Yeah, the Subgenies (was that the form? Subgenii? I can't remember but it was some shitpost like that) always seemed decent enough, even less problematic than shit like Taibbi's The Buffalo Beast which I read at the time too (the editor of which went on to be a Green Party candidate and then an insane Gamergator IIRC).
Although it has to be said that in those days 4chan was still more counter-culture chauvinist libertinism than outright reaction, and while that's objectively a precursor to fascist ideals and a serious problem in and of itself it still hadn't yet transformed into the neo-reactionary movement that it is today. That is to say I think there were a lot of people in that general counter cultural sphere back then who weren't really animated by ideological malevolence at the time, but that they were objectively at high-risk of becoming reactionaries as soon as they started to perceive their precious treats as being threatened.
That's part of a more general counter-culture schism I perceive, where a lot of people I'd describe as chauvinist libertines were vaguely progressive, vaguely leftist, vaguely anti-imperialist but all in a very incoherent and unsure way, and when the right catalyst hit (I think Gamergate is a good marker for that, although it wasn't the only angle that reactionary propagandists were using imo) the ones who were more credulous or chauvinist or libertine went full frothing fash over the course of a few years while everyone else pulled back and filtered into a newly recovering left that was less tolerant of chauvinism than the western left was before (although still too tolerant of it). And I think that was a necessary step, because without all of the worst people from that time being explicitly turned into frothing reactionaries I think the old brand of edgy chauvinist humor would still be a dominating force on the left, that places like stupidpol would be more the norm and that this would be as toxic to leftist communities as it was before. In fact, I think that process is still ongoing with how the absolute worst quasi-leftists are sort of boiled away and forced to turn into reactionary grifters, like V**sh and Haz and before them the shitheads who formed stupidpol.
There's more that can be said about that, but I've already rambled enough about it.
Yeah, the Subgenies (was that the form? Subgenii? I can't remember but it was some shitpost like that) always seemed decent enough, even less problematic than shit like Taibbi's The Buffalo Beast which I read at the time too (the editor of which went on to be a Green Party candidate and then an insane Gamergator IIRC).
Although it has to be said that in those days 4chan was still more counter-culture chauvinist libertinism than outright reaction, and while that's objectively a precursor to fascist ideals and a serious problem in and of itself it still hadn't yet transformed into the neo-reactionary movement that it is today. That is to say I think there were a lot of people in that general counter cultural sphere back then who weren't really animated by ideological malevolence at the time, but that they were objectively at high-risk of becoming reactionaries as soon as they started to perceive their precious treats as being threatened.
That's part of a more general counter-culture schism I perceive, where a lot of people I'd describe as chauvinist libertines were vaguely progressive, vaguely leftist, vaguely anti-imperialist but all in a very incoherent and unsure way, and when the right catalyst hit (I think Gamergate is a good marker for that, although it wasn't the only angle that reactionary propagandists were using imo) the ones who were more credulous or chauvinist or libertine went full frothing fash over the course of a few years while everyone else pulled back and filtered into a newly recovering left that was less tolerant of chauvinism than the western left was before (although still too tolerant of it). And I think that was a necessary step, because without all of the worst people from that time being explicitly turned into frothing reactionaries I think the old brand of edgy chauvinist humor would still be a dominating force on the left, that places like stupidpol would be more the norm and that this would be as toxic to leftist communities as it was before. In fact, I think that process is still ongoing with how the absolute worst quasi-leftists are sort of boiled away and forced to turn into reactionary grifters, like V**sh and Haz and before them the shitheads who formed stupidpol.
There's more that can be said about that, but I've already rambled enough about it.
deleted by creator