What’s up guys?
Jared again.
Everyone’s been talking about it.
Every message board, every discord server, every major news publication.
We’ve even dipped our toes in on Culture Binge.
You’ve probably heard of the Storm Area 51 Facebook Event, in which millions of net
nerds ironically vowed to Naruto run their way into Area 51 on September 20th so they
can finally “see dem aliens.”
Now this is funny for a variety of reasons- there’s nothing quite so satisfying as imagining
some general at the Pentagon being briefed on what a group of Kyles is.
But it’s also a dark joke about gleefully signing up for, what is essentially a suicide
mission.
Every 5 seconds a new meme pops up on the Facebook event ironically strategizing their
entrance, taking inventory of vehicles and infantry and, of course, coyly commenting
how people’s commitment to irony may outweigh their desire to live.
It’s this last class of memes that’s got us thinking about a popular sub genre of memes
dominating the land of shitposting: Depression memes.
Whether it’s people identifying with Bart Simpson as literally nothing hits him with
a wave of incredible sadness or a young boy being visited by Teletubbies labeled anxiety,
depression, loneliness, and overthinking, depression memes seem to be millenials and
Gen Zers new form of free therapy.
But the more we thought about it, the more we thought that maybe there’s something
else to it, that maybe depression memes can be considered the most modern development
of a certain philosophical and psychological sentiment described over 150 years ago in
what is considered one of the first existentialist stories.
So welcome to this Wisecrack Vlog on Depression Memes.
And for the love of god don’t try to storm area 51.
Please.
But if you do, send me pics of dem aliens.
So what is a shitpost?
There are a bunch of definitions out there that often include the idea that they’re
deliberately unproductive to online conversation, that they exist for their own sake, and/or
are made hastily and in poor quality.
But the definition we found most insightful comes from writer Gustavo Turner in Surface
magazine: “What is a shitpost if not a pointless, carnivalesque attack against meaning itself?
Like every aesthetic that draws from the absurd (Dada, surrealism, situationism, punk), shitposting
is ultimately a cry of despair against impending disaster.”
While Turner is apt in likening the shitpost to various absurdist art movements, we instead
find a very specific flavor of existentialism in the depression meme.
It’s our contention that this phenomenon of people posting memes about their despair
is an extension of a philosophical and psychological sentiment immortalized by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s
novella “Notes from Underground.”
Or more simply, the titular Underground Man is functionally a 19th century proto-shitposter.
To find out what we’re talking about, we’re gonna have to dive in to a little recap of
the book.
It portrays the curmudgeonly musings of The Underground Man, a tortured recluse who reminisces
about a time he almost had an authentic connection with another human.
It’s starts off with him proclaiming that “he is sick.”
Not because he’s suffering from any physical ailments, but rather from “hyperconsciousness,”
or an extreme debilitating commitment to rationality.
The first part of the book depicts his stream of consciousness as he weaves an intricate
labyrinth of arguments about topics like reason, freedom, and European Utopianism before recounting
an unpleasant interaction with his old schoolmate Zverkov.
He eventually meets a prostitute named Liza, who he tries to “redeem” by telling her
to change her ways.
She’s able to get him to open up for a little while, but he quickly turns back into an asshole
and tries to humiliate her.
As she leaves, he immediately regrets his behavior and runs after her, but she’s long
gone.
The Underground Man has remained supremely relevant over time.
Dostoevsky’s metaphor of “the underground” was a major development in modern literature
and continues to be referenced as an embodiment of rebellion against traditional value systems.
Which is all well and good, but what does this extremely lonely and extremely miserable
man have to do with people on the internet joking about the disposability of their lives
via Area 51 memes?
We think that the state of despair propagated by depression memes overlaps with the sentiment
of the Underground Man’s in four key ways:
1.
Inaction.
Both depression memes and the Underground Man emphasize despair over action.
The point of posting a meme like the cat in the hat with the text “millennials and get
z’s willingness to die” sneaking up on a kid standing in for “Area 51 thinking
this is a joke” isn’t to inspire the masses to get off their computer and help Millennials
or Gen Zers by pushing for economic reform or greater public mental health options.
These memes are often born out of reflecting on what seems like an impossible, hopeless
situation with no particular orientation towards doing anything about it.
The meme only offers a sense of identification with hopelessness.
The futility of action is key.
Likewise, the much of the Underground Man’s deep unhappiness is due to what he calls “Hyperconsciousness”-
or a paralyzing sense of awareness.
He claims to be so aware that he sees both sides of any argument, so instead of choosing
a side or defining himself through any meaningful action, he does nothing.
He calls this “conscious inertia.”
“It was not only that I could not become spiteful, I did not know how to become anything:
neither spiteful nor kind, neither a rascal nor an honest man, neither a hero nor an insect.
Now, I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and useless
consolation that an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only
the fool who becomes anything.”
Like our melancholy hero, depression memes are defined by a similar kind of inertia-
a feeling of hopeless paralysis.
2.
Like a good shitpost, The Underground Man is kind of a troll.
When he visits his old friend Zverkov, he KNOWS that he and his friends don’t like
him, but tags along to a party anyway and acts like a drunken fool just to spread the
misery around.
Similarly, a depression shitpost looks not only to express despair, but pervert the sunny
optimism of traditional social media posts.
If most people on Instagram are curating their social media personas to project an image
of a perfect life with attractive, successful, and supportive friends, a depression meme
looks to bring the grimy underbelly of feelings to the forefront.
Think you’re accumulating cultural capital by posting about your sweet beachfront vacation
spot with your sexy rich family?
Fuck you.
I eat depression for breakfast.
3.
Like The Underground Man, a Depression Meme is a paradox.
Part of what has made the psychological profile of the Underground Man so interesting and
enduring is that he is constantly contradicting himself.
He says he loves being isolated, yet he yearns for human connection.
Similarly, a depression meme is a cry for help, yet a resignation to hopelessness.
The Underground Man looks down on normal people like Liza and Zverkov, yet envies them, not
unlike how a depression meme is a condemnation of normie-dom, yet a desire to live a life
like theirs.
Finally, the Underground Man suffers, but takes pleasure in it.
And of course- people make depression memes for the lulz.
Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.
Though I did lay it down at the beginning that consciousness is the greatest misfortune
for man, yet I know man prizes it and would not give it up for any satisfaction.
4.
Finally, both the Underground Man and shitposting represent a rejection of optimistic political
ideals.
The Underground Man spends a fair amount of time refuting ideas put forward by Nikolai
Chernyshvsky’s image of a utopia built out of a devotion to reason that he referred to
as “The Crystal Palace” in his work “What is to be Done?”
Similarly, depressing memes are often a reaction to the post-Cold War 90s- a decade built on
the promise of a better world, but, to many, that didn’t happen and now we only look
forward to “sunny” possibilities like climate catastrophes, war with Iran, and Silicon
Valley ruining everything under the guise of “disruption.”
Like the Underground Man, Millennials and Gen Zers have grown up with the promise of
a better future, only to be hit with sobering realities that that has made us… depressed.
As such, depression memes will often co-opt positive elements of popular culture and impose
sad realities on them via text.
In doing so, it comments on the failure of these images to deliver any actual happiness,
and the lie of positivity that they perpetuated.
So there you have it- The Underground man is very much alive in the ethos of depression
memes on the internet.
But I want to emphasize here that depression and other mental illnesses are a very serious
thing, and while some may find levity in these kinds of things, it’s not cathartic for
everyone.
For what it’s worth, I always remind myself of the book’s end, where the Underground
Man deeply regrets rejecting human companionship.
Yes, the state of things might be dismal and derailing meaning and trolling might give
us the necessary dopamine hit to get through the day, but it’s important that we don’t
give up an incredibly important part of a healthy psyche: human connection.
And I just wanna end this vlog with a quote from the text that will undeniably speak to
anyone who’s ever posted a depression meme:
“For we are all divorced from life, we are all cripples, every one of us, more or less.
We are so divorced from it that we feel at once a sort of loathing for real life, and
so cannot bear to be reminded of it.
Why, we have come almost to look upon real life as an effort, almost as hard work, and
we are all privately agreed that it is better in books.”
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