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The WBC is picketing Reddit because one of its co-founders, Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in 2013, was “a f*g, an atheist and a thief,” according to its news release.

Two days before the picket, members of the WBC will host an AMA on Reddit at 2 p.m. CST, the news release said.

Asked for a comment, Reddit’s general manager, Erik Martin, sent the following to Newsweek:

Oh goody, this'll be fun. If the AMA is lulzy enough, we could update the WBC page we've got, eh?

How the hell do you picket a website?

The protest will take place on August 12, from 5:35 to 6 p.m. outside the San Francisco company’s Third Street headquarters

They're targetting the company itself and not the website. It'll probably piss off Reddit's users anyway. I'm hoping for something shitstorm-y to happen.

I had really been hoping that the WBC would fall apart after Fred Phelps died, but I guess I wasn't holding my breath for it.

EDIT TO ADD: If there are any experienced editors that are familiar with Reddit AMAs that would be willing to tackle this, I could add you to the WBC article. I'd do it myself, but I'm pretty busy lately, and don't know much about Reddit.

Is this the real life? Is this a thing this is actually happening? Cus this is way too wacky to be real.

@Brucker:
I may be rusty on my WBC news, but wasn't Fred Phelps excommunicated? It seems that the church didn't need him to keep going

@Crimson Locks:

According to our article, he was excommunicated about half a year before he died.

@Brucker: No such luck on them disbanding it seems.

I'd kind of like to see the AMA have a custom background on it – big wallpaper with every pride flag sharply visible.

Okay now it's just blatantly obvious that the WBC is doing this for the lulz

The way they targeted Aaron Swartz is a plainly orchestrated attempt to create some buzz. Yea, call the suicide victim you don't know a fag and not the actual people running Reddit. That's sure to rustle some jimmies

Now they say they are going to protest a web company…which has no involvement whatsoever with Freds purposes and goals. But sure is great for public visibility… but before they do they are going to hypocritically use it to make an AMA about themselves. C'mon, this is as transparent as glass!

This is all about the AMA and their desperate strive for attention. Everything else is just publicity stunts to attract the media buzz to their own AMA. They'll be sure to get lots of questions coming into that AMA as everyone will wanna know their logic behind hosting an AMA before the same community they supposedly hate and want sent to hell…and they'll savor everyone bit of it.

The WBC has fallen apart. They are nothing without Fred. They are nothing more than a bunch of showboaters and attention whores desperately trying to keep themselves in the spotlight that Freds original ambition put them under, but they don't have Freds spirit and drive. This is now all about the fame, not the 'fags'

They're resorting to the same old tricks and cheap gimmicks each time. Eventually the world will stop giving a shit and I'm sure that thought kills them

Ha! Well, am I the only one who doesn't care about what they do? I mean, it's annoying that people have to give them so much attention. As Blue said, that's what gives them power. They're basically real-life trolls feeding off of people's reactions. In fact, the group is now more than ever just a political group and does things for money and power instead of religious reasons.

Also, I would just like to say "inb4 people start saying the WBC aren't 'true Christians'". I've always thought the most basic requirements of being classified as a Christian is to believe in God and that Jesus died and was resurrected for humanities sins. Most of the members of the WBC fit the bill on that technical definition so they are indeed Christians. Not good people, but Christians. Trying to say otherwise would be using the "No True Scotsman Fallacy".

Before someone dug up Fred Phelp's phylactery and ended his millenium-long immortality, he was in fact excommunicated. Reputedly, a power struggle had occurred between a board of church elders and Shirley-Phelps Roper, the queen bitch that (for the most part) organized all of the WBC protests when Fred was too decrepit to go himself. Once the Elders ended up winning, Fred said that members should "have a kinder approach" to one another. So, of course, they excommunicated him from the church he spent decades building.

I think everyone stopped caring a while ago.

I give them about 10-or-so years to continue. Eventually the LGBT community is gonna overpower them.

What are they going to accomplish? They're just being overgrown schoolyard bullies.

Delusion of grandeur. They think they're doing God's work.

Since they also believe that being despised by everyone (including the KKK) is a sign that they're doing "God's work" they will continue to be assholes until their family tree dies.

Boy, I haven't seen a WBC picketing in ages.