Thing is, it started out as a simple sub just posting pictures of typically infuriating people. Like Jenny McCarthy and the like. That was very gray area, but still condonable.

But as with all subs focused on anger and highlighting certain people and/or things, it eventually becomes a cesspool of hatred and shaming. New subscribers are usually of the angry, aggressive, frustrated and irrational type that are just looking for a way to vent and feel superior.

Nuance, self consciousness and humour is very important in these type of subs. That's what makes it tongue-in-cheekly "okay". After a while, if the sub isn't moderated properly, the nuances and self consciousness disappear and the parody becomes reality. Look at /r/polandball. Heaps of terrible nationalism. But purely as a joke. And that's okay. Nobody is serious about it.

Compare two guys making racist jokes. One is doing it just for the fun of it, and one is a known racist. Both make the same joke, but the actual meaning, message, context and connotation make it completely different.

One is making the joke for the 'edginess', for the humour of the joke itself, to shock people lightheartedly, to parody actual racists, whatever... That's okay. That's healthy even because that's what people do with weird, complex, difficult concepts and events.

But the other guy is doing it to express an opinion, in a vehicle that's more accepted than others. Under the guise of a joke, they're spouting hatred, trying to 'shed light on things', mentally establishing superiority or whatever the fuck.

The last one is basically what fph became. It's what r/trashy is becoming now too. Same happened to blackpeopletwitter, punchablefaces and all the others.

Problem is that if you've got five racists and five non-racists in the same room making the same racist joke, then the five racists will think everybody shares their opinion, and the five non-racists are probably getting the fuck out of that room because they didn't mean anything serious by it and really don't want to have anything to do with 'the real thing'.

I was subscribed to blackpeopletwitter, fph and trashy at first because it was lighthearted, sort of edgy fun. But I noped the hell out of there when it seemed like most people were pretty serious.