Winter is Coming for 4chan

Slime attracts slime. 4chan could be out of business unless the world's most hated man gives it a financial boost.

In the meantime, no decent human being is about to lose any sleep over the fact that Hiroyuki Nishimura can no longer afford to keep the dark web site afloat. 

He's had trouble finding advertisers. Gee, no kidding. This is the man responsible for allowing those hacked iPhone naked photos of celebs to circulate. His basket of horrible people have not only bought and sold hacked material, but created bomb threats, tried to convince teenagers to kill themselves, and is the place to go when you're looking for a cheap hitman. 

When you travel the abyss, an anal fissure is going to gorge your hollow excuse of a life. Winter is coming, bitch.

So Nishimura's options are: charge a fee for better access, downsize the available cyberspace, accept ads from malware plants, or get Martin Shkreli to bail you out. You know, the guy who hiked up the life-saving AIDS medication 5000 percent.

Maybe he can accept the last two scenarios. Accept malware-laden ads and Shkreli's financial boost. Then the malware can infect the 4chan servers, Shkreli's and all the cybertroll members' devices and have them sort through the same Internet pain they've given everybody else times 1000.

Political Malfunction

Political season seems to bring out the worst in good people. It turns them into trolls and bullies. 

You see them every day in your Facebook and Twitter feeds, among other places. They mirror what the pundits say on the puffed up political mantra being spewed across the airwaves. 

Regardless of facts, truth, or intentional slander, regardless of political affiliation, it is emotions that drive the home feed and comment sections. His truth may not be her truth, but that doesn't matter. Any truth, other than their own, is wrong and must be destroyed. 

If someone finds a positive story about a political candidate, such as legislation that levels the playing field for workers, moves the needle forward for trade -- thus jobs, or hell, even if they saved a damn life, watch the haters find something to post trash about. If they have nothing, they take it personal -- to the candidate's looks, their great great great great grandfather's indiscretion, or they wore the wrong colored suit.

It's like an elementary playground for adults. Politics seems to give liberty for adults to behave badly, to set a terrible example, and contradict the line they always feed their kids: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Some of the examples coming from posts of people who are otherwise well behaved, who work at all ends of the economic scale: 

• Liar
• Bitch
• Ugly wife
• Dishonest
• Muslim (trying to connect the candidate to terrorism) 
• Sellout
• Traitor
• Cow-wacky, heifer-donkey shit
• Piece of shit
• Joke
• Babbling clown 

You get the picture. 

It doesn't matter if the candidates get ugly on the campaign trail. We don't have to follow their lead. 

Here's a good reason why you should remember that line you try to teach your kids about saying something nice. Jobs and opportunities come in bipartisan work environments. Whether you work freelance, contract, or are looking for full- or part-time work, employers and contractors WILL be checking your social feeds to see what kind of a person you are. They want to see if you play nice with others or if you're a digital toxin fertilizer.

So what do your political posts say about you? It isn't about backing the right candidate, but rather it is how tolerant you are of other's right to back theirs.  

Internet Troll Clubs

The troll community isn't just your Twitter feed or YouTube comments. It's a real thing. The cyber world is full of online coffee shops where trolls hang out, trade notes, and offer praise. They learn from each other how to be better anarchists.

In these community and forums, anything is on the table. Disruption is the game. It's pretty hard to get banned from one of these feeds. Some of these discussion boards are on the regular web; others are on the dark web.

This is a place where one can brag about their trolling escapades. Here, trolls even troll other trolls.

You've got trolls who publish guides on how to be a better troll, such as A Beginner's Guide to Internet Trolling. In fact, one quick Google search and there are too many troll manuals.