diff -r c6789ca79811 -r 766bbe6061ec pidgin/pidginstylecontext.c
--- a/pidgin/pidginstylecontext.c	Fri Jan 15 01:17:42 2021 -0600
+++ b/pidgin/pidginstylecontext.c	Mon Jan 18 00:05:05 2021 -0600
@@ -29,48 +29,53 @@
 /******************************************************************************
  * Public API
  *****************************************************************************/
+void
+pidgin_style_context_get_background_color(GdkRGBA *color) {
+	/* This value will leak, we could put a shutdown function in but right now
+	 * that seems like a bit much for a few bytes.
+	 */
+	static GdkRGBA *background = NULL;
+
+	if(g_once_init_enter(&background)) {
+		GdkRGBA *bg = NULL;
+		GtkStyleContext *context = NULL;
+		GtkWidget *window = NULL;
+
+		/* We create a window to get its background color from its style
+		 * context.  This _is_ doable without creating a window, but you still
+		 * need the window class and about four times as much code, so that's
+		 * why we do it this way.
+		 */
+		window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
+		context = gtk_widget_get_style_context(window);
+
+		gtk_style_context_get(context, GTK_STATE_FLAG_NORMAL,
+		                      GTK_STYLE_PROPERTY_BACKGROUND_COLOR, &bg,
+		                      NULL);
+		g_object_unref(G_OBJECT(window));
+
+		g_once_init_leave(&background, bg);
+	}
+
+	*color = *background;
+}
+
 gboolean
-pidgin_style_context_is_dark(GtkStyleContext *context) {
+pidgin_style_context_is_dark(void) {
 	GdkRGBA bg;
 	gdouble luminance = 0.0;
 
-	if(context == NULL) {
-		if(dark_mode_have_cache) {
-			return dark_mode_cached_value;
-		}
-
-		context = gtk_style_context_new();
-	} else {
-		g_object_ref(G_OBJECT(context));
+	if(dark_mode_have_cache) {
+		return dark_mode_cached_value;
 	}
 
-	gtk_style_context_get(context, GTK_STATE_FLAG_NORMAL,
-	                      GTK_STYLE_PROPERTY_BACKGROUND_COLOR, &bg,
-	                      NULL);
-	g_object_unref(G_OBJECT(context));
+	pidgin_style_context_get_background_color(&bg);
 
-	/* magic values are taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luma_(video)
-	 * Rec._601_luma_versus_Rec._709_luma_coefficients.
-	 */
-	luminance = (0.299 * bg.red) + (0.587 * bg.green) + (0.114 * bg.blue);
+	/* 709 coefficients from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luma_(video) */
+	luminance = (0.2126 * bg.red) + (0.7152 * bg.green) + (0.0722 * bg.blue);
 
-	dark_mode_cached_value = (luminance < 0x7FFF);
+	dark_mode_cached_value = (luminance < 0.5);
 	dark_mode_have_cache = TRUE;
 
 	return dark_mode_cached_value;
 }
-
-void
-pidgin_style_context_adjust_contrast(GtkStyleContext *context, GdkRGBA *rgba) {
-	if(pidgin_style_context_is_dark(context)) {
-		gdouble h, s, v;
-
-		gtk_rgb_to_hsv(rgba->red, rgba->green, rgba->blue, &h, &s, &v);
-
-		v += 0.3;
-		v = v > 1.0 ? 1.0 : v;
-		s = 0.7;
-
-		gtk_hsv_to_rgb(h, s, v, &rgba->red, &rgba->green, &rgba->blue);
-	}
-}