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https://www.garbageday.email/p/here-s-how-epstein-broke-the-internet
Epstein Met Moot
One of the central internet mysteries of the last 15 years is why 4chan creator Christopher Poole reversed course in 2011 and brought back the site’s politics board, which is called /pol/, or “Politically Incorrect.” It would become the staging ground for Gamergate, the 2016 Trump campaign, and the far-right populism wave that swept the world in the back half of the 2010s.
A version of /pol/ was attempted two times before it finally stuck. First, as /n/, which was meant to be a section for news content. Which ultimately became the “transportation” board in 2008. And then again, in 2010, when Poole launched /new/, largely as a way to quarantine the overwhelming amount of support on the site for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign. Poole shutdown /new/ in January 2011, telling users at the time, “As for /new/, anybody who used it knows exactly why it was removed. When I re-added the board last year, I made a note that if it devolved into /stormfront/, I'd remove it.” (Stormfront is one of the oldest Neo-Nazi communities on the web.)
So it has never made much sense as to why Poole would ban /new/ for being a racist hell hole and then, barely a year later, launch /pol/, a board specifically designed to be a racist hell hole. But buried inside the newest batch of files related to the Epstein investigation is a possible hint as to what made Poole change his mind. He met with Epstein the day before /pol/ was created.
Epstein Met Moot
One of the central internet mysteries of the last 15 years is why 4chan creator Christopher Poole reversed course in 2011 and brought back the site’s politics board, which is called /pol/, or “Politically Incorrect.” It would become the staging ground for Gamergate, the 2016 Trump campaign, and the far-right populism wave that swept the world in the back half of the 2010s.
A version of /pol/ was attempted two times before it finally stuck. First, as /n/, which was meant to be a section for news content. Which ultimately became the “transportation” board in 2008. And then again, in 2010, when Poole launched /new/, largely as a way to quarantine the overwhelming amount of support on the site for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign. Poole shutdown /new/ in January 2011, telling users at the time, “As for /new/, anybody who used it knows exactly why it was removed. When I re-added the board last year, I made a note that if it devolved into /stormfront/, I'd remove it.” (Stormfront is one of the oldest Neo-Nazi communities on the web.)
So it has never made much sense as to why Poole would ban /new/ for being a racist hell hole and then, barely a year later, launch /pol/, a board specifically designed to be a racist hell hole. But buried inside the newest batch of files related to the Epstein investigation is a possible hint as to what made Poole change his mind. He met with Epstein the day before /pol/ was created.
