Timeline of the Online Culture War 2015

A new warrior steps onto the scene

2011-2013 2014

1/15/15: Oscars so white hashtag. After all of the acting nominees for the Oscars went to whites, the #OscarsSoWhite movement was started. This didn’t have much impact on the academy because the nominees in 2016 were just as white. Eventually during the racial reckoning new rules around diversity were introduced.

1/22/15: Soyface article posted. Mashable posted an article titled, “Faux surprise is the new duckface.” This would eventually lead to the soyface meme to represent an effeminate beta male.

2/1/15: Throw like a girl Super Bowl ad. This ad campaign by Always feminine products brand reached its height during Super Bowl 49. This was somewhat of a corporate take on ban bossy, criticizing those who associate “like a girl” with weakness. One of the earlier examples of corporate America getting into activism in the “woke” era.

2/11/15: Logan Paul stars in Gamergate episode of SVU. In this take on now months stale Gamergate, Logan Paul plays a Gamergater who is shot by police as he is trying to kill a female game developer. If you are interested in a lowlight reel, here you go. It also featured YouTube star Toby Turner, so it was somewhat of an interesting crossover between old and new media.

3/20/15: Glee Finale. There possibly isn’t a better show to track all of the social justice trends of Obama era than Glee. It featured characters of every race and every letter of the LGBT acronym. First airing in 2009, it finally came to an end on this day.

3/12/15: There are only 2 genders meme posted on ifunny. Mocking the idea that there could be more than 2 genders became a popular meme in the mid and late 2010s. Know your meme lists this GIF on ifunny as the origin of this meme.

4/9/15: Pizza party Ben posts Ok sign. Conservative Viner Pizza Party Ben would post this video which would begin the process of this symbol being associated with the right and eventually becoming a “white supremacist symbol.”

4/12/15: Freddie Gray arrested. Gray was arrested in Baltimore for knife possession and suffered injuries in the van on the drive to the police station. He would die from these injuries a week later. This led to riots, despite the fact that 3 of the 6 officers involved were black. The picture below would be spread around on the online right as evidence of the chaos caused by the BLM movement. The mayor of Baltimore infamously said she gave those who wanted to destroy space to do that.

4/25/15: Jenner Comes out as Trans. In an interview with Diane Sawyer, this former Olympic medalist would let America know that they now identified as a woman. This was one of the first, if not the first celebrities who was well known as their original gender to come out as trans, and was a seminal moment for the trans movement of the 2010s.

4/27/15: 13/50 copy pasta goes viral. 13/50 of course refers to the fact that blacks commit the majority of murders in the US despite being 13% of the population. The highlighted copypasta was posted in response to a post about the Baltimore riots, and spread on r/ShitRedditSays. The exact origin of 13/50 becoming a meme is unknown, but this was an early example. 13/50 would frequently be used by the right as a terse, fact-based own to dunk on those who deny black crime, since murder is easier to track than other crimes.

5/19/15: Gavin McInnes interview with a feminist. By the mid 2010s comedian and founder of Vice media Gavin McInnes was becoming a prominent figure on the online right. One of the earlier videos than got him attention was one where he interviews a feminist. To say that the interview didn’t go well for the feminist would be an understatement. McInnes got the feminist to admit that all of the best countries are white. It can be viewed in full here.

5/29/15: Free Helicopter rides Facebook page created. Free helicopter rides would become a meme on the far right, referencing those who were thrown out of helicopters by authoritarian regimes in Argentina and Chile. On this day the first known example of this meme, Pinochet throwing Bernie Sanders from a helicopter, would be posted on Facebook.

6/5/15: Texas Pool Party incident. After a largely black pool party in an upscale Dallas suburb got out of hand, a police officer roughly arrested a black teenage girl. This would cause BLM protests, and become the viral video of the day.

6/10/15: Fat People Hate banned. This subreddit for mocking the obese was finally banned on this day. During this period, internet censorship was growing, and Reddit was moving away from the sleazy site that hosted jailbait and creepshots at the beginning of the decade, and moving towards the heckin wholesome website it would be by the end of the decade.

6/10/15: Rachel Dolezal goes viral. During the Summer of the 2015, head of the president of the Spokane NAACP Nkechi Amare Diallo (born Rachel Dolezal) went viral for claiming to be black despite having no African ancestry. This launched a nationwide conversation about race and identity, and why one could change their gender and not their race.

6/16/15: Trump walks down escalator. Real estate mogul and host of television show The Apprentice would descend the escalator at Trump tower to announce his candidacy for presidency and share some campaign promises, most notably building a wall on the border with Mexico. He infamously said that many people coming from Mexico were rapists and criminals but some were good people. Trump’s campaign would give the social justice oriented left a singular figure to rally against until he left office in 2021, and the nationalist right a singular person to rally for until he got elected. Trump would of course go on to redefine American politics, change the world and become the main character of the discourse up until today.

6/17/15: Dylan Roof Shooting. Hoping to start a race war, Dylan Roof killed 9 blacks at the AME church in Charleston South Carolina. He was first radicalized by the Trayvon Martin killing, and the media aftermath. This would lead to various corporations banning selling the Confederate flag.

6/24/15: Clinton faces backlash for saying “all lives matter.” The “all lives matter” phrase was originally used by the BLM movement (you can see it on a woman’s sign in the news article linked in the pool party arrest section), but it was increasingly seen as a way to deflect the racial nature of police violence. Clinton would find herself in hot water for saying this phrase in front of a black church.

6/26/15: Gay Marriage Supreme Court decision. The lengthy legal battle was finally over, gay marriage was now the law of the land in all 50 states. There may be some reason to believe that once the gay marriage battle was legally won, the organized LGBT advocacy groups shifted their focus to trans issues.

6/27/15: Are you beach body ready? Protein World displayed this ad in the London tube with an attractive woman asking if people were beach body ready. Fat acceptance activists and feminists got upset.

6/27/15: The Donald Subreddit created. This subreddit would become a center for right-wing memes throughout Trump’s campaign and presidency. The earliest captured screenshot is recorded below.

6/30/15: NBC cuts business ties with Trump. After his comments about Mexicans when announcing his campaign, NBC decided to end its business relationship with Trump. This represented an increasing divide between what was acceptable in politics where the people decide what is acceptable, and corporate America where elites decide what is acceptable.

7/1/15: Kate Steinle killed. At Pier 14 in San Francisco Jose Inez Garcia Zarate picked up a discarded gun which ended up firing, ricocheting against the ground and killing 32 year old Kate Steinle who was 78 feet away. This became a big national case since he was an illegal immigrant who had been deported 5 times. Trump used this heavily in his campaign, and he was called racist for it.

7/14/15: Between the World and Me is published. Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, this book is written as a letter from father to son. Here is an excerpt. “I would like to tell you that such a day approaches when the people who believe themselves to be white renounce this demon religion and begin to think of themselves as human. But I can see no real promise of such a day.” Unsurprisingly the media gushed over it. David Brooks, of the NYT wrote: “Between the World and Me, is a great and searing contribution to this public education. It is a mind-altering account of the black male experience. Every conscientious American should read it.” If you want a more thorough review you can read one here.

7/15/15: I am Jazz premieres. This show on The Learning Channel followed the life of transgender teenager Jazz Jennings. One of the many examples of the trend of transgender issues becoming more prominent in 2015.

7/18/15: Ben Shapiro threatened. In a discussion about Caitlyn Jenner winning the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, Shapiro refers to Zoey Tur (a trans helicopter pilot who captured footage of Reginald Denny getting beaten during the Rodney King riots) as sir, to which Tur threatens to send Shaprio home in ambulance (which of course you don’t go home in). Shapiro calmly responds, “that’s midly innaprorpiate for a political discussion.” This helped make Shapiro famous and went into the pantheon of “own the libs” content. We even got a “facts don’t care about your feelings” out of the exchange!

7/29/15: Washington Post Reports on Cuckservative. In the Summer of 2015, particularly after Trump stepped onto the scene, the insult “cuckseravtive” began floating around the online right, and this was enough for Washington Post to write an article about it. Here is Richard Spencer “The 'cuck' slur is vulgar, yes, but then piercingly accurate. It is the cuckold who, whether knowingly or unknowingly, loses control of his future. This is an apt psychological portrait of white 'conservatives,' whose only identity is comprised of vague, abstract 'values,' and who are participating in the displacement of European Americans — their own children.” Around this time a Twitter account parodying the “cuckservative” began gaining popularity.

8/7/15: Karen comedy routine. This comedy routine (4:20 timestamp) by Jay Pharoah was the origin of the term “Karen” being referred to a certain type of white woman who wouldn’t mind her own business. Dane Cook had referred to Karen as being annoying in one of his routines, but this was possibly what racialized the term and brought it back for the 2010s.

8/8/15: BLM protestors storm Sanders rally. Two women supporting BLM took over the stage at Bernie’s rally in Seattle. When asked asked to let him speak they shouted “we aren’t reasonable.” This represented the worst breakdown of black Jewish relations since the Crown Heights riot. Looking back, it is pretty insane they got on the stage.

8/9/15: “Every time” first posted on 4chan. “Every time” is a phrase used by the right after finding a prominent person associated with the left is Jewish, alluding to the idea that Jews are behind a large portion of left wing activism. It is frequently paired with the “Early Life” meme that refers to the Wikipedia early life section which describes Jewish ancestry. It was first used on 4chan on this day.

8/25/15: SJWs always Lie published. This book by Vox Day summarized the craziness of SJWs at the time. The main theme was that you should not give any ground and fight back as much as possible. If you want a review it can be found here.

9/2/15: Aylan Kurdi drowns. Trying to make the trip from Turkey to Greece, Kurdi and his family boarded a boat which capsized, killing the passengers. This picture of his corpse washed up on a beach would be taken and go viral prompting many in the West to support taking in more refugees during the ongoing Syrian civil war. This occurred in the midst of a large wave of migration to Europe.

9/3/15: It is the current year meme. This meme was posted on 4chan mocking the idea that people should believe things just because it was the current year, which liberals at the time would frequently state. It was particularly associated with talk show host John Oliver who was a popular preacher of liberal talking points at the time and frequently stated the phrase.

9/12/15: Mizzou Protests start. Student president Payton Head would post on Facebook complaining about bigotry on campus. Over the next couple of months there would be ongoing protests. Allegedly a student used the n-word, and a swastika was painted with feces leading to more protests. A student went on a hunger strike until the president resigned. The assistant professor pictured below tried to aggressively remove a student journalist, and was eventually fired. Andrew Anglin trolled students on Twitter claiming that there were crosses being burned on the lawn. The whole thing was classic mid 2010s campus craziness.

9/14/15: Ahmed Mohammed clock incident. This Muslim kid brought a clock that looked like a bomb to his school and was arrested. The left cried Islamophobia, the right claimed that the clock actually looked like a bomb, and perhaps the whole incident was staged. You can see what the clock looked like and decide for yourself. Eventually he got to go to meet Obama. As one comedian would say years later, “it was a pretty bomby clock!”

9/25/15: 56 Face meme. This meme created by European whites mocking America for not being white enough was posted on this day. 56 refers to the claim that America is only 56% white. This was in response to American white nationalists criticizing Europeans for taking in too many refugees.

10/1/15: Umpqua community college shooting. Chris Harper Mercer would be the second major incel killer, killing 9 at his community college in Oregon. This killing left much less of a cultural legacy than Elliot Rodger (who Mercer communicated with) despite having a larger body count. This event was the first instance of the prank where comedian Sam Hyde was misidentified as the shooter.

10/6/15: PJW declares conservatism is the new Counter-Culture. Conservatism was traditionally the ideology of the establishment, but by the mid 2010s many parts of the establishment had shifted to the left, and many were claiming that the right was now the counter culture that the cool young people would flock to. Watson was a large promoter of this narrative along with Milo Yiannapoulos.

10/13/15: Donald Trump Posts Pepe meme. Pepe was created in 2005 by Matt Furie, and would float around 4chan and the internet for the next few years. As late as 2014 it was still used by relatively apolitical people like Katy Perry. This post by Donald Trump would put Pepe squarely on the side of the right, and Pepe would become the best representative of Trump’s meme magic.

10/28/15: Yale sends out email telling students to be sensitive about Halloween costumes. Days before Halloween, Yale sent out an email telling people to be sensitive about what Halloween costumes they wore. Days later, Erika Christakis sent out an email questioning if the first email was necessary, telling people to look away if they find costumes offensive. Christakis’s husband was a psychology professor who apologized for his wife’s email. A video of students berating him went viral. The right would cite this incident as another example of left wing cry babies on elite college campuses.

11/2/15: Case and Deaton publish study on rising white mortality. This study charted the declining life expectancy in whites without college degrees particularly due to suicide, overdoses and alcoholism. The narrative of malaise among the white working class would define the discussion about why many of these people shifted from Obama to Trump. The married couple responsible for this research would describe being admonished by colleagues for studying whites.

11/3/15: Deport racism. Trump had been on the scene for a few months at this point. Latino kids responded in the only way that they knew how: by pounding a piñata of Trump.

11/13/15: Paris Attacks: Late in the night, multiple bombings and shootings occurred in Paris with the most notable being the shooting at the Bataclan theater which killed 89. Some victims claimed that the shooters at the theater explicitly avoided shooting people who appeared North African. The attacks killed 130 people in total. This caused widespread mourning all across the west, and many changed their Facebook profile photos to commemorate the deceased. Some people on the left claimed it was racist that people cared about this more than they cared about violence in the Middle East.

12/2/15: Iraqi migrant has a sexual emergency on a 10 year old boy. After an Iraqi migrant went 4 months without sex, he raped a 10 year boy at a swimming pool and ejaculated on his torso. This would eventually gain notoriety for showing how degenerate show of the migrants coming to Europe were, and the fact that the perpetrator ultimately only received a four year sentence.

12/2/15: San Bernadino Shooting. Married couple Tashfeen Malik and Rizwan Farook decided to head down to the local health center and kill 14 during a holiday party, pledging loyalty to the Islamic State. This was the deadliest terrorist attack in the US since 9/11.

12/7/15: Trump calls for Muslim Ban. Inspired by the San Bernadino terrorist attack, Trump would call for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the country. This infamous “Muslim ban” would be one of the main reasons why Trump was called a racist by the left, along with his desire to build a wall along the Southern border.

12/31/15: Cologne Sexual assaults. On New Year’s Eve, there were waves of migrant sexual assaults during celebrations in Cologne Germany. This was another piece of evidence used by the right that Muslim migrants to Europe were incompatible.

That wraps up the events that occurred in 2015. What did I miss? What events should I be sure not to miss in the next posts?