this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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About 20 years ago I was so outraged by Bonsai Kitten that I asked a friend's mom to help me write letters to ISPs and law enforcement to try to get it taken down.
It was a site with pictures of cats in glass jars, but it had very graphic details about how they supposedly kept cats alive in jars and grew them into weird shapes... I still think it's pretty tasteless, but it was clearly someone's idea of satire. It felt like a big deal back then, but these days it would be nothing more than a bad meme.
It kinda was a big deal back then. This was the early days of mainstream internet hoaxes and a lot of people actually believed that shit (my teenage self included).
Wot. Srsly?
Wow, looks like I hit the Internet really, really early. Because by the time that stuff came out, I laughed myself silly at how ridonkulous it was.
Dude people fell for "grow crystals on pennies" and "cut for beiber." People are fucking dumb.
Early internet joke/hoax sight was "drill a hole in your head". pictures of people with drills in hand and bloody bandages looking all blissed out. I think it was shocking for some because the internet was so new people didn't think you just blatantly lie without a disclaimer.
I remember that one!
You were not alone, it was taken down (and rehosted/mirrored) multiple times because of complaints.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bonsai-kittens/