Okay, I can't stop staring into the abyss here and have become quite obsessed with ERA since last night, I've noticed two things that keep recurring.
1) "read the fucking room" or a variation of it is the go to way to turn people around from having an actual discussion instead of a one sided thread of people just agreeing with the OP. It often follows a ban of the person who went off script with weak reasoned comments on the banning from the mods.
2) There is a member called Kyuiji that the rest seem to flock around and this member seems to be the focal point of most of the problems on this site. If they wanted to help free up some of the in fighting, banning Kyuuji would be the place to start but I have to assume they are staff as they're getting a free pass on things that users were banned for just a post or a few, prior to them commenting. Either that or they're an industry insider.
3) Bonus, the word Chud when someone is proposed for the firing squad which seems to either be that Kyuuji alt accounting or something the rest of the sheep picked up from Kyuuji. Kind hard to believe as it's such a specific word and always gets thrown at someone who is about to get wiped off of the site.
I also suspect that the mods on ERA, and once modded here when it too was insane, branch out to other places and gaming culture parts of the internet like sub-cultures on Twitter, VGcharts, large sub-reddits etc and actively try and succeed in gaining moderation abilities, popularity or some form of control and they pull the strings in the same way they do there. I can't prove it, it's just a hunch and I could be way off but after being part of those parts of the internet until I gave up on them a few months ago I see exactly what made me leave and come here as a last bastion of sanity, I seen the same shit, the same mannerisms and the way they speak on ERA just amplified. I have to assume they also spend their time on other sites with the intent of being mods, popular and intentionally direct those communities to there ideals and social views and it works. Something is certainly rotten in Denmark and I'd almost, very nearly call conspiracy at some higher level than it just organically happening with a bunch of nerd, power hungry psychos who have too much free time.
Fuck, there is a load of other things i've noticed or suspect and you could write a novel on some individual threads let alone the culture as a whole and someone should, but I can't stare into the abyss to long because I can feel it gazing back. At any rate, if albeit a little infuriating, It's extremely interesting trying to dissect what has happened there and how it all works because there is obviously sane people on that forum and they're the majority but they seem to bend and give in inches at a time as the mods and popular people push and push, it's mirroring modern establishment, leftist politics in places like California, Portland, Canada, Scotland and the UK and exaggerating it to an absurd degree, it's absolutely fascinating. Particularly the last 6 months or so, which seems to be where it went from insanity to something beyond insanity I can't find the words for.
How the fuck did you people who have left that place post there there and not want to jump out a bloody window, it definitely can't have been fun or even close to genuine. It's like watching people escape from North Korea into other countries but at least with them, I can understand it cause they couldn't just close the laptop on their life but to actively seem out that place as an escape from reality or a place to get ideas off, of your chest. Mind boggling.
Soapy Wooder
to join GAFs team. 
