That shift in kookiness around 2016 I still can't explain

I used to hang out on conspiracy boards back in like 2012 or so. Back then it was mostly guys talking about missing flight MH370 or chemtrails in a way that felt almost cozy, like a weird hobby. But around 2016 I noticed this hard pivot where stuff got way more political and aggressive out of nowhere. I remember one specific thread where someone posted about a stadium in Ohio getting extra cell towers installed, and instead of just debating the logistics people started screaming about deep state control. The whole vibe shifted from curious speculation to this angry certainty, and I swear the language changed too with all these repeated phrases popping up. I still wonder if it was bots or just algorithms feeding people different content, but the before and after is night and day to me. Has anyone else tracked when their own conspiracy circles turned sour? I mean the older threads feel like a completely different internet.

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sandra22d ago

The shift I noticed was around mid 2016 when the "pizza" stuff started showing up in those same forums. Before that, people would share wild theories about underground tunnels but it felt like brainstorming, not warfare. After that thread hit, the whole board turned into people shouting at each other with the same five buzzwords over and over, like someone had flipped a switch on the conversation.

tarac1621d ago

Pizza" stuff was the result of a hacked email dump, not some switch being flipped.