Red Scare Canon — Cultural References from the Subreddit

r/40klore (place) 1 — Reddit subreddit about Warhammer 40K lore, stereotypically frequented by conservatives.

r/FIRE (place) 1 — Reddit subreddit about Financial Independence, Retire Early movement, stereotypically frequented by conservatives.

Avenue Q (film) 1 — A Bush-era musical described as an antithesis to NPR liberal musicals like Hamilton, featuring songs like 'Everyone's a ...

Julia Soboleva (person) 1 — An artist whose works are listed including 'Furry,' 'Quarter Past Three,' 'She Came to Speak to the Manager,' 'The Blip,...

Iowa Writers' Workshop (place) 1 — A prestigious Creative Writing MFA program that the poster satirically demands be shut down as a condition for voting fo...

Darkthrone (album) 1 — A black metal band whose album was being listened to during an awkward relationship moment described by the poster.

Linda Tripp (person) 1 — A person referenced with hostility at the end of a post about 21st century disasters in the U.S.

Wu-Tang Clan (album) 1 — Hip-hop group described as the music of the working class that brings together diverse kitchen workers and represents wh...

GDPR (concept) 1 — Data privacy regulation mentioned in context of requesting deletion of stored messages from cloud services.

Thomas Chatterton Williams (person) 1 — Guest on Red Scare podcast mentioned in discussion about retconning Obama as a polarizing figure.

Skylar White (person) 1 — Breaking Bad character whose reception by men is suggested as a metric for choosing a life partner.

Reform Party (concept) 1 — UK political party mentioned as the choice of a Brexit-regretting supervisor despite contradicting his other preferences...

Grete Samsa (person) 1 — Gregor Samsa's sister in The Metamorphosis, characterized as nice and caring in contrast to their mean father

M4A (concept) 1 — Medicare for All, a healthcare policy that the Biden administration officially stated would be vetoed despite working pe...

Righteous Gemstones (film) 1 — TV show presented as a superior alternative to shows about high school drama

Tallgrass Prairie (place) 1 — Ecological region that once spanned the Midwest with incredible biodiversity, now destroyed by monoculture farming

Ogallala aquifer (place) 1 — Major aquifer being depleted to death by monoculture farming where tallgrass prairies once stood

Competence porn (concept) 1 — Character archetype criticized for featuring sexy maladjusted geniuses who are good at their cool jobs but suffering ins...

Prostitution and Male Supremacy (book) 1 — Andrea Dworkin essay arguing that prostitution is intrinsically abusive and constitutes a fundamental violation of women...

Félix Guattari (person) 1 — French psychoanalyst and philosopher referenced (as 'gattari') sarcastically in critique of people who claim obscure the...

Diogo Jota (person) 1 — Portuguese footballer who played for Liverpool and died in 2025

Hemingway cat (concept) 1 — Polydactyl cats with extra toes, named after Ernest Hemingway who kept them at his home in Key West

Iowa caucus (concept) 1 — Political event referenced as a symbol of extreme racial homogeneity in comparison to the jury that indicted Ghislaine M...

The Great Resignation (concept) 1 — Post-pandemic labor phenomenon of workers voluntarily leaving jobs, discussed in relation to unemployment benefits

St. Vincent (person) 1 — Musician whose first three albums were praised but whose later work is criticized as a drastic decline in quality

Elsagate (concept) 1 — Phenomenon of creepy violent/sexual YouTube videos directed at children that went viral around 2017

GCSEs (concept) 1 — General Certificate of Secondary Education exams taken in England at age 16 covering compulsory subjects

Btecs (concept) 1 — British vocational qualifications perceived as inferior alternatives to A-Levels with no exams

Mary Wollstonecraft (person) 1 — A writer quoted on the topic of intense romantic friendship, expressing the desire for first place in relationships or n...

Terminator 2 (film) 1 — A 1991 action film cited as an example of successful movies that didn't rely on constant humor to maintain audience enga...

Philly (place) 1 — Philadelphia, referenced in a discussion about residents being trolled on Twitter by someone described as autistic.

ED (concept) 1 — Eating disorders, referenced in relation to users who post body-shaming content while having visible histories of mental...

Michael Lewis (person) 1 — An author whose books about finance and trading Caroline Ellison is imagined to enjoy reading.

Werner Von Braun (person) 1 — Nazi rocket scientist who worked on both German V-2 missiles and later the US space program, referenced in comparison to...

bookcirclejerk (place) 1 — A Reddit subreddit for satirical book-related posts that banned users for participating in other subreddits

Die Antwoord (album) 1 — South African musical group mentioned as influenced by Crystal Castles

Snow Strippers (album) 1 — Musical group mentioned as influenced by Crystal Castles

RSD (concept) 1 — Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, a psychological concept used to pathologize emotional reactions to rejection

Social Conservatism (concept) 1 — Political ideology that the subreddit discusses as a counterpoint to liberal identity politics.

Lil Kim (person) 1 — Rapper who receives poptimist critical re-evaluation according to discussion of music criticism trends.

Smashmouth (person) 1 — Late 90s alt-rock band whose hit 'All Star' is discussed as being excluded from poptimist re-evaluation despite being qu...

Matchbox 20 (person) 1 — Late 90s alt-rock band discussed as exemplifying pop music that doesn't receive poptimist critical re-evaluation.

Ram Dass (person) 1 — Spiritual teacher and author whose work is discussed in relation to hippie spirituality and mystical experiences.

US Department of State (place) 1 — American government institution cited as sponsoring a pride parade, illustrating American soft power.

Kitchen Confidential (book) 1 — Book referenced in discussion of the romanticization and fetishization of hospitality work.

Boiling Point (film) 1 — Film about kitchen work referenced as part of the romanticization of hospitality industry culture.

The Fifth Estate (film) 1 — Canadian investigative journalism program that exposed Buffy Sainte-Marie as a pretendian.

Alien 3 (film) 1 — Third Alien film praised for its cast, atmosphere, and story but largely forgotten in cultural memory.

United Arab Republic (place) 1 — Pan-Arab political union between Egypt and Syria that emerged partly due to perceived Israeli threat.

Gamal Abdel Nasser (person) 1 — Egyptian leader who formed the United Arab Republic partly in response to Israeli threats.