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Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

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Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#31

Post by serf »

smt88 wrote: post #13
donatj wrote: post #8

Well dang, that sucks. Something Awful circa 2003 really shaped my sense of humor as a teen. Photoshop Phriday was something I and all my friends waited for each week. In my opinion this deserves the black bar.

By all accounts, the good things about Something Awful were in spite of Kyanka rather than because of him. He neglected the site for many years before selling it. He was also a terrible person who serially abused his wives and girlfriends. His site was very influential (in good and bad ways), but that doesn't mean he is someone we should canonize or mourn.

>He was also a terrible person who serially abused his wives and girlfriends.

>His site was very influential (in good and bad ways), but that doesn't mean he is someone we should canonize or mourn.

"You know what they say, speak ill of the dead!" - Norm MacDonald.

A person need not be wholesome or kind to warrant mourning their death.

Even if you despise the person, their death has caused real human suffering and pain among those around and associated to them.

fwiw I think it's incredibly tacky to go into a what is in essence a memorial thread to post a list of grievances against a dead person that has no means of explanation or defense.

I don't know about Lowtax's personal life -- this isn't a comment on that; it's a comment about those that feel the compulsion to post vitriol on memorials.

If you feel the need to shine light on the despicable , make a thread and let's discuss it there -- that way we at least stand the chance of sparing the bereaved.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#33

Post by TomVDB »

serf wrote: post #31
smt88 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By all accounts, the good things about Something Awful were in spite of Kyanka rather than because of him. He neglected the site for many years before selling it. He was also a terrible person who serially abused his wives and girlfriends. His site was very influential (in good and bad ways), but that doesn't mean he is someone we should canonize or mourn.

>He was also a terrible person who serially abused his wives and girlfriends. >His site was very influential (in good and bad ways), but that doesn't mean he is someone we should canonize or mourn. "You know what they say, speak ill of the dead!" - Norm MacDonald. A person need not be wholesome or kind to warrant mourning their death. Even if you despise the person, their death has caused real human suffering and pai…

This is not a memorial thread. And the fact that he shot himself a day after being judged a domestic abuser adds a lot of relevant context that readers on this forum deserve to know.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#35

Post by Apocryphon »

vkou wrote: post #24
Apocryphon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but would there be an 8chan if there wasn't a /pol/? I forgot to mention that on the other end of the spectrum, a good amount of (extremely online) American leftist culture ("the Dirtbag Left") is also linked to Something Awful, the Chapo Trap House three were either from SA or from the Weird Twitter subculture descended from SA's FYAD subforum.

The influence of CTH on contemporary American politics is similar in scope to that of a fly farting into a hurricane. A few people around the fringe breathe it, a portion of the left is sympathetic to it, but it has not managed to perform an insane coup on one of the two mainstream political parties, or have its ideas overtake an entire category of mass media (AM radio). The democratic machine is proving rather resis…

I wonder how much of the Bernie Sanders phenomenon was bolstered by Chapo and extremely online figures inspired by Chapo. Obviously, that's not to say that the Squad nor the post-2016 DSA surge owe anything to them, but they likely contributed towards the popularizing of the left to a certain younger extremely online audience.

> but it has not managed to perform an insane coup on one of the two mainstream political parties

That's also overstating 4chan's influence in the 2016 election.

> overtake an entire category of mass media

Well, podcasts are pretty big now.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#37

Post by HamburgerEmoji »

TomVDB wrote: post #33
serf wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He was also a terrible person who serially abused his wives and girlfriends. >His site was very influential (in good and bad ways), but that doesn't mean he is someone we should canonize or mourn. "You know what they say, speak ill of the dead!" - Norm MacDonald. A person need not be wholesome or kind to warrant mourning their death. Even if you despise the person, their death has caused real human suffering and pai…

This is not a memorial thread. And the fact that he shot himself a day after being judged a domestic abuser adds a lot of relevant context that readers on this forum deserve to know.

Do you suppose anyone ever committed suicide after wrongly being adjudged an abuser?

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#38

Post by tombert »

This isn't a joke; I had actually scheduled a lunch with Lowtax for this Saturday. Despite a (let's call it) checkered past, I was extremely excited to meet him, since he's been a huge influence to my sense of humor and Something Awful was really important to me as a teenager.

-------

I had found him on LinkedIn a few weeks ago, and simply sent a message explaining that I'm a fan, would love a chance to buy him lunch and chat about Something Awful and Gaming Garbage. To my surprise, he responded back with "sure, I'd be up for it".

I responded back with "How does early December sound to you? something on the order of December 11?"

His response was "shit I dont even know if I'll still be alive then". This response was a little weird, but this isn't exactly "off brand" humor for Lowtax, so I ignored it.

I then say something to the effect of "how about something along the lines of November 13?", which he said was better. He then said "and you have my permission to stab me". Again, not off brand for Lowtax.

I bought a plane ticket to Kansas City, was ready to fly out this friday. But I had this deep feeling in my stomach that what he was saying wasn't just a joke. It's pretty well documented that he's been depressed, and I dunno, upon re-reading his messages a hundred times I got a dark feeling that these might be kind of bad omens. What exactly do I do with this? I discussed it with my wife and a friend, who weren't sure what the best solution was, and I ultimately decided not to say anything. I figured I'm just some dork who stalked him on LinkedIn, and I was afraid that if I said anything he would think I'm weird and cancel our lunch date.

And now this shit happened. He finally did it, and now the thought keeps playing in my brain of "what if I had said something a few weeks ago?" I know I don't owe him anything, but I can't help but have this repeated feeling of "I valued an opportunity to meet my man-crush more than I valued someone showing suicidal tendencies," and it makes me feel downright rotten. That's not the kind of person I want to be, and it makes me feel legitimately sick that that's how my brain decided to work.

At some logical level I know none of this is my fault really; realistically even if I had said something, I doubt much would have changed, and I doubt I had enough there to get him committed or anything, but there's a difference between logically knowing something and feeling something.

As it stands, I think there's a reasonably good chance that I will feel partly responsible for this for the rest of my life. This sucks.

--------

RIP Rich. I know you had a rough last couple years, you were the definition of a "complicated person", and despite everything you will be missed.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#39

Post by lollowtax »

TomVDB wrote: post #33
serf wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He was also a terrible person who serially abused his wives and girlfriends. >His site was very influential (in good and bad ways), but that doesn't mean he is someone we should canonize or mourn. "You know what they say, speak ill of the dead!" - Norm MacDonald. A person need not be wholesome or kind to warrant mourning their death. Even if you despise the person, their death has caused real human suffering and pai…

This is not a memorial thread. And the fact that he shot himself a day after being judged a domestic abuser adds a lot of relevant context that readers on this forum deserve to know.

In case anyone is surprised to read this, it isn’t speculation. It’s deep in the thread but it’s indisputably there from someone who would know.

The circumstances surrounding this incident in the last 24 hours sound absolutely fucking abhorrent. I’m honestly shocked reading the firsthand accounts in that thread. Just wow.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#40

Post by Mordisquitos »

busterarm wrote: post #17
extortionist wrote: post #12

He leaves behind a complicated legacy. It's important to note that credible allegations of domestic abuse lead him to sell SA in the past year, and this can't be set aside. At the same time, SA's influence on the modern internet can't be understated. The 'image macro' of early SA (maybe created by Lowtax himself, from what Fragmaster says in his video in the link) is the direct ancestor of today's common meme image--…

Do you have stairs in your house? Pak. Chooie. Unf.

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