About

But The People Are Retarded is a memorable quote and catchphrase said by controversial new religious movement leader and Indian philosopher Rajneesh Osho in a viral video about democracy uploaded to YouTube in early 2021. Over the following years, Osho's statement, particularly his unexpected usage of the slang term "retarded," became a meme as it was used as a reaction image and image macro around the internet, usually to call something or someone stupid, as well as to mock various things.

Origin

The original video containing the quote and moment that later became the source for memes was uploaded to the YouTube^[1] channel OSHO International on January 15th, 2021, titled "OSHO: Is Democracy the Best Way of Government?" In the clip, which comes from a longer talk segment, Indian philosopher Rajneesh Osho is discussing his thoughts on government, politicians and people, notably criticizing democracy and the style of government.

In five years, the video received over 512,000 views, 19,000 likes and 2,000 comments, with many YouTube users in the comment section referencing and talking about the meme.

Democracy basically means of the people, for the people, by the people. But the people are Retarded.

The earliest known viral post of the moment was shared to the /r/Unexpected^[2] subreddit by Redditor Palifaith on June 4th, 2021, titled "Wise man defining democracy," which garnered over 15,000 upvotes and 700 comments in five years before it was removed by moderators.

Three days later, on June 7th, it was then reposted to /r/Unexpected^[3] by Redditor DarVux, remaining up and receiving over 69,000 upvotes and 2,000 comments in a similar timeframe.

Spread

The clip of OSHO continued to spread and garner virality online over the following months and years as it started to see memetic usage on various social media platforms.

On September 15th, 2021, YouTuber Kazwire posted the isolated clip of the "but the people are retarded" quote under the title "…but the people are," receiving over 20 million views, 939,000 likes and 40,800 comments in roughly four years.

On April 7th, 2022, TikTok^[5] user tailopez shared an edit of the meme to the platform, garnering over 70,600 likes, 1,490 comments and 720 shares in four years.

The meme was frequently used on the /r/PoliticalCompassMemes subreddit for different Political Compass Memes in the 2020s.

For instance, on May 2nd, 2022, Redditor ApexTitanKong shared a four-panel version to /r/PoliticalCompassMemes^[4] with different parts of his quotes attributed to various political ideologies, garnering over 1,000 upvotes and 60 comments in four years.

On February 25th, 2024, Tenor^[7] user joshmoxey uploaded a GIF variant of the meme, notably using the algospeak term "regarded," under the title "Osho Democracy GIF."

On July 15th, 2024, Redditor Burlyswing shared a Warhammer 40,000 version to the /r/grimdank^[6] subreddit depicting the God Emperor of Mankind using the quote, receiving over 2,300 upvotes and 130 comments in two years.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References