It is unfortunate that :reddit-logo: has a near-monopoly on what used to be numerous and diverse forums all over the internet, but I definitely don't miss the Early-2000s to 2010s tendency to put pretentious and often edgy forum signatures after posts.
I'll provide some examples of what kind of forum signatures made me hate forum signatures in general, for context.
Sun Tzu quotes. :cringe:
Tyler Durden was supposed to be a malevolent presence that had to be literally shot out of the protagonist's head so he could have some peace, not a fountain of deep profound wisdom about how we're all rotting pieces of meat and anyone who says otherwise is a special snowflake, you proto-chudlings. :kombucha-disgust:
Heath Ledger's Joker, while well acted, was sort of fucking horrible for pop culture in general and a lot of weird nerds really ran with his performance and that also made his lines dreadfully common in forum signatures. Yes, I'm "so serious" because some things matter, you proto-chudlings. :disgost:
Fuck Terry Goodkind and each and every proto-chudling that quoted his Ayn Rand With More Sexual Violence And Swords garbage books in their forum signatures, too. Even the concept of "Wizards' First Rule" was just a precursor to the worst side of the Rick & Morty fandom. "Lol, everyone is stupid but me because I am sociopathic and selfish!" :guts-rage:
Oh yeah, last but not least, fuck each and every proto-chudling that quoted Ayn Rand anything in their forum signatures. :gulag:
I haven't heard anyone say "I'm socially liberal but fiscally conservative" in years. Maybe they still do, but that smug libertarian shit that was popular in like the 2000s and early 2010s seems to be gone, or at least not as prevalent, thank god. Of course a lot of those people are straight up fascists now, but I guess at least the mask is off.
Also I was in middle and high school during this period, and it was always funny to hear kids talk about taxes when they're like, 15.
I've seen a few attempts at that in the internet wild but it's rarely received well anymore. It used to be the default South Parkian smart cool internetman thing to be.
Same deal with "I could care less(sic) about anything/I hate everyone equally!" chuds.
I'm not racist, I hate everyone equally!
Yeah South Park in general is another thing I do not miss, not even so much the show but just the mentality of the show. There was definitely a South Park/Family Guy guy at one point in time who was completely insufferable and that whole discourse seemed to permeate everything. It's obviously still around, but it doesn't have the cultural sway it once had.
My bio father used to say that about his own politics, before he disowned me for being a queer commie. Not very socially liberal of him. :shrug-outta-hecks: