I remember the times where memes were only circulated on places like 4chan/krautchan or whateverchan or degenerate internet forum that was around in the early d

I remember the times where memes were only circulated on places like 4chan/krautchan or whateverchan or degenerate internet forum that was around in the early days. Even this was a whole other level than what followed after "memes" got popular and even your mum sent you some with the rise of bored panda, 9gag etc. (Remember the fun times where memes could even mean gore on the front page? Unthinkable nowadays.) So even in the early days there was already a very heavy break with what I consider to be the first area to the second era. Afterwards they became way less edgy and less centered around the experiences of nerds who experienced heavy mobbing and were replaced with things like lolcats and stuff. The author is a bit late to the party imho. Normies took over meme culture, it's pop culture nowadays. Deal with it. Memes in the early days could be way darker than all this doomer stuff could ever be imho. I guess it also heavily depends on what memes you where consuming on what pages and communities. Even my experience is heavily subjective I guess.