Just like everything else on the Internet, it all comes back to Hitler.
Well, Hitler comparisons anyway. Even if you’re just a dude who made the world just a little less annoying by building a Firefox add-on that blocks out all Internet instances of “Bieber,” “Justin Bieber,” and photos with “Bieber” in the file name.
“What you’re doing is going back to World War II all over again. Hitler wanting to erase Jews from society — you want to erase Justin Drew Bieber.”
Yes, hyperbolic 15-year-old girl who authored that e-mail, Greg Leuch’s “Shaved Bieber” application is EXACTLY like World War II! No wonder Dude’s getting death threats from your ilk. He TOTALLY deserves it!
Note: The above paragraph is what’s known as “sarcasm,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain,” also known by the quote as “the lowest form of wit.” (And there’s an app for that, too!)
For realz though, Leuch, director of research and development for Rocketboom (the Internet repository of all things awesome) is totally getting death threats for building the “Shaved Bieber” app. From children. Hopefully.
“It’s very shocking for me,” Leuch told the Toronto Star. “Who knew 12-year-olds had this much hate in them?”
Duh! Who didn’t?
Again, that’s that sarcasm. But seriously, someone in Leuch’s position (at Rocketboom, home of Know Your Meme and Magma) should know the kids are perfectly capable of sending e-mails such as this one he totally received: “I know many things about you and i know where you live. Just be aware. I might just appear behind you and shoot you with a gun.”
It’s not like famous-for-no-apparent-reason Kim Kardashian didn’t get death threats after Bieber jokingly tweeted she was his (age-inappropriate and perhaps illegal) girlfriend. (She did.) In fact, the death threats got so heinous, Bieber had to tweet a cease and desist to his Bieberette army.
Seriously, y’all. Being surprised about Bieber-inspired death threats is like being surprised that Twitter had to build an algorithm to keep the kids from crapping up the top trending list with Bieber-related hashtags. (It totally did.) Or expressing confusion as to why all those kids are on Twitter crapping up the trending topics in the first place. (Because Bieber’s on Twitter. Double duh!)