found out that in mysql 5.6 performance_schema is on by default. It was disabled by default prior in 5.5 and before. It has been enabled by default since 5.6.6
performance_schema=off to my config file fixes the issue.
I'd imagine anyone who doesn't have the memory to be running performance_schema would not be using it anyway.
This might affect other distros of mysql 5.6.6 as well.