New Gross Internet Thing Dropped

—by Adam Bumas

Chances are, if you’ve been on certain segments of the internet in the past week, you’ve seen this… well, let’s call it an emblem. And, yes, it’s supposed to be a circle of people jerking each other off.

It’s the latest product of Reddit’s undersung “circlejerk” communities that have been helping to drive internet culture for years. I talked to the creator of the emblem about what it means for the internet that it caught on so fast. But first, let’s get into its history because we’re currently in an era where social apps are deliberately separating themselves to retain attention. So it’s rare to see something go viral this fast. It started on Reddit, but has since made its way everywhere, from YouTube to Facebook to even LinkedIn lol.

The first version of the emblem was made in April, by a very small crypto project called Dutch Helm. All crypto tokens these days need a gimmick and the gimmick here was 2011’s funniest memes about being gay. (Happy pride month?) The biggest holders of the coin seem to have cashed out on June 1st, but a few days earlier, they received a commissioned military patch with their black-and-white four-person logo from Shevron, a Ukrainian custom tactical gear company. 

The Shevron emblem made the rounds on sites like X and Reddit, but didn’t get anything close to the same level of attention as the colorful version. That was created on June 7th, after the Shevron version made its way to the subreddit r/MagicTheCirclejerking, which is for jokes and memes about Magic: The Gathering. On a post suggesting it become the community’s new logo, redditor u/ElJefe900 was one of several people who suggested adding a fifth person and coloring them so they resemble the symbol on the backs of Magic cards, and the first to actually create the image.

“I didn't trace anything, I actually redrew it all in Figma,” ElJefe900 told Garbage Day. “So even though it's definitely derivative in the best possible way, it's also mine.”

Despite this, his design spread so quickly that it quickly stopped mattering where it came from. People have, of course, called it AI-generated, but they’ve also fallen for edited versions that say it was a Kamala Harris logo or that it was made by biohackers. About the only one who it seems has gotten the joke outside of Reddit is Grindr’s X account. (Happy pride month!) “I think most of the stuff I make is niche, I treat Magic cards like single panel comic strips. But the jokes aren't usually universal,” u/ElJefe900 said. “When someone posted [that the emblem] had been tweeted out by Grindr, I knew something different was happening.”

When asked what he thought made the image so powerful, he said, “Even without that context, it’s just funny. It catches you by surprise. It seems innocent and the split second between you going ‘oh that looks nice’ to having that ‘Oh no, what is that?!’ reaction is amazing.”

But the best reaction to the emblem has been in a place that already has the context. On Reddit, it’s been embraced by the hundreds of “circlejerk” communities, each of which exists as a smaller and less serious satellite to a larger community. In less than two weeks, the emblem has already been adopted by several subreddits as their logo, including r/soccercirclejerk, the single largest circlejerk community on Reddit. The list also includes r/MagicTheCirclejerking itself, where the moderators initially bristled at the change, but ended up submitting to the will of the people.

"In general, I'd say that I don't have a lot of avenues to be goofy the way I was when I was a kid, just riffing on stuff with my brother or friends at recess," u/ElJefe900 said. He's been playing Magic: The Gathering for 30 years. "The circlejerk subs give me the chance to do that stuff."

Circlejerk communities arose naturally, an odd little evolutionary branch in the Reddit ecosystem. Their outsider, but linked status means they help define the limits of behavior and discussion in the more prominent and official subreddits, which can be both good and bad.

"I think circlejerk subreddits can be an interesting lens into the frustrations communities have," a former moderator of a major subreddit who goes by Kestrel told Garbage Day. (Kestrel is in the Garbage Day Discord too, full disclosure.) "Both with the subjects they're discussing and with how they're moderated. But, at the same time, they can and often do cross a line between 'poking fun at/making legitimate criticisms' and just devolving into an all-out hate fest."

Of course, outside of Reddit, most people like the emblem because they enjoy the excuse to make a sex joke. Gooning jokes have been getting a little stale, the culture demands a new funny and involved sex act. And while optimism is hard to come by, but it would be nice to think it’s a sign that we’re switching from a solitary, dissociated example — gooning — to a much more communal, collaborative one — the circlejerk. Perhaps the cure to male loneliness can be inside the circle.

Either way, here’s a bigger reason to be optimistic: ElJefe900 says he’ll be donating all proceeds from the merch of the emblem he sells in June, to The Trevor Project. Happy pride month, indeed!

The following is a paid ad. If you’re interested in advertising, email me at ryan@garbageday.email and let’s talk. Thanks!

Silence Your Spam Calls Today

You've probably definitely noticed an uptick in spam calls and texts, right? Have you ever wondered how they get ahold of your info? Well, it's data brokers. They sell your address, phone number, Social Security Number, family contacts, and more, to anyone willing to pay. And, yes, it's totally legal. On the bright side, you can always opt out of these sites yourself and stop the spam. BUT... doing all that on your own is frustrating and can take hours.

That's why you should use Incogni instead. They'll remove all your data from over 250+ data brokerages and people-search sites automatically, so you can kiss spam goodbye.

Better yet, they're giving our readers 55% off with code DAYDEAL, which you can use by clicking here. Never worry about being tracked on the web again. Here's that link one more time!

An Ominous Post

Not Every Right-Winger Wants To Invade Iran

The Trump 2.0 coalition continues to fracture as the US waits to find out if we’re entering into the conflict between Israel and Iran. A whole bunch of war-hungry neocons are very excited about it, like Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who is so horned up about the needless carnage in the Middle East that he’s texting the president prayers about it. Holden Bloodfeast, etc.

But a whole bunch of Trump’s more internet-native supporters are not happy about an impending war in the Middle East. Steve Bannon is doing a whole “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” on his ironically-named War Room show. Charlie Kirk wrote on X, “This is insane. Regime change will result in a bloody civil war, killing hundreds of thousands and creating another massive Muslim refugee crisis.” Which is, uh, yes, correct. David Icke, who literally believes that reptilian aliens control the world, said Huckabee’s genocide prayer is “what mental illness looks like” lmao. And Tucker Carlson publicly embarrassed Sen. Ted Cruz on his streaming show, asking Cruz if he even knew the population of Iran. “You’re a US senator and you don’t know anything about the country you want to topple,” Carlson told Cruz.

Now, before you go and think of any of these guys as potential allies, just keep in mind they are isolationist because they’re white nationalists. They don’t want a war abroad because they want to focus on the war at home against minorities and other vulnerable groups. And no matter what these guys are saying about Israel and Iran, we are at a very dangerous place geopolitically.

“Nothing I have ever studied or taught has prepared me for this phase. When a sitting US president publicly threatens a civilian capital with annihilation on social media, turning genocidal language into official communication,” Amal Saad, a politics lecturer at Cardiff University, wrote this week. “This isn’t strategy — it’s theatre on the brink of mass death, an intent to destroy not just a state but a nation.”

Also, while we’re on the subject of Iran, a TikToker that’s biking across the world to Japan got stuck in Iran and had to be smuggled across the Azerbaijani border this week.

Elon Musk Allegedly Took A Drug Test

Elon Musk posted a screenshot of a drug test he allegedly took last week that shows that he tested negative for most major drugs. He captioned the screenshot with, “lol.”

This is meant to refute reports that Musk spent most of the election high out of his mind on Ketamine and other substances.

The New York Times responded to Musk’s supposedly negative drug test this week, writing, “Elon Musk is continuing to lash out because he doesn't like our reporting. Nothing that he's said or presented since our article about his drug use during the presidential campaign was published contradicts what we uncovered. We stand by our journalism.”

And, uh, Musk replied with an animated GIF calling The New York Times gay. Which, you know, if a 53-year-old man is using the internet like this and he’s not totally smacked all day is actually sort of way sadder.

Signal Has No Plans For AI

This week on Bluesky a self-described “tech geek” named Bill Mitchell posited that the messaging app Signal would eventually get some kind of AI-integration soon. The thinking being that most of Signal’s competitor apps have it already, like Meta’s WhatsApp.

Mitchell was writing of all of this in a conversation with a user named @meredithmeredith.bsky.social, who responded to Mitchell at first with a simple, “No ❤️”

Which caused Mitchell to double down, of course. “Telegram, one of [Signal’s] chief rivals, was flirting with Grok. Meta, which has three apps on the market, has Llama integration,” Mitchell wrote. “I have the benefit of heightened pattern recognition.”

Well, apparently Mitchell’s pattern recognition isn’t as heightened as he thought. Because he did not seem to clock that @meredithmeredith.bsky.social is Meredith Whittaker, who just so happens to be Signal’s president. Oops!

The Future Of Media In The UK (And Soon Everywhere Else)

The UK’s two biggest celebrities at the moment, controversial porn star Bonnie Blue and alleged human trafficker and masculinity guru Andrew Tate teased this week an upcoming podcast collaboration.

This whole thing is a mess and basically two spheres of internet gutter culture colliding via internet gutter culture’s favorite medium, the podcast. But, to be clear, I am not conflating what Blue does with what Tate does. She’s just kinda gross. He is a legitimate threat to the world. But both have committed themselves fully to the sensationalist whims of the algorithm. In fact, in announcing their upcoming podcast episode, Tate wrote, “This is what the matrix wanted to create.” Which is, honestly, probably true.

As for what this means in a broader sense, according to a study conducted earlier this year and published this month, as of February, more Americans are getting their news from the internet than they are TV. Which basically means we are actually only at the beginning of whatever the hell this sort of thing is.

Committing Securities Fraud By Buying Pizzas In DC

Speaking of the internet destroying our concept of reality, degenerate gamblers on X are monitoring the Google Maps busyness meters of pizza places around the Pentagon in an attempt to predict — and bet on — whether or not America is about to go to war with Iran. This is all part of a theory that DC pizza places fill up with orders as high-ranking members of our government pull all-nighters to decide whether or not we’re about to invade a country.

But because online gambling and investing has evolved quite a bit post-GameStop Pump, more than few users are wondering if they can manipulate prediction markets like Polymarket. “If you bought a bunch of World War III bets on Polymarket and Kalshi and then ordered a bunch of pizzas around Alexandria, VA, and sold the pump would that be considered securities fraud,” X user ryxcommar wrote.

“Line go up,” I mutter to myself as the mushroom cloud silently forms just outside my window. “Apes together strong,” I type into my Discord server as I’m turned into a nuclear shadow.

An Important Debate

The answer is, very obviously, the blue one.

Some Stray Links

P.S. here’s an imposter.

***Any typos in this email are on purpose actually***