Memetic Culture

big thanks to stratus and snats for proofreading this

Preamble

Communities, including crypto, have long began to foster a sense of unity based on surface-level signals without sharing values or purpose.

Memes were once a tool for spreading culture, now memes are being equated with the culture itself.

Communities are lost for their identity. We have traded shared understanding for signals of shallow belonging.

Something that used to be a localized crypto cancer have spread to the outer society and now we must pronounce it to be terminal.

You have no culture

Don't "gm" me. I'm not your "fren."

I find it so distasteful when people blindly share behavioral traits to express belonging. The hollow substitutes for genuine bonds.

Without giving this behaviour too many props, the subconscious desire behind it is surprisingly simple: to commodify everything. Even belonging.

The crypto space offers a perfect case study in cultural decay. What began as a revolution built on principles of security, decentralization, and resistance to corporate control - has devolved into an echo chamber of manufactured authenticity.

The original ethos hasn't just been diluted; it's been replaced by its own simulation.

Crypto is no longer a community; it is but a desperate attempt to construct an identity in a world increasingly devoid of meaning. The more layers of abstraction we go through, the more ironic this claim becomes.

Do you still remember that crypto comes from cryptography? Or have memes overtaken the substance? At best, you are a useful idiot. At worst, you become exist liquidity.

Yet crypto is a reflection of the world at large. This pattern extends far beyond.

In every sphere of modern life, we see the same progression: authentic cultural elements are identified, commodified, and then mass-produced until they lose all connection to their original significance.

Gamblecore, memetokens, even the exit polls - all symptoms of the same disease. Humanity is fed with opinions, packaged into echo chambers and discouraged from exploring.

And why did you allow this to happen? Because it simply fills the empty space - you people have no culture.

Human connection

Humans need connection. But here's a paradox of this era: in time of instant and abundant connectivity, we're experiencing an epidemic of superficial relationships.

It's easy to criticize the herd - the "gm" greetings, the recycled memes and their hollow engagement. But beneath it all lies a deeper truth: humans desperately need connection, and in its absence, we'll take even the faintest parody of a community.

We pride ourselves in scientific discourse and rational debate. We want fact-based discussions and logical arguments. Yet millions of hours are spent on social media expressing opinions and seeking validation. Why?

Miss the addiction-enducing platforms and engagement-driven algos, this is poor folk's tale. The bigger picture is that in scientific community we 1. don't value and 2. don't allow people to satisfy their emotional needs without dismissing their arguments.

We are emotional beings trying to navigate an increasingly abstract world. The less we respect this truth, the more shallow our society will become.

When we dismiss human connection in favor of "just the facts," we don't eliminate the need for belonging - we just push it underground, where it manifests in increasingly distorted ways. The rise of this memetic culture isn't a cause but a symptom of our failure to address this fundamental human need.

Humans need connection. We need communities that can hold space for both rigorous thinking and genuine feeling. Otherwise we'll continue to lose time to this shit show we're experiencing right now.

Immune system

Apart from the clear symptoms the disease also has bad-faith carriers.

People who don't fall victims to, but rather exploit these circumstances is a truly fascinating phenomenon. Not only have we learned that a society with lack of emotions could embrace a person completely divorced from reality, but also that it will happily do so.

If you don't pay attention to the world of politics (good for you) there's been a clear change in the way people build trust in recent years.

Not only have people been able to hijack the current discourse, but they were also able to rewrite the past in the eyes of the public and get away with all of this, by simply appealing to emotional, rather than intellectual human needs.

That's how starved we are for connection. The ability to identify people who exploit us is the first step toward societal recovery. And it's so saddening to see these men rise to power so fast.

Men who despise you, enslave you. Who regimen your lives. Tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel? Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men.

The tragedy isn't just that these behaviors are hollow; it's that they actively prevent the formation of real culture. And as long as you engage or even exist alongside these behaviors - the disease will spread further.

A man must stand proud in their own culture. Yet it's never been easy.

Real culture emerges from shared values that go beyond agreement. Real culture stands on principles that guide and limit your decision-making.

When we accept shallow substitutes for culture, we don't just degrade our communities - we compromise our ability to build anything meaningful at all.

Some people have mistakingly been lead to belive that everyone is entitled to their opinion. That is not the case. If you cannot name what you stand for - you cannot possibly claim it to be yours. If all you have are slogans and talking points - you don't deserve the spotlight.

Short-form engagement only further fuels the fire. Don't be mistaken as it is nothing but a tool for marketing.

Let me remind you that the only thing that differs you from an animal is your ability to develop and preserve your culture.

If you have no culture - I have no respect.

Takeaways

Our cultural standards must rise, not fall. With variable standards we are doing nothing but running in circles, while enriching those who take advantge of us.

We shall celebrate those who explore, those who debate and those who reason. We shall not, however, let this reason be our god.

We shall not tolerate degen(erate) behaviour and we should look down upon those who do.

Don't tolerate neatly-packaged ideas for your ears to swallow. And those who exploit your hearts for their own benefit.

There's no virtue in capturing value. There's no fulfillment in that either.

One must stand proud in their own understanding.

Stand proud, together with the rest of us.