Hey everyone.
I’m from Ukraine, and I’m honestly tired of staying inside both the Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking internet.
I know English well enough (learned it in school), but I’ve never really lived in the English-speaking internet. Like, sure, I know who PewDiePie, IShowSpeed, and Asmongold are, but I don’t actually understand the culture around them or the wider online space.
I want to start consuming English-language content properly, but I have no idea where to begin. I want to understand the memes, the drama, the ongoing discussions, the personalities basically the whole ecosystem.
The problem is… I don’t even know how to define what I’m looking for. If I knew exactly what I wanted, I’d probably be able to find it myself. Since I don’t, I’m asking here. Sorry if this is kind of vague.
For anyone willing to read a wall of text, here’s why I’m looking to leave the internet spaces I’m used to.
The Ukrainian internet is extremely focused on itself. Most discussions revolve around domestic politics, the war, or urgent social issues. That’s understandable, of course, but it also creates a very tense atmosphere. It feels like almost everything is political. Most of our biggest YouTube channels are political channels, and there’s relatively little entertainment content. Living in that constant state of tension gets exhausting after a while. I also just want to get outside of this relatively small cultural bubble.
The Russian-speaking internet has almost the opposite problem. It’s largely apolitical not because politics don’t exist, but because most people seem to actively avoid talking about the country’s crises, the war, or domestic problems. That’s true for everyone, from average users to huge creators. There are political bloggers, sure, but in my opinion they’re usually terrible. One group keeps saying Russia is about to collapse any day now, while another mostly talks about Ukrainians as a way to distract from internal issues. And people who seriously discuss politics often end up being treated like weird fringe figures.
There’s a ton of entertainment content in Russian, but there’s another problem: mainstream internet culture is absolutely saturated with far-right “edgy” humor. Endless jokes about feminists, Black people, minorities, etc., along with a constant stream of misinformation built around those topics. The whole environment just feels incredibly toxic. It seems eager to sneer at almost everything. That general misanthropy has seeped into almost every corner of entertainment, and I’ve reached the point where I just don’t enjoy being around it anymore.
So… where should I start if I want to get into the English-speaking internet?
P.S. One thing I’ve struggled to find is something similar to what I used to watch in Russian. There were Twitch streamers who’d casually talk about philosophy, history, politics, literature, or other “intellectual” topics, but in a very informal and funny way. Not university lectures or serious debates.
More like: “lmao, did you know Nietzsche supposedly drank his own urine out of a boot?” That kind of vibe. Half entertainment, half genuine discussion. The intellectual part came from all the references and the fact that serious ideas were mixed with jokes instead of being presented academically.
Does that kind of content exist in English? If so, who should I check out?
Myself and I assume most here arrived at this website deep in a tortuous journey through the anglo internet rather than as an entry point. I am curious as to how you came to be asking this question on this obscure forum of all places?
I don’t know that much about the English-speaking internet specifically, not the internet as a whole. Of course, if at some point in your life you decide to check out what Linux is, you’ll probably end up going down the rabbit hole, then you start digging deeper into stuff like Matrix, Zen Browser, self-hosting, open-source projects, privacy tools, alternative social networks, weird forums, niche communities, etc.
I could’ve obviously asked this on Reddit, but honestly Reddit has never really been a place where I got actual answers neither for my own questions nor for other people’s. Whatever the topic, there are always tons of people who just comment to comment, a lot of edgelords, and a lot of unnecessarily toxic users.
Yeah that tracks. This site has origins as a subreddit but catches a few strays through lemmy.
The english internet culture is too broad for probably any one person to describe.
A general course as I remember it leaving out a lot:
usenet groups and irc acessed almost entirely by computer nerds
-> topic/hobby based forums and some news/comedy site comment sections (slashdot and somethingawful notably) that were a mix of computer nerds and special interest nerds. Videogame forums are also paticularly active.
-> the link aggregator digg spawns the primordial form of the redditor, around the same time 4chan is developing an edgelord shiposting culture with noteable weeb element, also flashanimation was a big thing notably on newgrounds with a lot of teen oriented “random” humour and and popculture subversion (usually by including violence or homophobia). (Lookup Saladfingers, badgers, and The ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny[1])
-> digg exodus establishes reddit as the preeminant general forum with a smug self serious nerd culture, 4chan festers into a nazi bar, youtube appears and is mostly short viral videos focused on slapstick, novelty and eccentric characters (notable example is the Angry video game nerd
(this will be on the test))-> reddit gradually gains mainstream popularity and becomes less nerdy while retaining the smugness. Special interest forums gradually siphon visitors to reddit. Videogames/steam start building in matchmaking, chat, voip, mods/replays/patch distribution and other features that reduce the necessity and popularity of videogame forums.
-> cross polination combined with documented billionare funded astroturfing spread the rightwing edgelord culture everywhere, the flashpoint of this is “gamergate” which I won’t summarize here but imagine legions of misogynst unironic
, youtube becomes bigger than tv and the personalties you named are the dominant fare but there is also an evolutionary branch that went >nostalgia critic>lindsay ellis & folding ideas>“bread tube” wave of video essayists (notably hbomberguy, shawnvids, philosophytube, kkkontrapoints (don’t bother watching this last one but she was influential))-> leftist efforts to create alternatives emerge that you are evidently familiar with
the animator of this one later went on to make a leftist podcast Srsly Wrong that’s pretty funny though a bit sectarian anarchist ↩︎
This site has origins as a subreddit
We are the lemmy instance of a discord of a subreddit for a podcast started on twitter by SomethingAwful posters.
I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that out. Thanks for such a detailed reply.
a shitload of western internet stuff has its roots in the old SomethingAwful forum. there’s a couple books about it but you can also find youtube guys talking about threads that really blew up or how banning anime pedos from the forum led to 4chan
I’ve heard a bit about how 4chan started, mostly because I know about its Russian counterpart, 2ch. It’s pretty pro-government these days, and the guy who owns it openly supports Putin.
I also remember hearing this theory that 4chan was somehow started with FBI help or whatever, but I never cared enough to actually look into it.
But you mentioned banning anime pedos. Why do these edgelord types always seem to come out of that whole scene?
In Russia, a lot of 2ch’s early culture was tied to this guy, Maksim Martsinkevich. You can Google him if you want. He’s mostly known for hunting down alleged pedophiles, filming himself beating and humiliating them, and all that. I don’t really feel like getting into the details, but those videos are still all over the internet if you’re curious.
There was even one time they went after a Russian government official. There’s honestly a lot you could say about the whole thing.
I just don’t get why this kind of stuff always seems to overlap with the alt-right.
In this case, the SomethingAwful forum started moving towards banning pedophiles from their forum, and the pedophiles went and created 4chan as a result.
4chan early in it’s history was tied to both Epstein and Steve Bannon, but I forget the details.
Reddit also was closely connected to Epstein and Maxwell
While you’re diving into this, you’re very likely to run into memes that seem impenetrable. A lot of the memes posted here will make no sense to someone who is not familiar with some socialist figures, world history, or current events. I don’t really recommend browsing this regularly, but if you come across a meme without context that you want to make sense of, you can try looking it up on https://knowyourmeme.com/ and it might help you get some context within the wider internet space. Such as if it’s based on another meme or comes from a specific subcommunity.
Where do memes in the Western internet actually come from? Back in the day where I lived, most memes came from VK. There were dedicated meme pages that made original stuff, and then a bunch of other pages that just reposted it. These days, pretty much all new memes come out of small Telegram communities. So where do they come from on your side of the internet?
All over the place, really. Reddit, tumblr, 4chan (these are the more right-wing/racist ones), YouTube communities, Twitch/Youtube streamers, Twitter, Bluesky. They always start somewhere like that, then everywhere else reposts or transforms them, like you mentioned. The ocean is vast and the smaller the site, like Hexbear, the less chance you’ll come across their memes organically. But every once in a while, they ‘break containment’ and get the attention of a mainstream audience that normally wouldn’t create something like it or be exposed to the niche community it came from.
Every fandom has their own in-jokes and self-perpetuating memes. Sometimes you get combinations posted between communities, like people making edits of scenes from The Sopranos but referencing events from the video game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Or one streamer interacting with another, then having their communities and memes cross-pollinate.
Old memes were based on early forums or YouTube videos, or even television commercials and flash animations.
Reddit or tumblr
revolutionaryth0t, luna oi and ladyizdihar are really cool.
Turn back now! For your own sake.
To start off with one of the words in your image is a slur for disabled people and I would advise that you delete this and repost without the image.
I mostly added the image just to catch people’s attention. I think I know which word you mean now. I had no idea it was used as a slur against disabled people in English I honestly thought it was just a regular insult. Sorry, I don’t always catch the connotations of certain words since I’m not a native speaker.
It’s actually quite difficult to find English language insults that aren’t ableist, homophobic or sexist.
Does a word like “dumbass” even insult any specific group? That was honestly the first thing that came to my mind. We also have words that you probably shouldn’t use because they’re offensive to certain groups, but most swear words in our language are basically just words built around the idea of a “sexual act,” kind of like “fuck” in English. We just have way more of those words. For some reason, English doesn’t really have that many swear words. German is the same if anything, it’s even more boring.
As far as I understand, English has “insults” and “slurs,” with the second one specifically meaning words aimed at a certain group of people. I don’t use those.
dumb used to be a term to refer to a mute person.
Easy mistake to make since it is unfortunately a commonly used slur especially in far-right “edgy” humor that the english speaking internet is also absolutely saturated in.
Well this is an ok start, I hope? Hexbear is chill and funny while handling very serious topics. Otherwise the English internet is pretty much reddit, Twitter, and the other major social media like tik tok. And those are pretty annoying, if you ask me. If you find anywhere else, I’d love to know too.
Yeah, I figured as much. It’s just that the internet in post-Soviet countries is kind of unique in that sense. It’s really isolated, but at the same time incredibly dense. These days, pretty much all online life revolves around Telegram. The thing is, it’s almost impossible to get into it if you weren’t born here. Not because you wouldn’t understand what’s being talked about you just wouldn’t know where to even start looking.
Blogs are actually still alive here. Pretty much everyone I know has a personal Telegram channel where they just post about their life. It honestly feels a lot more like the early internet. Those channels have everything, and the biggest reason is that Telegram has very little moderation, so you can find literally anything there.
If you’re interested, I can give you an example. In Ukraine there’s this guy named Sasha Fokin. When he was a kid, he appeared on a Ukrainian TV show that basically tried to help struggling families. I’m sure every country has some version of that kind of show. Back then he became known as a “problem child” I won’t get into the details. Fast forward something like nine years (I’m not exactly sure how many), and now he runs a Telegram channel where he talks about his favorite transgender adult performers, posts coprophilia, and argues about politics. Stuff like that is actually pretty common across the post-Soviet internet, especially in Russia. If you’re curious, I can name a few more people.
My point is that there’s very little moderation, so you end up with a lot of fringe personalities, but also a lot of genuinely interesting subcultures and discussions. If all you read is Facebook, I feel like the biggest news you’ll see is that firefighters rescued another cat from a tree. I’m not saying I’m specifically looking for fringe content in the English-speaking internet, but I do want to see the kind of stuff people actually talk about. It just so happens that people in the post-Soviet internet are really into weird, fringe content, so over here it’s basically mainstream.
Sasha Fokin
Lmao never expected to see Sashko mentioned on hexbear
What was your first thought when you read my post?
I’m from Russia and I’m almost in the opposite situation. I’ve been using English-speaking internet for so long that I don’t engage much with Runet (besides scrolling telegram and sometimes watching random youtube videos). People sometimes find it weird when I don’t know about the latest viral thing that some content creator did
More like: “lmao, did you know Nietzsche supposedly drank his own urine out of a boot?” That kind of vibe. Half entertainment, half genuine discussion. The intellectual part came from all the references and the fact that serious ideas were mixed with jokes instead of being presented academically.
You might enjoy leftist podcast space - Chapo Trap House, TrueAnon, Deprogram and such. These people can be quite knowledgeable and eloquent when speaking about a topic but also be super vulgar at the same time. Some video essayists can have a similar vibe - try watching hbomberguy.
edit: oh, there is a streamer named “livagar” who kinda fits the bill. She knows a bunch of stuff about philosophy and marxist theory but is also a huge shitposter
good, you broke out of the NATO propaganda. im proud of you
There is this person called Sarah Z who used to cover internet drama.
There is Innuendo Studio cover of Gamergate and how it affected the internet at large.
Weirdly My Brother and Brother and Me despite being libs would probably be a place to find pop culture shit that would be hard for us swimming in it to realize its a thing.
Oh Well There Is Your Problem is a great one with various left left people who cover disasters.
Laughter is good medicine.
Are you familiar with
Final Fantasy 7 or Dragonball? 
There is a parody group called Team Four Star that made some pretty enjoyable youtube videos. Youtube and google itself is very aligned with the US military industrial complex (comment sections of just about everything are toxic)
Final Fantasy 7 Mechinabridged
Then if you want something completely off the wall and are familiar with Star Trek there is the Acid Party.
If you want funny Star Wars Auralnauts did some amazing work. They stopped … HOLY SHIT SOMEHOW AURALNAUTS RETURNED - THEY’RE BACK
If you are looking for more historicalish stuff with humor Epic Rap Battles of History
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
There were Twitch streamers who’d casually talk about philosophy, history, politics, literature, or other “intellectual” topics, but in a very informal and funny way. Not university lectures or serious debates.
I don’t think English Twitch is a great place for that. It kind of peaks at people commentating the news or YouTube videos.
YouTube had that but the people have mostly retreated into talking about fandoms. Shaun_vids still makes a good video every now and then.
I think that stuff is mostly in podcast form, you can check !podcasts@hexbear.net. I sometimes listen to “We are not so different” (medieval history), “Trashfuture” (technology), “Behind the Bastards” (biographies).
I mean you might enjoy vsauce if youre into “edutainment”, that channel has been around a long time and is one of the largest in its genre. I would usually assume you’ve heard of it, but it really sounds like you’re starting from scratch.
I.think it has a good balance between “science” and “silly”, there are tons of YouTube channels and other content that can take you weither direction. Maybe check out a video or two and let us know if you are looking for something in either direction (more educational or more joking around) from there?
I second this. He also has a new podcast with Hannah Fry called The Rest is Science which is very entertaining
Recently I’ve been watching more essay-style content where people analyze different cultural phenomena (but not at all in the popular science/educational sense). For example, critical reviews of shows like The Sopranos, analyses of 90s TV commercials, or discussions about some specific cultural trends or phenomena. I just find it interesting to hear people talk about these kinds of things
Oh hell yeah I watch tons of those, if you’d like I can send you some of the channels I watch a lot of
Yeah, I’d love that! If you can, whenever you mention a channel, could you also add a couple of words about what it’s about or what makes it interesting? I’d really appreciate that
