>>3689145the answer is this idea of a "meme culture" that a lot of normalfags and redditors perpetuate, which is about equally as palatable as mainstream pop culture. memes don't have a culture, memes aren't a commodity, and most-importantly memes aren't the sign of some secret in-group you like to pretend to be a part of. memes just exist as they do, and you don't even have to use the label "meme" for them.
in fact, i'd argue labeling something as a meme only kills it faster, because it encourages that self-aware "waaaw its a meem soo funni XD" attitude that rushes it right to the frontpage of reddit and knormieyourmeme.
i can't tell you how many times i've see the same reaction image and/or the variants of it posted across multiple boards, yet not once did it ever occur to me to consider it "a meme."
also, it's absolutely obvious "meme culture" is too self aware to create anything unique enough when it's just devolved into a copy/paste "replace X with some wacky reference!!, along with "when you" twitter humor and "irony." seriously, that's 90% of pop-memes nowadays.
