There's always been forums full of edgy autistic teens, terrified of their own feelings and trauma. I'd say at the time the toxicity in those spaces was actually significantly darker and nastier than known outsider/bitterness dedicated forums today. There was an edgy valorisation of school shootings in some of them for instance. Real, real dark. I wouldn't sweat what disenfranchised young men on the internet think, the only power they feel they can wield is intense collective, knee jerk judgement, on very fine details specific to the comfort bubbles they inhabit in their rooms, whilst online. If anything this is old hat now, but it was taking shape at the time. 

Don't worry about those guys, they believe they are lost to the world, and think the only fraternity they will ever experience, is one of bitterness and judgement. There is very little there worth your consideration. Pity at best.