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For the next year, they could only tell jokes from their approved list. Improvisation was strictly forbidden. The only way a comedian could keep an act fresh was to steal gags from the competition. Plagiarism was fine, as long as the material you stole was approved.<ref>[http://listverse.com/2016/11/13/10-bizarre-ways-the-soviet-union-controlled-its-people/ 10 Bizarre Ways The Soviet Union Controlled Its People]</ref>}}
For the next year, they could only tell jokes from their approved list. Improvisation was strictly forbidden. The only way a comedian could keep an act fresh was to steal gags from the competition. Plagiarism was fine, as long as the material you stole was approved.<ref>[http://listverse.com/2016/11/13/10-bizarre-ways-the-soviet-union-controlled-its-people/ 10 Bizarre Ways The Soviet Union Controlled Its People]</ref>}}
== NPC Internet meme ==
The [[NPC internet meme]] (derived from non-player character in video gaming), is a politically [[right-wing]] internet [[meme]] that represents people who do not think for themselves or do not make their own decisions. In other words, they have been indoctrinated.
According to website The Verge:
{{Cquote|Last week, ''The [[New York Times]]'' published a piece about an insular [[4chan]] meme that had started to bleed over into political Twitter. At the time, NPC — an acronym for the gaming term “non-playable character” — had been weaponized.. in an attempt to “own the libs” by calling them automatons, but it was still a relatively niche meme very few outlets had touched.
Along with a couple of stories before it, the Times’ article kicked off a domino effect: its publication prompted popular members of the [[alt-right]] — including [[Paul Joseph Watson]] and [[Infowars]] — to amplify the meme to their audiences through YouTube videos, articles, and tweets. Search results for “NPC” increased, according to Google Trends.<ref>[https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/23/17991274/npc-meme-4chan-press-coverage-viral The NPC meme went viral when the media gave it oxygen], The Verge, 2018</ref>}}
== The rise of the NPC internet meme ==
[[File:NPC Google trends.jpg|thumbnail|center|1500px|Google Trends graph of the number of worldwide searches for the term NPC]]
{{Clear}}
There has been a huge rise in the use of the NPC meme on the internet as can be seen [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=NPC by this Google Trends graph of worldwide searches for the term "NPC"].
The main factors are:
'''1.''' [[Elon Musk]] taking over Twitter which gave a boost to the political right.
'''2.''' Supporters of [[right-wing]] politics are getting more active in [[culture war]] issues such as anti-[[woke]] backlash.
'''3.''' The growing hunger for [[free speech]] and anti-[[cancel culture]] sentiments.
'''4.''' The rise of a few other right-wing friendly social media platforms (Rumble, Gab, etc.).
'''5.''' [[Right-wing]]ers are [https://www.axios.com/2021/12/06/conservative-social-media-crypto-publishing-internet aggressively building their own ecosystem].
'''6.''' A right-wing populist programme normally encompasses factors such as economic protectionism/problems and anti-imigration/anti-illegal immigration sentiments and these factors are rising in some countries.
'''7.''' European right-wing political figures ([[Marine Le Pen]], [[Viktor Orbán]], Andrej Duda, etc.) are using the European Union corruption scandal as a political weapon and inciting anti-EU sentiment ahead of the 2024 European Parliament elections which is giving a bounce to right-wingers.
== Related quote ==
== Related quote ==