Some months ago I wrote about the implicit "agreement" between the 4chan forum and the mainstream media. The forum members keep coming up with the most ridiculous memes and claims imaginable, making absolutely ridiculous connections between random things and "white supremacy", in order to troll the mainstream media, and journalists not only embrace this trolling and react to it in all seriousness, but in fact do it gladly and willingly, with full awareness of what's going on.
I wouldn't even say that 4chan is manipulating the mainstream media. "Manipulation" would imply deception, that the targets of the manipulation are completely unaware of what's actually going on and that they are being taken advantage of unwittingly. While this may be the case with some clueless journalists who have absolutely no idea what's actually going on, I'm certain that many of these journalists are fully aware that what 4chan is doing is just trolling them just to get a reaction and show how ridiculous the mainstream media has become. They are fully aware of it, and they don't care. They deliberately don't care. It's juicy material, and they don't care how or why it was created, or by whom. They'll gladly take this material and write their hit pieces and add fuel to the culture war. It's like there's an implicit tacit agreement between the mainstream media and 4chan: "Yes, keep coming up with all these trolling memes. We'll take them and embrace them. It's good material for us."
What 4chan is doing is just harmless pranks. A harmless game between them and the mainstream media, where the latter is completely willing to play along.
Where this becomes horrendous and scary is when a terrorist is fully aware of this dynamic and takes advantage of it for much more sinister and dangerous goals. Which is exactly what happened with the mosque attack in New Zealand.
The attacker made it completely and absolutely clear that he's completely aware of how the regressive left, especially the leftist mainstream media, will react to a terrorist attack like this. He wrote in his manifesto that the only way to end the current culture war is to accelerate it to the point of actual physical conflict, to instigate actual literal civil war within the western world. He made it quite clear that the mainstream media would take this kind of terrorist attack and use it as fuel to instigate the culture war. This is exactly what he wanted.
And, of course, once again, the mainstream media is complying. Once again, I'm certain that many of these journalists are perfectly aware of the contents of the manifesto and the intentions of the terrorist, that it was his very goal to instigate the mainstream media into this kind of rhetoric and that the mainstream media is doing exactly what the terrorist wants, and they deliberately don't care. They are embracing the narrative, and doing it willingly and purposefully. They could just as well be saying this terrorist "thank you for providing us with all this juicy material which we can use to instigate the culture war".
What 4chan has done is harmless pranking and making fun of the mainstream media, playing a game with them. What this terrorist has done is extraordinarily horrendous and dangerous. Not only are over 40 people dead, but there will most probably be very serious consequences to this. Consequences that he deliberately wanted to instigate. He is counting on the western mainstream media to play along with his plan, willingly and purposefully, and he's right. This makes his crime all the more serious and horrific.
I fear, however, that what he wanted to happen is actually not going to happen. He wanted to instigate and accelerate the current culture war in the west to the point of actual conflict and literal civil war, which he sees as the only way to end said culture war in the end. I suppose that what he wants is some kind of modern "French Revolution" where, after the conflict is over, democracy is restored. I'm afraid that's not going to happen. If there's an actual civil war, it may well end up in the total collapse of western society and democracy. We are destroying ourselves from the inside, and this may well be the catalyst to make it happen for good.
Even in the absolute best case scenario, where this does not lead to an actual civil war, and the western world keeps limping forward, this may well still have negative repercussions in the form of diminished rights and freedoms, and increased censorship and draconian restrictive laws.
The scary thing is that the more that governments keep increasing censorship and criminalizing opinions, the more likely it is that more people will keep committing this kind of terrorist attacks. This may end up in a vicious cycle, until there's nothing left but a totalitarian regime.
I wouldn't even say that 4chan is manipulating the mainstream media. "Manipulation" would imply deception, that the targets of the manipulation are completely unaware of what's actually going on and that they are being taken advantage of unwittingly. While this may be the case with some clueless journalists who have absolutely no idea what's actually going on, I'm certain that many of these journalists are fully aware that what 4chan is doing is just trolling them just to get a reaction and show how ridiculous the mainstream media has become. They are fully aware of it, and they don't care. They deliberately don't care. It's juicy material, and they don't care how or why it was created, or by whom. They'll gladly take this material and write their hit pieces and add fuel to the culture war. It's like there's an implicit tacit agreement between the mainstream media and 4chan: "Yes, keep coming up with all these trolling memes. We'll take them and embrace them. It's good material for us."
What 4chan is doing is just harmless pranks. A harmless game between them and the mainstream media, where the latter is completely willing to play along.
Where this becomes horrendous and scary is when a terrorist is fully aware of this dynamic and takes advantage of it for much more sinister and dangerous goals. Which is exactly what happened with the mosque attack in New Zealand.
The attacker made it completely and absolutely clear that he's completely aware of how the regressive left, especially the leftist mainstream media, will react to a terrorist attack like this. He wrote in his manifesto that the only way to end the current culture war is to accelerate it to the point of actual physical conflict, to instigate actual literal civil war within the western world. He made it quite clear that the mainstream media would take this kind of terrorist attack and use it as fuel to instigate the culture war. This is exactly what he wanted.
And, of course, once again, the mainstream media is complying. Once again, I'm certain that many of these journalists are perfectly aware of the contents of the manifesto and the intentions of the terrorist, that it was his very goal to instigate the mainstream media into this kind of rhetoric and that the mainstream media is doing exactly what the terrorist wants, and they deliberately don't care. They are embracing the narrative, and doing it willingly and purposefully. They could just as well be saying this terrorist "thank you for providing us with all this juicy material which we can use to instigate the culture war".
What 4chan has done is harmless pranking and making fun of the mainstream media, playing a game with them. What this terrorist has done is extraordinarily horrendous and dangerous. Not only are over 40 people dead, but there will most probably be very serious consequences to this. Consequences that he deliberately wanted to instigate. He is counting on the western mainstream media to play along with his plan, willingly and purposefully, and he's right. This makes his crime all the more serious and horrific.
I fear, however, that what he wanted to happen is actually not going to happen. He wanted to instigate and accelerate the current culture war in the west to the point of actual conflict and literal civil war, which he sees as the only way to end said culture war in the end. I suppose that what he wants is some kind of modern "French Revolution" where, after the conflict is over, democracy is restored. I'm afraid that's not going to happen. If there's an actual civil war, it may well end up in the total collapse of western society and democracy. We are destroying ourselves from the inside, and this may well be the catalyst to make it happen for good.
Even in the absolute best case scenario, where this does not lead to an actual civil war, and the western world keeps limping forward, this may well still have negative repercussions in the form of diminished rights and freedoms, and increased censorship and draconian restrictive laws.
The scary thing is that the more that governments keep increasing censorship and criminalizing opinions, the more likely it is that more people will keep committing this kind of terrorist attacks. This may end up in a vicious cycle, until there's nothing left but a totalitarian regime.
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