More accurate take than many, but still *way* too patronising to clearly understand what's afoothttps://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/833283290278854657 …
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The psychoanalysis of channers--like that of Trump himself--is the main blind spot as far as I can tell
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When people try to explain Trump's behavior and motives, they always do so from a perspective which vindicates themselves--I see the same...
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...thing happening in this author's explanation of channer behavior and motives. Describes them in ways *he understands* rather than...
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...as they really are. The extent to which 4chan acts outside his model is literally invisible to him; wouldn't be able to recognize it...
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...happening before his very eyes. So: what's the deal with 4chan?
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4chan is a cultural institution that continues to shape online culture, and is constantly testing its capacity to shape offline events.
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4chan's format is its key asset & the source of most of its complaints: direct communication btw all posters + content divorced from creator
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The other crucial asset: ephemerality & topic churn Mix all this together and you have a "content" dynamo
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Any link, picture or text (content) posted to 4chan is done so anonymously, and so does not aggrandize the one who posts it
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So, content gets posted for its own sake--maybe it sinks, maybe it swims--lots of people see it, and then reiterate it on other sites
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With tons of people contributing, nothing lasts very long *on 4chan* itself, the impact of content on 4chan is felt *outside* 4chan
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The closest analogy I have to this is Twitter vis-a-vis breaking news: news breaks here first, plays itself out in the real world...
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...while back on Twitter, things are already moving along, new news being broken.
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BTW--in case you can't guess, Twitter is the social media site closest in format and tempo to 4chan
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So, backtracking: what's Trump's win have to do with it? 4chan mainly wanted to see if they could get "their guy" into the White House.
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4chan isn't the only shaper of culture, after all. Could the culture they created be reaching enough people to swing an election?
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There were plenty of reasons people voted for Trump, and it's not easy to know how much was attributable to 4chan--but 4chan guessed right
End of conversation
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