Is this an extension of the whole anti-SJW sentiment from Gamergate or is this something that 4Chan has always done?
/pol/ is a horrible hive of racists, nationalists and right wing loonies.
Although the worst of them recently migrated from 4chan to 8chan because they felt that 4chan wasn't extreme enough and the "Nazi mod" didn't let them talk about killing the inferour races and whatnot so I don't even want to guess what goes on there... The rest of 4chan considers /pol/ to be the "containment board" so that those guys would not ruin the other boards.
Personally when I go to 4chan I stick to the traditional games section. Even the weapons board is too political (in a bad way) and much too racist for my liking. (which is a shame because it used to have fun threads.)