazis", or "alt-right", or whatever is currently the target of the mainstream media, just to see if they will swallow it. Just to see if mainstream media articles will appear that take it seriously.
The concepts of "kekistan", and the "kekistani flag", an obvious parody of a nazi-like flag, came mostly from 4chan. The idea that milk is a symbol of white supremacy, or that the classical "ok" hand gesture is a secret white supremacy salute, came from 4chan. The idea of trolling the mainstream media by putting "it's ok to be white" fliers at several places in real life, came from 4chan.
All of this has the idea to troll leftists and the radical left mainstream media. To poke fun at them. To bait them and see if they will take the bait.
And the thing is, the mainstream media has almost always taken the bait. And done it gladly and willingly.
A rather curious and strange relationship has formed between the mainstream media and 4chan. Rather than the mainstream media just ignoring and dismissing these clear trolling and baiting attempts, instead they fully embrace and welcome them. The mainstream media is taking everything that 4chan is offering, and presenting it in all seriousness (or at least they are pretending to). Whenever 4chan comes up with yet another form of trolling, the mainstream media gladly takes it.
4chan claims that milk is a symbol of white supremacy? Sure, why not. Now it is a symbol of white supremacy. They claim that the "ok" hand gesture is used by neonazis? Of course! Now that has become a fact. The "kekistani flag" is a neonazi flag? Of course it is! The more bullshit that the 4chan trolls throw at the mainstream media, the better. They will take it, and gladly display it.
Essentially, the mainstream media is pretty much taking all these trollish claims and converting them into ammunition against political dissidents, against the "alt right" and the "fascists" (which in practice means everybody who isn't a full extreme leftist social justice warrior).
They don't care that most people see those things for what they are, and are laughing at them for "falling" for the trolling and baiting. The mainstream media only cares about riling up the social justice warriors. As long as that group of people believes it, that's enough for them. In a way, the mainstream media is pretty much implicitly telling 4chan "yes, keep coming up with even more crazy stuff, we'll take it, and we'll take it gladly. It's more ammunition for us to use. We don't care how ridiculous it is. It's not ridiculous to social justice warriors, and that's all we care about."
This might sound like this means that 4chan should stop doing this. But I don't think that's a good idea. In fact, I think 4chan should continue doing this, and do it in an increasing manner. If this continues for long enough, there will be a tipping point where it becomes so utterly ridiculous that the credibility of the mainstream media just collapses.
4chan has been the original cradle for countless memes that have become immensely popular, as well as the starting point of many activist groups (such as Anonymous) in their quest to fight against corrupt organizations (such as the Church of Scientology).
One activity... maybe we could call it "game", that the users of 4chan have been engaging in recent years is trolling the regressive leftist mainstream media. What they will do is to come up with the most asinine, crazy, and quite obviously humorous and non-serious connection between an everyday innocent thing, and "white supremacy", or "nazis", or "alt-right", or whatever is currently the target of the mainstream media, just to see if they will swallow it. Just to see if mainstream media articles will appear that take it seriously.
The concepts of "kekistan", and the "kekistani flag", an obvious parody of a nazi-like flag, came mostly from 4chan. The idea that milk is a symbol of white supremacy, or that the classical "ok" hand gesture is a secret white supremacy salute, came from 4chan. The idea of trolling the mainstream media by putting "it's ok to be white" fliers at several places in real life, came from 4chan.
All of this has the idea to troll leftists and the radical left mainstream media. To poke fun at them. To bait them and see if they will take the bait.
And the thing is, the mainstream media has almost always taken the bait. And done it gladly and willingly.
A rather curious and strange relationship has formed between the mainstream media and 4chan. Rather than the mainstream media just ignoring and dismissing these clear trolling and baiting attempts, instead they fully embrace and welcome them. The mainstream media is taking everything that 4chan is offering, and presenting it in all seriousness (or at least they are pretending to). Whenever 4chan comes up with yet another form of trolling, the mainstream media gladly takes it.
4chan claims that milk is a symbol of white supremacy? Sure, why not. Now it is a symbol of white supremacy. They claim that the "ok" hand gesture is used by neonazis? Of course! Now that has become a fact. The "kekistani flag" is a neonazi flag? Of course it is! The more bullshit that the 4chan trolls throw at the mainstream media, the better. They will take it, and gladly display it.
Essentially, the mainstream media is pretty much taking all these trollish claims and converting them into ammunition against political dissidents, against the "alt right" and the "fascists" (which in practice means everybody who isn't a full extreme leftist social justice warrior).
They don't care that most people see those things for what they are, and are laughing at them for "falling" for the trolling and baiting. The mainstream media only cares about riling up the social justice warriors. As long as that group of people believes it, that's enough for them. In a way, the mainstream media is pretty much implicitly telling 4chan "yes, keep coming up with even more crazy stuff, we'll take it, and we'll take it gladly. It's more ammunition for us to use. We don't care how ridiculous it is. It's not ridiculous to social justice warriors, and that's all we care about."
This might sound like this means that 4chan should stop doing this. But I don't think that's a good idea. In fact, I think 4chan should continue doing this, and do it in an increasing manner. If this continues for long enough, there will be a tipping point where it becomes so utterly ridiculous that the credibility of the mainstream media just collapses.
https://medium.com/humanist-voices/can-minorities-be-racist-a9ff8c7bc102 this link is an interesting one.
ReplyDeleteThe author keeps using the term "reverse racism", which is just asinine. It's completely nonsensical to use the word "reverse" in such a thing. It makes as much sense as, for example, "reverse murder", or "reverse arson", or "reverse jaywalking". In other words, none at all. Either you commit a murder, or you don't. Either you are prejudiced and/or discriminatory against other people because of their race, or you don't. Using the word "reverse" in any of this is just nonsensical.
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