"Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" was a special sort of :brainworms: that not many seem to remember let alone think about anymore, but I believe that it did lasting cultural damage at an ideological level. For younger comrades unfamiliar with the concept, here's a link.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory

It seemed cute and funny and all that when it first came out, and it was for me too once upon a time, but in application, it was just another layer of lubrication for the internet fascist pipeline in my experience, both online and offline. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who remembers the smokescreen tactic of "it's the internet" with the belief of "if someone is screaming slurs and calling for genocides, it's just Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in practice, teehee" and the implication attached to that was "the person is just being ironic and joking, surely he is a decent human being that is kind to people in real life and is a good and wholesome family man" or something.

I've had the displeasure of experiencing "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" in real life, offline, on multiple occasions that included dismissing hate speech from coworkers on company online correspondence to outright knowing people's online handles and seeing the fascist hate they were vomiting when under the cover of relative anonymity.

They all had something in common: they were hateful and obnoxious people offline as well, often while making the "it's the internet" excuse themselves for anything "ironic" or "trolling" that they said, but then when offline they were also horrible to coworkers, family members, or just random strangers, especially service workers.

When the tiki torch rally happened in Charlottesville, I knew one such torch wielder that went there. When Jan 6 happened and all of the MAGA clowns came to DC town, I knew a few that went. They had that in common: "it's the internet!" said in real life when called out on their chanlord posting, as if to pretend they weren't also fascists offline.

It's been a little while since I've heard "it's the internet" to justify fascist manifestos on the internet, fortunately. I suppose it's been a few too many school shootings for most people to really buy into the idea that it's desirable, normal, or even possible to spend hours a day frothing with bigoted rage and then log off and magically become an upstanding wholesome citizen.

That is all. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. :blob-no-thoughts: