It started as a joke but the joke attracted people who actually think like that and took it at face value.

Honestly, once upon a time 4chan was pretty liberal and anarchist. They protested Scientology even. That is definitely no longer the case.

Once the fucking Nazi types figured out extremely bare minimum lax moderation meant they could use slurs with abandon and still be okay, the use of slurs quickly turned from a “we hate everyone” in-joke to a “no, we legitimately hate you inferior races” bent extremely quickly.

There are still boards that aren’t total garbage, but the site overall is kind of a shadow of itself in its heyday and now users spend as much time posting Qanon garbage and legit Anti-Semitic hate threads on every board as it used to spend being funny. Honestly really sad.

4chan is comprised of different boards. When you hear about 4chan, it is most likely from the /b Board which is the “anything goes” board with pretty much zero moderation. Other boards are better.