It's more egalitarian and accessible than any other social media I can think of, yes.
In 4chan a literal nazi, a drag queen, a bona-fide pedophile and a luddite can exchange opinions with no prejudice, because none of them know anyone else's background.
You might think that these people can't talk about certain things, but any subject in which discussion becomes too caustic simply doesn't even take place in other platforms, and not every discussion is a life or death discussion, they can talk about photography just fine.
"In 4chan a literal nazi, a drag queen, a bona-fide pedophile and a luddite can exchange opinions..."
This is overly romantic. I just visited /g/. Less than 1 min in, I see "nigger" and "faggot".
I'm sure there are blacks, gays and drag queens that see value in 4chan and are desensitized to those words. But, I'd estimate 99% of the population is white men/boys with antisocial tendencies.
Which is fine. There's nothing wrong with like minded people building a village. But let's not pretend the culture of the site, doesn't instantly weed out a huge chunk of multiple demographics.
>This is overly romantic. I just visited /g/. Less than 1 min in, I see "nigger" and "faggot".
Yes, and if you spend an hour in it, you'll see them dozens of times more. Words hold the meaning we give them, by constantly seeing words like these you stop caring about them. This is part of what makes 4chan so inclusive.
Because rather than having a social agreement not to call someone this or that, everyone calls everyone this or that so, so often that it bears no meaning anymore.
A nice exercise in you thinking the whole world is only what you see for yourself. Here are the actual demographics:
Demographic
Age: 18-34
Gender: ~70% male, ~30% female
Location: United States (47%), United Kingdom (7%), Canada (6%), Australia (4%), Germany (4%)
Interests: Japanese culture, anime, manga, video games, comics, technology, music, movies
Education: Majority attended or currently enrolled in college
"Desensitized to words" is normal mental development; infants may be excited by sheer words - not beyond.
Beyond infancy you (should) have gained filtering and control;
before that and after social experience, you should be able to understand actions as part of "playing" ("non-seriousness", transversality of intention).
In 4chan a literal nazi, a drag queen, a bona-fide pedophile and a luddite can exchange opinions with no prejudice, because none of them know anyone else's background.
You might think that these people can't talk about certain things, but any subject in which discussion becomes too caustic simply doesn't even take place in other platforms, and not every discussion is a life or death discussion, they can talk about photography just fine.