The People's Cube

The People's Cube [http://www.thepeoplescube.com/] is a U.S. based political humor and satire website that was launched April 1, 2005 as a sequel to Communists for Kerry.

The title comes from an idea developed in CFK: a Rubik's cube with all six sides red-an ultimate symbol of political correctness, feel-good morality, and collectivist ethics: nobody is too smart or slow-everybody is equal!

The site continues to develop the same satirical themes, forms, and characters, such as, Laika the Space Dog, but also constantly adds new ones as it grows every week with the help of an online community that has gathered around it. Anyone can contribute. People post their comments, come up with characters, and some eventually start their own columns.

Founder's biography

This bio is referenced from The Autonomist - [http://antiprotester.blogspot.com/2005/05/what-would-lenin-say.html What Would Lenin Say?]

Oleg Atbashian: Before moving to the U.S. in 1994, Atbashian lived in the Ukraine where he sometimes worked as a propaganda artist for the old Soviet Union, creating agitprop posters for the local Party Committee in a small town. During that time, Oleg says he "witnessed the transition of Republics of the Soviet Union from corrupt socialism to corrupt kleptocracy."

When he arrived in the U.S., Atbashian was puzzled by the "level of delusional affection for all things Left among the 'liberal' intellectual elites who take America's exclusive well-being for granted." At that time Oleg dismissed this "delusional affection" as silly and of little consequence.

Then 9/11 happened. Oleg witnessed that day from the base of the Twin Towers. "I'm still haunted by the horror I came to be a witness of," says Atbashian. "The subsequent blame-America attitude among the intellectual trend-setters enraged me; 'liberalism' no longer seemed laughable. It was dangerous suicidal madness that had to be confronted. I took up political activism."

Oleg's activism blossomed into the satirical street-theater group, "Communists for Kerry." Atbashian says that, "Communists for Kerry" was started in July, 2004 as a six-member satirical group with the stated goals of helping George W. Bush get re-elected and having a lot of fun in the process. I was the group's writer, graphic artist, and webmaster. The project exceeded our expectations. Our last street theater event on Union Square in New York featured over 30 volunteers in communist costumes; many more people joined us online from all over the USA. We even had a sister group in Australia, and people wearing CFK shirts at a rally in Paris, France." With The People’s Cube, Oleg is hoping to turn it into a nation-wide community web portal of spontaneous political humor and parody for conservatives, libertarians, objectivists, and anyone who supports and celebrates America's freedoms, individual rights, and capitalism."

Oleg and Bryan McCarthy (a recent immigrant from Ireland) also launched the commercial website [http://che-mart.com/ Che-Mart] , which sells products lampooning Che Guevara.

The Google controversy

In early March 2006 it was noticed by The People’s Cube that Google erased/blocked any link to TPC site in its database. The People’s Cube suspected it was a deliberate move by Google because of TPC’s criticism of Censorship by Google in China, and also TPC’s political views. Based on another known case of Google blocking individual political site pages. TPC then wrote letters to Google asking for an explanation, to which there was no immediate reply.

Once The People’s Cube posted the topic of the Google removal it spread quickly through the Blogosphere. Including a post by Google employee Matt Cutts on his blog. Where he made the argument that TPC removal had to do with spam in the form of hidden text.

Google eventually restored TPC to their database and in a written response to TPC stated “While we cannot comment on the individual reasons your page was removed, we'd like to assure you that we do not alter our search results based on political viewpoint or ideology”.

Articles of notoriety

[http://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=797&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Was Overreaction] The article is an attempt to ridicule those who have criticized Israel for a "disproportionate" use of force during its 2006 military conflict with Hezbollah by implying they would have done the same in reaction to the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Polish Jews against Nazi oppression during World War II.

An image from this article began circulating via email, which was taken seriously but some people. Both [http://www.snopes.com/politics/israel/warsaw.asp Snopes.com] and [http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_1943_nytimes.htm About.com] have entries explaining the parody.

[http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1657 The People's Cube Pwns Iranian Propaganda] Press TV - Iran's first international news network, in an on-line article titled [http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=36450&sectionid=351020101 "Iranian Jews reject emigration report"] published an image from The People's Cube article [http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=307 "Israel Dismantles; World's Problems End"] . Press TV mistook the image as authentic, when in fact it was an altered image used to spoof the relationship between Iran's leadership and Israel. After two days Press TV realized their mistake and replaced the image.

[http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=111 Tikritos: Cruel Ranch and Other Progressive Flavors] Advertising Age magazine, June 27th 2005 issue published an article referencing this piece.

[http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=244&highlight=jagger Neocons Imprison Mick Jagger Without Trial] was reprinted in the New York Post, August 28th 2005.

References

*The Province - [http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html?id=47798a07-e084-4ef3-8140-f832d4a18d10 A game that no one ever loses makes a perfect statement about our times]
*SiteLogic - [http://www.sitelogicmarketing.com/blog/03-google-penalized-marxist-parody-site Google Penalizes Marxist Parody Site]
*Matt Cutts - [http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-check-your-own-site/ SEO Advice: check your own site]
*LiveJournal - [http://omedalus.livejournal.com/23653.html Google is not your friend]
*The People's Cube - [http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=637&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= Google Purges The People's Cube Worldwide]
*The Autonomist - [http://antiprotester.blogspot.com/2005/05/what-would-lenin-say.html What Would Lenin Say?]
*About.com - [http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_1943_nytimes.htm Urban Legends]
*Snopes.com - [http://www.snopes.com/politics/israel/warsaw.asp Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]
*Press TV - [http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=36450&sectionid=351020101 Iranian Jews reject emigration report]

External links

* [http://www.thepeoplescube.com The People's Cube]
* [http://www.communistsforkerry.com Communists For Kerry]
* [http://che-mart.com/ Che-Mart]