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I have to say that I like the versatility of the ‘>’ symbol very much. Its use is noted in 4chan documentation as quoting someone, and while it is very much used for this purpose as well, its variety of other uses is fascinating. It is used to summarise someone else’s point of view, quoting that person in a way; it is used to tell hypothetical events that happen to a hypothetical person, such as ‘>be American >get shot’; it is used in greentexts, and how this symbol came to indicate the beginning of a paragraph is a mystery to me, but I must say that it makes some sense; one may use it, such as here, to shut down someone based on a characteristic, in a way quoting that person’s state of being. I like how such a tiny symbol, with an originally well-defined function, has become such an important, but rarely discussed element of 4chan culture.
