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submitted by NotesByANorthWestLadI just hate the alt-right YouTube crew
For me, descending into a bitter antifeminist was a direct result of all the time I spent on the Misc. of Bodybuilding.com
When I signed up I had no idea how misogynistic and right-wing the website was. I had been weight lifting for about 2 years and thought I could go on there to find some helpful training and diet advance, but very quickly I noticed that trolling took up 95% of the traffic. I should have just left, but I didn't. I found a lot of it amusing and before too long I had been drawn in to all the sensationalised, reactionary, misogynistic bigoty. Anyone who provided a different, more liberal opinion, would be shut down immediately. They'd get negged until their rep power was in the red. Because of this, all you had was an echo chamber of Trump memes, Steven Crowder videos and redpill threads titled "Just caught my girlfriend cheating, SLOOTS GONNA SLOOT".
You could ask why I stayed around a place that was so hateful, but I guess I just found it humorous. I told myself that deep down they were all just having a bit of fun, expressing themselves in an anti-PC way because the world was now so PC. But over time I noticed my own views changing. As the months went on I bought in to people like Sargon of Akkad who think universities are a Marxist conspiracy. I bought in to guests Dave Rubin would have on his show tell me there's "no rape culture in the west" or "no institutionalised racism anymore", etc. These feminists were just fat, and mentally ill, who wanted to censor us! And genderqueers just wanted attention... right? I even considered donating money to a climate change denying Ayn Rand think tank, at one point. That was probably when I was in deepest.
I began to think contrary to the echo chamber in the lead up to Brexit. Everyone on the Misc. and all the alt-right YouTube brigade were firmly pro-Brexit while I was very pro-Remain. For several reasons, such as the city I'm from being completely lifted out of poverty due to EU investment, the amount of science and medicine research the EU invests in, the workers rights, the free movement of people from within the EU, the fact that in result of a Brexit there would most likely have to be borders rebuilt along Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which would create old hostility and division between Protestant and Catholic communities after decades and decades of working for peace. That topic I felt particularly strongly about as my Dad grew up in Northern Ireland and saw first hand the benefits having no border checks made during The Troubles. And then there was the prospect of right-wingers like Boris Johnson or Michael Gove being our Prime Minister which made me despair.
I put these ideas forward on YouTube comments and on Misc forums, but I was quickly shutdown as just a "lib cuck" who wants to get "cucked by Muslims" etc, etc, etc. Sargon at this point was completely blinded by nationalism and "SOVEREIGNTY!". A few weeks earlier was when he sent that "I wouldn't even rape you" tweet to politician Jess Phillips, someone who had spoken out about being sexually assaulted when she was younger. The fact Sargon then spent days defending his misogyny, even to the point where he called up his mum and said "I wouldn't rape you" (missing out the "even" bit) disgusted me. Paul Joseph Watson was spewing anti EU bile every hour of the day, except, because I was informed on the topic, I knew what scaremongering nonsense it all was. I saw reports on the news about all the rise in hate crimes leading up to and immediately after Brexit. The likes of Lauren Southern and Black Pigeon Speaks were championing Nigel Farage like he was the new king of England, even though the guy is a pretty disgraced politician that isn't even a member of Parliament and has absolutely no power. My conscience was finally telling me these weren't rational, objective people. They were just misinformed bigots and trolls who lace their bigotry behind articulate, persuasive production. Do they even care if they're misinformed as long as their echo chamber believes them?
I stopped going on the Misc and unsubscribed from all of the alt-right YouTube crew. Like waking up from a bad nightmare, the bile I had been fed just dissipated. Within days I realised none of the stuff they claim to be true really is. Like tabloid newspapers they sensationalise everything for maximum attention, and therefore money. That's what will always come first when making YouTube videos is your main source of income; not hard facts, merely how to exploit a topic to make money. I never went on the likes of MGTOW forums or 4chan, but I know all of those sites are completely toxic. I have a good set of friends, no problem getting girls, and a job that pays well. I dread to think what would happen to an impressionable teenage boy who maybe doesn't have support at home, doesn't have any friends, girls who are mean to him, etc. Those websites completely warp your world view.
How about you? How deep did you go down the rabbit hole and how did you get out? Spent about 45 minutes typing this so would be interested to hear responses.
all 94 comments
[–]The_Iceman2288feminist gazpacho 48 points49 points50 points  (1 child)
I stopped talking and started listening.
[–]unmitigated 23 points24 points25 points  (0 children)
This. The delta between listening and hearing is immense.
[–]zzxcvb#ShartGate 44 points45 points46 points  (1 child)
Personally for me, I was on a forum dedicated to programming - it started when I needed help with Visual Basic 6 for when I was going into sixth form, and then I ended up staying around in their sort of free-for-all corner, where I ended up meeting people who weren't necessarily right wingers but they were basically your nice-guy isolated male nerds who didn't really have much contact with women and believed they were right about everything and also victims as well. It didn't help that I had an older brother that had this sort of mentality which sort of rubbed off on me from the age of 18 to about 22/23.
I basically realised that I was in the wrong as:
  • lots of my old friends stopped wanting to hang out with me
  • I kept incessantly defending the opposite position of certain friends, even if I knew I was wrong, just to spite them in any case that I was right (this is also something my brother continues to do to me when it comes to politics)
  • I just kept feeling really uncomfortable. Later on I'd realise that was pretty much my conscience telling me to just stop doing what I was doing. I guess it's like cringe but I didn't actually develop the self-recognition to understand my behaviour was cringeworthy
Back when I was 18-22 I had stupid amount of insecurities, like not having a girlfriend(I used to hang around with old secondary school friends who'd keep pestering me if I had a girlfriend, and if not - was I gay or bisexual or what, and I distinctly remember one night I got together with old friends - they spent the evening chatting to their friends and really nobody chatted to me, leaving me just sitting there awkwardly), not being laid, not living on my own (I used to commute to university), not being rich etc. All these insecurities used to make me feel like nobody could relate to me because everyone else has it better except these guys on the internet who agreed with me and my "realistic" (i.e. super shitty) views of women; I remember one time I posted an image of a woman being punched in the stomach with the caption "Surprise Abortion" - at the time I couldn't even fathom what was wrong, especially when I was banned. Now I remember that in absolute disgust, it's probably my lowest moments in my life.
Over time, and thanks to following friends on social networks, I'd come across Everyday Sexism - and that's when it hit me that I have it so much more easier than other people, that I wasn't the underdog - and I didn't really need to keep being shitty because I have it so much more easier than other people. Everyday Sexism helped plant the seed in my head that maybe I should be more considerate to others.
After Then after that, I started looking into feminism, and then social change, etc which has sort of made me the person who I am now. And I'm so much more happier for that. All of those insecurities have gone one way or the other - it definitely helped that I managed to get a job the day after I found out I got a 2:2 and then as I learned more about social issues and how other people were treated and how other people live life, I realised I did have it so much more easier than others and that life isn't this strict "you must do X, Y, Z in this order or you are a loser" - I've pretty much ditched the above friends and found much better friends who actually don't look down on me in any way whatsoever and sort of encourage the things that make me who I am.
I don't know if it's because I'm older or if it's because I'm learning (or both), but I am realising all the stuff I thought was absolutely black and white facts back when I was a young adult doesn't really apply in the real world and nobody really cares. I feel like I've got the younger me back - the one who loved engineering and treated people equally (although that was more to do with innocence of youth and now it's just duh! common sense).
[–]sjwIlluminatiLiterally the Illuminati 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
Good for you dude, I'm happy for you.
[–]wolfpurplemoon☾ Social Justice Werewolf ☽ 32 points33 points34 points  (0 children)
Just wanted to say thanks for sharing your rather moving story - it's always heartening to hear of people getting themselves out of toxic ways of thinking.
[–]TihkalPih 27 points28 points29 points  (3 children)
I was a Lolbertarian as a teenager largely just to be completely contrarian to my peers to justify my teen superiority complex but also explain why I wasn't super popular and banging all the girls. "They are all just afraid of my superior intellect, everyone around me is stupid! Look at them, opposing the Iraq war believing stupid conspiracy theories like Saddam doesn't have WMDs and this is an American war of Imperialism, I'm better than them, I'm siding the experts like Donald Rumsfield and Cheney! Also climate change? bah, stupid conspiracy theory"
This phase lasted probably until a few years after high school and I actually got a job and got royally bent over by my employer. Suddenly that worship of "Captains of Industry" suddenly disappeared overnight when I realized I was the victim of long time wage theft and I had no means of fighting them.
What didn't disappear was my anti-feminist "nice guy" misogyny as I became a Brocialist, that only really disappeared when I expanded my friendship group to actually include women and I actually accepted these women as friends, not people I wanted to get into the pants of, then I realized how ridiculous my positions were and when I heard stories of their experiences, I realized how naieve I was to the experiences of women, and it really started angering me hearing anti-feminist, anti-women bullshit from MRAs, Brocialists and other types because suddenly, this wasn't just "abstract women", these people were shitting on some of my best friends. What I find weird about that though was what had never passed through my mind before was when I was spouting this horrifically misogynistic MRA bullshit as a reactionary, I never actually thought of my mother as a woman.
Also how did I become an activist? Probably in my blood. Father was a very well known activist (spied on by the Government, yay!) and I grew up in a very progressive household, as a kid I was massively into Environmentalism and Cosmopolitanism. There are two pieces of media from my childhood that are hugely defining in who I am today, Star Trek and this music video. I remember watching that music video with awe as a child, wanting to go to all those places and meet all those people and experience all those cultures.
After I got fucked over by my employer and I abandoned my edgy teenage contrarianism, why did I become a Socialist Activst? While numerous things happened in this time, a big one was rediscovering Star Trek. Something about just realizing where humans could be if we actually got over all this petty meaningless shit, stopped wasting so much money on wars and frivolous bullshit and worked together to better humanity.
[–]TommyBedlamI didn't choose the cuck life, the cuck life chose me 10 points11 points12 points  (2 children)
Were there many libertarians around in 2003/4 who supported the Iraq War and agreed with Cheney and Rumsfeld? I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if there were, since "libertarian" in the US seems to often just mean "Republican who smokes weed" but my experience in Australia was that the self-identified libertarians generally opposed the war.
[–]BluegrassGeek 3 points4 points5 points  (0 children)
Keep in mind that American political groups tend to be very divorced from what happens in the rest of the world. What we call Liberals would be more Center-Right in Europe, for instance.
Yeah, a lot of American Libertarians (big-L) are pretty much capitalists who are pro-freedom when it comes to making money and being jackasses, while still supporting government when it comes to making money... and a big way to make money is military contracts. So there's a tendency to go along with the pro-military stance.
Also, it's very hard to get elected if you're not pro-military in the US.
[–]TihkalPih 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
Not sure, at the time I was less tied officially to a political ideology and more was contrarian for the sake of contrarian, if my peers believed it, they were wrong and I was right. Since most young people here are pretty far left-leaning social democrats, I was a very far-right leaning edgelord.
[–]SerTinfoilSargon Of Wikipedicad 58 points59 points60 points  (10 children)
The fact Sargon then spent days defending his misogyny, even to the point where he called up his mum and said "I wouldn't rape you"
What the utter fuck. This happened? Holy shit.
Nice post though, shows quite clearly how you can get sucked into something almost without realizing. Even though you sound like you're a completely decent bloke.
I imagine this must happen often, people just choosing to listen to what these alt-right maniacs are actually saying and realizing what utter pricks they are.
I'm glad brexit had one positive result, in that it pushed you back to the point where you saw things in a better light. You're totally right when you point out that these YouTube types are pretty much just the Daily Mail for the internet generation.
Personally I caught the tale end of the whole thing. I think had I been a couple of years younger I might have been drawn into it. It kind of scares the shit out of me to think how many people who could be perfectly decent are being drawn into fucked up ways of thinking.
[–]TheEgregore 37 points38 points39 points  (0 children)
kind of scares the shit out of me to think how many people who could be perfectly decent are being drawn into fucked up ways of thinking.
I think maybe this point might have already been repeated to death, but the alt-right draws support from either really hateful people or people who simply didn't experience much of the real world, so they just blindly follow the internets loudest voices (right now the alt-right).
As OP points out, he realizes the bullshit once the alt-right started discussing something he was familiar with.
[–]ScabWingedAngel 20 points21 points22 points  (3 children)
The fact Sargon then spent days defending his misogyny, even to the point where he called up his mum and said "I wouldn't rape you"
What the utter fuck. This happened? Holy shit.
[–]thecarebearcares1 upvote=1 ethics 12 points13 points14 points  (1 child)
This man is a 12-year-old, right?
[–]xenoghost1Social Studies Warrior 8 points9 points10 points  (0 children)
mentally at least
[–]NotesByANorthWestLadI just hate the alt-right YouTube crew[S] 26 points27 points28 points  (2 children)
What the utter fuck. This happened?
Yeah, this was after a few days of defending his actions, making more misogynistic jokes, etc. He filmed himself calling up his mother and saying "Hey mum, just thought id let you know... I wouldn't rape you." she sounded quite confused and was basically like "errr okay, im glad to hear it awkward laugh". The video is probably on his Twitter somewhere but he uploads so much it would take a while to find it.
[–]SerTinfoilSargon Of Wikipedicad 41 points42 points43 points  (1 child)
Oh man holy shit, he must be such a disappointment.
Since he also said his sister is apparently a Marxist with a degree in some sort of gender studies course, I can't imagine how his family dynamic works.
That must be a tense Christmas dinner.
[–]NotesByANorthWestLadI just hate the alt-right YouTube crew[S] 39 points40 points41 points  (0 children)
That must be a tense Christmas dinner.
Wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't bother going. Instead, spends the day on Breitbart looking for articles about imaginary Muslims that have a problem with you saying Merry Christmas.
[–]Foresight2 5 points6 points7 points  (1 child)
His original intent was to troll his MP, his fans then came and blew it out of proportion and Sargon just went on the usual 'Well, THEY did it, I have no control over my follower's behaviour.'
[–]NotesByANorthWestLadI just hate the alt-right YouTube crew[S] 26 points27 points28 points  (0 children)
She's not his MP. Carl lives in Swindon, which is split into Swindon North and Swindon South parliamentary constituencies. Meaning either Justin Tomlinson or Robert Buckland is his MP, depending on the area he lives. Of course Carl is such a big man that he doesn't troll a male politician that could literally turn up at his doorstep on any given day.
[–]TheySaidHellsNotHotinternalized misandrist 26 points27 points28 points  (1 child)
Back in 2013 I was subscribed to Mr Repzion, the Amazing Athiest, and they led me to Mundane Matt. I really liked the guy, and subscribed to all his friends. When GG started, I blindly believed Mundane Matt and the like. I would argue with people on twitter and tumblr, and just be outright sexist. It wasn't until March of 2015 that I met one of the nicest and most inspiring girls I've ever known. She was so bright and always astounded me, and would often talk about feminism, social justice, and the like. I listened and looked into what she said. I learned to see things from a different view and see that these struggles were genuine and ongoing. I unsubscribed to the youtubers that made me an MRA and GGer. I learned that maybe feminism isnt literally facism, and maybe women, PoC, queer and trans peole do face so much trouble that I can never understand, but can at least empathize with. It's pretty amazing this girl managed to passively change my views on everything. But that's what she does.
I still probably dont look at things the way I should, and dont empathize with the struggles of minorities as much as I should. But I am trying.
TL;DR Basically I'm a cuck.
[–]BlastedScallywags 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
Cuck Pride Brotha
[–]IrishishThe social justice is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE 23 points24 points25 points  (2 children)
I've been on 4chan since fall 2004. I was a meek, socially awkward guy who spent most of his time either roleplaying in IRC or silently walking from class to class with headphones in and my head down. I was never robot-tier lonely or isolated, but I had to put up a careful front around people and was terrified of looking dumb or nerdy or...you know. So I was very restrained. /b/ changed all that for me. Here was this madhouse filled with every kind of person who all hated and loved and hated each other, saying and doing whatever the hell they wanted. We were the final boss of the internet, we had the funniest in-jokes, we'd go farther than anyone else! I felt kind of badass. It wasn't my IRC channel, where I had an established identity and a crush on one of the other roleplayers, nor was it my anime club, where I had to always keep a smile on my face.
I thought the Habbo Hotel and Club Penguin raids were hilarious, the anti-feminist witchhunt against BitingBeaver for the crime of trying to keep her son from viewing porn was well-deserved, the Mitchell Henderson iPod memes were the height of comedy, and on and on...I remember being absolutely delighted that we trolled FOX news and Oprah. We did that!
I'm not sure when I started coming out of it. 2008, maybe? The racism I'd always taken as ironic became more and more virulent once we elected a black president, people seeming genuinely mad he was in the White House. And I was starting to actually date women and realizing I didn't feel comfortable showing them any of the stuff I laughed at on /b/. And I read more stories about people who'd been deeply hurt by what I'd taken as harmless trolling, saw more threads filled with people truly hoping to drive their targets to suicide. I thought about how miserable I'd been as a kid when people teased and taunted me for no reason at all, thought about how phone calls and emails and Myspace messages from cruel strangers would hurt just as much now. And I just...regained some lost empathy. I had an IRC full of people who mattered to me; I cared if my livejournal friends had bad days; I would never want to do any of this stuff to people who I knew offline. Why was it so different just because I had "Anonymous" above my posts?
It also helped when I got into improv and sketch comedy and had to actually own my humor as opposed to just slinging anonymous, cruel shit on the internet. I still snark at and argue with people, but I'm no longer actively emotionally invested in hurting them the way I might have been back then.
I'm still on 4chan. It's the best place to view and share comics on the internet, and I've found out about some great anime and manga. And yeah, there's the porn. But my edgelord phase is over. Nowadays newbies tell me to go back to tumblr despite the fact I was on 4chan years before tumblr existed. That used to be infuriating; now it's just funny.
[–]HamburgerDudeAgent of degeneracy 2 points3 points4 points  (1 child)
Almost the same story though I stopped channing completely around 2007.
OG 4chan would probably laugh and mock/pol/ to be fair though. They didn't punch down but rather they were chaotic neutral as I'm sure you know. When you do ironic racism so long you begin to believe it if you haven't stopped doing it and that's a tragedy.
[–]IrishishThe social justice is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
It's no surprise moot banned /new/ once and /pol/ what, twice? before he finally gave up and left it there as a containment board. I think he assumed, because /mlp/ contained pony material well, that /pol/ would contain the worst elements of the site. Instead it became a breeding ground for assholes who shit up everything, even on /co/. We can be in the middle of a Ms. Marvel thread and someone will suddenly bitch about one character having two moms.
[–]gz706 17 points18 points19 points  (2 children)
not really an edgelord, more of a "nothing phazes or offends me and if you get offended by something you're weak". Never really harrased people directly or left comments on youtube. One day one of my friends online "swallowed the sjw kool-aid" and the rest of the gang was like, "yeah, I guess we should grow out of the whole thing", it was easy to see he was being serious so we just accepted it. So the whole gang went from being casual dicks to being casually more mature.
What I'm saying is, don't hold back talking to your friends about growing out of this behavior, they might be more accepting than you think.
[–]SatireIre 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
What I'm saying is, don't hold back talking to your friends about growing out of this behavior, they might be more accepting than you think.
Truer words were never spoken.
[–]NormalNormalNormal 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Shit, maybe I should try that on my friends. But I have a feeling it won't go down well.
[–]friendlybear01Cultural Groucho Marxism 35 points36 points37 points  (11 children)
Got deep into Ayn Rand Libertarianism and Atheism because of Penn & Teller/South Park. Found Thunderf00t because of his "creationist OWNED" videos. Thunderf00t was my anti-feminist gateway drug because after that I was entrenched in the MRA network. I'm talking EVERYONE. I even recall watching a little bit of Davis Aurini and Stefan Molyneux. Eughh.
Then when GamerGate came around I ate it up. First found out about the "scandal" from Internet Aristocrat. I was convinced this was a big deal.
Then somehow (can't remember) I found the fempire on reddit and realised how wrong I was. I was actually reading into feminism rather than being outraged at straw-feminists.
Haven't looked back since.
[–]NotesByANorthWestLadI just hate the alt-right YouTube crew[S] 14 points15 points16 points  (9 children)
Thunderf00t was my anti-feminist gateway drug
The Amazing Atheist was mine, on YouTube at least.
I even recall watching a little bit of Davis Aurini and Stefan Molyneux. Eughh.
I watched a few Molyneux videos but i didn't have the patience to subscribe and frequently watch hour long videos of him droning on in the monotonous way he does. Something about him never sat right with me even when I went through the Libertarian Ayn Rand phase.
[–]friendlybear01Cultural Groucho Marxism 13 points14 points15 points  (3 children)
Something about him never sat right with me even when I went through the Libertarian Ayn Rand phase.
Yep I felt exactly the same. I watched his "The Truth About Maleficent" video where he claims the movie is blatant feminist propaganda. I wasn't sure if he was just good at analysing movie themes or something so I went along with it.
I think I felt he was going a little too far after watching his video on how the movie Rio 2 (the animated one with the bird) of all things is teaching kids to hate men or something. It all came across as very conspiracy-theory like and strange.
[–]kobitz 10 points11 points12 points  (0 children)
Malificent is actually kinda sexist too, It shows that shes evil JUST because shes a woman scorned. Not because she just likes being evil. It took a lot of agency out of her character
[–]xenoghost1Social Studies Warrior 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
blame his accent and his lack of apparent human emotions
[–]OneJobToRuleThemAllReady for the mosh pit, shaka brah! 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
I'm intrigued, I'm gonna give his "analysis" a go. Never hurts to get other perspectives right? /s
I'm actually just dying to nitpick it. Who knows, maybe I can learn something by watching the mistakes of someone else.
[–]kobitz 9 points10 points11 points  (3 children)
I have ALWAYS have a pretty favorable opinion of feminism, So when The Amazing Atheist went all anti-feminist I simply stopped following him. Whats with every single prominent atheist in youtube being an anti-feminist, I cant really think of ano who isnt, except the Thinking Atheist Poscast
[–]akestralunspellable surname 3 points4 points5 points  (1 child)
The Atheist Experience has long been a very progressive-values show as well, with multiple female hosts and discussion of feminist and queer issues. Most of the other feminist or feminist-leaning atheist youtube channels I used to follow have shifted away from atheism entirely (like Laci Green) or they just don't post anymore due to the growing anti-feminist rhetoric among the atheist youtubers and the toxic audiences they attract. I more or less stepped away from youtube atheism after Phil Mason did his... thing that he did at/to Freethoughtblogs.
[–]FionaSarahValar morghulis! 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Haha its got to the point where about 80% of my recommended YouTube videos are clips of The Atheist Experience. All of them wonderful people and a fab show.
[–]xXBillyZaneFanXx 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
It's where the money is at right now, mostly. Plus, they're all fragile white dudes so if they get any minor amount of criticism they backlash as hard as they can. Which is why "that was kind of shitty dude" is met by folks saying "UNACCEPTABLE, 12 YEARS INTERNET-DUNGEON."
[–]xXBillyZaneFanXx 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Stephan Molyneax blinks more than any human being I've ever seen.
[–]Iwilldoyogaoneday 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Man, I actually donated money to help fund Aurini's shitty documentary. That's probably my darkest secret and I feel dirty just thinking about it.
[–]sneakygingertroll 30 points31 points32 points  (7 children)
I got drawn into the vortex of cancer that was /r/TiA. At first i thought it was funny, but then it started to get more toxic and all about 'muh esjaydubyas'. I remember saying some fairly transphobic things which were heavily upvoted. Little did i know that like many outspoken critics of LGBTQ people, i was projecting my own insecurities. Around this time i also got into watching sargon of akkad.
Once i had a realization about my gender i really started to question what was considered the norm on subs like TiA. To now suddenly be on the receiving end of the whole deal felt like shit. Around the same time i became disillusioned with sargon. I felt that he was too right wing, and threw out many pefectly fine arguments or ideas. His whole watermelon meme thing was the line for me. Like i don't understand how you can post stuff like that and go "i don't have a racist bone in my body no sir".
Im glad that i finally ended up seeing the light and got the hell out of edgeville.
[–]NotesByANorthWestLadI just hate the alt-right YouTube crew[S] 8 points9 points10 points  (4 children)
His whole watermelon meme thing was the line for me. Like i don't understand how you can post stuff like that and go "i don't have a racist bone in my body no sir"
What was this?
[–]government_shillSpooky Skeleton Shilluminati 14 points15 points16 points  (1 child)
If you're sure you want to know, I think this is the one he posted: (racist as all fuck, obviously)
That's not his only instance of "black people watermelon lololol" either. For maximum idiocy, this is in the context of accusing Tim Schafer of hurting GG's feelings being a vile racist.
What a charmer.
[–]Ayasugi-san 3 points4 points5 points  (0 children)
I bet he also found the picture made after Obama was elected President of a watermelon field in front of the White House to be oh-so-hilarious.
[–][deleted]  (1 child)
[removed]
    [–]chewinchawingumTrump: an orange carpet stapled to a copy of The Turner Diaries[M] 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    Hey, even though you're just answering a question, I think we don't need these overtly racist memes posted here. Feel free to edit your message to just describe the fact that they were using the racist trope connecting black folks with watermelon, demeaning black scientists, etc. Thanks!
    [–]pcmmm 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    Yup, for me I watched some Internet Aristocrat and browsed TiA a lot, until I realized I was spending too much energy every day worrying about Esjaydubyas which was time I could spend not getting worked up over nothing.
    [–]TheEgregore 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    /r/TIA with time got less and less concerned about laughing at people who thought they were dragonkin on tumblr and less and less about tumblr in general.
    Go to it now, it's just screenshots from anywhere on the internet (facebook, news comments, twitter, etc) where someone says something dumb about men or white people.
    While the older r/TIA would mock it and move on, the commentators today agonize over every male prejudice on the internet and make wide generalizations about the entirety of society and rant no stop about how persecuted they are in the most self-pitying way possible
    definitely one of the most unhealthy subs
    [–]Jerry-PeetQueen of the Baby Goren 11 points12 points13 points  (0 children)
    I used to think being told my "humor" was inappropriate was the biggest injustice in the world, and bought the whole "freeze peach" nonsense. Hard to say what the catalyst was.
    What got me out of it was Moviebob and The Big Picture, a lot of them reading out like very stern, angry lectures about how much of an idiot I was.
    I went from a teenage boy who was so bitter about "feminism" and "political correctness" to a trans woman who actively engages in social justice punditry. Clearly the Old Gods are deep in my brain, according to reactionaries :P
    I would be writing this under my proper name (Lily) but it was banned for some reason and I was never told why.
    [–]TommyBedlamI didn't choose the cuck life, the cuck life chose me 11 points12 points13 points  (0 children)
    Was never really an edgelord, but thoroughly enjoyed the Social Justice Sally memes on Tumblr circa 2012. In fairness, some of them were really good commentary on a certain type of person who co-opts the language and conventions of social justice and uses them to be a generally terrible person (two of my favourites were "I have triggers; you have fee-fees" and "Aggressively calls others out; doesn't have 'the spoons' to be accountable herself", both of which described behaviour I've seen from actual people in the community). And I used to check TumblrInAction on a pretty much daily basis to see if anyone I know was featured (I probably saw about 20 examples of friends featured there for ridicule, sometimes justly, sometimes not).
    Then this awful shift happened (it started before but really picked up during Gamergate) where the people using terms like "social justice warrior" were less likely to be people from the social justice community commenting on the excesses and abuses within those spaces, and were more and more likely to be people from the far right who despised the entire community and everything that it stood for. I think a lot of us learned a painful lesson about politics and the internet through that experience: that any internal critique of your own community or faction will ultimately be picked up by hostile outside forces and used against you. Lots of people reacted to that by basically resolving never to engage in internal critique ever again. I think that's the wrong position to take, and that self-criticism within movements is still hugely important, but I'm probably a bit less snarky when doing it these days.
    [–]soggydoggyjake 10 points11 points12 points  (1 child)
    Your experience Bodybuilding.com has kind of been my experience with gym culture in general. Lots of posturing and sexual conquest. I got really down about how it seemed like fitness and decency were mutually exclusive, but r/homegym helped me get kitted out to work out without having to be in that environment.
    [–]squirrelrampageSquirrel Justice Warrior 15 points16 points17 points  (0 children)
    I am so glad that I found a private gym that is openly left-leaning, going as far as having an Antifa flag behind the counter. Besides, they are playing much better music than any other gym I have been in thus far.
    [–]unmitigated 19 points20 points21 points  (0 children)
    I had a long conversation with my friend /u/TranceGemini back in 2010 that turned into a shouting match where zie called me a misogynist. I was so incensed that I actually reflected on myself (because I thought of myself as a Nice Guy and how could anyone not see just how Nice of a Guy I was) and it was like looking into a mirror with a mirror behind it, and it was just poop all the way down.
    I've been actively working on it ever since, and I'm probably going to always be a work in progress, but I wouldn't have even started if it wasn't for zir. <3
    [–]anarcho-psychologist 9 points10 points11 points  (0 children)
    For me, I changed my ways when I started attending a four year college and took courses that concentrated on feminism and women's issues. I held a lot of shitty views on feminism and did the typical cop out arguments on how it's worse elsewhere. I started listening and spoke less whenever these issues came up because eventually I began to realize how obtuse I really was and wrong headed I was. I also attended women's confrences the UN was having around the city a few years ago and little by little, the lies and ideas I onced believed began to collapse. Listening and actually meaning it can change your views, unfortunately, many of these edgelords know that and that's why they resort to silencing people and posture themselves as ''free thinking'' when really, they're afraid of the truth.
    [–]PM_ME_UR_HARAMBE_ASS 8 points9 points10 points  (0 children)
    Started by browsing TiA and laughing at those spooky scary essjaydubelyews. Than I started watch Sargon's videos, and I loved that shit. I took all the things I heard in these videos and tried to debate with my brother, who was in Policy Debate at the time. If you don't know, policy debate can get very theory based, especially when it comes to racism, sexism, transphobia, etc. Because of this, my brother had read many works from very many authors of very interesting books regarding social justice. As I tried to logically debate him, it became very clear that Sargon's understanding of these topics was very superficial. I didn't change immediately, but after a bit of research and reading my self I can safely say I am no longer an edgelord. the whole phase was less than 6 monthes, thank god.
    [–]AngryDM 17 points18 points19 points  (2 children)
    Reading all about Chris-Chan and getting daily entertainment from reading about the weird stuff in CWCville and all the "trolling" and torment sent their way.
    When it went too far, I had an epiphany about what horrible bullying it all was to pick on her.
    [–]KingWumpus 11 points12 points13 points  (1 child)
    This was well into when I casually getting into feminism, but I also used to read the forums off and on with the mental gymnastics that the ones in power had some weird compassion for her and were trying to police people away from active malice.
    Then the Zoe Post happened and they were fully, 100% on board with attacking her. To be fair, I hadn't been on there for a several months at least because I was bored and disinterested in them, but going over there specifically to see what they had to say and seeing wall to wall hatred drove me away for good.
    [–]AngryDM 5 points6 points7 points  (0 children)
    I can totally relate there, and left roughly around the same time, I think.
    [–]TheEgregore 5 points6 points7 points  (0 children)
    I went to school in a very conservative part of Latin America.
    Teachers would tell us homosexuals and pedophiles were the same, Jews killed jesus and every Arab wants to kill you.
    Despite these hateful views, they wouldn't really get along with the modern alt right, they were generally very anti-bush and generally anti-American. They were also not white and they would call me "Eminem" at school because I was the only really white guy.
    Anyway, being a non-rebellious teen with bad critical thinking skills, I accepted everything my teacher taught me as true.
    Once I went to college and moved out of my parents house, I realized all of that was bullshit.
    The "misogyny" aspect of the alt right rage movement never really got me because I was always popular with girls. Also never got the racist aspect either because I was used to be around lots of black people.
    On top of that, I didn't have internet until I was in 20's. When I did saw the hateful bullshit online, I was already aware it was bullshit
    [–]dudebromarxistGeorge SJW Bush 6 points7 points8 points  (0 children)
    Thanks for sharing, that was an interesting read - And very recent, too. Luckily I had grown out of my edgytroll phase by the time the likes of youtube and the Internet Gender Wars™ began to happen, so I was never able to disgrace myself by engaging in the gross dogpiling or - heaven forbid - actually making a video. These days you've got 14 year old kids being indoctrinated by the likes of Sargon of Akkad and it is very scary.
    In the scheme of things, what I used to do was fairly benign. I'd go to forums for really inoffensive, cheesy boybands that had a lot of female teenage fans and just shitpost, starting huge arguments about absurd topics and making really edgy statements about how the bands should be sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, etc. My idea of trolling at the time was causing disruption and chaos to the standard order of things (such as flooding entire forums with high res images of tubgirl or lemonparty at a stupidly high rate so that nobody could read or post on the forum) rather than by trying to be malicious to individuals. I'd do that kind of shit until I got banned or bored, then come back a week later and do it all again. Pretty pathetic really, but it was during a really unprodutive period in my life and retrospectively I think I may have been depressed ince I rarely left the house and didn't have a job or any motivation to find one.
    [–]Stirner_is_Spooks 6 points7 points8 points  (0 children)
    Studying philosophy is what got me to change after growing up in a conservative household. I went to university wanting to study mechanical engineering, but I couldn't keep up with the math. So I took a philosophy class on the recommendation of a friend, and it forced me to read and understand other ideas and points of view. Which led to questioning my own beliefs, and realizing how horribly inconsistent and wrong they were. Now I have a degree in Philosophy, and am trying to keep going with it.
    I just wish I had had the ability to study philosophy in high school or younger. Like an actual philosophy class; not just reading Ayn Rand or whatever in an English class.
    [–]wightjiltSchrodinger's Cuck 5 points6 points7 points  (0 children)
    One of my friends came out as trans. In an instant I had to deal with the fact that all of the "lol so edgy" "I can't be sexist/racist/homophobic because I'm joking and have a bi-streak" shit that I pulled throughout high school could really hurt the people around me. Since then, I've tried my damdest to, if not do well by the SJ internet hivemind, at least do well by the people close to me.
    [–]SirJorn"Respect my mangina!" 5 points6 points7 points  (1 child)
    I started hanging out at the swedish internet forum Flashback about 12 years ago. Most scandinavians are problary familiar with it, but for those of you who arent; it's scandinavias biggest messege board and it defines itself by free speech and alternative opinions. In other words: it's a right-wing forum full of racism, misogyny and all around shitty people. I didn't know it at the time though, because at the time the forum had a good reputation of being a place of interesting and odd discussions. And to its credit, it was true (and still is to some degree). And that's what drew me in. But slowly I started to pick up on the political discussions and found myself swept up by it. I was in my late teens and, like many others like me, had feelings of insecurity and loneliness. School was not going to well for me and I had feelings of frustration. And the culture and discussions at Flashback fed right into that. I started believing that the political establishment and media was pushing a politically correct agenda and that was ruining the country. It prevented people from saying "the truth" about migration, feminism and politics in general. And the people that pushed this didn't do it because they believed it, they were just doing it for their own gain and to serve their agenda. And everyone else was too uninformed and ignorant to notice.
    What saved me was that I started playing in a competetive clan in Battlefield 2. I got so engaged by it that I spent all my screen time either playing the game or discussing clan stuff on our forum. I stopped visiting Flashback almost completely. But more importantly, the clan got me in contact with other people and I made friends. Online friends sure, but nontheless people that I could laugh with and connect with. And that was the most important factor in getting me out of the alt-right swamp. I never spoke politics with them and just by being away from Flashback I slowly started realizing how close-minded and outright toxic my beliefs had been. And during the same time I had another important life experience (that I don't want to go into here) that put a lot into perspective for me and taught me to empathize with other people. I found myself agreeing with the leftists and feminists that I had previously despised so much.
    And now, in 2016 on Reddit, I see the same behaviour and attitudes that I went through about ten years ago. And while I'm angry and disgusted by it, I'm also sad because I don't think most reddiots are genuinly shitty people - they've just been mislead by bad ideas and faulty thinking.
    [–]sibeerian 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    defines itself by free speech and alternative opinions. In other words: it's a right-wing forum full of racism, misogyny and all around shitty people.
    I knew where that sentence was heading just from the first couple of words. Funny how that works...
    [–]KumaKazooie 6 points7 points8 points  (0 children)
    I used to think Encyclopedia Dramatica was the funniest shit in the world, and it's something I'll always cringe at. What really got me out of it all and made me really go to the other side especially was the California Memorial Day shooting back in 2014. I bought into the "women consider me inferior" rhetoric because I have autism, but when I saw that guy's "manifesto", that's when I started thinking like "hey wait a minute, do I really want to think like this?" Then I saw PUAhate, and I was horrified. It's like a cult of misogyny who brainwashes guys with social disorders like autism to go down with them. Literally the absolute most toxic group I've ever seen. What scared me is, I wasn't far off from turning into one of them. I'm just glad I didn't because nothing good can come out of being a part of these people. Your life never gets better, it only gets worse the more you buy into their propaganda.
    [–]Terran117Stalin Did Nothing Wrong 9 points10 points11 points  (0 children)
    Since I woke up right now, allow me to explain my transition in faux green text form.
    Be me
    Almost edge lord brogressive.
    Watch brogressive youtube because I thought they were leftist against religious funDIEs.
    Think SJW stereotypes are true and they want to take away my shit.
    Learn more about politics, religion and econ and etc.
    Realize brogressives don't know shit about social science.
    See brogressives go alt right. So much for feminists being the REAL reactionaries am I right?
    Alt right is everywhere, wrong and annoying.
    Realize SJWs are just a boogeyman
    Swing further left (ironically also become more Christian due to disillusionment with new atheism) and embrace the anti alt right fight. I don't care if I get called SJW since it's just a slur.
    [–]SuperScrub310 6 points7 points8 points  (0 children)
    My friend was an asshole.
    [–]Eingya1gamergate is poopyhead[🍰] 4 points5 points6 points  (0 children)
    I wasn't ever deep into edgelording, but I was a person that didn't think much of casual racism and sexism, and generally thought that "actual racism/sexism" was "over", also thanks to some reactionary stuff I consumed in podcast and youtube form.
    The two main reasons i changed my mind, was first and foremost moving to the uk to study. Moving in a way more multicultural environment helped me understand a lot better the point of view of minorities, cause I could now see them as "real people" and not just words on a far away internet.
    The other part was ironically enough, gamergate itself. Such a violent and irritating outburst of entitlement give me the final push that I needed to get totally turned off by that specific type of chan-culture.
    Also discovering myself as an ace/aro probably had a part in my learning to not automatically dismiss other's experiences, as distant as they may seem from my reality.
    [–]Bloo_DriverLiterally Bloo 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    My old journals are full of (I am not joking) "why isn't there a white history month" stuff.
    But then I got past being 12, I guess, and actually took time to understand the depth and complexity of things.
    [–]charly4994Amateur Victim 4 points5 points6 points  (2 children)
    While I've been able to avoid most of the shit in recent years because I got out before things went absolutely insane, I was certainly well on my way to going completely off the deep end.
    In high school I was really conservative and a complete conspiracy theorist, I believed 9/11 was an inside job, that JFK wasn't killed by Oswald, the new world order by the free masons, and all the other crazy things I can't remember anymore. It primed me well enough for when I first saw Zeitgeist. I took everything at face value in it and basically lost my religion after watching and realizing similarities between Christianity and the other religions outlined. I found people like the Amazing Atheist, thunderfoot, and a number of angry dudes "taking down" Christians on youtube and was content for a while.
    I was a complete prick about my atheism, I'd constantly bitch at my mother for her beliefs and would constantly talk down to her because to me at the time, she was the dumbest person imaginable, after all, I was an atheist and she was a Christian, and everything I saw on youtube further cemented the idea that Christian = stupid.
    My best friends also were pretty much the same as me, just not as conspiracy theory minded. We would compete with each other about who could be the most offensive, but we were doing it "ironically." Joking about how the crappy driver in the parking lot was crappy because she was a woman, calling people epithets, if it was offensive, we were doing it in the name of "irony."
    After I turned 18, the promise I made to myself as a child came back, that once I turned 18, I could finally be myself. I came out as a lesbian to a large amount of opposition. I left for college leaving a family that was in denial to a new state. While I was at school, I met quite a few really nice people in the school's GSA and that had started to soften me to a lot of things.
    Eventually I started dropping youtube atheists one after another after the "Amazing" Atheist had a rant about how the recent string of gay people committing suicide. He called them all "pussies" and I stopped watching his sorry ass ever since.
    Around the same time I found the Atheist Experience and it worked as a nice transitional piece between actual reasonable debate and the "creationist owned" type things. Found AronRa around this time as well and thought he was a pretty awesome person.
    Eventually I came back home to the situation that had been left for almost 2 years, my mother was still super against it, the rest of my extended family basically disowned me save for my one aunt's family, and my friends decided to just out of nowhere one day ditch me.
    I then started going to a different school and started living by myself in an unfamiliar city and had a lot of time to think about everything. As I reached lower and lower depths to my depression, I found myself becoming more empathetic to others. Particularly after I had a few moments where strangers would go out of there way to ask me how I was out of nowhere.
    Since then I've tried to keep myself open to change and constantly in a state of improvement. I'd say reasonable atheists are the biggest reason I'm not still a jackass about my atheism. The friends I lost helped me realize that the people I was hanging out with kept me constantly trying to be offensive "ironically." And the family that still refuses to acknowledge me, well...fuck them, they're crappy people and I can just move on from them.
    [–]mst3kluvMilo has a journalism degree from Chuck E Cheese 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    Im sorry about your asshole family/friends.
    [–]xenoghost1Social Studies Warrior 3 points4 points5 points  (0 children)
    i was actually a channer for a bit and enjoyed watching youtube atheists such as the asshole atheist . so i was kinda of a run of the mill "edgelord" . you know the kids in school were channers too, and they were also edge lords despite their ethnicity (or due to it as there is a disproportionate number of Hispanic edge-lords for some damned reason)- we were all kind of anti-social gamers ,tbh. and so to be swindled into the ideology was relatively easy and seamless if it wasn't for my interest in economics (which also kinda pushed me, professor/teacher was a crazy conservative libertarian ),i argue i would still be one today
    tbh, Gamergate was the thing that converted me ironies of all ironies, before that i was a huge leftist (like huge advocate of social democracy and/or democratic socialism) edgelord, but after witnessing the disgusting things they have been doing - i was an ethics "cuck" so there was that .so when the more right wing elements began to overtake the ethics assholes (who were also right-wing, but in an undercover way) i began wondering and watching folks like the 1janitor ,visiting ghazi and things like that
    so you could say i am here now thanks to milo whatever last name he is using now in order to use twitter
    EDIT: i added to the how i got there
    [–]OPRAH_ROBOTRAPE 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    Look at my username. It's been a long journey.
    Sorry about that by the way. I should really change it. But years ago, I used to frequently browse tumblrinaction, Mensrights, KIA, even freaking /pol/, sometimes. (Never bought redpilling or nazi supremacy shit though).
    "What's wrong with that?" I thought. "I mean, lots of shitty things happen to dudes everyday, and we never hear feminists complain about those things, do we?"
    And then, one day, for the first time in my life, I met a feminist. And it wasn't the hysterical, crazy strawman man-hating depiction that MRA's showed me, hell no.
    Here's a woman that was smarter, more intelligent, and way more rational and level-headed than me. And simply by discussing, not shouting, not fighting, I realized that women, POC and the LGTBT community have it way more badly than us. Shitty things happens to males, but no one is cackling or happy about that. Feminists aren't giving themselves hi-fives when male suicides rates are through the roof or when guys get drafted.
    I happened to be browsing reddit while we talked. I clicked on /r/mensrights.
    Something like 95% of the links on the sub weren't even about male issues or concerns, but were rather just bitching about feminism and women in general. "This girl hit me, why can't I retaliate twice as hard???" "Emma Watson is a Feminist?? Since when does she hate men?" and shit like that.
    Also, I have no idea who Jaclyn Friedman is. But that quote changed me.
    The list of grievances for MRAs is long. It includes the elevated rate of suicide for men, educational discrimination against boys, economic and workplace conditions for men, violence against men, false rape reporting, fathers’ rights in custody battles, rates of male imprisonment and prison conditions, and the horrors of war. Many of these issues deserve a thoughtful response and the force of an organized movement for address them. It’s too bad that’s not what men’s rights activists are offering.
    I'm sorry. I don't expect to get any sympathy here. I know my story is very selfish and male centered, because that's what I was.
    Today, I am way more prone to listening to others before talking, or having an opinion. After all, it's by listening to others that I got out of this shithole.
    [–]duggtodeath 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    For me, it was getting over self-hatred caused by some "inherited" depression. Further, I got away from the Digg and Reddit echo chambers. Refreshing to be away from such filth and actually see that the world isn't such a scary place.
    [–]wholetyouinhere 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    I'm just amazed at how recently most of these turnaround stories have taken place. It took me years to get into it, and years to get out of it.
    In my case (as I suspect in countless others), I'd say it was caused by a confluence of being naturally intelligent, socially awkward, and raised in an environment of privilege, in a culture that was sending me constant messages about the artificial hierarchy of human beings. I think the crucial ingredient was my downplaying of the importance of a healthy social life, instead of trying to improve mine. Social connections are critical to developing empathy, and an understanding of the other.
    What changed me was a series of events where I was confronted with others' suffering, to which I could not relate, combined with (unfortunately) time and the maturing process.
    This stuff is strong magic. I don't think there's anything you could have said to me, at a certain time, to make me change my mind about anything. It took confrontation and time, and of course some difficult self-reflection.
    I'd compare it to the constant messages we receive, from birth, about the normalcy of factory farming animals, often subjecting them to intense suffering, and then eating them. Most of us, even in social justice-y subs, don't seriously question the legitimacy of that -- i.e. we don't want animals to suffer, but we happily eat meat. So imagine if you were asked to go vegan. In most cases, that would be a hard sell, to say the least. That's the power you come up against when you're arguing with someone who aligns with the default Reddit narratives about culture.
    Thanks for sharing your story.
    [–]iamspacedadPsy-ops Specialist 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    I often think 'edgelord' gets a bad rap - just because you're super-edgy doesn't mean you are a bigoted asshole. A lot of people are into edgy stuff or edgy for edgy sake without being pricks - there's also a lot of edgy people who very strongly anti-bully.
    Sadly it does get a bad rap though because of 'anti-pc' people pretending that the hateful status quo bullshit they spout is somehow transgressive.
    [–]sibeerian 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    I was never an edgelord, and I didn't get internet access until I was around 18. But I had a phase early in college where I would be rolling my eyes over how dumb far leftists were. They had some presence on campus, and sure they were hung up on dumb things, but in retrospect so were probably all the campus political groups consisting of early 20s people. I was never antagonistic toward feminism, but I didn't support it either.
    This was all during the GWB years, so I missed the alt right and the misogyny shit train. I don't know how vulnerable I would have been to that, but I was still a shy, awkward guy not really relating closely to the women I knew. I had developed some feminist ideas by then by myself (more by common sense or empathy than by listening to women), but on other issues I was completely oblivious. I'm just glad I wasn't being warped/pressured to begin with. The reality today is vastly different than 10 years ago, on some areas for the better, but on many for the worse.
    [–]HopefulApplicantmuh ethics 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    I was never really an edgelord, but I used to believe PC was the worst thing ever. It was around the time of protests at Yale and U Mizzou, neither of which I was really on board with.
    [–]ARealRedWagon 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    I was more of a brocialist STEMlord, but there was a fair amount of edge in my life. I just didn't believe that the bigoted behavior I saw on the internet was real and I found it funny so why couldn't feminists just have a better sense of humor? I also disregarded pretty much all social theory as "subjective," something that would become obsolete once our quantum super computer neurocyborg Technocracy that was being ushered in by New Atheist/STEM/Socialists took control.
    I certainly identified as on the left (aside from that time I read Rand's Fountainhead I was a long time anti-capitalist) and believed that I supported real issues that mattered like destroying all religion and fixing sexism by erasing the differences between men and women with science and essentially spreading WEIRD-monoculture to the ends of the earth.
    I found this attitude pretty common in the STEM department of the university I went to. If anything I was often a moderate by comparison with many of my classmates. There wasn't a strong social pressure to conform, but there was absolutely zero real social pressure to reject these principles.
    Then a few things happened at the same time. My partner got really into feminism, Gamergate started, and I basically finished my science degree and got really into philosophy. It took me a long time to come around as a self proclaimed sjw, but I was struck pretty quickly by the realization that the hate I saw in the media and on the internet was real. It wasn't some stupid joke anymore, which helped me see that it never had been.
    While I was discovering that MRAs and other internet bigots were real, I was also discovering that my attempts to ground my sympathies in objective science were stupid. In retrospect I believe that STEMlord brocialism is only a few steps away from National Socialism. Small, "science was less regulated in Nazi Germany and therefor better than right now in funDIE america," steps.
    [–]McJohnson88Gonzo SJW 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    Truth be told, for a long time I wasn't really an "edgelord", but I wouldn't have exactly called myself a feminist either - I just didn't really give a shit either way. I think the turning point was when the harassment Anita Sarkeesian started getting in 2012 started making news; I actually recall reading about her here and there prior to that, since I was firmly addicted to TV Tropes and they mentioned her in "One Of Us" type pages a couple of times; it made me wonder what all the sudden fuss was about. It was the "Beat Up Anita" game really that stuck with me - I figured even if I disagreed with this person, making stuff like that really wasn't cool at all.
    RationalWiki's where I first read about the men's rights movement, sometime in 2013 IIRC, and that's basically what tipped the scales completely, I've pretty much been an SJW ever since. Having a Tumblr-feminist sister helps an awful lot, too - if I ever say something stupid, I'll hear about it. <3
    [–]greatjorb88 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    I had a brief stint with atheist/anti-feminist YouTubers after deconverting from the conservative Christianity I had been raised in. I remember watching thunderf00ts video on Anita and thinking it totally exposed her to be completely intelecctualy dishonest and bankrupt. Then gamergate happened and I remember thinking how the feminists were straw-manning what gamergate was actually about, but I never got super involved in gg I just kinda forgot about it. I think what helped me a lot was I was already a fan of people like Matt Dillahunty, Steve Shives, and specifically an atheist blogger who I admire named Dan Fincke. All of these people are feminists and so that made it harder for me to just write off feminism like so many YouTube atheists do. Then somehow I started reading subs like SRS, best of outrage culture and gamerghazi, and I started to see how these YouTubers and their fans were basically operating on a script and never giving feminist ideas a fair shake. It seemed like no matter what a feminist/sjw was talking about, their ideas always ended up being the wrongest of wrong that ever wronged according to certain YouTubers. It began to feel like these YouTubers were simply pandering and not engaging ideas on an individual basis, and so I was like fuck that and I started unsubbing from a lot of them.
    [–]Wizzer10Ex-MRA (no, seriously) 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    I was angry, alone and it's far easier to blame 'misandry' for my problems than it is to realise that the reason people don't like me is because I'm a useless piece of shit.
    I was subject to a lot of mean stuff on Tumblr, which led me to TiA, which led me to mensrights which was basically just a big old tyre fire of hatred masquerading as an oppressed but ultimately liberal minority.
    Dragged myself out of that shitheap after I got involved with my local Labour Party, which basically exposed me to alternate views and showed me that the mensrights movement is incredibly right wing and not something I should associate with.
    [–]masoniconeILLUMINATI △ SHILL 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    A little late to the party and keep in mind I'm much older then all of you, so some of this will have nothing to do with the Internet.
    In High School I was the normal outcast nerd, now note I went to school in an upper middle class/rich kid area and due to the fact that I wasn't into "gangsta" rap. I didn't have the right clothing as my Dad couldn't spend $50+ dollars on a pair of Guess Jeans. Played D&D and watched Star Trek, I'll also admit I got into drugs and drinking but that's not really part of this.
    I hung around with two types of people in high school. My fellow outcasts and nerds, and a number of kids who had been into things like White Power and the like. Hell I used to watch Rush Limbaugh and owned his books. Now around this time? We also had the early web it was still new at the time, however I got into early newsgroups and message boards like Above Top Secret.
    So in my head? Everything was wrong in the world. Why am I getting my ass kicked by my peers? People I knew and started talking to online said it, it's not your fault! It's everyone going PC, and lefties! It's the Blacks and Mexicans! Can't get a girlfriend? Not your fault brother.
    And then something happened, I started to get clean and sober and deal with some of the things in my life. And when I was doing that guess what happened? Those guys who told me I'm white and should be proud? Really didn't want anything to do with me. Better still the folks that helped me get sober? They came from all backgrounds of life, hell the guy that really got me on the path of staying sober? An African American who was part of the early LGBTQ community who was also a former Marine.
    Along with that I got older. Really I stopped going to the conspiracy and right wing websites as well... In the case of the conspiracy sites they went from things like UFO's and the like into what we have today, namely whatever Alex Jones throws out there. Same with a lot of those right wing websites.
    As for those other things? Lets face it being a nerd now isn't something that makes one an outcast. The girlfriend? I've had a few and I'll admit I've had the friends with benefits or just the one night stand sorta thing. I'll admit I still have my flaws and faults, but I'm not in that mindset anymore.
    [–]Edgy_Atheist 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    You know I could be here all day talking about how I got sucked into this reading /r/4chan and /r/tumblrinaction without actually looking into the progressive activists they were constantly making strawmen out of. But in the end, it all came down to an embarrassing realization when I was in favor of gamergate.
    I was giving neo-nazis and neo-nazi sympathizers on /pol/ and other shitholes more benefit of the doubt than generic progressives on the internet. That was the embarrassing moment when I thought "Jesus Christ, if I'm willing to put up with this guy in gamergate claim that all of the media is run by an international cabal of Jews, maybe, just maybe, I should spend five minutes reading about what feminism is from someone who isn't a rabid anti-feminist". It sounds so fucking stupid to type this out now, to be within a group of people home to such disgusting, hateful, miserable bastards. But there I was.
    Also, best thing to learn about gamergate after escaping that cult was probably this series of videos.
    [–]TheVeryGrumpyGinger 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    I was never your right wing edgelord my parents were a positive enough influence for that not to happen. But around 14 did I sure as hell go through a smug atheist phrase I'm shocked in retrospect how any of the religious people I knew tolerated me. It wasn't as if I was reacting to my upbringing either with both my parents being atheists. It took me a while to outgrow it really until I got a year or so into university where the whole hing just ended up being boring and I got better at socializing with people. The realization as well that atheists could just as much be idiots nailed it in as well with obnoxious trotskyites on campus being the best example.
    [–]manwhatsit 1 point2 points3 points  (1 child)
    Not going to go into it fully
    But one thing that comes to me, looking back at being teen of the nineties there was a massive amount of 'feminism is cra-cra-crazy! its all so woman can accuse you of rape if they don't like you!' generously sprinkled through TV and media at the time. I think back to stuff like that Simpson episode about Homer being accused of sexually harassing the babysitter now and I cringe, Veronica Mars I think had a story arch all about the evil feminist club out to blackmail men, and these where shows I liked at the time.
    [–]CaelrieNew Mod, Same Great Oppression! 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    Yah, I remember all that anti-feminist crap from the 90s, too. It was all over main-stream media. It's no wonder future edgelords who were kids back then started off on the wrong foot.
    [–]BizznetReptillian Puppetmaster 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    Transitioning out of my edgelord phase started when all the Rationals™ I subscribed to started bad-mouthing the social sciences, which at the time I was taking a pre-university course in that subject. I was outraged that men's rights lectures were being shut down by feminist protesters and I thought Chanty Binx was a horrible person. I thought that if the Men's Rights Movement were being prevented from talking, they must have some truth to what they say. I picked up Warren Farrel's book "The Myth of Male Power" and was appalled by it. He wrote that sexual assault in the workplace is not that big of a deal, that it's playful banter like making Jew jokes to Jewish coworkers, and making fun of other people, or "just joking around". I realized that these are guys who have a persecution complex and just want to dominate women and other groups.
    I left those views behind way, waaay before many of these guys came out of the woodwork, or before the guys I subscribed to revealed their far-right stripes.
    [–]SmytheOrdoBeta Mangina White Knight 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
    Well, 2012-2014 was pretty much my "dark age" since I hit plateaus of depression I've been lucky enough to have never sunk back to.
    I invested heavily in my identity as a nerd as a coping mechanism to cope with the fact that I felt hopeless(and drove myself into debt I'm still digging out of, but that's another thing). Gamergate became a thing around the time I dumped a second girlfriend and felt shitty about it. It gave me something to invest interest in since "ethics in games journalism" sounded like a worthy cause that my wanna be scientist self could latch on(past me would be shocked to learn present me is going to school for a liberal arts subject that would interact heavily with journalism.) I got out of Gamergate when i lost a friend over my love of youtubers like carl and InternetAristocrat(sorry Vicky I should have listened to you), and realized how much of Gamergate was just an excuse to harass people.
    Getting out of the "gamer edgelord in fear of becoming a minority" thing actually helped me. I picked up a lot of hobbies outside gaming.(Currently one of my biggest hobbies is shockingly, going out to live shows especially punk shows) And I became able to verbalize my emotions effectively and listen better. In other words, past me would describe present me as a normie.
    [–]SatireIre 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
    I hope this thread makes it to the front page, this is great, OP
    [–]expacis#NotYourThreat 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
    I parroted a lot of the bullshit right-wing radio talk points my folks listened to when I was in high school. I still went to church, but was less on the Bible-thumping holier-than-thou and more on the "other people are wrong, but I am not eloquent enough to tell them why, only that they are".
    One of my best friends was involved in the local Renaissance Festival, and asked me to join because he was tired of not having peers/friends there to spend time with.
    Getting six weekends a year away from home, surrounded by people with vastly different life experiences and beliefs really did a number on me. I met atheists, pagans, wiccans, I think a couple taoists, and lord-knows-how-many faux-/not-so-faux-gypsies (like seriously goddamn). There were folks that are/were various denominations of Christian, of course, but there were zero Bible-thumping types that I basically grew up around.
    I was still a bit of an ass (OK, a lot of an ass, still lull in at times but I work on it so much), still fairly arrogant (typical teenage and just-turned-20 bullshit), but I wasn't immediately praying the moment I saw a bit of cleavage.
    At the end of my Junior year of HS (17 years old for non-USians), a friend introduced me to the guy who GM'd his Shadowrun game. We grew to be good friends, and he was a huge influence on me. I was still a bit of an edgelord - used some racial epithets without blinking (not the big ones, but that's still not an excuse) - and he'd call me out on that shit. Over time I culled a lot of that, and his viewpoint on life was pretty similar to mine.
    I stepped out of the Christian faith not too long after high school, but after that I did internalize some of the PUA material. I had been through a pretty rough breakup and thought "I'll win her back doing this!"
    Not so much. Got my head beat around a few times by some sparring buddies (I know at least one of you posts here sometimes, and I know I've even said wassup to you here, so - wassup), both figuratively and literally, and got my head out of my ass when it came to that.
    I've been on an upward trend ever since. Some very good friends pulled me out of dark places, even if they don't realize just how far down shit creek I was.
    [–]nilecroc 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
    I was kidnapped by my shitbag "family" for smoking teh eval weed and watched The Amazing Misogynist to cope. Also visiting /b/ to troll. Being raised in a conservative household didn't help. I escaped by going to therapy and watching ConcOrdance's video on rape statistics. And visiting subreddits like these.
    [–]Mentioned_Videos 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
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    [–]ratdudeBeta Mangina White Knight 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
    guess i'm late to the rick rubin party... i know he's had people like ch sommers on but that's about it. what's his deal?
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