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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

#341

Post by tombert »

zwaps wrote: post #299
tombert wrote: post #38

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…

It is important for you to know that his suicide was most likely a direct reaction to an unfavorable court ruling that he was not at all expecting to turn out this way. Without going into detail, rest assured that this has nothing to do with you, and there is nothing you could have done to change this. It would be incredibly sad if you feel partly responsible for this, even if it is understandable. In this case, howe…

Yeah, I've been reading up on the details, and I feel a bit better today than I did yesterday. It's easy to feel guilty over stuff that really has nothing to do with you sometimes. I suspect tomorrow I'll feel a little better and that'll continue for a few more days.

Despite his many, many faults, I did genuinely like Lowtax. The few short conversations I had with him before were very funny and pleasant, and I'll miss his strange humor on YouTube. He was a complicated dude, and his fall over the last few years shows how someone can go from "king of the internet" to laughingstock in a relatively short time, and serves as a cautionary tale. The rest of the SA community very justifiably turned on him, and I don't blame them for that at all, but I dunno, I guess I liked him enough to cut him a bit more slack than he deserved.

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

#342

Post by DoItToMe81 »

rmidthun wrote: post #270

All this eulogy for an abusive bully. Among the many "innovations", there was a feature where he would link to a website that he thought was worthy of ridicule. Often mentioning directly that it had a guest book to sign in. So a horde of bullies would descend on that website, fill the book and any forums with goatse porn and email the same. Some of the victims shut down their websites, their complaints posted to SA s…

Oh no. Somebody was mildly mean to me on the internet, whatever will I do? I can't just BLOCK or BAN them, that's impossible!

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

#343

Post by javajosh »

notahacker wrote: post #179
javajosh wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy killed himself and posters are mentioning "credible DV allegations" to imply "good, glad he's dead, he (probably) deserved it." This is the concrete outcome of a much broader consequence of exempting women from ordinary standards of evidence around DV allegations. It's a big problem, worth pointing out, and I strongly suspect that Kyanka would appreciate the discussion.

I don't think anybody has said he (probably) deserved it. They've suggested he was a complicated character whose suicide appears to be the culmination of an unfortunate pattern of self-destructive behaviour, not a hero or victim. And I'm not sure what you consider to be "ordinary standards of evidence", but you started this subthread by insisting that we should automatically assume allegations were not credible, even…

How to put this. Not all suicides are created equal. I think some have more of a point than others. It is a final, powerful shout of hopelessness, an expression of resistance against a society that has thoroughly abandoned you. And, in the case of a parent forcibly separated from their children, a statement that if you're going to have your children taken away, you might as well be dead.

But of course we attack the victim here. Because he's a man. Because he's been accused of DV. Because he's a wimp and couldn't take it. Because he's selfish, self-destructive, and abandoned his kids. Right?

Well, if I had my way I'd investigate each and every suicide that was a result of a justice system action. I would take a microscope the proceedings and to the allegations. This man spent his life to say something, to warn us, and I think we could at least take his last, most serious complaint, seriously. (And by implication, don't use the act of despair to further heap blame and abuse on the man.)

And make no mistake, it IS a warning, to the ~10% of marriages that will end in a high conflict divorce, and our concept of right and wrong, just and unjust, is not reflected in the family court system. It is arbitrary, personal and extraordinarily biased for the mother. For those women willing to take it, the high-conflict divorce DV allegation is a super-weapon that you can use to utterly destroy your opponent - not just win, but take all his tools away for fighting, and take all public support for him and his rights. It's extraordinary.

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

#344

Post by overgard »

Apocryphon wrote: post #320
selimthegrim wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think her point is she was being shafted relatively speaking

Not to mention their children he left behind.

I doubt he felt good about that. A person died lets respect that. And also as a human being genuinely fuck you. That was a person. Jesus. Im not going to pretend I new everything about his life but he had a family, a life, and thats now gone. So seriously go fuck yourself. I will never regret this comment because where the fuck are you coming from?

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

#345

Post by Apocryphon »

overgard wrote: post #344
Apocryphon wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention their children he left behind.

I doubt he felt good about that. A person died lets respect that. And also as a human being genuinely fuck you. That was a person. Jesus. Im not going to pretend I new everything about his life but he had a family, a life, and thats now gone. So seriously go fuck yourself. I will never regret this comment because where the fuck are you coming from?

Do you know anything about Something Awful at all? Lowtax made worse mockeries in his life, callousness and crudeness was the goon way. He would not have shown you this courtesy you’re so desperate to virtue signal. Don’t try to pontificate on cultures and people you know nothing about.

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

#346

Post by overgard »

Apocryphon wrote: post #345
overgard wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt he felt good about that. A person died lets respect that. And also as a human being genuinely fuck you. That was a person. Jesus. Im not going to pretend I new everything about his life but he had a family, a life, and thats now gone. So seriously go fuck yourself. I will never regret this comment because where the fuck are you coming from?

Do you know anything about Something Awful at all? Lowtax made worse mockeries in his life, callousness and crudeness was the goon way. He would not have shown you this courtesy you’re so desperate to virtue signal. Don’t try to pontificate on cultures and people you know nothing about.

I followed that site since its inception. It wasn't perfect but jesus don't beat a man to death in his death. What are you even trying to accomplish? The guy built one of the most influential sites ever, and he died in a horrible way, why make this worse. You are a fucking monster

Btw what really bothers me? Wtf do you know? You pose the question to me but Im guessing you never met him. So im the weirdo for grieving the death of a man that brought a lot of joy into my life and youre like "let me shit on his legacy". So again fuck off.

And by the way Im NEVER going to celebrate the suicide of a person. Because I have fucking empathy. Do you?

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

#347

Post by Apocryphon »

overgard wrote: post #346
Apocryphon wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know anything about Something Awful at all? Lowtax made worse mockeries in his life, callousness and crudeness was the goon way. He would not have shown you this courtesy you’re so desperate to virtue signal. Don’t try to pontificate on cultures and people you know nothing about.

I followed that site since its inception. It wasn't perfect but jesus don't beat a man to death in his death. What are you even trying to accomplish? The guy built one of the most influential sites ever, and he died in a horrible way, why make this worse. You are a fucking monster Btw what really bothers me? Wtf do you know? You pose the question to me but Im guessing you never met him. So im the weirdo for grieving…

You’re clearly experiencing a lot of deep emotions of mourning over the loss of someone you’ve known long before. I apologize for accusing you of not knowing the goons, though I would expect someone so familiar with the site would have known the times that Lowtax mocked a woman who experienced multiple miscarriages, or of other similar instances. You’re responding disproportionately to my comment that he leaves behind his children, which is a tragedy. I make no moral judgments here, nor do I have any relish towards his death. I am simply observing the tragedy.

But yes, it is not in my place to judge what someone might do in the depths of utmost irrational personal pain. It would be engaging in the same callousness that goons are infamous for. Perhaps the most appropriate response to this situation is neither demonize nor lionize this man, but to simply recognize him for what he was- a flawed man who nonetheless changed the world and the very internet itself.

I now understand that you have truly been deeply affected by this loss. I wish you may find peace in this difficult time, as he has. Go with God.

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

#348

Post by overgard »

Apocryphon wrote: post #347
overgard wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I followed that site since its inception. It wasn't perfect but jesus don't beat a man to death in his death. What are you even trying to accomplish? The guy built one of the most influential sites ever, and he died in a horrible way, why make this worse. You are a fucking monster Btw what really bothers me? Wtf do you know? You pose the question to me but Im guessing you never met him. So im the weirdo for grieving…

You’re clearly experiencing a lot of deep emotions of mourning over the loss of someone you’ve known long before. I apologize for accusing you of not knowing the goons, though I would expect someone so familiar with the site would have known the times that Lowtax mocked a woman who experienced multiple miscarriages, or of other similar instances. You’re responding disproportionately to my comment that he leaves behin…

Just have some empathy. This isn't a time to judje

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

#349

Post by throwawaylinux »

curuinor wrote: post #2

Someone on twitter was talking about the Franz Ferdinand insane ripples of the man's decision to ban anime pornography on his site: 1. He bans it 2. One "moot" was then currently showing around his futaba channel clone "4chan" and not getting many bites 3. The pornography-obsessed people decide to abscond to 4chan en masse, determining the culture of /b/ and all that 4. This leads to the proliferation of fascism and…

> 6. A depressing number of people start believing in that crap

In "qanon" whatever that is? Seems like it was always massively overblown. Some fringe conspiracy theory among thousands.

It wasn't like the baseless Russia Trump conspiracy theory that fully half the USA believed, was front page news for literally 3 years, and shaped the course of the government, for example. Yet that does not get proportionate air time.

I mean sure any misinformation is worse than none, but I don't understand what is supposed to have been so terrible and dangerous about qanon in particular.

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

#350

Post by dkersten »

missinfo wrote: post #306
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--…

From his Patreon last year: As you know my patreon has declined from like $9k to under $1k because of the fucking idiots who embrace the ideology of, "If You Read It On the Internet, It Must Be True!" Ironically, this was the original slogan for the site, before I changed it to "The Internet Makes You Stupid." Both apply equally in this case. Nobody seems aware that anybody can allege anything. Nobody seems to give a…

I love how he called people who used to give him money but stopped "idiots"
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