Garbage Day

garbageday.email · Group blog · on HN since 2021

Garbage Day is Ryan Broderick's newsletter on internet culture, viral content, social media and online politics.

What HN saysHN commenters strongly recommend the newsletter for people who spend a lot of time online, and link its coverage of ChatGPT and internet controversies.

57HN people shared it

16linked it in comments

56stories submitted

904story points

4 months agolast shared

2021people per year2026

Most-shared posts

1
Unmasking the most viral page on Facebook
3 people · 346 points · first shared 2021 · 145 comments on HN
2
I remembered how awful it is to go viral
3 people · 4 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
3
Right-clickers vs. the monkey JPG owners
2 people · 67 points · first shared 2021 · 86 comments on HN
4
The End of the Metaverse Hopefully
2 people · 11 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
5
The AI boyfriend ticking time bomb
2 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · 2 comments on HN
6
Epstein Broke the Internet
2 people · 5 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
7
Am I too stupid to vibe code?
2 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · 1 comments on HN
8
The AI demands more habanero salsa
2 people · 3 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
9
The “Scooby Doo” Psyop
2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
10
The Future of Media Is Pre-Deplatformed
2 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
11
Homepage
2 people · first shared 2023
12
No one cares about your redesign
1 people · 206 points · first shared 2022 · 209 comments on HN
13
The Facebook Text Prompt Zombie Land
1 people · 134 points · first shared 2022 · 90 comments on HN
14
AI search is a doomsday cult
1 people · 21 points · first shared 2024 · 2 comments on HN
15
We're all just content for ICE
1 people · 15 points · first shared 2026 · 19 comments on HN

What HN people wrote when they linked it

qingcharles · 2024-10-05

If you like this article, it's written by Ryan Broderick the guy behind Garbage Day, a newsletter I can't recommend highly enough if you spend rather too much time online: https://www.garbageday.email/

Forgeties79 · 2025-09-14

With every update the WSJ’s original article, which largely informs people right now, has fallen apart. It’s so riddled with errors at this point that it should be retracted. I’d go so far as to say it’s deliberate misinformation at this stage. Any attempts to neatly slot this into “he was left” or “he was right” are a waste of time. He doesn’t fit into that paradigm: https://www.garbageday.email/p/charlie-kirk-was-killed-by-a-meme There isn’t a liberal in the country who follows Nick Fuentes. Dude is clearly a blackpilled 4chaner as described above.

pavel_lishin · 2025-05-10

A recent Garbage Day newsletter spoke about this as well, worth reading: https://www.garbageday.email/p/this-is-what-chatgpt-is-actually-for

lostfocus · 2023-06-16

It doesn't hit my inbox but my feedreader but I usually read https://www.garbageday.email/ first thing in my reading time

mukmuk · 2022-10-23

I would recommend Garbage Day’s coverage of this: https://www.garbageday.email/p/a-big-confusing-game-of-internet Also, for contextualizing the social media reactions (including on HN) I would recommend this recent New Yorker article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/17/when-the-hindu-right-cam…

BbzzbB · 2022-01-14

How much does it matter here tho? I think it gatters likes/follows and baits enough people to check the profile, but the conversion rate seems extremely low (tho I guess that may be good enough with these numbers). In OP's blog previous post [0] on "Thinkarette Lifestyle" [1], their engagement baits gather hundreds to thousands (to millions with homeruns) of comments while the dropshipping posts gather 0 to 5 likes a piece - a page with >2M likes. 0: https://www.garbageday.email/p/when-the-traffic-firehose-is-pointed 1: https://www.facebook.com/Thinkarete/

nebula8804 · 2023-12-20

Do what I do: have someone else spend their day surfing the web and then have them tell you about it. I subscribe the the "Garbage Day" substack by author Ryan Broadrick. Through this I recently discovered what many consider the first major Gen-Alpha meme: Skibidi toilet [1]:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KrlkXOxlvCk [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skibidi_Toilet#Reception_and_influence [3]:https://garbageday.email/about He also had an event in NYC recently and I went in terrified that i'd be the only millennial in the room (vs Gen Z) but it turns out the majority of the people there were millennial which was a surprise. Thinking back on it,I guess millennials were unique in that they saw the "old internet" before capital took over and they remember a time when computers weren't just walled gardens serving up what others want you to see. As a result, events that talk about the internet, what it was like and where its going appeals to that generation I guess?

glaslong · 2026-07-01

Mostly through Steve Bannon as far as I'm aware, yes. Though apparently there were connections through moot, and later Peter Thiel adjacency as well. https://www.garbageday.email/p/here-s-how-epstein-broke-the-internet

jrmg · 2026-04-17

Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day recently wrote about the Geese ‘Psyop’ and is very skeptical that the PR firm actually accomplished anything to boost their profile: https://www.garbageday.email/p/the-wild-geese-chase (ironically, until now with these articles, I guess!)

dmschulman · 2025-12-29

HN would probably hate it but I've been digging Panic World. They investigate mostly modern media or internet-driven moral panics and discuss how they've led us to our current moment. Lots of 90s/2000s internet deep dives, but I mostly appreciate how well the host connects the dots between cultural/political zeitgeist (of any recent era) with some seemingly minor niche movement or idea seeded years prior. https://www.garbageday.email/panic-world

subculture · 2025-08-13

Ryan Broderick just wrote about the bind OpenAI is in with the sycophancy knob: https://www.garbageday.email/p/the-ai-boyfriend-ticking-time-bomb-a404…

chucksmash · 2023-01-22

There's a link after the main article's content to "The most interesting thing I read this week[1]," which was also pretty interesting: [1]: https://www.garbageday.email/p/the-scooby-doo-psyop

madeofpalk · 2022-10-17

Requiring validated identity is anti free speech. There's been so many words spilled online about how terrible of an idea it is to require confirmed identities for online. Recently, see https://twitter.com/mmasnick/status/1576274615231401984 or more casually https://www.garbageday.email/p/oh-cool-were-talking-about-anonymity > Generally, if your solution is virtually indistinguishable from one of the systems the Chines government is using to keep people in line, your solution is bad.

ksherlock · 2022-04-20

Possibly hugged right now. There are two links in the about page that include screen shots of it working. https://www.emergingtechbrew.com/stories/2022/04/19/fan-of-r-amitheass… https://www.garbageday.email/p/this-ai-will-tell-you-if-youre-being?s=…

brendoelfrendo · 2022-01-14

They mention investigating another viral post farm back in November, which was discussed on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29309201 Link to the November post: https://www.garbageday.email/p/when-the-traffic-firehose-is-pointed All roads to monetization require engagement, so you just end up with groups that churn out "bait" like this.

cainxinth · 2023-06-06

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