Reddit, if you didn’t know, hosts a forum called r/thomastheplankengine, which has an irresistible premise: The morning after dreaming a meme or similar piece of digital content, a user will create their vision for real and share it with the group. Because we’re dealing with the subconscious, the memes are often surreal, if not inexplicable. And in that respect, u/AmishWarlord’s contribution early this month was no exception.
In his dream, he wrote, “Elon Musk got unreasonably pissed at some Twitter gimmick ratio account themed around Linus van Pelt from Charlie Brown. It got to the point where people began ‘linusposting’ under celebrity billionaire tweets until Linus was a de facto anti-billionaire mascot.” (A “ratio” occurs on Twitter when any post receives more replies and quote-tweets than likes, indicating backlash rather than passive support.) As required by the subreddit’s format, u/AmishWarlord created illustrations to show how the whole fictional drama played out.
The idea of “Linusposting” could have ended with a fun thread on r/thomastheplankengine, but that’s not what happened. Instead, it went viral on Twitter itself thanks to @pikestaff, who asked, “please can we make Ratio + Linus a real thing.” A new forum called r/linusposting popped up on Reddit and now has close to 2,000 subscribers. And people started actually replying to Elon Musk with Linus. The meme’s creator, who also has the @AmishWarlord handle on Twitter, quipped, “I’ve started a movement, apparently.”
In the days that followed, Linus was used to shame Seán Ono Lennon for promoting NFTs and transphobic author J.K. Rowling. Crypto in general seems to be a primary target for Linusposters, probably as an extension of their contempt for Musk, who is an enthusiastic believer and investor in blockchain assets.
In a sign of Linusposting’s incredible reach — but also an absurd irony — some crypto bros tried to get @AmishWarlord on board with a Linus NFT project. Thankfully, he remained true to himself and laughed them off, preserving Linus as an anti-billionaire, anti-crypto legend. Long may his thumb-sucking and blanket-clutching serve to taunt the overly comfortable, tech-fetishizing dweebs heating up the planet to produce ugly ape avatars, and what a relief it is to see that wretched “art” countered by Charles Schulz’s iconic Peanuts illustrations. (Along with some Wojak-inspired Linus drawings, I guess.)
This could be just the beginning. In a few short weeks, Linusposting went from a figment of one guy’s slumbering imagination to a viable social media trend. Who knows how popular it will get as we embark on the new year? What we can say for sure is that Elon Musk and every obscenely rich celebrity who insists on trying to hang out with the rest of us online should be very worried. A regular ratio, you can come back from that. A “Ratio + Linus” is another story altogether.
Miles Klee
Miles Klee is MEL’s resident tank-top dirtbag, shitposter and meme expert. He’s also the author of the novel ‘Ivyland’ and a story collection, ‘True False.’
