Tech

After a popular subreddit was banned, people are fighting back by trashing photos of churches

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Reddit closed five communities on Wednesday night, including /r/hamplanethatred and /r/fatpeoplehate, both of which were devoted to mocking people who are overweight. Reddit users are outraged, considering this to be in direct violation of Reddit's status as a protector of free speech.

So one group has fought back by flocking to a subreddit called /r/fatsteeplehate.

This forum is similar to /r/fatpeoplehate, except for one thing: all of the bullying hatespeech is directed to steeples instead of people. 

Here are a few examples. The words on the right are directed to the church steeples pictured on the left.

fatsteeplehate
reddit.com/r/fatsteeplehate
fatsteeplehate
reddit.com/r/fatsteeplehate

 

The thread has been active since well before the /r/fatpeoplehate ban. A Reddit user who goes by the name K_Lobstah contacted BI to provide some more context to the forum, which he says, "started as, and remains, a joke."

"Much as /r/circlejerk often lampoons the ridiculous nature of reddit trends or inanities," K_Lobstah wrote in an email, "those of us who maintain a rational perspective and attitude toward Reddit frequently create subreddits like FatSteepleHate in order to mock and satirize those things in a more focused manner."

fatsteeplehate
reddit.com/r/fatsteeplehate
fatsteeplehate
reddit.com/r/fatsteeplehate

Although the language used on the subreddit is undeniably hateful, it's unlikely this page will meet the same fate as /r/fatpeoplehate, because it's directed at inanimate objects instead of people.

Guess it's just one of those Reddit inside jokes that will keep cracking up those in the know.

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Molly Mulshine was formerly a senior editor at Tech Insider covering digital culture. She previously covered style for the New York Observer and technology for Betabeat. She was founding editor of the Asbury Park Sun, a hyperlocal blog based in Asbury Park, NJ, focusing on crime and city politics.She studied English and cinema studies at Rutgers University.