Red Scare Canon — Cultural References from the Subreddit

Zach Braff (person) 3 — Actor and director of Garden State, referenced for the film's iconic music discovery scene

D.H. Lawrence (person) 3 — Writer quoted regarding the connection between loneliness and losing the cosmos in modern life.

The Bear (film) 3 — TV show about restaurants criticized for influencing restaurant workers to adopt performative professional behavior

H1-B visa (concept) 3 — Work visa program criticized for allowing tech companies to import cheap labor from third world countries instead of hir...

Home Depot (place) 3 — Hardware retail store chain that was the target of a prank phone call about ballcocks.

Muhammad Ali (person) 3 — Boxing champion who went to jail and lost his titles for refusing to fight in Vietnam, cited as an example of radical pr...

r/polyamory (concept) 3 — Reddit community characterized by posts about insecurity, emotional abuse, and unattractive relationship configurations.

Logan Paul (person) 3 — An internet personality and content creator whose catchphrase 'I like my cheese drippy, bruh' became a popular meme amon...

White Nationalism (concept) 3 — Reactionary ideology that the poster argues shares more ideological DNA with anti-integrationist theories of race consci...

M.I.A. (person) 3 — Female rapper part of electro revival movement referenced alongside Peaches and Uffie.

Google (concept) 3 — Search engine criticized for declining quality due to SEO manipulation and inability to find obscure information

Minnesota (place) 3 — State where Tim Walz served as governor and passed progressive legislation including a public option and workers' protec...

J.K. Rowling (person) 3 — British author and creator of Harry Potter, discussed in context of conspiracy theory about her being secretly trans.

Ralph Lauren (person) 3 — Fashion designer whose brand is invoked as an example of quiet luxury aesthetic that wealthy people should embody.

ADL (concept) 3 — Anti-Defamation League, organization that labels the Dancing Israelis incident as an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Zelensky (person) 3 — Ukrainian president whom Biden mistakenly called Putin at a press conference.

Rape Culture (concept) 3 — Cultural environment that normalizes sexual assault, discussed as stemming from sadism and belief in male entitlement to...

Occupy Movement (concept) 3 — Early 2010s protest movement discussed as possibly the last significant counter-cultural movement, though lacking the co...

Therapy-speak (concept) 3 — Psychological and therapeutic terminology that has entered everyday language through social media, often misused to desc...

Chronic Lyme (concept) 3 — Chronic illness characterized by pain and fatigue that is difficult to diagnose, observed as predominantly affecting wom...

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (concept) 3 — A very rare mental disorder marked by abnormally high sense of self-importance and lack of empathy, frequently misdiagno...

High School Musical (film) 3 — Disney Channel movie from 20 years ago that featured multiple Black people in lead roles, discussed as being baselessly ...

SoundCloud (place) 3 — Music streaming platform associated with a particular 2010s aesthetic of posers appropriating death/black metal logo aes...

Deadpool (film) 3 — Film franchise criticized for treating Hugh Jackman as a draw despite his many previous appearances in similar movies.

Vanderpump Rules (film) 3 — Reality TV show mentioned in a satirical story about a veterinarian's casual dismissal of a dead pet.

Zurich (place) 3 — Swiss city that was the subject of Hans Conrad Gyger's 1667 map featuring modern hillshading technique.

Pax Americana (concept) 3 — The period of American global dominance that is described as slowly ending due to Trump's tariff policies and economic c...

Dopamine Detox (concept) 3 — Self-improvement practice involving withdrawal from stimulating activities like social media, junk food, and porn that t...

Tame Impala (album) 3 — Indie rock musical project referenced as example of how internet caricatures make people self-conscious about their inte...

Babylon Bee (place) 3 — A satirical website that published an article about Disney buying the Bible, which was believed by its own conservative ...

Imane Khelif (person) 3 — Algerian boxer whose gender became controversial when test results allegedly showed XY chromosomes after Olympic competi...

Pride and Prejudice (book) 3 — Jane Austen novel satirically discussed in terms of its portrayal of wealthy romantic heroes creating unrealistic standa...

Aleppo (place) 3 — Syrian city that rebel factions burst into during a renewed offensive against Assad's government.

Team Fortress 2 (film) 3 — Video game in which the author played in Highlander tournaments at age 14 with a team of internet friends.

Dilbert (concept) 3 — Comic strip created by Scott Adams that made him a millionaire before he devoted his final years to political commentary

Hyperloop (concept) 3 — A proposed high-speed transportation system, specifically an Austin to LA route unveiled by Elon Musk that would enable ...

Incel Culture (concept) 3 — Online subculture linked with terminally online depression and anti-alcohol sentiment, contrasted with alcohol's role in...

Chad (concept) 3 — A country mentioned as receiving more attention in North American discourse than Indonesia or Bangladesh due to internet...

Saagar Enjeti (person) 3 — Podcaster whose show Anna Khachiyan appeared on, described as a questionable choice that reflected the hosts' embrace of...

r/israel (place) 3 — A Reddit subreddit described as lib-soy but supportive of Israel's war, characterized by doomerism and refusal to engage...

Dickies (concept) 3 — Workwear brand whose uniform shirt allowed a wealthy software engineer to experience different social treatment when per...

IATSE (concept) 3 — Union representing film crew workers, discussed as providing stricter safety measures that were absent on Rust productio...

Hawk Tuah (concept) 3 — 2020s viral meme phenomenon involving vulgar content, podcast launch, and cryptocurrency scam, seen as emblematic of int...

Bronx (place) 3 — New York borough where the author attended college before dropping out due to methamphetamine addiction

BART (place) 3 — San Francisco Bay Area transit system where racist rants are common according to a regular rider.

Bank of America (place) 3 — Financial institution mentioned as employer of a research analyst girlfriend who claims to want to be poor and Mexican

Taoism (concept) 3 — Eastern philosophical and religious tradition that the author's grandmother and her boyfriend practice despite being whi...

Margaret Qualley (person) 3 — Actress who gave a great performance in The Substance, appearing in multiple 'horny exercise dance compilations' through...

Christian Bale (person) 3 — Actor referenced for his extreme weight loss in The Machinist as a comparison point for severe anorexia

Ozarks (place) 3 — A rural region referenced as the location where a woman was raised in a fundamentalist Baptist home before converting to...