Red Scare Canon — Cultural References from the Subreddit

REM sleep (concept) 1 — A sleep phase described in a lecture as threat rehearsal that can lead to negative perceptual bias when experienced in e...

MAOIs (concept) 1 — Antidepressants that completely eliminate REM sleep, discussed as possibly working through this mechanism.

CYP 1A2 (concept) 1 — An enzyme that metabolizes caffeine with wide interindividual variability, mentioned to explain differences in caffeine ...

nasal cycle (concept) 1 — An alternation of nostril engorgement every 2.5 hours, with the left nostril supposedly stimulating the vagal nerve and ...

r/askaChristian (place) 1 — A subreddit where a gay user sought validation for his lifestyle from Christians, receiving condemnation instead.

humanityismorbid (place) 1 — A subreddit where users mocked a deceased activist, leading to a user being downvoted for defending their friend's chara...

Promethease (place) 1 — A genetic analysis service that interprets data from genetic testing companies like 23andMe

HIV (concept) 1 — The virus that causes AIDS, discussed in relation to childhood fears and genetic immunity through the CCR5-delta 32 muta...

Dajana Roncione (person) 1 — Partner of Thom Yorke whose home in Rome was discussed for its aesthetic

Brick Lane (place) 1 — London street where the author encountered aggressive panhandling from a magazine seller

Under the Silver Lake (film) 1 — Film featuring Andrew Garfield's character who rants about homeless people, referenced in discussion of changing attitud...

Senate Parliamentarian (concept) 1 — Congressional official whose ruling against raising the minimum wage was used as justification by Democrats not to pursu...

Fantasy Writing (concept) 1 — A genre criticized as being empty spectacle without subtext, produced by non-writers creating derivative reflections of ...

Freudian Complex (concept) 1 — Psychological concept applied to maternal issues, arguing that mommy issues produce more interesting women than daddy is...

Nehru (person) 1 — Historical political figure whose 1955 rhetoric is compared to Mark Carney's contemporary statements about middle powers

Third Eye Blind (self-titled album) (album) 1 — Album listened to on repeat during a cocaine binge as described in a personal account of drug use

Sainsburys (place) 1 — UK supermarket chain where the author reconnected with an old girlfriend

Green New Deal (concept) 1 — Environmental policy proposal that Republican voters do not support, contrary to claims that they are secret populists

Alison Bechdel (person) 1 — Cartoonist and graphic novelist known for works like Fun Home and Are You My Mother, whose name became associated with t...

Fun Home (book) 1 — Graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel about familial relations and growing up, considered a major work demonstrating comics a...

Are You My Mother? (book) 1 — Graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel exploring family relationships and personal identity through comics

Persepolis (book) 1 — Graphic memoir referenced alongside Maus and Alison Bechdel's works as exemplary comics demonstrating the medium's artis...

Santa Monica Public Library (place) 1 — Venue where Alison Bechdel gave a lecture focused on her artistic process and formalist approach to comics

Geoff Lewis (person) 1 — Billionaire investor and early backer of OpenAI who posted cryptic videos suggesting he was targeted by a non-government...

Bedrock Capital (place) 1 — Venture capital firm founded by Geoff Lewis with $2 billion under management

Frank Drebin (person) 1 — Character referenced as analogy for Democratic Party incompetence in political context

Ricardo Montalbán (person) 1 — Actor referenced in comparison describing Democratic Party's political failures

Toyota Camry (concept) 1 — Mid-range car contrasted with BMW as symbol of economic disparity in relationship

Coors (concept) 1 — Beer brand associated with white working-class party culture in post about peer pressure

Punk Rock MBA (person) 1 — YouTuber who revealed he quit after reaching financial goals and admitted to not liking music, creating content based on...

The Sims 2 (concept) 1 — Video game whose forum in 2006 is remembered as the site of a memorable internet encounter between two Irish users.

Revolutionary Road (book) 1 — A novel referenced in discussion about bullshitting through liberal arts education, where a student used the film adapta...

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (film) 1 — A film that was remade with a Black man and Asian woman pairing, criticized as an unnatural casting choice that doesn't ...

Ket people (concept) 1 — An extremely obscure ethnic group in remote Siberia with their own language isolate, used as an example of how strange i...

Yughs (concept) 1 — An ethnic group related to the Ket people with an extremely small population of only 7 people as of 2020

Ratatouille (film) 1 — An animated film set in France, referenced as evidence of French culinary excellence and the reason for its French setti...

Iron and Wine (person) 1 — Musical artist mentioned in a generational communication gap between poster and their mother.

Sneed's Feed and Seed (concept) 1 — Internet copypasta/meme from The Simpsons used to demonstrate AI voice generation capabilities with deepfake Biden audio...

Mark Hollis (person) 1 — Musician referenced as comfort listening for dealing with loneliness and emotional isolation.

East Atlanta (place) 1 — Atlanta neighborhood mentioned as previously lived in before gentrification, characterized by crime and gang activity.

West Midtown (place) 1 — Atlanta neighborhood where poster experienced being chased with a gun before area was gentrified.

Western civilisation (concept) 1 — Cultural concept questioned in light of World War I's senseless destruction and waste of human life.

Conestoga College (place) 1 — Ontario community college criticized for over-enrolling international students, going from less than 20% international i...

Lambton College (place) 1 — Ontario community college criticized alongside Conestoga for dramatically increasing international student enrollment.

Kitchener-Waterloo (place) 1 — Canadian region where employers are reportedly refusing to hire recent Punjabi international students due to workplace b...

J.S. Bach (person) 1 — Classical composer whose music the poster came to appreciate as beyond genius after initially dismissing it as stuffy an...

Gustav Holst (person) 1 — Classical composer referenced as someone the poster tried to get friends into during middle school.

Tottenham Court Road (place) 1 — London location where a poster had a negative experience at a Chipotle restaurant.

John Donne (person) 1 — Early Modern English poet whose syntactically complex prose is cited as a model for avoiding ChatGPT-like writing.

Early Modern English (concept) 1 — Historical English syntactic idiom characterized by long, architecturally sound sentences that maintain steady lines of ...