the riverside's definitions
The act of columbusing refers to being the first (famous) white person to “discover” something or somewhere that non-white people (and some white people) have known for a while. Popularized in a CollegeHumor skit, it references how Columbus is credited for “discovering” the New World in 1492, although there were already ingenous people on there, and besides, vikings had already reached the Americas centuries before.
Twerking has been around since at least the 90s, but it only entered the public conscious after Miley Cyrus got away with columbusing it.
by the riverside August 11, 2023
Get the columbusingmug. Nobody would ever want to have a smartass TV that collects your data, shows you ads, and has a wiretap that goes straight to the government.
by the riverside November 15, 2023
Get the smartass TVmug. by the riverside June 8, 2025
Get the whyn'tchamug. a phenomenon where a creative work (e.g. a character or a song) is criticized to be stereotypical and degrading by white people, but beloved by the minority that they say they degrade
In the US, Avril Lavigne’s song “Hello Kitty” was slammed for racially stereotyping and sexualizing Japanese people, but it was received positively in Japan, since Lavigne has always publicly appreciated Japanese culture. The song is an instance of the Speedy Gonzales effect.
by the riverside September 8, 2023
Get the Speedy Gonzales effectmug. The 💢 symbol used in manga to signify anger by placing it on someone’s head, originally representing bulging veins. “Angerisk” is a portmanteau of “anger” and “asterisk”, which is the name of the * symbol.
Place an angerisk at the end of the message, so you can show you’re mad but not like in a serious ways
by the riverside April 23, 2025
Get the angeriskmug. You know how Hollywood couldn’t find black actors to play black characters, and instead repainted white actors in that position? And how that’s called whitewashing and racial equality activists made a huge fuss about it?
What if Twitter “artists” took this month to celebrate black people, but they can’t find black characters to draw, so they repaint non-black characters to fill that position.
Blacktober is when they do that racist shit for the whole of October.
What if Twitter “artists” took this month to celebrate black people, but they can’t find black characters to draw, so they repaint non-black characters to fill that position.
Blacktober is when they do that racist shit for the whole of October.
by the riverside October 10, 2023
Get the Blacktobermug. A rhetorical device or debating tactic used to challenge the argument that “Anyone who identifies as trans is trans/valid.”
It quotes the following 2015 anecdote from Mike Huckabee, a well-known anti-trans public figure:
“I wish someone told me in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE. I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’”
The test asks whether or not this teen version of Mike Huckabee is valid as a genderfluid trans teen.
The test forces the opposing side into an ultimatum:
1) Accept the absurd, bad-faith hypothetical as a valid trans identity, validating a transphobic comment by Mike Huckabee.
2) Admit that some standards are necessary for what constitutes a “valid” trans person, in order to exclude trolls like Mike Huckabee, thereby disproving the notion that “anyone who identifies as trans is trans”.
Named in August 2025 by Haley Halcyon (@2gd4.me on Bluesky) after she, quote unquote, “decisively won an Internet debate for the first time” using this strategy. As originally explained:
“Any #transmedicalist who finds someone who parrots the sleepwoking line ‘anyone who identifies as trans is trans’ or ‘all trans people are valid’, my advice is this:
• Apply the Genderfluid Mike Huckabee Test.
• Don’t let off when they try to deflect.
• Point out the gate they implicitly keep.”
It quotes the following 2015 anecdote from Mike Huckabee, a well-known anti-trans public figure:
“I wish someone told me in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE. I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’”
The test asks whether or not this teen version of Mike Huckabee is valid as a genderfluid trans teen.
The test forces the opposing side into an ultimatum:
1) Accept the absurd, bad-faith hypothetical as a valid trans identity, validating a transphobic comment by Mike Huckabee.
2) Admit that some standards are necessary for what constitutes a “valid” trans person, in order to exclude trolls like Mike Huckabee, thereby disproving the notion that “anyone who identifies as trans is trans”.
Named in August 2025 by Haley Halcyon (@2gd4.me on Bluesky) after she, quote unquote, “decisively won an Internet debate for the first time” using this strategy. As originally explained:
“Any #transmedicalist who finds someone who parrots the sleepwoking line ‘anyone who identifies as trans is trans’ or ‘all trans people are valid’, my advice is this:
• Apply the Genderfluid Mike Huckabee Test.
• Don’t let off when they try to deflect.
• Point out the gate they implicitly keep.”
Her argument for self-ID, total bodily autonomy, and zero gatekeeping was a crowdpleaser, until I hit her with the Genderfluid Mike Huckabee Test and she ragequit.
by the riverside August 9, 2025
Get the Genderfluid Mike Huckabee Testmug.