4chan has some good elements to it, but it is absolutely a political echo chamber and breeding ground for... everything a decent person should be against. And not just the politics board. You can find anti-semitism and the like all over the site.
Agreed, but this is because of lax moderation and because there was a campaign by the racists to take over the entire site and it drove many people out. You could have good discussions on the smaller boards there before 2015-ish. I'm trying to say how 4chan style discussion boards differ from HN/reddit style sites. The latter forces you to post in a way that garners votes. There is always a voice in your head when posting to vote-based forums that asks you if what you're posting fits the hivemind thinking or if it is good enough that the hivemind will like it. You can post without worrying about things like this in 4chan-style boards. There is no voting, so you can have a genuine discussion with a group of people without being monitored, judged, and interfered with by non-participants.
