Contemporary meme culture’s obsession with being cool has condemned it to becoming a paradox.  Aura farming, mogging people, and generally identifying as the main character has made memes a collective practice of a hyper-individualist mindset. Even if much of it is supposed to be ironic, these «special individuals» are always finding different ways to look down on the majority. One of the most popular theories is that most people are the non-playable characters, or NPCs, in a video game, and they’re just going through the motions in life without any sense of free will or depth.

This video game reference offers a step up from designating others as «basic» or «normie,» i.e., individuals whose personal tastes and ways of thinking are mainstream. NPCs are people who act like they have been preprogrammed to be that way, unable to detach from the script. One of the most notorious ways it has been used in a political context is when politicians accuse their opponents as lacking autonomy.