| ▲ | mitxela 4 days ago |
| note this started years before generative AI, arguably around 2014 with the gamergate era |
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| ▲ | nonsensical_ 4 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| You’ll have to enlighten how GG plays into all this. Sounds like a curious tie-in. |
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| ▲ | mitxela 4 days ago | parent [-] | | 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. | | |
| ▲ | scrollaway 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | 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. | | |
| ▲ | disgruntledphd2 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > 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). | | |
| ▲ | icedchai 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | 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. | |
| ▲ | nonsensical_ 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Even back then it seemed like a tempest in a teapot situation on HN. People thought they were raw and edgy saying “fuck Trump” like it amounts to anything. I remember at least one, maybe two YC-backed companies dedicated to removing Trump. That’s right - a startup business plan that amounts to impeaching a president. Now there’s a billion+ dollar enterprise. All this, and here we are in 2026. It just shows immaturity and naïveté. | | |
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| ▲ | mitxela 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The 2016 election, you may remember, came after and was partially caused by Gamergate. | | |
| ▲ | jhbadger 3 days ago | parent [-] | | 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. |
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| ▲ | elmer2 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | It was around in 2008. Reddit was flooded with bots shilling for Obama. | | |
| ▲ | mitxela 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Nobody was using Reddit in 2008. Did it even have comments yet? |
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| ▲ | anon1097 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | 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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| ▲ | jhbadger 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I think it started in 2000 when Al Gore who clearly won the election was discarded in favor of Dubya thanks to a biased Supreme Court. |
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| ▲ | Havoc 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Agreed. Truthiness started to wobble earlier, but I think it's fair to say it still existed. New era will shatter it into a thousand pieces |
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| ▲ | salawat 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Earlier. I'd say it started right around the time SEO started taking off big time. |
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| ▲ | hackersnooze1 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| are you the same guy who made the fluid simulation thing and the little volumetric display on youtube? |
