Its ethos, no longer confined to places like 4chan, Kiwi Farms, and other “based” shitposting communities, is that one must always be unconcerned and completely cool. If you rile up the other side to meltdown, react indignantly, or become emotional, you win. Show any emotion yourself, besides mild amusement and detached smugness, and you lose. It’s a culture in which nothing is ever a big deal because
nothing is really true; in which the highest calling is milking “
lolcows” and the cardinal
sin cringe is being earnest. Morality is for suckers, principles are for losers, and caring about things is lame and gay. We live in a clown world, this thinking goes, where everything is so hopelessly fake, corrupt, and mad that the only thing to do is laugh. But the joke’s on you.