Christina Drill

Features

Why Did The Internet Fall Out Of Love With Cats?

The alt-right has something to do with it

Scroll through your Twitter timeline. Between all the tweets about North Korean missiles, melting glaciers, sinking cities, and another collusion of government conspiracy, there is always, dependably, a cute dog. About a year ago, dogs (“doggos” or “puppers”) rose past cats to usurp their seat as the internet animal of “the moment,” as lovingly documented in Jessica Boddy’s ode on NPR last month. And the transition from cat internet to dog internet coincides with the rise of internet trolling, the alt-right, and Donald Trump.

The original I Can Haz Cheezburger image was posted to the Something Awful forums, using a meme style preferred (then) by the denizens of 4chan.

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