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Comment by pizzathrowaway | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me a lot of #SpiritCooking, which had a big effect on the election.

For a traditional-valued person who thinks that participating in #SpiritCooking performance art is immoral, it's not much of a stretch to believe that the participants would also abuse children.

For those of us who are familiar with liberal culture and gay culture, Tony Podesta's art and James Alefantis' instagram feed seems harmless. For people with more traditional values, it's incredibly weird and degenerate.

If you're curious to read more about the pizza/pedophile theory (which I think is nonsense, by the way), see reddit.com/r/pizzagate.

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As I mentioned below, I've followed this from the beginning. I was reading the Podesta emails and following discussion in r/dncleaks when this stuff started popping up in there. I suppose it may have started on one of the chans first, I don't know. The "code words" list had the feel of an expert in the memetic arts.

Anyway, I think you're right, it was the art of Tony Podesta and Alefantis that triggered a lot of people over. There was that one article about Podesta's collection mentioning the art photos of naked teens in his house where they took glee in the fact they shocked guests. Having been around art people a lot, I certainly understand the desire to provoke. Sometimes people will get provoked. You get different reactions outside the bubble.

I think this is the correct read. I also looked in as this story was forming, and found it to be more evidence that there's currently a 'cultural chasm' in America, with each side making false assumptions about 'what must follow' based on what they see of the other side.

Here's a non-art example that I thought was culturally interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5b1qtf/comet_pi...

Jake Sullivan is going to New Haven for the day, and comments that he'll be "eating some pizza". Hillary Clinton chimes in and says "Have a slice for me!". So the question on Reddit is "WHO THE FUCK ACTUALLY CARES TO LET SOMEONE KNOW THEY ARE GOING TO EAT PIZZA..."?

And then a couple other people on Reddit answer, well, actually, New Haven is well known within certain circles for its excellent pizza, and actually it's fairly common for "hipsters" to "gush" about it with their friends. But I don't doubt that for many this sort of enthusiasm for the perfect slice is so foreign that "pedophilia" would in fact be a more believable explanation than "foodie".

I suspect the lack of religion and the sacred makes people glorify banal sensory experiences.

Also, the lack of a common culture leads to using the least common denominator, like pizza, when looking for a point of connection. This is of course very foreign to people who are still somewhat part of the organic culture of traditional America.

I'm originally from southern Ohio, Skyline Chili is a local favorite. I most certainly am guilty of telling people that I'm going to go get chili when I'm back visiting.

Between the left's nearly blind hatred of Trump and the right's nearly blind hatred of Clinton I have to wonder who or what benefits from such a divided populace.

That is trivial equivocation. Trump and Hillary are in no sense equal.

Hillary: Yale Law grad, partner, First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State

Trump: born rich, businessman with 3500 lawsuits against him, settled fraud charges for $25M, 4 bankruptcies, misogynist, ...

These are not the same.

Yes, I'm on the left but my hatred of Trump is not blind. Nor is my admiration of Hillary (I voted for Bernie). Trump is an embarrassment to America and that division you correctly point out has been created over decades by right wing media.

When you know the ties between 4chan and child pornography you have to wonder at this manufactured outrage about "art photos of naked teens". And when user of 4chan project "cheese pizza" to child porn when it is only 4chan-speak, it seems totally disingenuous.

Trouble is, there is no smoking gun (at least yet) to suggest anything actually wrong.

But the optics just don't work out. Performance Art is almost always weird even for most liberal people. It appeals to a very small percentage of the world. As a politician, you don't want to be associated with that - at least not in public

> For people with more traditional values, it's incredibly weird and degenerate.

For people with "traditional values," anyone that is not "normal" is a "pervert" and once you've crossed the line into pervert territory anything that could qualify you as a pervert is equally acceptable. This is why you get people stating that transwomen/transmen are also pedophiles... every single one of them. Why? Being a transwoman or a transman makes you a pervert, and once you're a pervert you're equally likely to engage in anal sex as you are to rape a child (according to their logic) because perverts don't see any difference between the two.

This is exactly why it has been so potent. I think there's a strong class element too.

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