4chan didn't create it, 4chan was created for speech that wasn't allowed on somethingawful, and before that there was ogrish and before that rotten.com & stileproject, before that? Probably alt.tasteless.

> 4chan didn't create it, 4chan was created for speech that wasn't allowed on somethingawful

4chan was created by somethingawful users as an imitation of Japanese imageboards. It was used for speech that wasn't allowed on SA because it was right next door. Then SA decided it didn't like 4chan.

Then SA's culture spread to magazines like Gawker and Buzzfeed, which is part of the reason 4chan is so unpopular now.

If Gawker and Buzzfeed had hired from one side of the Harry Potter fandom, and if a handful of high-profile people like Zoe Quinn had come from it, we'd probably be hearing about how all of America's problems are caused by people who like Snape or whatever.

Yeah no, drawing this as a online pissing match between two groups in some 'culture war' doesn't hold water when one side is fucking murdering people in a walmart, sorry.

I hear what you’re saying. 4chan wasn’t the start of this. But did each step of the chain transform the idea, or was each step merely an incrementally better home for already existing ideas?

Jeez, internet history is a rabbit hole.