Psyop

About

Psyops, short for Psychological Operations, are typically military operations meant to convey selective information and propaganda to certain individuals, groups and governments so as to influence their reasoning and behavior. In meme culture, the slang term "psyop "is used to perpetuate conspiracy theories, both sincerely and unironically. The use of the term in memes is often linked to the practice of schizoposting. Theories about events and cultural movements being "psyops" have existed in internet communities for decades, but memes about things being psyops only began to proliferate after the year 2017.

Origin

A psyop or psychological operation generally refers to formal military tactics employed in order to influence the reasoning and behavior of an individual, group or government. In the United States, the United States Psychological Operations is a branch of the U.S. military's Special Operations Forces units. Early accessible internet discussions about psyops took place on 4chan's /tv/ boards, where anonymous users described Julian Assange and Alex Jones as psyops.^[1][2]

An early Facebook discussion about psyops took place in 2016 in the form of clashes between people who thought Flat Earth theories were psyops, and people who thought calling Flat Earth a "psyop" was a psyop. On March 3rd, 2016, Instagram^[3] page 4biddenknowledge posted an image proposing the idea that the CIA started "Flat Earth" theories as a psyop, gathering over 4,000 likes in six years (seen below, left). On January 27th, the Facebook^[4] page Biblical Flat Earth posted an image collage "debunking" the aforementioned claim (seen below, right).

Spread

The term psyop made sporadic appearances in memes in consecutive months, but its use grew exponentially after the COVID-19 pandemic and after the QAnon movement gained widespread media attention during the early 2020s. For example, on May 14th, 2020, the Instagram^[5] page @fr3volution posted a meme about masks being "psyops," gathering over 1,300 likes in three years (seen below, left). On May 17th, the Instagram^[6] page @lepetersworld posted a meme about QAnon being a psyop, gathering over 900 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).

On June 16th, 2020, iFunny^[7] user @elf_cooker_gang posted a meme about various memes being psyops, gathering 80 smiles in three years (seen below, left). On March 18th, 2021, an anonymous user on 4chan's /x/^[8] board posted about furries being an alien psyop (seen below, right).

On August 29th, 2021, iFunny^[9] user @SchizoMonke_2021 posted a meme about psyops, gathering over 9,000 smiles in two years (seen below, left). On January 6th, 2022, Instagram^[10] page fraud.cool posted a meme about psyops, gathering over 1,900 likes in a year (seen below, right).

In 2022, the Instagram page @okschizo began posting memes about psyops that notably became popularized on the platform.^[11]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References