this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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Memes

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I don't know what everyone means when they use 'rule' in the title and at this point I'm too afraid to ask. Please enlighten me.

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[–] [email protected] 240 points 8 months ago (39 children)

That's because the "rule" of [email protected] is to "post before you leave"... That creates a lot of random posts that all have some kind of "rule" in the title. Sometimes these posts get popular and you see them in your feed.

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please 153 points 8 months ago (13 children)

For the curious, the original was actually /r/195 on Reddit. It started as a joke between some college roommates, in dorm room number 195. Then it eventually got popular as a sort of shitposting community. But the original 195 was basically unmoderated (because it was just a couple of dudes in college who started it for shiggles,) and was eventually brigaded and taken over by alt-right neonazis. The memes quickly devolved into straight up Nazi propaganda.

So 196 was created as a sort of “new” 195, and that original brigade and subsequent takeover is why a lot of the 196 memes tend to lean hard left. The 196 sub was sort of a rebellion against the 195 takeover, which means that conservative stuff quickly got shut down. It eventually became a sort of safe space for transgender memes as a result. From there it became a sort of self-sustaining reaction where trans people saw it as safe so more trans people gravitated towards it.

[–] bibliotectress 30 points 8 months ago

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I remember seeing it on reddit, but never knew why.

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