Diogenes Posting

Submission 30,371

About

Diogenes Posting refers to the practice of posting greentext stories and memes about Ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes, often presenting him as the original shitposter and a troll. Originating on 4chan, the trend later spread to Tumblr, Reddit and other online platforms.

Origin

On October 31st, 2015, History & Humanities discussion board /his/ was launched on 4chan. On the same day, an anonymous 4chan user launched a thread dedicated to Greek philosophers, with the founders of Cynic philosophy Diogenes being described as "based" in the comments.^[1] A post in another thread launched on the same day called for Diogenes picture being sticked on the board.^[2] In another thread, launched on November 7th, Diogenes was named "the original shitposter".^[3] More threads in which Diogenes was described as a shitposter, an /ourguy/ ^[4] and a chad (and his opponent Plato as a virgin)^[5] would appear on /his/ and other 4chan boards later.

Spread

The trend continued in the following years, with several popular anecdotes about the philosopher often being referenced in greentexts on /his/, /v/, and other 4chan boards.^[6]^[7] Those included Dioneges' counterargument against Plato's definition of a man as "featherless biped" and his dismissive attitude towards Alexander the Great during their brief encounter.

On Tumblr, several popular viral posts referencing the philosopher have been made starting in 2016. On October 1st, 2016, Tumblr^[8] user librarianarchy made a post mentioning Diogenes' famous "Behold the Man" argument which gained over 205,000 likes and reblogs in two and a half years. On January 5th, 2017, Tumblr^[9] user nonlinear-nonsubjective replied to a thread which argued that a coconut can be considered a mammal and gained over 491,000 likes and reblogs. Both posts were later reposted to Reddit.^[10]^[11]

In August 2018, a meme format in which Greek philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Diogenes offered their opinions on divisive subjects gained significant popularity in /r/animemes subreddit,^[12]^[13] with Diogenes usually presented as a weeaboo.

On YouTube, edutainment videos about the philosopher by YouTubers Sisyphus 55 and Sam O'Nella gained over 1.2 and 2.8 million views in three and two years, respectively.