fuckrashida:

leftclausewitz:

bogleech:

bogleech:

Angry edgelords think “SJW’s” (anyone they disagree with) are enforcing some sort of groupthink conformist echo chamber where discourse is silenced and yet what those same edgelords are so mad about is that the insensitive shit they say, which once went over fine on their 2004 forum communities, is suddenly subject to backlash and criticism when viewed by 500-10,000 people.

They are literally angry because they want their echo chambers back.

Wow looks like I made some people SUPER mad with this one.

It’s as if they’ve all got amnesia about the internet from 10+ years ago…or  maybe they’re too young to even remember it correctly.

Before the widespread use of twitter, tumblr and facebook, all people really had were webforums, Deviantart and livejournal, none of which were set up for posts to go viral and spread that far outside a small social circle with any ease.

It took something more extreme and special to be shared by thousands or erupt into a cross-website backlash.

On a forum in particular, even today, what you say isn’t often unlikely to be seen by more than that forum’s little clique, and every forum establishes its own totally unique status quo and social environment with its own approach to acceptability.

On social media as wide open as today’s big names, however, the things you say can be quickly exposed to basically the full spectrum of modern attitudes.

People upset that they now have to “watch what they say” like to think it’s because the culture is growing “hyper sensitive” and “coddled,” but sensitivity has not increased at all. If anything, it’s gone far down, since celebrities and politicians are getting more attention and more open support than ever for even their most despicable statements.

If you can’t get away with a “joke” on the internet today that you could a few years ago it is only because it’s being seen easily enough by a large enough number of people that it is subject to inevitable, natural and expected criticisms.

Yeah it’s like, weird, going back to forums now, they all have these cultural status quos that act more like a family than a system of friends.  Like there’s always this one asshole but everyone’s accepted them and treat them congenially, like oh there’s the guy, he’s the neighborhood neonazi, what a weirdo.

In these very small organizations holding people accountable for their horrid actions was actually the biggest faux pas you could commit, bigger than like, being a white supremacist or a violent homophobe or a misogynyst.  

I don’t have much more to add but I do think that the shift from the forum method of organization to the social network method massively changed the way that thought on the internet was organized.

I think about this a lot