There was a point you could argue that early on, the culture that developed on individual boards would develop into ideas or memes that would leak out into broader culture, stuff like the Mountain Dew contest thing, or when they rigged the Time poll, their "war" against Scientology. Whether you see any value in that or not, it was a notable part of 2000s internet history. The turn started when the "News" board started turning into nonstop political discussions, and in an effort to quarantine that kind of stuff, they gave them a dedicated board (/pol), which slowly became a discussion board for the alt-right. That combined with Gamergate shifted the site into what it is today, most people who had some semblance of a conscience chose to bail out and the only people that are left are the true degenerates of the world.
And it was always an edgefest, from day 1. I mean, the site was started as a refuge for people dissatisfied with the moderation on the Something Awful subforum "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse".
