4chan is composed of different boards. There's/b/ which used to be fun/funny to go to, back in the 00s up until probably 2012ish. There's /pol/ which has always been a shitshow and has become synonymous with "4chan" when people think of it these days. And a bunch of others. Think of it like maybe you go to /r/showerthoughts or /r/cats but you'd never step foot in /r/the_donald (when it existed) or /r/feet (not shaming, just using for range). The same goes for 4chan. Personally, I'd go to /b/ (random) or /m/ (mecha).

It was never cringe to talk about 4chan openly back then because most people didn't even know about it, and for those who did it was like a secret badge/nod to those who knew.

Before 2012 it was also a hub for Anonymous, lulzsec, and others, and was a force behind Occupy Wallstreet, protesting the church of scientology and spreading word about Lisa McPherson, taking down gov sites in protest, Stratfor leaks, and far more focused on taking action on issues related to civil liberties.

Then in 2012 it really went down hill after Jeremy Hammond got arrested, after Sabu snitched on him. Yes, moot owned the site, but I'm of the opinion that due to the arrest/snitching, moot had to go against the "anonymous" ethos of 4chan and give access to everything to the fbi for "national security" reasons because they got spooked after the whole Occupy movement and the activity of activists on the site. The whole site turned into total garbage in a really short period of time following, and became flooded with a completely different crowd, a ton of brainrot (more so than before), way more right leaning posts/posters, and wayyy more porn than usual filled boards like /b/. Then when moot started another business (or he got a higher position at one of the big tech companies... I forget) and sold off 4chan, it became an absolute cesspool for the things listed earlier.

Tldr - it used be good... stupid but good. Now it's garbage, full of maga bs, and brainrot.