>I think one important question to ask here is: what caused the huge shift? Because it's something I noticed as well.

It was 8 years of a Democratic, fairly liberal president. People like to rebel against whatever is in fashion. The right wing is now "edgy" because it rails against the prevailing political power

The generation of kids who are now posting on 4chan grew up in a world defined by the Fox News anti-Obama 'liberalism is a disease!' rhetoric which has taken over our media in the past decade. Be prepared for a radical push back from Trumpism by the subsequent generations that grow up under the current political climate. I imagine the pendulum will swing back with a vengeance after this one.

I think it's a combination of several factors:

The skewed, unequal recovery since the recession has tons of people extremely bitter about the state of the economy and our country. Theoretically our economy is doing much better than it was in the 80's, but only a few cities are experiencing growth. This general sense of stress and displeasure among many people amplifies bipartisanship, and our two-party political structure just makes that worse.

Right now, it is mostly seen as bad socially to hold non-PC viewpoints. With increased bipartisanship, it's only natural that the side with non-PC viewpoints would grow on an anonymous forum.

The internet has become a massive avenue for media. People are constantly bombarded with unfiltered, unedited information that shows that our economy isn't for us, the media isn't for us, our employers aren't for us, heck, even our police and neighbors aren't for us. It just amplifies any us-vs-them mentalities that people have.

Propaganda. State actors would aim for media that is both popular and anonymous. 4chan is a great avenue for that.

Liberals and media are running with the propaganda angle because it sounds sexy and starts a faux Cold War, but I really think the real issues are our economy and media. People need to feel safe. If they don't, instability occurs on both sides. Sanders was a huge upset too, and shows us that it's everyone who feels pressured, not just the right.

The contrarian aspect of 4chan is important, but I think theres more to it than that. Contrarianism on 4chan during the Bush years wasn't nearly as violent and widespread as it's been lately, and I think it goes back to gamergate, which was the first time a lot of 4chan users experienced politics having an effect on something central to their culture. The only groups speaking out against "SJW culture" happened to be far right wing groups, so they listened and adopted the rest of the platform. There was also always an undercurrent of racism (spamming the n word goes back to the early days of /b/) and the alt right gave these people a community, and talking points for a bunch of other issues.

I think part of the reason is the changing demographics of the geekier parts of the Internet. As hitherto absent groups of people entered geekdom, it produced a defensive reaction.

The way I see it, it is easier to express liberal sentiments than to actually walk the talk. Kind of like how it's easier to profess feminism when it doesn't require any effort from your side than when you are married and have kids and are expected to equally share household responsibilities.

I'm on mobile so I didn't read the pdf.

But I'd say related to the itle is overly PC people highly vocal aka SJW as people say. It's the left equivalent of far right.

The other thing I think is US style politics as a Canadian it amazes me that is is so absolute you're Democrat or Republican. Most western countries have multiple political parties covering many shades politics.

People in the USA from my viewpoint seem to have become convinced they can only be one or the other. And it seems there is a huge gap between the two parties more than I can recall seeing.

The other thing is the US president is treated like a king he's just a politician. In western countries with prime ministers he can be thrown out easily and most people don't care who the person is.

Age also seems to be a big part maybe it's a Millenia/Boomer thing big groups with opposing views.

And of course there seems to be a huge lack of trust about what to believe. The tackiness most paranoid websites which years ago were called trashy tabloids are now seen as actual journalism. A person claiming to be a conspiracy theorist acts as if it is a badge of pride.

Overall I don't know lack of education, no mentors, lack of direction, lack of a moral guide.

The social "tax rate" of things you must do in order to be a "good person" according to the establishment left got way too high. So if your choices are to make excruciatingly sure you don't accidentally forget the TQQIAAP part of LGBTQQIAAP alliance, or fuck all that noise and stop caring about what the left thinks, well, a bunch of folks are going to stop caring about what the left thinks.

It was quite possibly gamergate in 2014. I don't think dragging up the whole culture war here is valuable, but clearly a large portion of the gaming community were left feeling mistrustful of the gaming media. That war continues as background noise at this point, but is still a powerful influencer on many left-vs-right subjects.

It's pretty simple, we moved left too fast for even many on the American left, and there was a backlash. Most people want to do the right thing, and the left's brand is "nice for people" but past a certain point people need to have some social, political and economic stability and the changes just came too fast and hard for that.

I was a straight-up supporter of Occupy Wall Street. I know a lot of people who were. We all changed.

What caused the shift? The fact that 8 years of Obama didn't help the working class, and millenials are kind of in a shit situation.