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Comment by nonsensical_ | Hacker News Reader

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It was the spark that started the online culture war that metastasized into the real world and brought about the post-truth era we are now living in.

Who knows whether it was a symptom or a cause. Either way it marks the beginning.

It may have been when you noticed it but it wasn’t the spark.

If there was an actual spark, it was the 2016 election as this was the first time when all the disinformation, professional troll farms and Russian influence truly came into play on a world changing scale.

But there was splintering of online communities and the death of nuance for years prior as well. Twitter contributed a lot by giving voices to everyone, and promoting those who’d shout the loudest. Facebook and its nasty algorithm also greatly contributed to all this (thanks, everyone who worked there, for the world we have now… hope you’re proud and putting all that ad-sponsored salary to good use).

Culture war was brewing long before, it just got amplified more and more.

> If there was an actual spark, it was the 2016 election as this was the first time when all the disinformation, professional troll farms and Russian influence truly came into play on a world changing scale.

I'll never forget how insane HN went in 2016, felt like basically the whole English language internet went insane. And it's been a decade since then (wow).

2016 was an acceleration point into madness. We were going down hill anyway, and the hill suddenly steepened. Covid didn't help. Now we have half the world with AI psychosis. I can only hope things even out a bit in the next 10 years... but they won't.

The 2016 election, you may remember, came after and was partially caused by Gamergate.

I think you are vastly exaggerating the power of a few nerds -- the vast majority of people have never heard of Gamergate. I'm a nerd and even I only vaguely heard about it at the time.

It was around in 2008. Reddit was flooded with bots shilling for Obama.

Nobody was using Reddit in 2008. Did it even have comments yet?

I will admit that GG may have been a symptom, but I don't think it was the cause. The cause, as such, was the interblag and incorporation of advertising corrupting touch into everything.

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