Red Scare Canon — Cultural References from the Subreddit

Flying J (place) 1 — Truck stop chain mentioned as location where a prostitute would work, near where a couple lived in a shed in the Ozarks

Apache Airflow (concept) 1 — Data engineering workflow management platform mentioned in context of incomprehensible corporate jargon about a CEO caug...

DataOps (concept) 1 — Corporate technology concept involving data engineering workflows, used as example of incomprehensible business jargon

Pall Mall (concept) 1 — Cigarette brand described as 'the official cigarette of a full blown Midwestern degenerate' when referring to Pall Mall ...

New York Times Crossword (concept) 1 — Puzzle referenced as comparison to the methodical, peaceful way a scratcher ticket addict approached his lottery tickets

FDA (place) 1 — The Food and Drug Administration, referenced in context of Trump's alleged plans to decrease enforcement actions for foo...

Times of India (place) 1 — An Indian news outlet reporting on an unprecedented surge of stomach flu and food poisoning in India.

Joe Pera (person) 1 — A comedian quoted on the topic of relationships, infidelity, and the significance of human connection in the vastness of...

Ohio River (place) 1 — Major river mentioned as a geographic boundary for Louisville's linguistic development

YouNow (place) 1 — Live streaming platform criticized for enabling inappropriate content creation by minors

Fame Monster tour (concept) 1 — Joint world tour between Lady Gaga and Kanye West that was canceled after the 2009 VMA incident with Taylor Swift.

The Parallax View (film) 1 — Film featuring a brainwashing montage referenced as comparison to the torture of hearing social media scroll sounds.

AP English Lit (concept) 1 — Advanced Placement English Literature exam that has fewer perfect scores than AP Calculus exams according to the post.

AP Calcs (concept) 1 — Advanced Placement Calculus exams referenced as having more perfect scores than AP English exams.

Amy Klobuchar (person) 1 — Democratic politician mentioned as a potential VP pick who would have been more electable than Kamala Harris.

Tammy Baldwin (person) 1 — Wisconsin Senator mentioned as a potential VP pick who would have been more electable than Kamala Harris.

Consumer Reports (concept) 1 — Product review database that Reddit is compared to, especially for product research during the Reddit boycott.

Stephen Crowder (person) 1 — Online conservative commentator criticized for using extreme rhetoric like 'wifely duties' in his personal marriage of 1...

Cigna (place) 1 — Health insurance company criticized for employing customer service representatives with limited English language skills.

Lemonade (album) 1 — Beyoncé album played by a satirical humanities professor character on his walk to Trader Joe's.

University of Minnesota Press (place) 1 — Academic publisher mentioned in satire of humanities professor working on post-colonial seaweed studies.

Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls (film) 1 — Television show that inspires a satirical humanities professor to add 'indigenous forms of resistance' to his seaweed st...

Post-colonial studies (concept) 1 — Academic field satirized through a fictional professor's research project on 'post-colonial seaweed studies' with indige...

Tourette Syndrome (concept) 1 — Neurological disorder that went unrecognized by friends who mistook verbal tics for intentional party humor.

Pokrovsk (place) 1 — Ukrainian city referenced as a frontline location where Western war cheerleaders should be sent.

Lebanon war (2006) (concept) 1 — Conflict after which the poster's father argued for ethnic cleansing as part of his pro-Israel stance.

Beyblades (concept) 1 — Spinning top toys that a 31-year-old woman collects not for playing but solely to watch them spin.

Bondi Beach (place) 1 — Australian beach location where a Muslim immigrant stopped attackers despite having no weapons experience.

Where the Red Fern Grows (book) 1 — Novel cited as example of childhood freedom, where a 12-year-old is allowed to spend days in the forest alone with a gun...

World Liberty Financial (concept) 1 — Trump's crypto firm that allegedly raised over half a billion dollars and benefits from favorable policy changes.

Trump Foundation (concept) 1 — Fraudulent charitable organization used by Trump to defraud regular people.

NBC News (place) 1 — News organization that reported on Trump's conviction on all 34 counts.

RAADS-R (concept) 1 — An autism diagnosis test referenced in context of someone being suspected of being on the autism spectrum

Reza Pahlavi (person) 1 — Iranian leader who changed the country's name from Persia to Iran, described as a PR blunder

Rubik's Cube (concept) 1 — Puzzle cube used to test cognitive abilities, mentioned as 4x4 variant

Apollonian (concept) 1 — Classical concept of rational order and beauty invoked ironically by a poster describing their third day of sobriety

Rhett and Link (person) 1 — YouTube comedy duo whose livestream a poster watched with their date's disabled brother after an awkward sexual encounte...

Greek homosexuality (concept) 1 — Classical Greek same-sex practices invoked as having aesthetics and dignity in contrast to contemporary gay hookup cultu...

Idpol (concept) 1 — Identity politics blamed for damaging the left's optics and causing working-class men to reject leftism despite agreeing...

EECS (concept) 1 — Electrical Engineering and Computer Science major field threatened by H1-B visa expansion according to poster who previo...

Aragorn (person) 1 — Lord of the Rings character referenced as example of positive masculinity

Dora the Explorer (film) 1 — Children's show used sarcastically to criticize infantilizing approaches to masculinity debates

Abu Zubaydah (person) 1 — Person tortured by CIA in 2002 who created drawings documenting his torture and is still imprisoned without charge

John Yoo (person) 1 — Lawyer who wrote the 'Torture Memos' providing legal justification for CIA torture techniques and is now a law professor...

Jay Bybee (person) 1 — Assistant Attorney General who signed the Torture Memos and now serves as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals f...

Gina Haspel (person) 1 — Former CIA Director who ran a black site in Thailand during the torture program before retiring in 2021

Marriage Equality (concept) 1 — Legal recognition of same-sex marriage fought for primarily to allow gay couples hospital visitation, funeral attendance...

James Somerton (person) 1 — Figure referenced dismissively in a discussion about the materialist origins of marriage equality

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (book) 1 — Historical book about Nazi Germany that a commuter was afraid to read on public transit due to the swastika on the cover

Robert Habeck (person) 1 — German Green Party minister whose photograph prompted a police raid when a grandpa called him a 'moron' on Facebook