So the filthy rich 24-year-old founder of Oculus — you know, the tech company with the virtual reality goggles — has apparently been secretly funding a propaganda outfit attempting to take down Hillary Clinton with a barrage of dank memes.
According to The Daily Beast:
A Silicon Valley titan is putting money behind an unofficial Donald Trump group dedicated to “shitposting” and circulating internet memes maligning Hillary Clinton.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey financially backed a pro-Trump political organization called Nimble America, a self-described “social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit” in support of the Republican nominee.
Luckey sold his virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, and Forbes estimates his current net worth to be $700 million. …
Nimble America says it’s dedicated to proving that “shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real,” according to the company’s introductory statement, and has taken credit for a billboard its founders say was posted outside of Pittsburgh with a cartoonishly large image of Clinton’s face alongside the words “Too Big to Jail.”
“We conquered Reddit and drive narrative on social media, conquered the [mainstream media], now it’s time to get our most delicious memes in front of Americans whether they like it or not,” a representative for the group wrote in an introductory post on Reddit.
There’s a weird and elaborate Reddit backstory to all this, featuring bitter infighting, accusations of con-artistry, and even a cameo from Milo Yiannopoulos, all of which I’m too lazy to summarize, so you’ll have to read about it over on The Daily Beast.
H/T — TZer0
@OoglyBoggles
Much obliged.
I regard aging similar to falling. I don’t mind the fact that I’m getting older – in fact, I tend to consider my current self my “best self.” 24 year old me was cute, but didn’t know shit. I’m happy to have experienced more life and grown, and don’t foresee any change in that trend. No, the problem I have – like with falling – is the sudden and inevitable stop at the end.
Well, Gravity Falls, which is what I’ve used in this thread, has concluded at 40 episodes in February this year, so, like, go for it. It’s a good show with a good mystery element which I have spoiled a bit in posting some pics here and there but it shouldn’t make a HUGE impact.
Check out Rick and Morty, too, which currently has 20 episodes with a third season coming…soon…ish. And Steven Universe which has recently went over 100 episodes and is in its fourth season, currently in a hopefully brief hiatus.
So, like, go forth and enjoy the Golden Age of television.
http://orig15.deviantart.net/e5dd/f/2012/085/0/a/tired_fluttershy___vector_by_regolithx-d4txele.png
eeeesh, trolls are emotionally exhausting these days. Thank you, guys, love you all too <3 I got a little carried away there.
And yeah, John, that's pretty much what we do 'round here! Ain't no thing but a chicken wing.
I really gotta watch those shows. Grabity Falls looks cute, and SU, of course. Rick and Morty never really grabbed me, for some reason, though! Strange.
That tells me he owned roughly a third of the company when he sold it. Pretty normal. It’s unusual to have a startup at exit have more than a third owned by any single person — Notch did, but that was definitely odd.
People always get outraged when successful small companies sell out. Oculus was no different. I don’t really get it.
None of this takes away from Luckey being a dick.
Christ Marky, if you want to be a masochist this badly, put a gimp mask in your avatar.
Actually I did a google and there were two people. I also found this:
So it sounds like most of what this douche is worth is based on Facebook stock, which explains some things, I think, about Facebook.
We better get to boycotting Facebook then. Crash that stock. I’ve been boycotting it since 2011. Get on it people.
LWF, You owe me for the part of my soul that just shriveled up and died from reading that.
What I dislike about OR selling out:
Kickstarter, to me, means I’m helping someone get a business off the ground, or encouraging something to be made by an existing company that would not otherwise be considered. When the money gets used to get the business going, and then the group being backed sells, that’s where I get annoyed. If they then waste the money they got from backers goodwill (in the business sense) on memes and trolling, that’s just more icing on the cage. (ha, that was originally a typo, but I like it)
Disclaimer: I have not backed OR, nor bought any VR goggles. So I’m not terribly annoyed. This was meant to give an idea of why people may be mad about OR and Kickstarting to sellout in general.
Re: MarkyMark
From an earlier post in this very thread:
Then later, in response to Scildfreja Unnýðnes
Well, there you go. He believes that MGTOW is about hypocrisy and double standards. Which is remarkably (no pun intended) self-aware.
Back OT, does anyone else think that “Luckey, Persson and Thiel” would make a great name for a shadowy, faceless PR firm?
Also, is that a nude figure in the background of the header image?
It looks like either a close up shot of the pelt on the Donald’s head or a close up of some part on his face. So no, it’s not a nude figure.
*joining in on the Scildfreja Unnýðnes lovefest*
Are you by chance a vesterislendinga, fellow Canadian?
There will come a day
When the earth trembles
As though struck by the hand
Of Katie herself.
Clouds will be drawn 5
Across the sun
Like the blinds of a house
In which grief resides.
Across the shaded lands
The sound of a bell will echo 10
And from every hidden place
A host of locusts will rise
A thousand thousand strong
And the land will be waste
Crumbling like sand 15
Under the feet of mourners.
In the shadow of the sun
Now dim as the moon
A great confusion will spread
And the people will cry out. 20
Their clay tablets will be broken*
Their papyrus will be burned
Their SQL tables will be dropped.
Their vellum will become dust.
Men will not know their sons 25
Wives will not know their husbands
Kings will go unheeded
Beggars will go unfed.
The locked doors of houses
Will not remember their owners’ keys 30
And the shelves of shops
Will grow barren.
As dusk closes
On that day of Katie’s wrath
A wind will arise 35
Sharp as a paper cut
It will blow north
To the icy lands
It will awake one
Who has waited for this day. 40
“The data of the world is in disarray
And the people cry in sorrow.
Bring me my shield
And my Fluttershy gifs.
I march now to the halls of academia 45
For my time has come.
Katie Herself has set me
A suitable PhD thesis.”
– Exerpt from The Prophecies of EJ, Canto IX.
* Translator’s note: or “their funeral urns will be broken.”
OT, but there was a mass shooting in Washington state last night. Four women dead, one man injured, killer on the loose.
http://q13fox.com/2016/09/23/at-least-two-people-shot-at-cascade-mall-in-burlington/
@kupo
Shit. And, according to the latest update, the fifth victim has also died.
@Scildfreja
I hope you’ll be writing your life story — up until now — soon.
Because that would be fascinating!
I hear that you’ll have some free time this winter. . . .
First: seconding the motion to love Scildfreja.
Second, @Mark:
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s the work you’ll have to do when you crawl back here:
– Explain why you believe that Hillary is a “hyper gynocentrist”. Be specific and bring citations.
– Explain why you believe that Trump is a “gynocentrist”. Make sure to refute all the evidence of the contrary – like these ones.
– Explain how today’s society is “gynocentric”. Make sure to explain why, despite the vast majority of positions of power (political, ecnomic, mediatic religious…) being held by men, you still believe that the society you live in is “gynocentric”.
– You “know well that you weren’t missed” despite contrary statements from multiple commenters here, which means that either [A] everyone really does miss you but they lied about it, but you know the truth (hypothesis that can only work if you have across-Internet telepathy); or [B] you are the liar. Please prove that you have telepathy; failure to do so will be taken as an admission that lied about the commenters here.
– Explain why you believe that low-wage female workers don’t exist. Make examples – and keep in mind: all professions where women were kept out by men (by barring their entrance, refusing to hire them, harassing them etc.) don’t count. You can’t kick women out of profession X and then complain that there’s only men in profession X.
– Why do you believe that you should be “on the lookout for chicks wih penises”? Specify – which danger you believe will come to you from trans women?
– Why do you believe that the majority of women “earn their way” by having sex with men? Bring solid proof. (Again: all women from a period where they were prevented from getting a job and financial independency because of men’s decisions, and thus were forced to marry a man in order to survive don’t count.)
– If a “Man Going His Own Way” is a man who has decided to not care anymore about women; and since you align yourself with MGTOWs; then explain why you’re still here talking about women and feminists. For someone who claims to be a MGHOW, you seem to care way too much about women.
@OoglyBoggles
Your photos of critters — whether upside-down or right side up or gnawing on another animal’s leg — are among the best here on WHTM.
@MarkyMark
Oh noze, not that stupid line again.
Sorry, Mammotheers, I’m late to this party — and the guest of dishonor has just been booted out. But I’m really sick of hearing this one. As though we would all gasp and say, We’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake!
Sigh! Rich boys with much, much more money than sense troll the universe.
And the universe rolls over on its back like a barbecued baby billy goat and begs for more.
I wonder if that unnamed representative is aware that Trump supporters are a laughing stock to everyone except other Trump supporters.
Awww, I always miss the trolls.
It never ceases to amaze me how people will tell themselves little stories about other people’s words, actions and motivations, then get mad about those stories and use them as arguments without ever realizing that’s what they’re doing. My stepdad used to do that all the time, but I never stopped being surprised by his conclusions, and I probably won’t stop marvelling at MGTOW logic any time soon.
@kupo
Sadly the man also died, making the amount of victims to five.
Suspect is still at large. Should I be worried that if he has a vehicle he’s only 40 minutes away from where me and my folks live?
And that’s exactly what Kickstarter did for oculus. The amount of capital you raise in a Kickstarter is enough to get noticed — the next step is to get outside investment.
A couple million dollars is a lot of money for an individual, but not that much for a team of ten or twenty, plus paying your manufacturing and marketing expenses.
Unrelated, I just read @ Scildfreja ‘s story — respect! Not that I was lacking in that before. I don’t really get how you can keep your cool with the trolls so well.