Conversely:
>old /pol/ was awful, but it had one real virtue: it trusted nobody.
>not the media, not the parties, not donors, not silicon valley, not the state, not billionaires pretending to be “dissidents.”
>now look at it.
>half this board became unpaid campaign interns for trump, thiel orbit freaks, defense contractors, surveillance tech ghouls, and venture capital vampires who would have laughed at you ten years ago. you call it “winning” because some politician says the right buzzwords while his donors get richer and his friends get contracts.
>old /pol/ would have seen this scam instantly.
>trump realized the internet right was desperate to be noticed. thielworld realized “anti-establishment” aesthetics could be turned into a pipeline for state power, data, defense money, and controlled opposition. /pol/ ate it up because it got memes, shoutouts, and the illusion that posting was power.
>you became a free focus group for billionaires. a meme farm for campaigns. a testing ground for slogans. every “based” politician you worship is surrounded by donors, lobbyists, consultants, and data freaks who see you as disposable.
>that is the real decline of /pol/. not that it got meaner or edgier. it got domesticated. predictable. useful.
>old /pol/ was a sewer, but at least it knew it was a sewer.
>new /pol/ is a sewer that thinks it’s a kingmaker because a politician reposted a meme.
https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/535359961/the-spiritual-trooning-out-of-pol
(Personally I do think we're kind of kingmakers, we didn't have this influence before at all)