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Collected Item: “I Support the Current Thing”

Give your story a title.

I Support the Current Thing

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Instagram post

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

This is an Instagram post by waking.the.dead. This is an NPC meme of people claiming they have a healthy distrust of authority, while supporting things imposed by authority. The NPC meme is a meme that gained popularity in the late 2010s and has had continued popularity in the 2020s. NPC stands for "Non Playable Character", which is a term used in gaming for pre-programed characters that have a set script for when the players interact with them. This has expanded to apply to people, with it being used as a slight towards any and all political sides, and portraying the side they don't agree with as having no original thoughts of their own.

The context of the NPC meme with the "I have AIDS" thing at the bottom is a reference to the claim that some of the COVID vaccines actually weaken immune systems and sometimes give people AIDS. The mask with the Ukraine flag refers to the current war between Russia and Ukraine, and support of Ukraine in some circles has been seeing as "following the herd because the media/government said to." The top part of "I have healthy distrust of authority" is meant to be ironic, as the NPC has fallen for all the current narratives without question.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

NPC, NPC meme, authority, vaccine skepticism, conspiracy theory, Ukraine, AIDS, meme, humor, ASU, HST580

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

waking.the.dead

Give this story a date.

2022-03-02
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