Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Dorkwad's avatar
3dEdited

Tumblr and 4chan went to war in the summer of 2014. It was a children's war, the typical combatant being between the ages of 14 and 21.

The battle was asymmetrical. The bastards of 4chan were organized, bloodthirsty, and used to combat. The faeries of Tumblr were less hierarchical, and clung to norms about communication and propriety.

In the aftermath, some 4chan users learned a taste for blood. They began forging weapons of war, refining memes for political ends. The ravaged Tumblr users retreated inwards, building complex frameworks around identity, safety, and "callouts".

The smoke never cleared. It drifted outward, seeping into the wider internet, where a children's war turned into everyone's war.

Expand full comment
Bill Price's avatar

I dunno, you seen the anti-Musk rallies? Lots of 70yo radicals out there. They've assured me locally that white Texas oilmen in cowboy hats want to boil off the Pacific and sell us the salt.

Expand full comment
51 more comments...

No posts