I’m a little confused by the bizarro troll-internet’s obsession with Harambe the gorilla. Are people endlessly fixated on ironic grief over Harambe’s death to distract from the crushing reality of human suffering we’re too cowardly/emotionally exhausted to look in the eye?
That’s likely the case, and nothing calluses our pesky empathy like mocking those who care about something more than we do. Potentially to that end, someone made a game that allows the user to play as Harambe to fight classic Capcom video game characters [h/t The Next Web].
Then again, maybe this is meant to be a cathartic experience so the internet’s denizens can move on to more relevant memes? Apparently you have the option of beating up an armed zoo guard as Harambe—enacting some simulacrum of justice, or perhaps a relatable fantasy of lashing-out at an authority figure from the perspective of the most powerless. Isn’t late capitalist society, internet-land included, just a simulated “people habitat”? Maybe deep down, everyone does secretly identify with Harambe. At any rate, almost everyone loved Street Fighter. Welcome to the age of the user-generated bread & circuses.
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