In The Purge (2013), James DeMonaco attempts to show a world where, for one night a year, people are allowed to do whatever they want with no formal consequences.

It is a horror film.

But does the lack of consequences for one’s actions really have the power to turn ordinary people into savages?

Enter 4chan.

4chan is a website composed of 63 anonymous image boards, where anyone can make or contribute to threads on any conceivable topic. Many of the boards are interest-driven. /a/, for example, is devoted to anime and manga, /v/ is for video games, and /fa/ is for fashion. There are also NSFW boards, like /hc/ (hardcore) or /h/ (hentai). Perhaps 4chan’s most famous board is /b/, “Random.” /b/ is NSFW, and nearly anything goes. Exceptions to this rule are few and far between: advertising, doxing, violating US law, and My Little Pony.

But of particular interest is /pol/, 4chan’s politics board.

Officially dubbed “Politically Incorrect,” /pol/ is a political discussion board with nearly perfect anonymity and next to no moderation. As you might expect, this leads to some unfortunate trends—Nazism, racism (particularly anti-Semitism), and every –phobia you could imagine and probably a few that you can’t. But that’s not what makes /pol/ an interesting case study.

To see what does, let me take a quick step back. Stormfront.org is perhaps the most infamous neo-Nazi website on the English-speaking internet. Seems unfortunate, no? Do me a favor: try going to Stormfront to tell them how wrong they are, and let me know if you are successful.

Here we discover an interesting fact—all of the “worst” websites on the internet (by prevalence of “hate”) are heavily moderated. They have to be, because if they weren’t those dratted progressives might weasel their way in and bother everyone. It turns out you actually can’t create a racist utopia (how’s that for an oxymoron?) without controls on access. The same kind of controls that most websites use to keep the racists out, I might add.

What makes /pol/ so interesting is that it does not have these controls. This means that /pol/ has, with varying frequency, posters from every possible political bent. It is not uncommon to see a thread about social security next to a thread about gay rights next to a thread about the ZOG next to a thread about how awful feminists are. Sometimes threads on opposite sides of the same issue appear in close proximity.

There is also a massive volume of amateur political commentary/meme creation in response to major events. (It’s a bit like reddit in that way I suppose, but I don’t see why anyone would want to spend time on that horrible excuse for a website.)

Everyone is equally welcome (or more accurately, equally unwelcome) to post, no registration required. Everyone is anonymous, so there’s no cashing in on reputation to bolster one’s arguments. Everyone can say practically anything they want. It is, for lack of a better metaphor, a 24/7 free speech Purge. The only direct consequence that you might face is a flurry of angry replies (which might have been your goal in the first place, come to think of it).

What would Habermas say? I haven’t the faintest idea. But the part of me that sympathizes with his work thinks it’s really cool that a place like this exists.

/pol/ is a beautiful demonstration that the absolute worst human nature and the online disinhibition effect have to offer is still miles better than what errant moderators can create. It’s also wonderful proof that civility and rationality are not synonyms.

My homework to you, dear reader: go, tap into your inner troll, and start a flamewar on /pol/, no account required.