The NPC meme resonates because it's true that a lot of people respond to keywords with the same phrases. And they update The Current Thing in unison. Once you see that, you can't unsee it.
A popular example of the last six months being "Slava Ukraine".
Repeating the phrase like a 2022 rosary prayer isn't going to do a single thing toward causing Ukraine to defeat Russia, any more than adding a Ukrainian flag to one's social media profiles will.
>And they update The Current Thing in unison.
I saw a good description (on /r/4chan, no less) of this: People who constantly check in on each other to see what the latest things are to embrace/avoid. What a miserable way to live.
Well I think this misses the point of the phrase entirely. It's not to help Ukraine defeat Russia, it is to advertise adherence to an ideology. It functions the same way as any other overt religious symbolism and sloganism.
When people say "current thing", I doubt that they are scoffing at the realpolitik calculations of the US and NATO that now is the time to make a stand or criticizing the arms shipments. Maybe they are, but there is definitely something about the situation that has nothing to do with public policy.
I thought about how to quantify the peculiarity without making vague statements about what I feel.
1. "Everybody is a Ukrainian" but not a Syrian, Chechen, Armenian, as evidenced by flags in real life in my area and on social media. Also comments by acquaintances that they know someone from Ukraine, as if it's supposed to be shocking, you know, this is real, this is serious. There are Armenians in this town! I have a cousin who lives in Boston, and most likely he knows some Chechens...
2. Some people spoke out and said "what about the Palestinians and the Israelis?" Including people I'm acquainted with offline/real life. I don't think you have to be particularly pro-Palestinian or agree that the Israeli actions are the moral equivalent of Russia's to observe an unexplained lack of public emotion in favor of Palestinians compared to Ukrainians. Empathy isn't something that hinges on complicated technical considerations. This is only one possible example of its absence, but more than one person called it out, and it's hard to call them apologists for Russia.
3. Online comments that presume that this conflict is/has been the only, or the only significant, brutal conflict involving the Russian Federation. That seems like weak evidence that the general atmosphere and media coverage is extracting Ukraine from all context. Grozny!
Of course, you can find coverage of anything, so what I'm saying is not that the media "ignores" anything, which is often accused but never true, but that if enough people are misinformed in a particular way then it suggests some sort of pattern in the media (or social media) climate.
That.
If Politician gets elected, then he will finally throw all those who don't support The Current Thing into jail, where they belong.
Support The Current Thing. It's the right thing to do.