What You Hope They Mean vs. What They Really Mean

About

What You Hope They Mean vs. What They Actually Mean refers to a series of comparison memes that juxtapose one's perception of what holding a certain view should entail against the actual beliefs of a person who claims to hold that view. The exploitable format has been used online since 2017, regaining ironic virality in February 2024.

Origin

On June 13th, 2017, an unknown Redditor reposted the earliest found What You Hope They Mean meme about heavy metal music that was likely originally posted on Facebook to the /r/gatekeeping subreddit,^[1] where it gained over 50 upvotes in roughly six years (shown below).

Spread

Between 2018 and 2020, several versions of the meme were shared in various metal groups on Facebook and Reddit, as well as on Instagram. For example, on March 22nd, 2018, Redditor S0m4b0dy posted a version of the meme, originally shared on Facebook, to /r/MetalMemes,^[2] where it garnered over 200 upvotes in six years (shown below, left). On May 14th, 2018, the Facebook^[3] page EeracheRecords posted another variant that garnered over 1,000 reactions and 250 shares in six years (shown below, right).

On November 27th, 2019, the Instagram^[4] page wilderness_cult posted the earliest known version of the meme that abandoned the original topic, instead making a meme about environmentalism that received over 240 likes on the platform in five years (shown below).

More versions of the meme followed in the early 2020s, with examples being posted on Reddit,^[5] Facebook^[6] and other sites.

On January 3rd, 2024, X^[7] / Twitter user @Pinko69420 posted a version of the meme titled "I'm a Leftist" that garnered over 730 reposts and 4,000 likes in almost two months (shown below, left) and was heavily parodied^[8][9] in the following days (example shown below, right).

On February 19th, 2024, X^[10] user @novanokona posted a bait version of the meme about rhythm video games that received over 2,100 reposts and 6,100 likes in one week and was followed by more ironic versions of the meme posted in the following days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References