Remember the "boogaloo" movement? You probably do. How it weirdly showed up out of nowhere, then died off. Right-wingers look at it and think "oh look, feds" and left-wingers look at it and think "oh look, nazis". Neither is really true, so let's step back in time a few years. 🧵





Firstly, we need to establish one fact: for a very long time, almost all internet culture was downstream of 4chan. A significant proportion still is.

And that's how the term "boogaloo" arrived on the scene - /b/, specifically.

How did a mid-00s Ukrainian video game come to have an outsized effect on modern gun culture?

And what's the deal with that "stalker" thing that old /k/ommandos talk about anyway?

A thread - my first real one since my return. I'll keep the history part brief because it's the nerdiest and least interesting. In 2007, a Ukrainian company called GSC Game World, previously known for the RTS series "Cossacks", released a first person shooter called "S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl".

Small account, looks like independent media. 40k followers, very low engagement. Appeared in 2022. Standard boomercon takes in their posts. Posting what looks to be an AI video of a "drag queen" shilling the standard "LGB without the T"/"leave the kids alone" popular rhetoric.

https://twitter.com/redvoicenews/status/1668987790070108162

Live, right now in fact! No viewers, it appears.

Dedicated website. Bunch of shows listed. All look to be kinda generic, even baity.

Where does the funding come from? Is it a coincidence that they're using fake (AI) content to push the "LGB are ok" narrative?