This is a backup of Queeranarchism.Tumblr.com. —- Due to the back-up process this site currently includes almost everything I have ever reblogged, so click the text 'posts by queeranarchism tumblr' in the menu option if you want to go directly to posts I have written myself.
Basically, what the internet was like for roughly my first ten years on it was pretty much how people now view the worse extremes of places like 8chan or redpill, only that was everywhere, all the time, and any dissenting opinion on it was like a death wish.
Everyone either rattled off racial slurs and ridiculed people with disabilities or they had to keep their mouths shut, because showing anything remotely resembling sensitivity to a subject made you an instant target, and consensus was you should have known better because “it’s the internet.”
You got flooded with holocaust jokes? “It’s the internet!” You got sent dick pics after showing a photo of yourself? “It’s the internet!”
To be caught “taking anything seriously” was like a thought-crime. You couldn’t go against the cult of TeH ePiC L0LZ or the hive mind would mark you for execution. It was weird as shit.
This only really started to collapse after about 2005, so if you’re still in your teens you’re not that likely to remember how extreme it was. Maybe you think you do, but trust me, it was the unbreakable status quo wherever you turned. The cultural landscape of the internet now is almost unrecognizable.
remember when “moralf*g” was a really common insult? it was so horrible/bizarre, like what kind of awful abomination of sociology has to occur for there to be an environment where the very concept of having any kind of moral compass at all is viciously condemned
I’d even say it only truly broke later, with the introduction of social media sites like Facebook but even then I’d consider the boxxy incident to really be the moment when 4chan machismo stopped being the hegemonic ideology for large segments of the internet
“YOUR BEING NICE TO SOMEONE? YOURE CALLING ME OUT FOR BEING A BULLY? STOP BEING SUCH A WHITE KNIGHT”
>
what kind of awful abomination of sociology has to occur for there to be an environment where the very concept of having any kind of moral compass at all is viciously condemned
I still think it’s supremely ironic that this website gets made out to be a complete hugbox/echo chamber and a safe space. Partially because it isn’t remotely true but more so because the sites that most strongly claim it is so are some of the most insular on the web. I’m not saying this place is perfect, far from it, but try posting some dissenting opinion on one of those and see how long it takes for people to start shitting on you. Maybe it’s not the hegemonic ideology anymore, from what I’ve seen it’s still immensely prevalent but that might be because many of my interests overlap with those of the scum that is the very embodiment of this shit. You know, the ultra-cynical, completely detached straight white guy with hardline libertarian/objectivist leanings (if not actually fucking borderline fascist).
Basically nothing makes me laugh more than some shitstain like that whining about safe spaces and whatnot when their entire life is one and they expect to be catered to at all times and will attempt to crush any dissenter by whatever means available.
Seriously though, fuck that time, fuck that attitude, and fuck everyone subscribing to that kind of shit. I’m so fucking glad that their ultraviolent bullshit is finally getting less and less dominant.
It was so expected for you to conform to this way of thinking, too; if you started using the internet before you were even in the double digits age range like I did it can really mess with the way you form opinions and what you believe to be right and wrong. It’s a truly disgusting type of poison that makes you think racism and misogyny and transphobia and ableism are just the way the world works and anyone that gets up upset about anything is just trying too hard to be upset.
There are so many different comment threads branching off this post now that are worth reading, especially for anyone who wasn’t around for this era…though almost all of them share the same basic points: that it was indeed as extreme as I remember it and has changed for the better, even if it’s far from perfect yet.
Like there’s people who believe we currently suffer some rampant epidemic of ultra-liberal thinkers ganging up and destroying anyone who says something “un-PC,” but back in the day it was both the polar opposite AND more vicious.
Back then it was so, so much more common for whole little gross communities to go on “raids” and mass bullying campaigns with the sole intention of generating “comedy,” they were proud of themselves if they got someone to self harm or worse, and they’d get away with it often scot-free.
I remember this. I remember finding the internet and being amazed at its potential and wanting to belong. And this was the culture. And I actually hated myself because I could never actually bring myself to be outright harmful. I thought it was a failure because I was too weak.
But none of what anyone here says can be an exaggeration. It was the nastiest of human nature I have ever seen. Imagine if you had a chatroom full of all of the meanest ever Anons competing to be the meanest. No consequences.
Suicide baiting wasn’t just a daily occurrence, but A RUNNING JOKE. They called it “becoming an hero” based off of a joke about a message on the memorial page of a kid who killed himself. It was the stated intention of many “raids” to cause people to kill themselves.
One especially fucking disgusting thing I can remember was when a bunch of people put together a “epilepsy health advice” site full of randomly appearing flashing gifs and tried their absolute hardest to direct people to it. That was not actually too significant in terms of things they have done to harm mentally and physically disabled and ill people.
In fact, they had entirely politicized organizations dedicated to this kind of terrorism. The /i/nsurgency wiki is still up (but inactive), and it outlines in pretty good detail what kind of operations they had. Internal hierarchies, redundant chat channels and planning rooms in multiple sites. Guides on how to enact the most destruction in your victims’ lives. I mean, this for crying out loud:
It was horrifying and disgusting. And well thought out. And organized.
And that’s why the backlash against sjws on tumblr from these same people is laughable. Because those sites do practice just about the same culture, except that the ability to enforce it is gone.
It’s hilarious too, because the things that would make you a good target for these people is:
Caring about people (in general)
Caring about marginalized people.
Identifying yourself in any way.
Being noticeably new.
Not appearing to be an expert in anything you do on your first publicly-viewed attempt.
Being a marginalized person.
In short, tumblr. Except there’s so many of us here and we support each other instead of trying to tear each other down. So instead of attacking us they just attack our culture. I guarantee you that the anti-sjw culture on this site started out with people raiding from 4chan.
Btw, this is why I laugh so hard at “I am everything tumblr hates” because no. Tumblr represents everything you hate, and YOU’RE IRRELEVANT.
I never ever want to go back to this. It was hell.
