this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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They birthed and normalized shitty internet behavior: rickrolling on the lighter end, trolling, doxxing, and swatting.
They would also do shit like make fun of mentally handicapped people, which would lead goons to harassing the victims IRL and teaching kids that this was all OK.
And they would go after people who talked shit about about them, criticized them, or otherwise attacked them. The 4chan army would come out in force and try to ruin people's online existence.
Before Q-Anon showed up, they had started calling Trump God Emperor during the election. I think they may just have chose him as the candidate who would cause the most chaos, but it's easy to see how others others would take their goals more seriously and want Trump as president.
And the cycles of shitty behavior over decades attracted more and more rightwingers. I used to think of them as a chaos collective, but the politics swung hard right.
And then they spread to other platforms with r/the_donald, pepe the frog, and calling each other pedes.