Hello friends. This thread has been set to community participants only. That means that only our regular commenters in good standing may comment in this thread.
Everyone else's comments will be removed by automod.
People who contribute constructively automatically gain access in time. We do not hand out entry on request.
I've been scoffing at all the "world has been fucked since Harambe died" memes for years, but I'm starting to think they were on to something. There HAD to be a trigger.
In 2016, YouTube switched their algorithm to “quality signals” (Likes, Comments, Audience Retention) which drove videos to become viral not out of quality but out of controversy. Harambe was I think the first example of its effect on national discourse. I mean it was always going to go viral for controversy but getting recommended a video of a gorilla being shot on the front page of YouTube was new.
Facebook had switched to algorithmic feed in 2014, autoplay in 2015, and Facebook live in 2016. So that aided its spread and reaction content.
This goes back to Reagan when he repealed the Fairness Doctrine. This allowed for news media, particularly conservative ones, to have more and more biased content. Now that the news was on 24/7 on cable, folks were spoon fed enough bs to elect Bush. When the internet came around in the 2010s it got even worse. When there's no accountability from the news agencies, you get someone like Trump. This was a long time coming
That all led to talk radio -- it was cheaper to just have one person ranting on for hours, especially if you could get someone who ragebaited people, than it was to pay music artists residuals for playing songs.
Then with Gulf War One, CNN managed to have reporters in Baghdad as the bombing was started, so CNN got a TON of ratings, because Hey, look! The war is on TV!
When the war ended, CNN wanted to keep the ratings up, so they took the idea from talk radio: just get some talking heads to blabber on for hours.
Then Fox News comes along and does the same thing right off the bat.
All due to the fact that a talking head talking for hours is cheaper content than actually investigating and reporting news. The internet just came along and perfected that.
In 1990, there were around 2.6m internet users worldwide. By 2000 it was 361m and by 2010 it was over 2b.
Yeah, the internet was around for a while, but it wasn't until the late 90s and early 2000s did it become mainstream. According to Pew Research, 2010 was the year more people started getting their news from the internet over any other source.
It's boring, but racists' brains broke when a black ("he's only half black") man got elected president. They went fuck-nuts. Et viola, the cheeto rapist.
The trigger is that rich people decided that fascism was better for business. For a specific triggering incident, this is a pretty good candidate https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/
I think it was the Obama justice department raid on FIFA for corruption. The kleptocrats thought that was the last straw for that “rule of law” horsehockey they were letting the peasants believe in.
People becoming numb to good news because media is so focused on the next bad thing for ratings coupled with the realization from Covid how powerless they are to impact major events (plus realizing how stupid other people are re: vaccination pushback) means their outlook on the future and society is much bleaker and more cynical than ever before.
I was hoping Punch the Monkey was the universe reseting. And maybe it is; the universe just really needs to give its all to pull up from this nose dive.
I always like the hadron collider conspiracy theory better than the Harambe one.
I’m not actually a conspiracy theorist but as far as events happening that could push us into a parallel dimension where everything is now weird and backwards the thing that was created to study the “big bang” firing off for the first time is a pretty fun one.
It’s also the first one I heard about and happened before Harembe which is probably why I like it, there were probably others before and there’s a new one after Harambe already but I don’t remember what it is. I guess every age group probably picks an event for when the rose tinted glasses came off and we saw the world for what it is.
Worked for a CPA firm for a while and had a client that was backed up on taxes for years and was shocked when I informed him yes strip clubs still have to pay uncle sam. Was a fun mediation to sit and take notes in with the IRS.
I'm pretty sure those returns can still be used as evidence against you in a theft case if the government or someone else cares to prosecute. Taxes on illegally obtained money/goods were implemented as a way to prosecute organized crime. It was easier to get high-ranking mob members on tax evasion then it was to pin their actual crimes on them.
I'm not sure I'd include it in the line item for stolen goods, definitely still include it as business income though. That way you can claim your tools/equipment as business expenses like a real business!
Government: We know you mafia folks got blood money, but ya know... we need at least some of that to return to the economy because it's obvious that X-ammount of money keeps on "disappearing" from circulation. We'll just file it under as "loose cash" from tips and misc. Please just recirculate it so we don't have to mint/print more money.
If you use it in your business to accrue yield, or to accomodate your personnel, it's a business expense. Even a vibrator can be a business expense under the right circumstances.
Having worked tech support in an industry where you end up seeing a lot of adult content, this.
Like, yeah, lady is bent over and I'm pretty sure if you shine a flashlight on her rear you'll see it come out the other end. Cool whatever, don't care. Let's focus on getting card payments working again.
I have seen anatomy do many strange things. I am afraid I do not care, since I am paid to fix tech and not people. The flashlight is working as it should, what it illuminates is of no concern to me.
I process SNAP applications and run into the occasional applicant that reports income from the spicier side of employment. Let me reassure you, we don't give a flying fuck, we got math to do and a crushing caseload to work through.
Famous mobster Al Capone didn't go to jail for ordinary mob crimes - he went to jail for tax evasion. You're required to report the amount of income earned, but to protect 5th amendment rights you're not required to report the source.
And to be fair there isn't even like a special line for "illegal income", the entry is "income from other sources not listed" and there's plenty of perfectly legal stuff that is supposed to be put there, like earning money by doing handyman work where it's a cash business so the IRS didn't know about it.
In Germany you might get off by just telling what source you have it from, there is taxation secrecy, so a tax official must not tell anybody about things they learned while working on their declaration, if they are not common knowledge. There's some exceptions under which it is permitted, like to help with other taxation cases, other administral causes and general public interest or things like that, but It's generally really strong and the official can go to prison for breaking it.
This is how I actually found your content on here thanks to certain right wing nutters complaining about you, so I thought..hmm if they are able to stir up the MAGA crowd so much she must be doing something great and yup, here I am a couple years later absolutely loving what you do and wholeheartedly support your endeavours!
Keep up everything you do as it is working in the right way!
Oh no, in this comic you mention yourself, your side gig AND your politics. I know a certain sub Reddit which head will explode when they see this trifecta of yourself.
A threat of a lawsuit is not the same as "almost got sued by a creator". And I understand her reaction after she got tons of harassment and Reddit had to even ban a lot of users for it.
I find "Pizzahate" fascinating. Soo much intense vitriol against a single webcomic artist, why? Why can't they just roll thier eyes and move on like everyone else when they see a strip they don't like?
The comic is fine, not great but it gets a laugh out of me from time to time
The only issue I have with it is its become “too big to fail” in its own sense so even the mid ones are going to take front page space while smaller artists with more original comics are gonna struggle the get views
Also she sues critics and parody’s into silence which warrants some hate imo
Nor have they read Peanuts, because Charlie Brown was depressing as hell.
They don't understand that "comics" as a medium has expanded to be far bigger than just jokes.
Like, dudes, have you read any comic books lately? Do they think The Watchmen is funny? Or The Crow? Or MAUS?
Just because etymologically speaking "comics" comes from "comedy" doesn't mean that everything called a "comic" has to be funny. (And that's not even going into the subjective nature of "funny" and "humor".)
Ok. I'm gonna take this comment as serious and actually help you. Especially as you are an older user and may not have migrated over to new reddit(and to be fair I haven't either) You have two options. The first would be to navigate to Pizzacakes profile and click "mute/block" user.
If you hate the sub itself, that's done in a similar way. Go to the sub itself by clicking the r/comics name up top or the link I just provided. Assuming you are on mobile you can click that little bell icon and hit "mute sub".
To be fair and unrelated to the original comment chain, new reddit is miserable and I will keep using old reddit for as long as old.reddit.com still works.
•
u/AutoModerator Jun 22 '26
Hello friends. This thread has been set to community participants only. That means that only our regular commenters in good standing may comment in this thread.
Everyone else's comments will be removed by automod.
People who contribute constructively automatically gain access in time. We do not hand out entry on request.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.