this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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And the last post was a fucking chicken jockey meme? (Forgot to add image for context)

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[–] dead@hexbear.net 102 points 5 days ago (5 children)

4chan the website is unavailable. 4chan the ideology is very much alive. The culture of 4chan has invade every aspect of society. Everywhere you look, wojaks, pepes, the chad/stacy paradigm, the concept of "normies", redpill, etc. The White House posts 4chan memes. The "chad" emoji that everyone uses has blonde hair and blue eyes because a 4channer drew that image to say that the aryan race is superior. The disappearance of the website is like the withering of the state. The ideology does not need to hide within the website anymore because it is all around us. It already served its purpose. To quote Trump, "Everything's computer." And everything is 4chan.

[–] HelluvaBottomCarter@hexbear.net 24 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I don't think it invaded every aspect of society, I think it's the other way around. 4chan was a product of society, 4chan didn't cause a new society to emerge.

[–] dead@hexbear.net 36 points 5 days ago (2 children)

4chan convinced thousands of boomers that a secret politician named Q was leaking government secrets. Those same boomers raided the capitol building on the funniest day in American history.

[–] HelluvaBottomCarter@hexbear.net 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

In 2016 a bunch of loser liberals tried to convince the world that Facebook got Trump elected. If you think 4chan and memes have that much power over people, then surely you must believe that Facebook memes can change the world as well? If that's the case, then why aren't we winning? We have memes. Ever since there has been a lot of media about how scary the internet is and how it's single-handedly brainwashing generations. I think it's a further mystification of class relations and I don't buy it. That's really the same argument we've always had on the left. To what degree does the superstructure push the base and vice versa.

You can't deny that Trump has been a piece of shit practically his whole life. He was friends with ghouls his whole life. All those people didn't grow up with 4chan, so of course they don't express ghoulishness through frog memes. They have their own dogwhistles though. Trump comes into power at a time of crisis for Empire, right around the time the people who did grow up with 4chan, reddit, etc all are old enough to be hired for government jobs. Those people do express the baseline bigotry of broader society through chad/virgin memes. The reason why boomers like those memes is because they express something that is already present, just in a new "hip" way. You see both of those things, Trump coming to power, and these people using these memes that only you are supposed to know about and think they causally related.

Not to mention that we all spend a lot of time online because we're the generation that grew up with 4chan, digg, reddit, etc. We're hyper aware of internet culture and memes so when we see it "enter the wild" it also feels causal. You saw an action (raiding the capital), you were aware of all the memes because you're online, and therefore the memes must play some part in convincing people to go suicide by Capitol Police.

Anyways, it's my hypothesis.

[–] dead@hexbear.net 18 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

You saw an action (raiding the capital), you were aware of all the memes because you're online

One of the most iconic figures in raid on the Capitol was the Qanon Shaman. That's not a secret dog whistle or a meme. He made it his whole identity. Jim Watkins (owner of 8chan) was in Washington DC on January 6. Ron Watkins (son of the owner of 8chan) published a blog post on January 6 saying that Mike Pence should be arrested for treason. I'm not sure if Ron was in DC. Some investigators believe that either Jim Watkins or Ron Watkins is Q. The previous owner of 8chan believes that Ron or Jim is Q.

I don't think that it was entirely because of Qanon, but there were some people there who were motivated by Qanon.

[–] HelluvaBottomCarter@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yes, people like Jim and Ron use 4chan/8chan. The same way you and I use Hexbear. But you were saying that 4chan, as the origin, has spread to every facet of society. You think Jim and Ron were just two normal dudes before 4chan and 8chan? They chose to go to those places because, like I said in the previous post, the things they like are already there.

If it was 150 years ago, Jim and Ron would have been really into pamphlets or racist freemason groups. The Shaman would have had an identity centered around something else. I'm trying to impress that 4chan itself isn't uniquely helping fascism. Fascists don't have power because 4chan and 8chan allow them to recruit or spread their message. Fascist power is rooted in a relationship with productive forces and capital. 4chan didn't infect Trump and his cabinet, it didn't infect Tim Pool or Ben Shapiro or Nick Fuentes. They were already like that. At any period there would be people like that because the organization of our society produces those people, not what kind of sites people visit.

[–] dead@hexbear.net 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

My post said that 4chan culture has become mainstream culture. 4chan has influenced society in weird ways. I'm not sure why you think that I'm saying that 4chan is the deep state. My reference to a withering state was not literal, it was meant to be a funny comparison.

I first visited 4chan in either 2007 or 2008. If I had told the average person about 4chan in 2008, they would not understand any of it. Even as late as 2014, if I said the word "meme" aloud, people would think I am an alien.

People used to have to go to 4chan to 4chan memes. Now you can see it everywhere. You can see it on twitter or reddit or sometimes even outside.

Trump has posted 4chan memes. Trump has posted images of himself drawn as Pepe the Frog.

Adoption of 4chan culture is not even just a right wing thing. Libs idolize the mythical figure of "Anonymous". One of the largest resistance lib accounts on twitter right now is YourAnonCentral, an account which claims to be the Anonymous. The myth of Anonymous came from 4chan during their protests against Scientology in 2008. Anonymous wears the Guy Fawkes mask because of 4chan meme called EFG (Epic Fail Guy).

If the white house tweets the phrase "beanis" or "piss owl", then I will say that hexbear culture has become mainstream.

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 5 points 5 days ago

Even as late as 2014, if I said the word "meme" aloud, people would think I am an alien.

Harlem Shake was early 2013. You could dig up the articles written on it. They all use the word meme. Not "meme" with quotation marks or viral, but the word meme. Los Angeles Times and Time articles use it. Harlem Shake was the breakout meme where even people who hated computers knew what it was because I was shoved in their faces.

Most people by then knew what a meme was, and the tipping point was earlier than 2013. I was one of those dumbasses who thought meme was pronounced "meh-meh" and people laughed at me when I said it out loud. This was in late 2007 btw.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I thought 8chan was what pushed it into mainstream after 4chan got sick of the joke

(Again, with the knowledge that “the joke” ends up being believed anyway. To quote the wisest thing any anon has ever said: “ironic shitposting is still shitposting”)

[–] dead@hexbear.net 11 points 5 days ago

I believe it was both. There were "Q drops" on both 4chan and 8chan, but also 8chan would have never been popular without 4chan. What made 8chan different from other image boards is that it allowed users to make their own boards similar to how reddit allows you to make subreddits. In 2014, Moot (4chan admin) became tired of the community that he created and decided to ban every mention of gamergate. 4chan users had bots to spam "exodus" messages on 4chan, telling other users to moved to 8chan. In 2015, Moot sold the website and I think many of the users returned.

[–] eyyImwalkin@hexbear.net 17 points 5 days ago

the base shapes the superstructure

BUT THE SUPERSTRUCTURE ALSO SHAPES THE BASE

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 14 points 5 days ago

Use dialectics. Yes, 4chan is a product of social conditions that made it a certain way, but every part of culture can take on a life of its own and come back around to shape the conditions that gave it its first breath.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 6 points 5 days ago

Exactly, Western society and therefore the internet, is inherently racist and fascistic. It's simply a mirror of the real world.

[–] Dessa@hexbear.net 22 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I thought chad/stacy and redpills were from r/incel?

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 27 points 5 days ago

Naw the Chad/Stacy thing is from a 4chan copypasta and "redpill" was from old PUA forums during the early 2010s (which they stole from The Matrix).

[–] dead@hexbear.net 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/chad

In my memory, the origin of "Chad" was popularized from the /r9k/ board on 4chan. /r9k/ was a board on 4chan which had mainly one rule which said that no two posts were allowed to have the same text or image. 4channers who posted on the board, referring to themselves a robots, would use the board as like a blog. It soon became a place where socially awkward 4channers would complain about their lives. The characters "Chad" and "Stacy" were made by r9k users to make fun of normal people who they called "normies". The way that people use the term Chad now is to mean a badass guy. It's the same meaning in both, but on r9k, "Chad" was derogatory, but now in culture, it is a positive term.

Reddit didn't invent incels. Reddit is just a place where people gather.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4chan#/r9k/

According to wikipedia, the r9k board was a gathering place of the incel community.

It kind of proves my point that 4chan culture has assimilated into mainstream culture and people don't even know it.

[–] Meltyheartlove@hexbear.net 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

All the trash comes from 4chan + 8kun and the edgelord behavior with racism and homophobia, (alt right too in a way) , incel behavior like crying about "normies" and announcing violent attack thing was derived from 2channel and it all started because Hiroyuki wanted to bypass Japanese censorship and host in Amerikkka. 2channel had been hacked similarly in the past under but way more details were leaked including addresses and credit cards. He bought 4chan from Poole and it suffers the same fate. In Japan though he has been more of a celebrity and has been on tv shows and commercials. He was also involved with NicoNico and I remember seeing parts of it even spread to China(teenagers mostly). Hiroyuki was the worst thing to happen since the dawn of the internet. Groyoper like behavior is spreading everywhere in the world. sadness-abysmal

[–] axont@hexbear.net 19 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I'm not sure that the original chad/virgin meme was meant to be serious. It's clearly silly.

[–] dead@hexbear.net 27 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's kind of like when a 35 year old hears some kids saying "rizz" and then the 35 year old starts saying "rizz" as a joke and then eventually the 35 year old is saying rizz unironically.

They think "oh I'm just being silly and joking" but eventually the culture has influenced them and they don't know why.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 24 points 5 days ago

EVERY ironic haha we're just joking subreddit has degraded over time into sincerity. Even spaces that were intended to ridicule something, such as the Star Wars prequels, later became sincere.

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Did you know that twitter nazis have been spamming the white-pharaoh image? It's also silly. Most people would look at that and laugh. But it's a way to get a conversation started that can very easily be hijacked by a bad actor to get people to believe something really horrible. The same way we would use the provocative phrase "Stalin shouldn't have stopped at Berlin" to start a wider conversation about Western Europe and the USA's complicity in fascism and how the USSR were the only ones actually destroying fascism.

[–] eyyImwalkin@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

if you spam shit enough it becomes real. That's it. People are cattle

[–] Meltyheartlove@hexbear.net 7 points 5 days ago

I remember hearing "You look like a brad" on tv a couple of times before Chad was a thing.

[–] peeonyou@hexbear.net 15 points 5 days ago

and it was all a psyop

[–] TheDeed@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago