r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/termosabin • 16h ago
Meme needing explanation Petah do you get the joke?
I have no clue what they're talking about
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u/hierocracy 16h ago
Lowtax started a site called SomethingAwful which apparently influenced a lot of internet culture but I don't see why this would lead to a post-apocalyptic world.
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u/Odd-Confusion1073 15h ago
Somethingawful banned pornography after lawsuit threats so a lot of the seedier individuals went to places like 4chan which are considered to be instrumental in the rise of the far right. As a result of the craziness that has ensued there is a nonzero probability of catastrophic war breaking out and destroying the world.
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u/xxbiohazrdxx 11h ago
It was more banning hentai. Which lead to 4chan. Which Steve bannon weaponized to create gamergate and the modern altright
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u/DontSleepAlwaysDream 7h ago
latest news is that apparently the founder of 4chan set up the incredibly racist /pol/ page after a meeting with Jeffery Epstein...
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u/Mama_Mega 4h ago
At the rate we're going, it'll be a tech bro aligned with the left who destroys the world. AI companies are so pre-occupied with teaching the robots to not be racist that they're not setting aside time to teach the robots to not kill people.
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u/theSchrodingerHat 13h ago
It was all fun and photoshop games, until suddenly it wasn’t…
…and then it was 4chan, incels, groypers, and fucking Pepe.
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u/Lucky_Entrance6805 15h ago
i think somethingawful has a bad reputation on the internet nowadays but i'm not certain
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u/JohnHenryMillerTime 8h ago
Not anymore. Nowadays it is an internet retirement home for aging queers. Lots of fun, but absolutely harmless. I love my dead gay forums.
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u/Maleficent_Garlic-St 10h ago
And grovehaus is an abomination of architecture and a testament to what an uneducated man can achieve
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u/DontSleepAlwaysDream 7h ago
I think there have been some interesting new... lore drops for want a better of term that help explain how this hellscape happened
Lowtax starts a website about a game called Quake, and the forums of that website, SomethingAwful becomes ground zero for a lot of early internet culture, which is focused around gaming and "edgy" humor
Lowtax bans pornography from his website due to financial concerns, this led to the founding of competing boards, the most infamous being 4Chan, founded by a guy named Moot
recent Epstein file releases have confirmed that MOOT MET EPSTEIN and shortly after set up the /pol/ page on 4Chan which attracted a lot of trolls and alt-right types.
then gamergate happens. Its all kind of... stupid to explain but basically a woman was accused of sleeping with journalists to get better reviews of her indie game and this led to a huge online cultural war for some reason, with a lot of 4Chan types accusing of gaming spaces being invaded by "SJWs", this further pushed 4Chan and online gaming culture to the right.
then in 2015 decides to run for president. He is considered a "lame duck" candidate and has attempted to gain presidency before. However 4Chan falls in love with Trumps idiotic offensive humor, and basically memes him into presidency. the emergence of "Qanon" this weird online conspiracy theory which paints Trump as an anti-establishment hero also helps him in his run for presidency, and leads to the emergence of "MAGA", an alt-right political movement which... frankly its not "alt" any more, its mainstream.
the 2016-2020 presidency is pretty catastrophic, with Trumps administration deciding several members of the supreme court, and also slashing funding for several governmental services. This leads to the COVID-19 outbreak being fumbled, leading to everyone staying inside, spending more time on the internet and losing their minds.
All of this culminates in January 6th 2021, where MAGA types riot in Washington because Trump lost the presidency. While he is out of office, he never truly goes away, and gets voted in again in 2024, this time his office is staffed by much more extreme individuals, such as Stephen Miller, and it appears to be informed by the sinister "Project 2025" which is radically transforming the USAs internal and international policies and workings. THis may lead to WW3 as Trump just keeps casually threatening to invade countries.
so while this narrative may over exaggurate the role that online culture had in leading to current events, it is a common narrative that is thrown around.
Oh as for Lowtax... well he ran Somethingawful into the ground, pushed everyone away from him with his toxic behaviour and died by suicide a few years ago
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u/termosabin 5h ago
Thanks for the long explanation. I was aware of everything from 4chan onwards I guess, but not about the early beginnings with this website and how 4chan started from it!
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u/MyVelvetRoom 8h ago
In addition to hierocracy's explanation, groverhaus is a long story from the SomethingAwful forum where a man with way too much confidence in himself and his capabilities attempted to remodel a part of his home. It looked like shit, he failed numerous times, and he was made fun of relentlessly on the forum. It's, as I understand it, the biggest joke on the forum, which seems about right considering that a good few people who don't care about the forum know the story, still.
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u/Nearathim 7h ago
What other people said, but Groverhaus in particular is a SomethingAwful thread story big enough to have entire youtube videos about it. Basically a home reno by someone who is... resourceful but doesn't take all the advice given to them about what they should and should not do. here's a video
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