4chan??

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My paranoia is that there are people waiting for someone to say something negative about 4-chan, then...

My other paranoia is that there are people waiting for you to say something positive about 4-chan...

I have been on 4chan once but it's not exactly a website for women and adults in general. I discovered is a fair amount of cruelty and misogyny on that site which I really resented. Not a good place to be!

I agree with some other posts here that stated that 4chan is a hangout for trolls. I seriously dislike the whole concept of trolling. It's cowardly and it's getting more and more out of hand. Sometimes I even wonder if some of these trolls actually have a conscience.

I'm against censoring swearwords and I support freedom of speech — that is, the freedom to voice your personal opinion in any kind of language that you personally find appropriate — but freedom of opinion and expression does not entail the freedom to bully and discriminate, which is what many 4chan participants are doing.

Freedom can only exist when one person's freedom ends where another person's freedom begins. A complete lack of rules results in discrimination against weaker individuals, who are rendered less free than their bullies as a consequence.

To give an extreme example, if I'm free to hit you over the head and take all your stuff, you lack the freedom to keep your property and health. Verbal abuse and harrassment can be just as damaging as a physical attack, and people who suffer from depression because of a hostile environment aren't free to enjoy their lives anymore. That's why self-centered freedom without consideration for others is no freedom at all.

A truly free society only allows actions that don't limit the freedom of others or inflict harm on others. The same goes for words. Any teenage suicide statistic can confirm that words have the power to inflict great harm.

Or, if this better resonates with you: Intolerance of intolerance is not intolerance, it is an appeal to tolerance. Likewise, tolerance of intolerance is not tolerance, it is intolerance by means of inaction.

4chan is just a comedy site for youngsters, if you look around they make gender, gay and racial jokes too. It's like foul-mouthed standup comedy for the South Park generation.

True. What South Park seems to be is an attempt to extend the high school style of childish humiliation and bullying culture into the realm of adult public discourse. It's pretty insidious when you think about it. The show claims to be satirical, but they rarely tackle the ideas of the people who they set out to discredit. It's all juvenile ad-hominem mud slinging. Where South Park extends high school bullying culture to the public political realm, 4-chan does it for the online social realm. I believe the effect of both is to encourage people to self censor through fear of ridicule and bullying. I do not believe that this is a positive trend.

If you self-censor, no matter what the reason, then you won't pass on those ideas to your kids.

It matters on what's being censored too. eg: If either place makes fun of gays, then that's wrong. If you make fun of people who make fun of gays, is that also wrong?

4chan is hilarious. I will browse /b/, /k/ and a few others. The autism hate train really exists because of that buffoon Chris Chan and others. Then again, 4chan IS a hate train.

You are right in that mockery of sexism and bigotry is positive. Problems arise when it is used less sparingly.

South park has a pretty good track record when it comes to gays, minorities etc, when the subject is politically neutral. But, when the subject is someone that the creators of the show want to do a smear job on, usually a liberal, out come the offensive stereotypes. As for people online, inspired by South Park, who build a clique of trolls to carry out attacks against personal or political enemies, or just for the "lulz"; it is becoming ubiquitous, and shutting down civil discourse of all kinds, as people with any agenda to push have taken note of these strategies.

there's an online community that is worse than gamefaqs!? i didn't think it was possible.

I would actually say that Yahoo Answers is worse than 4chan in some ways, at least in terms of how idiotic its userbase is. I haven't seen too many posts on 4chan about trying to pass drug tests. Not to say that 4chan's userbase is much smarter, but it certainly seems at least somewhat more intellectual.