Why does it say “dies” when he killed himself? And please, no trick answers. One of my favourite posts of his, why lingerie is fucking stupid: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=38...
Did he not die?
Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
61–70 of 370 posts
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#62I am so fascinated by all of this. The impact on internet history and culture. The challenges of creating and growing communities. The lifestyles and faults of leaders and the controversial realities we live in. I know about SA, but was never an active participant. Likewise I know about 4chan and other communities. From reading the first page of this thread, it seems very critical of the creator of the community. Eve…
I think what these stories reveal is just how much people underestimate how common domestic abuse is and it doesn't appear to discriminate based on status, fame, career choice, etc.
As far as building healthier communities and what we can learn, I think it's definitely healthy to maintain and continue to improve the focus on helping victims and prevent potential victims from becoming a target of abuse. Everyone should be able to be part of a safe community without fear of harm.
I think there's another dimension that is significantly less popular, which is about enabling people who may have abusive tendencies to get the help they need. Society generally wants to dismiss and discard these people but that just pushes the problem into the shadows, as it's social suicide basically to come forward and say "I need help, I can't control my behaviour / keep hurting people / etc." Especially if you have any degree of publicity around your life and career.
Cancel culture was like a spark that started a fire that shone a light into these dark spaces, and some people are trash that need to be called out and exposed, especially people who get their rocks off on abuse, but there's shades of grey in between "victim" and "abuser" that don't fit the conventional good guy vs bad guy stereotypes, and it's in that realm I think there's a lot of progress yet to be made in identifying, preventing, and responding to abusive behaviours as a society.
I don't really have solutions but it's a multifaceted issue that needs solutions from all angles.
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
QAnon isn't even really a 4chan meme, at least not for a while and not at the Jan. 6 peak of its fervor. The "official home" of QAnon has been 8chan/8kun for years, since shortly after the meme's first appearance [0]. Several jouranlists believe the 8chan owner and his son to be the main users of the QAnon account [1][2][3]. There's a contingent of regular QAnon posters on /pol/, but they're regularly mocked as menta…
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.
Not just left and right, but establishment, too. Eliot Higgins was an SA mod, who got into analysing images out of the Arab spring uprisings after learning that some of his fellow goons had gone there to volunteer for one side or another. He got picked up by the US/UK FP/MIL/INT establishment after his excellent documentation of modified volcano rockets in the Syrian civil war.
I think that wasn't just for his journalism though, but from worry that he might become another headache like Wikileaks, should be start focusing on other conflicts. They groomed him to be a bulwark against less friendly OSINT journalism.
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#64SA in the early 00's was really special. It was like someone dumped a whole chemical supply closet into a pot and brought it to a boil. Equal parts trash and alchemy. Gold was inexplicably made there, and as long as you had your kitty litter scoop it was easy to find.
Goons screwing around with Poser was probably peak gold or close to it. The large-scale projects like Goon City and Goon Tower stick with me as inspirational with respect to what spontaneous groups of idiots can accomplish pushing in the same direction.
Goonswarm is still dominating in EVE Online.
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#65He 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--…
>credible allegations
I truly wish that allegations of any and every sort were considered not credible by the general public. Domestic abuse is a real problem, but false allegation of domestic abuse is a real problem, too. Indeed, if a person wants to harm another without lifting a finger, the simplest thing to do is claim "He hurt me" or "I'm afraid of him" and you'll get every cop, judge, attorney, a legion of your friends, and family, maybe some of his too, on your side. Because to even doubt a woman's allegation is to condone violence against women, making you no better than an abuser yourself.
This isn't against women. How many of us, given such an arbitrary and powerful weapon, would have the character not to use it, especially against someone we hate for personal reasons? "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," and yet here we are, giving scorned women the literal power of life and death over the object of their rage.
That the accused does not have recourse, neither in a court of law nor in public opinion, goes without question. The solution is not to lament the lack of self-restraint, but to take this unfair power away. Accusation is not guilt, and we need to stop assuming that every accusation is credible.
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
See: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&th...
> An hour later I was contacted by my attorney who informed me that Rich had shot himself earlier in the morning. > So. There it is. His other ex and I got to tell our children that their father died without saying goodbye to them, or that he loved them, or to my knowledge, left a note for them. This rubs me the wrong way. Also the countless posts dissing someone who committed suicide.
What rubs me the wrong way is that he shot himself an HOUR after the judge ruled he would lose his daughter and what sounds like huge amount of money.
The explanation from the ex-wife sounds very fishy as well.
> confirmed his treatment of me was Domestic Violence
* this is not for a divorce court to decide. This is a criminal offense not civil. Something feels off..
* thats brutal he doesn't get to see his daughter for months at a time?
* define good life? Taking all of a guys money would definitely provide a good life for someone.
""""
Yesterday I recieved a divorce ruling that would help me and my daughter stay in our home in Canada and allow me to provide a good life for her as well as pay back numerous debts that had accrued during the past two years when I was receiving $350 a month in child support.
In the divorce ruling the judge found that Rich had willfully spent down the martial fund, confirmed his treatment of me was Domestic Violence and put together a plan to pay for the attorney fees etc. He would still retain custody settled on previously in mediation. He was due to get our daughter for Christmas.
An hour later I was contacted by my attorney who informed me that Rich had shot himself earlier in the morning.
"""
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#67This 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…
You have zero fault in this. Survivors guilt is a super common thing and if you're feeling any you should seek out a grief counselor.
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#68He 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--…
>credible allegations I truly wish that allegations of any and every sort were considered not credible by the general public. Domestic abuse is a real problem, but false allegation of domestic abuse is a real problem, too. Indeed, if a person wants to harm another without lifting a finger, the simplest thing to do is claim "He hurt me" or "I'm afraid of him" and you'll get every cop, judge, attorney, a legion of your…
This comes off as naive. I saw the domestic abuse allegations again him and decided to read up.
He had multiple allegations from both exes. He lightly joked about rape, domestic abuse etc. Yeah, they're jokes, but when I stopped being a child that stopped being funny, you can still see him making these jokes int interviews about his situation.
You've got people on HN today that believe that metoo is just made up. Those victims were mocked and denied justice for years because a lot of socially awkward dudes make the mistake of assuming that cause they're nice other guys are, too.
I know nothing bout him other than the public forum that he himself put in. There's no other way to judge him. I think it's telling that you've flipped this around into tropes about gender and being scorned.
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#69He 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--…
There's no such thing as "credible allegation".
There's either proof or not.
Now, I don't know any of the people involved in this, but this post tells a different story: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&th...
Like in the recent case of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp (listen to their recorded call where she admits her lies), it's easy to make the victim sounds like the perpetrator, especially if it's a guy.
Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
#70This 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…
I've unfortunately witnessed suicides and attempts close enough to tell you that it is unlikely you could have done anything as a non-related person far away.
Taking him to lunch and treating him as a human being would probably been a super nice thing to do for him.
I know you feel that the part where you think "man I should have said something different" makes you feel bad, but people do much, much more regrettable gaffes they realize only after the fact. Like, for instance, a spouse who considers maybe to lock away the firearms, but not doing it (an unfortunate example from real life, not mine luckily).
Luckily most people are not experts in suicide. Even though if you had concrete intuition that something was off, having no experience of this before, you probably could not tell if the intuition was pointing at something actionable, or imagined.
Persons who are under treatment, with their family, still end up performing a suicide.
I know it feels bad for you, having interacted with him briefly before his passing away, but you should not feel guilt (even though its a natural human reaction you do).