Red Scare Canon — Cultural References from the Subreddit

Counter-Strike (film) 2 — A video game that the poster retreated to playing instead of pursuing romantic relationships in high school.

Fallout New Vegas (film) 2 — Video game that occasionally pulls the author back in, though they usually just watch YouTube videos about it instead of...

Rubicon (place) 2 — Historical river in Italy famously crossed by Julius Caesar, referenced in meme context about Pompey and Labienus

Night on Earth (film) 2 — Jim Jarmusch film about cab drivers that inspired a user to take up cab driving, focusing on encounters and conversation...

The Palm Wine Drinkard (book) 2 — Book by Amos Tutuola mentioned as reliably making the poster laugh.

Amos Tutuola (person) 2 — Nigerian author of The Palm Wine Drinkard, a book that reliably makes a user laugh.

Tommy Wiseau (person) 2 — Director and actor of The Room, a film that reliably makes a user laugh.

Bruno Dumont (person) 2 — Filmmaker whose movies are mentioned as reliably making the poster laugh.

Riget (film) 2 — Lars Von Trier television series featuring a Swedish doctor whose outburst reliably makes a user laugh.

Achilles (person) 2 — Ancient Greek warrior cited as representing the martial ultra-masculine archetype of the Dionysian Gay, contrasted with ...

CARI (place) 2 — An aesthetic categorization website (cari.institute) criticized for over-codifying cultural aesthetics and obsessive cat...

SoundCloud rap (concept) 2 — A rap music subgenre that emerged on SoundCloud, discussed as having died during the pandemic after being co-opted by th...

Bertolt Brecht (person) 2 — German playwright and poet who wrote voluminously about Lenin, including 'The Hole in Ilyich's Boots' and 'Cantata on th...

Less (book) 2 — Novel by Andrew Sean Greer criticized as not good by the poster discussing how gay men were better writers under histori...

Ford V Ferrari (film) 2 — Film that brought mainstream bandwagon fans to IMSA and GT racing according to a post about cultural mainstreaming.

Gran Turismo (film) 2 — Racing film mentioned alongside Ford V Ferrari as bringing mainstream attention to GT racing.

The Divided Self (book) 2 — Ronald Laing's work on ontological insecurity and the experience of feeling fundamentally wrong or disconnected from exi...

Maurice Ravel (person) 2 — French composer whose work is mentioned as a touchstone for highbrow artistic taste, though one character only knows him...

Betty White (person) 2 — Golden Age Hollywood actress who met her husband on the game show Password, appearing on various classic game shows.

Hugh Ferriss (person) 2 — Artist cited as major influence on cityscape drawings, known for architectural illustration

Francisco Mujica (person) 2 — Artist cited as major influence on cityscape drawings alongside Hugh Ferriss

Dennis Cooper (person) 2 — Author identified as part of the 'Dark Gay Sensibility' in literature and culture

First Wives Club (film) 2 — Later film mentioned for Diane Keaton's fantastic performance.

Alt Lit (concept) 2 — A literary movement associated with 2007 indie irony culture, characterized by blogspot-based bad nonsense philosophy.

The Realignment (concept) 2 — Podcast where Anna Khachiyan appeared and was pressed on her political claims about Trump and neoliberalism.

The Whispering Star (film) 2 — Japanese sci-fi film by Sion Sono about a delivery android traveling through the galaxy, filmed in the Fukushima Exclusi...

Sion Sono (person) 2 — Japanese auteur filmmaker known for LOVE EXPOSURE and TOKYO TRIBE, who directed The Whispering Star.

Amazon Prime (place) 2 — Amazon's subscription service, referenced sarcastically as providing future assisted living facilities in a dystopian co...

Alt-Right (concept) 2 — Far-right political movement that amplified Jordan Peterson's views during 2015-2017 surge

Hell or High Water (film) 2 — Acclaimed film written by Taylor Sheridan before his television career.

Event Horizon (film) 2 — Horror film used as metaphor for the disturbing nature of modern extreme pornography.

Bad Lieutenant (film) 2 — A film about redemption referenced in comparison to Mel Gibson's public rehabilitation through testifying against Harvey...

Huw Edwards (person) 2 — British TV presenter involved in a scandal regarding paying a teenage boy for nude pictures, mentioned alongside other U...

Felix Dzerzhinsky (person) 2 — Soviet political figure who died of a heart attack moments after delivering a two-hour speech condemning opposition memb...

Wallace Shawn (person) 2 — Actor who delivered a memorable quote in My Dinner With Andre about the shift from valuing art to valuing money with age...

Capital Vol. 1 (book) 2 — Karl Marx's work featuring Chapter 10 on the inhumane treatment of workers and extreme working hours, including the stor...

Koch brothers (person) 2 — Conservative billionaire political donors who dominated liberal discourse until Trump's rise.

Colin Kaepernick (person) 2 — NFL player who knelt during the national anthem as protest against police brutality, later criticized for becoming a cor...

Havana Syndrome (concept) 2 — Mysterious illness described by a senator as a 'directed energy attack,' noted as one of the few interesting news events...

Matrix (film) 2 — Referenced as a comparison point for Everything Everywhere All at Once, dismissively called 'soy matrix' by a critic.

Apollonian and Dionysian (concept) 2 — Nietzschean dichotomy applied to Anna Khachiyan (Apollonian: rational, ordered, clean) and Dasha Nekrasova (Dionysian: c...

The Basement Tapes (album) 2 — Bob Dylan album discussed by Knausgård as the moment where Dylan discovers how to live in the music, tossing out tunes w...

Anton LaVey (person) 2 — Author of The Satanic Bible, which bookstores keep behind the counter because transgressive people like to steal it.

The Satanic Bible (book) 2 — Book by Anton LaVey that bookstores keep behind the counter because transgressive people frequently steal it.

King Krule (person) 2 — Indie musician whose album Six Feet Beneath the Moon is cited as his most popular but middling work

Determinism (concept) 2 — Philosophical concept computer science majors confront when reducing human thought to mathematical formulas without tran...

Trayvon Martin (person) 2 — Key figure in the Black Lives Matter movement whose name should be recognized by those who lived through the era, contra...

Provocations (book) 2 — A book by Camille Paglia that contains her childhood photograph dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte

Cage the Elephant (album) 2 — Band criticized for playing at a third-tier basketball arena in Chicago, with seeing them described as lame

Family Feud (film) 2 — Game show discussed as potentially having racially divisive programming with predominantly white versus black family mat...