All this information has been very informative in solidifying that this internet "community" is split in two groups:
- Trolls: weenie, edgy, discord users who target communities various communities, primarily those with easy to ragebait audiences (the retarded, children, sensitive gay people, etc). This seems to be the classic UTTP style of behavior that at most amounts to being annoying middle schooler behavior.
- Post-Trolls: degenerate criminals who target the same communities for sadistic, pedophillic, political, monetary, or other illicit reasons.
Trolls and Post-Trolls seem to adopt the same aesthetic, target the same groups, and behave in similar ways even if they're, behind the scenes, antagonists to each other. This fact needs explanation, and I have a two theories for why this could be the case. Neither of them are substantiated currently, and neither of them are exclusively true to this community as a whole due to it being fragmented:
Theory 1:
The main Troll groups are led by Post-Trolls. Post-Trolls organizes edgy raiding groups to attract young people to join in on trolling. The young people can be made to do things for clout.
The implication of this theory is that the culture of Larpcore is largely downstream of a more insidious sets of individuals, and that these individuals have a motive in organizing and perpetuating groups like these.
The biggest evidence to me is the seigetard aesthetic along with the pedophillia humor (Peter Scully posting in particular). This strange combination has no particular reason to be so common among these groups. Why these aesthetics? Why that pedo in specific? Why the obsession with O9A? Why satanism? It's odd how aligned the worst members of these groups seem to be in terms of "humor". They show off the same symbols and memes and strangely orbit the same groups.
The biggest flaw in this theory is the need to prove a cabal. There clearly are the more vile groups around, they clearly have the same style of "humor" and aesthetic as these lesser groups, but that's it. It's just correlation. There's a missing link between many of the normal Troll organizations and the Post-Trolls. We are on the internet though, alt accounts do exist, but to prove that the leadership of these trolling groups are also members of Post-Troll groups would require associating identities. We don't have evidence for that yet, especially not on a large scale.
Theory 2:
Trolls organize on Discord and have their own subculture. Due to the Trolls being largely unmoderated and full of children, the Troll groups are not capable of proper self-regulation, shunning of bad actors, and reports to the police for criminal behavior. This lets bad actors who join in on the trolling find each other, communicate, and collaborate to make their own, worse groups in the same humor style, but with different motivations.
The implication of this theory is that Larpcore culture is natural and bottom-up. It formed like any other subculture and various cliques maintain it and influence it. There isn't one single head to the subculture as its decentralized.
The biggest evidence for this is the amount of groups that operate in this sphere. Many have been mentioned in the thread already. Furthermore, these groups tend to in-fight for clout and prestige to be the "best" in their world. This is not the behavior of a unified organization with a clear hierarchy and set of obvious goals.
Furthermore, people claiming to be internal these Larpcore trolling groups have consistently said that the trolls are aware of, but hateful towards the Post-Trolls. They're familiar with their behavior, but not approving of it. This implies that there isn't a hierarchy of respect and a desire to "graduate" to being a post-troll among these groups.
Still, a flaw in this is the sheer amount of connection between these groups. Why do the trolls and post-trolls occupy the same space? Is it because there's children there? Is it because of them both sharing the seigetard aesthetic? Is it because both target the same individuals? Understanding this fact may help in understanding why other subcultures get infested with similar bad actors. It's easy to just say "oh its pedos", but these Post-Trolling groups seem to be interested in more than just grooming children. They're swatters, doxers, and cyber-criminals as well. Why take on this brand of edgy behavior rather than any other brand of edgy behavior?
Personally, I believe Theory 2 to have a lot more merit than Theory 1, but it's still incomplete. There isn't an easily established factor that shows why these Post-Trolls orbit around these edgy trolling groups. It's confusing and baffling since there are just better areas to operate in and better targets generally. My best guess is this:
- Pedos like these groups since they have easy access to children.
- Cybercriminals like these groups since children are stupid and easy targets.
- Swatters like these groups due to the obsession with "doxing" culture letting them have easy targets.
- All three like these groups because of their incompetence induced toleration of them and ease of access for customers and targets.
