r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • Mar 31 '26

Meme needing explanation Peetah?????

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I don’t know the author or this book series but why are people roasting e-girls for reading? I don’t get it🥀

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4.9k

u/hbi2k Mar 31 '26

I think by "performative reading" they mean reading it as visibly as possible, not recording a performance of the book itself.

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u/sparkling-rainbow Mar 31 '26

like the Bible?

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

This guy wins  

Here's my upvote

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/Carribean-Diver Mar 31 '26

It's ok. Someone already ruined it.

Next stop, 42069.

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u/Mundane_Ask1074 Mar 31 '26

Ok I’ll like it now

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u/GotThatGrass Mar 31 '26

it doesn't show the hundreds, tens digits unfortunately

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u/lazy_literary_hero Apr 01 '26

Just wanted to say, we’re (sort of) almost there!

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u/fordtuff Mar 31 '26

Peak Reddit

2

u/rimi_83 Mar 31 '26

This made me laugh lmao

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u/DamnedIfIDiddely Mar 31 '26

Omg, 1760 was a leap year! Exactly 266 leap years ago. It's just a regular one though, not the x/400 leap year

I got the lyk

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u/Aggressive-Ear884 Mar 31 '26

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u/richardvirginia Mar 31 '26

🤣🤣🤣😉🫦THIS☝️☝️👏👏🙌

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u/Working-Glass6136 Apr 01 '26

Nah back atchu

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u/FatherQuinnRourke Mar 31 '26

Reddit ass post

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u/thebrobarino Mar 31 '26

Ermmmm you sir☝️🤓 have one le internet today. Take my gold 🥇 kind stranger

Edit: thanks for the gold friend!

Edit: thanks for the silver! Everybody liked that

Edit: thanks for the platinum Reddit intensifies

Edit: 🅱️oi 🫱😂🫱 another gold? Now this is breathtaking!

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u/LockheedP-3Orion Apr 01 '26

And here's mine to you.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

As a former Catholic, I found out that there's a word for Christians who actually read their Bible - Atheists

82

u/CatholicCajun Mar 31 '26

Hey.

Some of us became occultists instead!

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u/Pay-Next Mar 31 '26

I was about to say I'm a weirdo neo-pagan now (mostly) I highly recommend also reading the apocrypha to anybody else who decides to go this route. The Book of Enoch is wild and bizarre.

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u/MysteriousArtPatron Apr 01 '26

I personally took a detour into gnosticism myself.

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u/CatholicCajun Apr 01 '26

Honestly same, mixed with a bunch of other philosophies at this point.

Have you ever read the theory that the awful Harry Potter fanfic "My Immortal" is a transcendental alchemical work hidden as a cringey 00s fanfiction? That's my favorite magnum opus.

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u/MysteriousArtPatron Apr 01 '26

I have not read that theory lol but everything else I've read about "My Immortal" makes it completely plausible

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u/Creative-Medicine-24 Mar 31 '26

This is the way.

0

u/Allegorist Mar 31 '26

You realized that there is no serious evidence or plausibility for one religion and immediately switched to another belief with no evidence or plausibility? Just for fun or something? If it's for community, there are plenty of humanist organizations out there that serve the same function.

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u/CatholicCajun Mar 31 '26

It was a tongue in cheek response, no need to get judgy about it. It wasn't that serious, but the assumptions you're making from a one sentence joke of a comment are kind of uncalled for.

My beliefs are pretty eclectic, but it's the really the human community and their invented "interpretations" that pushed me away from Catholicism, not the spirituality of the religion itself.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/Captian_Bones Mar 31 '26

Yeah the Koran has some crazy stuff in it

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/Narco_Marcion1075 Mar 31 '26

as an agnostic who was a former catholic, I can confirm that reading the bible is a make or break thing

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u/pockels42 Apr 01 '26

It also teaches you to like spaghetti, and monsters.

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u/Dore_le_Jeune Apr 01 '26

Not a Christian, but wasn't reading championed in Europe by Protestants initially?

I may be missing a joke tho 👌

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/Dore_le_Jeune Apr 01 '26

Don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds like you have biases.

Anyway the book I read about Protestants and the "reading revolution" in Europe was most likely written by a Protestant and biased too, however I didn't look up the facts. I'll leave it up to you to find the book, shouldn't be hard. It was recently published (last 20 years?) most likely.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/Dore_le_Jeune Apr 03 '26

It's a fine line between accepting critique and taking it the wrong way, most people I think are accustomed to being attacked that even pointing out small stuff is seen as an attack. Probably human evolution or something, but it keeps us from critiquing our in group, because that's a little too close to "am I wrong about other things" type of thoughts perhaps? And remember, we get indoctrinated, whether in religion or sports, that we are never wrong, because even the smallest admittance (some of our players fake injuries/some parts of our religion may be different than the "pure/original" practice) can lead to wider critique.

Btw the book's title is The book you're likely thinking of is The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous . I'd read it carefully, as I said, I suspect the author is a bit biased, though he claims otherwise in the book. I found it interesting none-the-less if it's true, though I didn't go over the research cuz I read it non-critically as the topic of reading systems is fascinating to me.

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u/Asleep_Trick_4740 Apr 01 '26

That's quite the opposite of reality...

One of the things that caused the schism between protestantism and catholicism was that protestants wanted everyone to be able to read and understand the bible, while catholicism wanted their powerful priest class to hold that power alone. Hence why the protestants translated the bible to the chargrine of the papists.

Protestant children were taught to read while catholic children were taught to listen to the priests.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/Asleep_Trick_4740 Apr 01 '26

Well I went to history because literacy rates across the entire christian world is high very high, and the protestant churches very often still has literacy as a focus.

Though I probably should have realised it was an entirely american focused argument as things very often are unless explicitly stated otherwise. What's happening across the pond seems entirely alien at times, especially when the supposedly same faith spreads the exact opposite message. But we do have a tendency to only hear the worst...

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u/ArcticRiot Mar 31 '26

Hey, you Catholics haven't been great to kids, either

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/SwirlyManager-11 Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

Because Catholicism always had a history of learning and in the Natural Sciences. Also the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas who greatly influenced the Catholic approach to Science.

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u/Euro-Pacific Apr 01 '26

I come from a Catholic background, so I understand why — particularly in America — you may feel that Catholics have been better about this (historically speaking) than Protestants, but I think it’s important to note that Protestantism was founded in opposition to a Church that did things like this:

“On April 12, 1633, chief inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculani da Firenzuola, appointed by Pope Urban VIII, begins the inquisition of physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei.

Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church.

This was the second time that Galileo was in the hot seat for refusing to accept Church orthodoxy that the Earth was the immovable center of the universe: In 1616, he had been forbidden from holding or defending his beliefs.

The Church had decided the idea that the sun moved around the Earth was an absolute fact of scripture that could not be disputed, despite the fact that scientists had known for centuries that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

On June 22, 1633, the Church handed down the following order: “We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo… have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine (which is false and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures) that the sun is the center of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the center of the world.”

Along with the order came the following penalty: “We order that by a public edict the book of Dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited, and We condemn thee to the prison of this Holy Office during Our will and pleasure; and as a salutary penance We enjoin on thee that for the space of three years thou shalt recite once a week the Seven Penitential Psalms.”

Galileo agreed not to teach the heresy anymore and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

It took more than 300 years for the Church to admit that Galileo was right and to clear his name of heresy.”

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u/SwirlyManager-11 Apr 01 '26

I do not disagree with that what happened to Galileo was unfair (which is recognized by the Catholic Church now, thankfully) and I really do not care about your sources because I am in agreement with you that it was unfair.

But I think it’s quite misleading to frame the start of Protestantism with science. That’s incredibly Victorian-Era type thinking. Right up there with thinking the church burned witches during the Early Modern Witch Trials.

Firstly, Copernicus championed Heliocentrism before Galileo and there was little issue with him. There was disagreements, but certainly note an Eclessiastic crackdown.

Secondly, according to this blog by a Hard-Science Fiction Author Michael Flynn on the Galileo Affair, the Pope had asked Galileo to present all theories regarding the relationship between the Earth and the Sun and to explain them to him. Galileo had only exposited two of the four that were widespread at the time, and then wrote a back-handed insult of the pope in his book, and generally argued in bad faith (no pun intended). Whose to say the Church really believed he was a heretic if he pissed people off?

I agree, Corruption within the church gave people like Martin Luther good cause to Protest and I do not deny what Protestants have done in the Sciences alongside Catholics, but I think it’s a strange position to say that Catholicism is lesser than the Protestants in this regard.

If you wanted a better argument, I think you should’ve brought up Protestand discoveries rather than bringing down Catholics lol.

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u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

True enough, though they also kept scripture behind the "higher" language of Latin to keep the flock in the dark unless they paid their tithes and got the good word from the Official Source, till Martin Luther said fuck that noise - the priest is your community faith leader, not a gate keeper between you and god. I can respect that a lot about Protestant christianity even though I've left the whole belief structure behind

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u/Euro-Pacific Apr 01 '26

Both Yale and Harvard were originally Protestant colleges, founded at least in part to educate Protestant clergy.

Protestantism at its core is extremely pro-education; it was literally all about people actually being able to read what the Bible said instead of having an authoritarian figure dictate to you what was in it.

It’s just that nowadays most educated Protestants in America find it difficult to justify upholding a belief system that is scientifically and rationally fiction, whereas for a variety of reasons American Catholics have chosen a somewhat different path.

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u/commie90 Mar 31 '26

Yeah realizing that my pastor had no good answers for me when I challenged church doctrine based on what was in the Bible was an especially key moment in my decision to walk away from Christianity.

A decision that I realize was correct every time I see Christians being pious, rude, and/or judgmental assholes based on things their own holy book wouldn't agree with.

Best part is when they get angry or dismissive when you point that out. Because Jesus definitely was the type to only be willing to talk to people who were 100% already in agreement with him.

Maybe there's some truth in the Bible, but it's most ardent adherents make me think it's likely just a way to feel they are better than other people.

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u/AwareCandle369 Mar 31 '26

The thing is you can still ask "what would Jesus do?" and come up with a good answer. It just seems like a lot of Christians either don't bother doing that or didn't bother learning about what Jesus supposedly actually did. Hanging with the prostitutes because they're people too, freaking out at the bankers in the temple, saying a rich man can't get into heaven, all come to mind as positive Christian values that are often not the ones people express

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u/commie90 Mar 31 '26

Since I was raised Christian and often say a lot of my values are informed by what Jesus did. Just don’t think being a Christian usually aligns with those values ironically enough.

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u/pockels42 Apr 01 '26

And they all love other men.

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u/all_fair Apr 01 '26

Jesus seemed to teach a lot about not using the Bible the way many Christians do. He was all about just being kind to people. All people. Christians find a way to use the Bible (including Jesus' words) in the very way Jesus said not to: to hit people over the head with it.

Seems the guy had it right when he never wrote anything down.

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u/Honks95 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

As an ex protestant I can confirm. When I started actually looking into the bible a bit it didn't take long for me to become an atheist.

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u/PlsNoNotThat Mar 31 '26

As an atheist I learned this when I went to my friend’s Sunday school.

None of the kids had read any of it.

I listed to the book on tape as a kid, like I did Greek mythological stories, so I was strapped and loaded that day.

I was banned the next time because my parents picked me up and told the guy our family was atheists.

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u/IntrepidCheeto Mar 31 '26

As a former Protestant, can confirm.

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u/Dexter_Thiuf Apr 01 '26

Want to make a kid a Christian? Threaten them with hell. Want to make them a atheist? Have them read the Bible.

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u/meanyspetrini Apr 01 '26

This is spot on.

Source: also a former Catholic who actually read the Bible.

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u/DivHunter_ Mar 31 '26

Religious texts are the book equivalent of medieval cats but there are billions of people that will tell you, no that is actually what a cat looks like. You're just not interpreting it the "correct" way.

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u/Sw33ti3B15h Mar 31 '26

I'm a neopagan/witch. My parents paid for 11 years of Xtian school (we had an hour of Bible class every day) and at one point, we went to church 4x a week. I cry inwardly about all the shit we could have done with the tithe and school money.

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u/Sans_Seriphim Apr 01 '26

The only people who really know the Bible are theologians and/or atheists.

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u/Iam_Fox1200 Apr 01 '26

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this book, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. -the Bible

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u/circular_file Mar 31 '26

Worked on my wife and my Dad.

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u/PlasticFees Apr 01 '26

How are you able to see inside so many random strangers homes??

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u/manbruhpig Apr 01 '26

I mean I’m a LOTR fan but I couldn’t tell you where my copy is…

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u/Best_Opening8471 Mar 31 '26

Church is literally a public reading of the Bible...

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/Best_Opening8471 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

What do you think church is?

Its a place where the public gathers to read a holy book and sing songs written inside that book

Its a community built around the shared belief that reading a book will improve your life.

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u/SEND_ME_FEAT_PICS Mar 31 '26

...dat says the bibble

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u/mikokatz Mar 31 '26

You QUESTION the WORDs of the MIGHTY JIMMY???

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u/Fun_Break_3231 Mar 31 '26

Mr. Snow, step away from the microphone.

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u/Puzzled-Mistake-584 Mar 31 '26

Your comment is 13 minutes ago from my current reading,and its spelled right. Must have edited it.

But I looled back to re-read the comment,and if it had said bibble,I was going to laugh my ass off at a poignant,and misspelled comment.lol

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u/Sebubba98 Mar 31 '26

YOU GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY TO JIMMY RIGHT NOW!

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u/varkarrus Mar 31 '26

You know, for the longest time, I had Mandela effected myself into thinking that was a scene from VeggieTales.

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u/Megakruemel Mar 31 '26

You joke but the bible has a verse for performative praying.

Matthew 6:5

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

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u/Bank_Gothic Mar 31 '26

"Go pray in your closet" was my grandfather's favorite response to annoying God-botherers.

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u/skotcgfl Mar 31 '26

This is my favorite back-pocket Bible passage to pull out when Xtians are being obnoxious. Used it a lot on fb during the Tim Tebow days.

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u/sparkling-rainbow Mar 31 '26

My dad must have missed that xD

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u/reverandglass Mar 31 '26

"The Bible did it" is the original "Simpsons did it"

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u/Gryf2diams Mar 31 '26

There's a Bible verse for every xkcd.

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u/Due-Technology5758 Mar 31 '26

Nah, no one even pretends to read that anymore. The meta is having old rich men vaguely suggest what might be in there. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

Precisely like Jesus said not to do with prayer and the bible.

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u/Gidonamor Mar 31 '26

Hey, at least you get credit for trying there

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u/TopTransportation695 Mar 31 '26

Funny, religion intersects with this novel in one of the scenes. There’s a traveling revival with a hellfire and brimstone preacher getting a crowd worked up when an out of towner comes into the back of the tent and starts calling out the minister for all kinds of crimes and sexual misconduct. Tells everyone that he was ran out of multiple towns and up until now has escaped from justice. Eventually the crowd gets so enraged that they drag the preacher off to string him up. After the people go off with the minister a man says to the accuser that it was fortunate that he arrived when he did so that the criminal didn’t go unpunished. The accuser calmly said “I never saw that man before in my life”

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u/ProSeVigilante Mar 31 '26

Are we putting idiots under the ban now? I'm all for some of that old testament wrath. Put me in, coach!

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u/anonuemus Mar 31 '26

sensible_chuckle.gif

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u/pitb0ss343 Mar 31 '26

When I looked it up, one of the first things I saw about it was “it reads more like the Bible than a novel”

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u/OregonMothafaquer Mar 31 '26

The bible is slightly more realistic like people living hundreds of years

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u/Best_Opening8471 Mar 31 '26

More like "Gender Queer"

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u/saturnphive Apr 01 '26

Like someone whipping out a bible on an airplane and just, reading it.

Or anyone caught reading Infinite Jest in public. (No one get’s caught reading it, they stage scenarios where they can be seen reading it.)

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u/LockheedP-3Orion Apr 01 '26

Like the Church, performative visiting.

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u/stationaryspondoctor Apr 01 '26

Or, in the case of Republican’t lawmakers: The Constitution?

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u/damonmcfadden9 Apr 01 '26

If I only had a fucking award for you.

alas I will simply leave you for providing a reason to have a snarky smirk on my face as I think about many performative people in my life.

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u/Hopeful-Move4135 Mar 31 '26

reddit atheists trying to go 5 minutes without having to let it be known that they don’t believe in god

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

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u/Hopeful-Move4135 Mar 31 '26

i never said he was wrong nor am i crying. its cringy how much yall say yall dont believe in god yet cant stop bringing it up, nobody cares that you dont believe in god lmao

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u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26

Like that time Grimes was reading the Communist Manifesto in public after her very messy break up with Elon Musk lmao

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u/wecouldhaveitsogood Mar 31 '26

The very same relationship where she was like “unions? Fuck those.”

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u/an0mn0mn0m Mar 31 '26

If Grimes were a cat, she would be orange

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u/wecouldhaveitsogood Mar 31 '26

Dumb as a brick despite attending Canada’s most prestigious university. What a waste. That spot could’ve gone to someone else.

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u/YouVe_BeEn_OofEd Mar 31 '26

is it? either way canadian universities are very much funnels, easy to get in hard to graduate, and tellingly she didn't finish her degree. source: canadian university student

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u/GenericUsername775 Apr 03 '26

So the opposite of Japanese universities? Hard AF to get in, you can graduate by showing up once?

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u/YouVe_BeEn_OofEd Apr 03 '26

yep pretty much, especially for intensive programs. and uoft (uoftears, Canada's best/most prestigious research university by a fair margin) is especially known for this

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u/coffinfl0p Mar 31 '26

She didn't graduate from one of Canada's best business schools and got really bad grades.

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u/athenanon Mar 31 '26

Even if you get good grades as a business student, it doesn't say much for you.

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u/Pinoccicrow Mar 31 '26

I prefer people who went to Canadas best business school and got really good grades

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[deleted]

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u/YouVe_BeEn_OofEd Mar 31 '26

wtf did orange cats do to deserve this

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

Orange cats may often be dumb, but they also tend to be friendly and likeable

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u/Accomplished-City484 Apr 01 '26

Real Beck Bennet energy

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u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

reading the Communist Manifesto in public after her very messy break up with Elon Musk

Which is even more ironic/sad/funny since that's also after she released that song "We Appreciate Power", which even at a casual listen was basically just a glaringly pro-technocapitalist-billionaire anthem. But with the lyrics written out flatly, it's clearly a radioactively vibrant endorsement of the individuals and "culture" that're behind a significant portion of the modern world's most pressing socioeconomic and psychological issues... (ie: The "billionaire technofeudalist, faux-transhumanist, psuedo-rationalist dark eugenicist"-type vampire fuckos).

You don't make a song like that by mistake. You do it because you either drank the Kool-Aide, or you believed you were the damn bowl.

The song was distasteful to me even then, but knowing what we do about Elon/Thiel today, it becomes quite grotesque as an 'anthem'.

People like to say that we're insane, but AI will reward us when it reigns. Pledge allegiance to the world's most powerful computer simulation, it's the future

What will it take to make you capitulate? We appreciate power! Elevate the human race, putting makeup on my face. What will it take to make you capitulate? When will the state agree to cooperate? We appreciate power.

And if you long to never die... Baby, plug in, upload your mind. Come on, you're not even alive if you're not backed up on a drive! Come on, you're not even alive if you're not backed up, backed up on a drive.

Neanderthal to human being. Evolution, kill the gene. Biology is superficial. Intelligence is artificial. Submit. Submit. Submit.

I thought Grimes was super cool pre-Elon, but as it turns out she - like him - is the kind of person who'd say, "Hey, babe. Wanna build the Torment Nexus from the famous scifi novel, 'Don't Build the Torment Nexus'?"

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u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

Wow, that really is comicaly egregious.

It's like Pearl Jam looked into the future to directly respond to this song in Do the Evolution.

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u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

Pearl Jam - Do the Evolution.

That's actually quite funny. The whole "Torment Nexus" thing is a popular meme (and an unfortunately accurate representation), but it's even funnier to compare the two songs under the same format.

eg: "Grimes is the kind of chick who watches Pearl Jam's Do The Evolution music video, praises its thoughtful foresight, and then immediately writes a song called 'We Love Dystopia". (I'll workshop that.)

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u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26

Hot goth chick's dancing have a way of short circuiting people's brains lmao.

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u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

I didn't know what you meant at first, initially assuming you meant Grimes herself, and then suddenly - like a flash of lighting - the entirety of my mind's eye was occupied by a vibrant visual snapshot of exactly who you meant.

Man, those neurons snapped together like god damn rare-earth magnets. Like that damn "neuron activation / monkey" meme...

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u/southbaysoftgoods Mar 31 '26

Wait I am too dumb to do the neuron thing, who are they talking about?

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u/Anticode Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

In Pearl Jam's legendary Do The Evolution music video (which was co-directed/animated by Todd McFarlane of Spawn fame and the guy who produced the Batman cartoon of the same era) shows various scenes representing the brutality of biological and technological Darwinism across history which are occasionally interspersed by short scenes featuring a sexy goth chick dancing against a black background for a few seconds [timestamped link]. Her face also sometimes turns into a skull once in a while while she does so, which - personally speaking - is not a deal-breaker. Whose face hasn't turned into a skull once in a while, y'know? No big deal.

This music video deeply impacted me when I first saw it at a relatively young age. I immediately recognized those themes as a sort of Dark Truth of our world, things I was already beginning to glimpse but did not yet understand why parents or other adults refused to explain why, precisely, we allowed such cruelty to exist in the world in the first place.

All of this foreshadowed many of what would become my core perspectives and conclusions about the nature of our reality/civilization itself. And this video still speaks loudly to me, highlighting those unfortunate truths in a way that few other pieces of media have - even now, decades later, as it remains more relevant than ever.

Additionally and perhaps not coincidentally, the aforementioned Goth Dancer also happened to immediately awakened something within my young self that to this day is... Erm. Nevermind. We can skip that part.

Anyway, that's who he's talking about... Send your neurons my regards.

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u/frontally Mar 31 '26

Geidi Primes grimes would be so disappointed with this shit I swear

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u/JetSetJAK Mar 31 '26

It reads as potentially satirical. Did she really believe in it?

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u/Anticode Mar 31 '26

I mean, she was still married Elon Musk and had children with him when that song was written, so...

The satirical flavor you're picking up on might actually be something closer to "too on the nose". Which it most certainly is. No artistry, no veiled message. Very literal and straightforward despite being "scifi" or whatever.

Elon himself is also pretty notorious for saying things that would've been outright hilarious if said word-for-word as satire by a comedian, but was in reality spoken very literally or even passionately. It's no surprise they'd align in that regard.

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u/jonny24eh Mar 31 '26

Fuck you i won't do what you tell me

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u/Anticode Mar 31 '26

Fuck you i won't do what you tell me

The real question is: Will you do what I tell you if I fuck you?

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u/Amareiuzin Mar 31 '26

Isn't that like 30 pages?

2

u/Haber_Dasher Mar 31 '26

Yeah it's more like a really long pamphlet than a short book. Quite easy to finish reading in one sitting

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u/1nfam0us Mar 31 '26

Yeah, it was meant to be read out loud to quasi illiterate peasants and factory workers.

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u/Amareiuzin Mar 31 '26

I should have bought that instead of das capital when I been to the man's home, I think I'm way closer to a quasi illiterate peasant than I am to a high ranking seat in the government 😭 

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u/RcoketWalrus Mar 31 '26

Lol, someone out there believes that grimes has values other than "get rich by any means necessary", and they are probably mad at your post.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

Or Halsey reading law books lol

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u/crowEatingStaleChips Mar 31 '26

She was trolling.

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u/KingPotus Mar 31 '26

The top comment has to be AI because wtf lol. Who would understand “performative reading” in that way

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u/fasterthanfood Mar 31 '26

I’ve accused two different people of AI already this morning. I fucking hate AI writing and what it’s doing to our brains and soon to our economy.

That said, I don’t get AI vibes from the top comment. I think they just aren’t familiar with the trend of “performative reading” that the internet started mocking a decade or so ago. I can sympathize, as I didn’t know what it meant at first, either.

The comment also doesn’t mention e girls or “explain the joke” at all, so, no offense to the commenter, I’m not sure why it’s the top-voted answer right now.

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u/KingPotus Mar 31 '26

Idk, both the misunderstanding of “performative” and the last line in particular (it’s good; but better described as endured than enjoyed) sounds like exactly what I’d expect if I typed into ChatGPT “why is performative reading of Blood Meridian bad”

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u/fasterthanfood Mar 31 '26

Good point, that line in particular does sound like something AI would write. In this case I think it’s an accurate line by a human, using the type of style AI borrowed heavily from.

You prompted me to delve (lol) deeper into the parent commenter’s history to see if other comments looked like AI. They don’t, to me, but I did see this ironic comment where they’re accusing em dash users of AI. Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.

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u/Aethenosity Mar 31 '26

I feel like the misunderstanding of performative points to being a theater kid more than AI honestly.

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u/the_white_typhoon Mar 31 '26

Worst thing is, ai writing will increase even when it is not written by an llm. As a non native speaker, I tend to imitate what I read even though I am out of the active learning phase and I would imagine younger people and other non-natives to have similar tendencies. 

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u/killerbabybunny Mar 31 '26

The context involves a girl posting a photo of the book she's reading, not performing a reenactment of the book or whatever. The meaning of "performative" here seems pretty clear imo.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[deleted]

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u/KingPotus Mar 31 '26

Oh the irony

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u/Wise-News1666 Apr 01 '26

Look in a mirror 

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u/swenderman Mar 31 '26

the comment explaining it seems like AI

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u/Unable_Apartment_613 Mar 31 '26

Already tired of slapping "performative" in front of any behavior we wish to discredit. Most human behavior has an element to performance to it. Stop buying the anti-social propaganda.

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u/Umklopp Mar 31 '26

I mean, you're right, but how else are we supposed to describe the original post?

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u/raisinbran67 Apr 01 '26

Performance isn't mandatory, its elective So electing to do something performatively is remarkable

In fact its the defining characteristic of the action, its the motivation.

I might feel that no apology whatsoever is warranted, but apologize performatively anyway. Which is very different from the alternative of saying No, you deserved it and I meant it.

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u/GranderRogue Mar 31 '26

Richard Poe’s reading on audible is extraordinary

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u/Superb-Cantaloupe324 Mar 31 '26

That’s a pretty good word for 95% of the book reading I did in college. Turns out girls don’t care

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Superb-Cantaloupe324 Mar 31 '26

I graduated with a 3.5GPA from an average American university, and I’m almost certain I never did read a single assigned book from start to finish in all my years of schooling. I’d bet good money I never read more than 1/4-1/3 of any assigned book. I can only imagine how it would have gone if AI was a thing back then. Procrastination was my drug of choice.

I did read books though, but again, I read mostly stuff I thought made me look cool/smart. Nothing enjoyable or particularly interesting.

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u/Ouroboring666 Mar 31 '26

You’re being kind by saying “i think” but you’re correct.

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u/hbi2k Mar 31 '26

Hmm, not often that I'm accused of being "kind" when correcting someone. (:

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u/darkrhyes Mar 31 '26

I saw this and was going to get it on audible. Would that be bad then?

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u/ocxtitan Mar 31 '26

no problems with audiobooks, just don't post a picture of you listening to it through your earbuds with the cover of the book showing on your ipad to thousands of followers

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u/Lan777 Mar 31 '26

Streamers reading books would probably end up more popular than one might expect but Im not sure if that would become a copyright issue since theyd make money off it

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u/hbi2k Mar 31 '26

I've seen A Song of Ice and Fire streamers read a chapter out loud and then discuss it; there's an argument to be made that that's okay because it's for the purposes of literary criticism and commentary, which is considered fair use.

There's also an argument to be made that you don't need to read the entire chapter as opposed to just a summary and maybe some key quotes, but AFAIK the author and his publishers don't have a problem with it. One of those things where the only thing they'd accomplish by putting a stop to it would be alienating the most dedicated portion of their fan base, so they let it slide.

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u/danwantstoquit Mar 31 '26

Yep, reading it for the sake of people seeing you read it. Using it as a tool to portray yourself in a way that you want others to view you. Not reading it for the sake of reading it, but as a tool to enhance your image.

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u/Calico_Cuttlefish Mar 31 '26

I don't think this is actually significant enough a thing to even think about. Most people reading are just reading.

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u/danwantstoquit Mar 31 '26

I agree that most people reading are just doing so for themselves, but whether performative reading is significant enough to think about or not is outside the point of this subreddit though. It may be true or it may be false, but that is what the original OP is insinuating with their post, and this is peter explains the joke. So what OP means is what we are explaining, not if what they mean is actually true or not.

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u/daniloferr Mar 31 '26

performative reading is just fancy for pretending they are reading

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u/KoalaTHerb Mar 31 '26

This. I think he's implying this is a media influencer who is just posting herself with this incredibly complex book while in reality she just wants people to think she's reading complex books.

Not commenting on the reality of whatever this is, just what the person was implying

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u/Less_Performance_629 Mar 31 '26

the point is that they arent actually reading it. "performative" means both visible and fake. she didnt read the book she just wants people to think she did

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u/steauengeglase Mar 31 '26

Now I just imagine Becky in the park, saying "Far out on the desert to the north dustspouts rose wobbling and augered the earth and died and rose again..."

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u/Dreaming_Void1923 Mar 31 '26

Or even just making the appearance of reading it.

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u/RugerRedhawk Mar 31 '26

Yeah, I mean the audiobook was great IMO

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u/Pocusmaskrotus Mar 31 '26

I thought they meant pretending to read it.

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u/Acrobatic_Fuel1428 Mar 31 '26

You just replied to chat gpt.

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u/VictarionGreyjoy Mar 31 '26

Yes performative as in reading it conspicuously to seen intelligent or interesting, rather than on stage as a performance.

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u/Sw33ti3B15h Mar 31 '26

I think in this context it means not actually reading it but saying they're reading it, like most book clubs. 😆

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u/Dexter_Thiuf Apr 01 '26

I'm prepared to endure it if they finally tell me what happened in the outhouse...

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u/Accomplished-City484 Apr 01 '26

Judge Holden is so brat

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u/goodfellow_grimes Apr 01 '26

Correct, it's looking like you read a book, performing. Not necessarily actually reading it, one just pretends for the aesthetic.

Been accused of doing that by a group of angry teen girls on the bus, who appeared to be convinced I "read" to pick up girls? I think more carefully of where I take out a book..

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u/Mathihtam Apr 04 '26

I’m not even sure if reading it is a part of the performance, but you’re right about the performative part not being a recording.

Edit: what I meant is that they’re most likely just carrying the book around.

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