This has got to be the most blatant example of dehumanizing in modern US politics. Where did it even come from? I'm assuming 4chan or Russian trolls.
NYT article highlights :
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/us/politics/npc-twitter-ban.html
Gross examples from Breitbart
More examples : https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018...-at-cartoons-mocking-their-scripted-thoughts/
Requested addition:
NYT article highlights :
NPC means "nonplayable character" or "nonplayer character." It's a term, borrowed from the world of video games, for a character that is controlled by the computer rather than by a player. An NPC often advances the game's plot by saying scripted lines, or assisting the playable characters in some way.
A classic example of an NPC is Navi, a character in the 1998 video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time who acts as a navigator for Link, the game's protagonist.
Several months ago, users on 4chan and Reddit, the online message forums, started using the term NPC to refer to liberals. These people, they said, join the anti-Trump crowd not because they are led by independent thought or conscience to oppose President Trump's policies, but because they're brainwashed sheep who have been conditioned to parrot left-wing orthodoxy, in the manner of a scripted character.
As a Reddit user, BasedMedicalDoctor, explains in a thread about the appeal of the meme, NPCs are "completely dependent on their programming, and can't do or think on their own."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/us/politics/npc-twitter-ban.html
Gross examples from Breitbart
More examples : https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018...-at-cartoons-mocking-their-scripted-thoughts/
Requested addition:
Guys, the OP isn't saying looking at the meme is making them want to hide under their bed, they aren't terrified in that sense. It's the viral promotion and dissemination of dehumanization from an already very unhinged and unstable group of people, likely aided by foreign influence to further destabilize the country. They aren't saying "the meme is scary", it's what it represents and what point we are at in our culture. To just laugh at the OP for "being scared of a meme" is to miss their message entirely.
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