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Drive-by Reader's avatar

I've actually suspected a lot of online culture on Livejournal was the precursor to what people blamed on "Tumblr politics" for years, I just never had real "proof" because I was too young (was in highschool when Strikethrough happened) to experience it outside of lurking public journals/communities. A lot of OG Tumblr troublemakers had a reputation before that, but Livejournal being a less public space with "FLocked" posts/communities and cutting friends list "contained" it more. I also know for a fact that a lot of "old school fandom" like Racewank was ground zero for social justice politics becoming this way now, but again, wasn't quite there to experience it.

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Woolie Wool's avatar

In a case of parallel evolution the dynamic also reminds me of Helldump on Something Awful. SA originated as a place for a soi-disant internet elite to mock and look down on aspects of the internet they considered perverted, stupid, immoral, or otherwise deviant, and it didn't take long for the principle to be turned back on "goons" themselves. It even has the same progression where one user started a thread to denounce another and other people would dig through the suspect's post history to find scandalous quotes to post out of context, and anyone who spoke up for the victim of the internet struggle session was considered an accessory to internet deviancy and targeted as well. It was and still is considered a best practice to not even try to defend oneself when being helldumped (Helldump is gone but Helldump threads live on in the suggestions and complaints forum) but rather hide and hope the whole thing blows over. Something Awful's politics were different from fandom LJ and Tumblr's (originally right-libertarian, now tending towards opposing camps of generic liberals and authoritarian "tankie" socialists) and so is the particular sort of paranoia (that the internet in general and the forums in particular are infested with crypto-pedophiles and sexual freaks) but the dynamic is strikingly similar.

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