@verititas The Karen Psyop #karensoftiktok #karen #wearenotinkansasanymore ♬ Suspenseful and tense orchestra(1318015) - SoLaTiDo
December 14, 2025
"I'm pretty sure the whole Karen meme is a sophisticated psy-op."
TikTok, below the fold:
Posts
66 comments:
LOL!
This really seems like something a Karen would share.
Wasn't the original Karen the Central Park dog-run alleged racist?
And then, like so many things, the meme got turned around onto the left, like the torpedo in Hunt for Red October. CC, JSM
There is a difference between holding people accountable for not being a reasonable person in general society and a self-important narcissist who demands society yield to her.
The latter is a Karen.
That's what Karen aspired to be, be as we all know, Karen took things a little bit further into and made herself into an OCD institution. It was Karen who reported your flower pots and flag to the HOA, the Karen Sisterhood, for example.
As with many things, moderation is the guiding principle.
actually...the Karen meme was originally about left-wing white females, AWFLs, haranguing people bc they didn't act in accordance with the latest edict emanating from the marxist faculty lounge. that's why they were mocked. what the tik tok guy is talking about are the "memsahibs", the british women in the colonies insisting on high standards. without those women society will collapse. they are the sine qua non of a high trust society.
Yes, the Left just used some out-of-control "Karens" to smear and attack any white woman who tried to maintain standards. Its being along for a long time. Remember the Simpsons always sneering at some character crying "what about the children?".
The Left doesn't mind "Karens" reporting you for hate speech. Or demanding more diversity. Or complaining about Anti-Israel protests. OMG, that man had a "Fuck the IDF" hat, call the justice department.
Its only directed at white/asian/hispanic women (never blacks) who try get people to behave in public.
Interesting rationalizations of Karen styled Psychotic Emotional Outbursts.
Karen never actually did anything about the person playing music at 2:00AM.
Karen never did a damn thing about people committing crimes.
She nagged a police officer to do it.
Then when crime dropped enough and there was no reason to nag the police officer she still needed to nag someone.
Leftists have always weaponized the nagging nature of Karen. That is why women vote for Democrats.
Feminism, racism, etc are class-disordered ideologies under the Diversity umbrella. Is it Karen or Kraig?
It sounds like Karen is trying to reclaim her inalienable right to Karen…
There's a blond woman with that haircut on my street named Karen.
She is not amused.
"This is Carlton your doorman."
Andrew Schulz knows a "good" Karen
https://youtube.com/shorts/gnt5hQ8kwdw?si=-sVuANxqWCs8QSq-
Talk about gaslighting (or misrepresentation, if that is your go to), NO, a Karen is NOT the person this TikTok idiot claims by definition and examples. SHE is the person (and it is 99% females who do this crap) who stick their noses into other people's business where it doesn't belong or demand to speak to the manager (I could go on, but previous Althousers have made the point for me). A "concerned person" doesn't ring your doorbell in the middle of your kid's birthday party to inform you that HOA rules prohibit tying balloons to your mailbox for any reason, much less to let guests know which house the event is out -- or that owners are only allowed ONE guest spot, fuck the kid's first big birthday party at age five, and dontchaknow one of those visitors cannot be driving a truck....and so on. When I have the opportunity, which is not often, I will ask the Karen, "SERIOUSLY??" before I tell her to fuck off. But not on the job. Maybe a little passive aggressiveness but I owe it to my boss not to do it noticeably.
It was also Karen who called the cops for having people at your house during covid. F Karen.
Don't call the cops for petty shit. They come with guns scared that someone is going to kill them. They will shoot your dog if it gets loose, and they may shoot Karen if you let her out.
I think the "Karen" motif started with salespeople -- African-American, it's said -- who were always having to deal with white women who wanted to speak to their managers. It went national with Kate Gosselin, a woman on a reality show who was supposedly always bullying her Korean-American husband (she's in the TikTok video). And with the Central Park birdwatcher story. Then it made its way into political discussions.
Officious, censorious women seem to be a staple of British comedies, but they're usually older, gray-haired, carrying handbags, and members of the local Conservative association (you can see a similar type in US sitcoms going back to Bewitched). Karen - youngish, blondish, fit-ish -- seems to be a more recent American discovery or invention. You could make a case that those earlier harridans played a role in keeping society together. Today's Karen is too associated with clueless privilege to be much loved.
Best defense against a Karen is to tell her you love her.
"There's a blond woman with that haircut on my street named Karen."
Same goddamned haircut!
Just because there's excessive behavior on the part of some, doesn't mean everyone is wrong. Some people don't want to behave properly and they resent anyone telling them to.
Yes, some old biddy's will go too far. But I'd rather have that, then no one trying to enforce good behavior in public. It wasn't "The karens" that locked us all down, and forced us to wear masks that didn't do anything.
IRC, NYC has decided to not enforce laws regulating minor crimes like pissing in the street, being drunk, using MJ or other drugs, or being rude and unpleasant. I guess that's the way New Yorkers want it. And least they don't have Karens!
TosaGuy is right that this video doesn’t capture the true nature of the Karen, but it does hit on something that is often overlooked—at base, Karen is right. The person Karen is complaining about IS doing something they shouldn’t be doing and Karen, however crazily, is upholding basic standards.
This entire post is a psy-op by Karens to generate sympathy for Karens by a Karen.
What a bunch of imbeciles, demonstrating the most patholgical side of actually distorted, unearned "privilege." If they had such a name for you, you would cower in shadows. Moral consistency is a hallmark of intellectual and mental health. This is just pathetic projection. Fear. Unsurprising.
"Karen" is a racist slur against women who are just fucking sick of being the target of mostly minority predators. And people like you.
This blog thread has become a pathetic joke. Enjoy whacking each other off.
Karen is an anxiously attached woman with an inflexible, rigid understanding of right and wrong. She is on the narcissistic/autistic spectrum. She starts out meaning well but turns narc when doesn't get her way, (similarities with a Karen Michigan coach). Karen wasn't listened to when she was a little girl. Some Karens have better haircuts, those are on tv or in papers. 50% of Karens are men.
Tina Trent said...
"Karen" is a racist slur against women who are just fucking sick of being the target of mostly minority predators. And people like you.
She is right. Don't leave Karen's friend Leticia out of this.
Egregious examples were used to establish the type (and that everyone loathed it). That was the first step. The second step was to use the name of the type as a warning: You're being a Karen for invoking any rule or speaking up about any falling short of normal standards. Any devotion to order became something that women feared would make them repulsive. It was a modern way to push women into a recessive, quiet, giving mode like in the old days... except without the peace and order of the old days. So we live in disorder... and some of us get the disorder with the extra pleasure of sneering at woman.
And about the hair: Now stylish short cuts are shunned and all the women wear long hanks of hair as a statement of the desperation not to be called a Karen.
Sounds like there is not agreement on the definition of Karen. I see it, and I think most of the magasphere agrees with me, as a lefty woman enforcing the rules imposed by the left. Rules which got women way past 50% representation, and well toward suppression of men - which also means suppression of the women and girls in those men’s families.
Is it a sexist thing? No, just a gendered title. Duke- Duchess. Stag-Doe. Dick- Karen. Asshole - Bitch. CC, JSM
Ann Althouse wrote, "You're being a Karen for invoking any rule or speaking up about any falling short of normal standards."
I disagree.
In my opinion; you're being a "Karen" when you loose your shit in ridiculous ways. I call them psychotic emotional outbursts because that's exactly what a lot of them look like. This is the kind of ridiculous emotional outbursts that psychological snowflakes engage in, they simply cannot control themselves.
I saw a video of a "Karen" calling a special needs kid working at a fast food restaurant a "piece of shit" and other wise being unreasonable and demanding to "see the manager" because the kid was in the middle of a task and asked her to use the kiosk. So, no. That women was not upholding norms and trying to preserve a high trust society. She was being a narcissistic ass.
Ann Althouse said...
Egregious examples were used to establish the type (and that everyone loathed it). That was the first step. The second step was to use the name of the type as a warning: You're being a Karen for invoking any rule or speaking up about any falling short of normal standards. Any devotion to order became something that women feared would make them repulsive.
So is that how you are describing the Sexual Harassment regime you all set up to punish low status men you didn't want to talk to?
Ann Althouse said...
So we live in disorder... and some of us get the disorder with the extra pleasure of sneering at woman.
The #metoo movement would like to thank Christine Blasey Ford for her "credible" accusations against Brett Kavanaugh.
And I am sure somewhere in that "disorder" we can find the right to an an abortion in the Constitution.
Is it between the 9th and 10th amendment somewhere?
I would like to point out that when the "Karen" said she would not use the kiosk the kid dropped what he was doing and took her order. So she wasn't even inconvenienced in the slightest degree. She came into the restaurant, tried to order, the guy behind the counter asked her to use the kiosk, she said no, so he took her order. And then started to proclaim to one and all that the kid was disrespectful and acting like he had called her the word that she was showing the world she was.
"hanks of hair....." Not THERE"s a phrase you don't see very often. Last time I remember it is in a Bobby Daren song many years ago.
Man spreading and mansplaining are analogous sexist epithets in the other direction. Forcing men to contract ourselves into nonthreatening pretzels in the public space. Making our experience, expertise and opinions unwelcome in the public discourse. CC, JSM
Achilles wrote, "So is that how you are describing the Sexual Harassment regime you all set up to punish low status men you didn't want to talk to?"
"...you all set up..." Regardless of why you wrote that in exactly that way, do you know how bigoted that sounds.
Overall, I think that's an unfair loaded question, kind of like asking "when did you stop beating your wife"?
The Vampire
Rudyard Kipling
A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you or I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair,
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair—
(Even as you or I!)
Oh, the years we waste and the tears we waste,
And the work of our head and hand
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand!
A fool there was and his goods he spent,
(Even as you or I!)
Honour and faith and a sure intent
(And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(Even as you or I!)
Oh, the toil we lost and the spoil we lost
And the excellent things we planned
Belong to the woman who didn't know why
(And now we know that she never knew why)
And did not understand!
The fool was stripped to his foolish hide,
(Even as you or I!)
Which she might have seen when she threw him aside—
(But it isn't on record the lady tried)
So some of him lived but the most of him died—
(Even as you or I!)
And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame
That stings like a white-hot brand—
It's coming to know that she never knew why
(Seeing, at last, she could never know why)
And never could understand!
Is Althouse objecting to use of the name Karen as a label for this sort miserably malcontented sort of woman? Or does she object to Karens as representatives of feminism?
Or is it our noticing Karen-like behavior she finds objectionable?
"and some of us get the disorder with the extra pleasure of sneering at woman."
I think some men still have "mommy issues", even when they're 70.
Human rites or planned parenthood the wicked solution is found in the Constitution under:
Second Amendment: the rite to bear arms, legs, and hearts cannibalized.
Third: rite to quarter "burdens" of state of mind.
Fourth: search, seize, and redistributive change.
Fifth: human rites.
Sixth: Capitol punishment or abortion without probable cause or due process.
Eighth: cruel and unusual punishment.
Thirteenth: abortion of slavery.
And, of course, the Twilight Amendment and liberal license inferred from emanations from their penumbra.
Let us prey.
I went to a laundromat 15 years ago in which a group of Spanish-speaking women with childdren were waiting for the wash-cycles to end. To pass the time, they were watching their children dance in their shoes on the table for folding laundry while children were crawling in to the dryer. I objected and while I don't know what exactly they said back, I know they thought I was a Karen, as we say now. I just gave up and told myself they'd get it, around the time they learned some English. But, you know, the shoes were dirty and were stepping all over the table for folding clean laundry, and children crawling into dryers was both dirty and unsafe. Thing is, I thought, maybe I have no right to a clean laundromat but I did use to have one.
It is interesting to see a Right-Wing defense of Karen. I also believe Matt Walsh, who is no friend of the proverbial Left-Wing Karen types, has said he refuses to use the term Karen because he thinks it is specifically a slur aimed at White women. I agree with him that Karen seems coded to describe a White woman generally.
It has become such an accurate, appropriate descriptive for a woman engaged in certain behavior. Women object to the objection of the objectionable behavior and so demand the word be banned. Too late. I think the cat’s out of the bag…
Is it fair to compare Karen to Daniel Penny?
“It wasn't "The karens" that locked us all down, and forced us to wear masks that didn't do anything”.
Couldn’t have happened without ‘em.
I see the clips on YouTube of "Karens". About 50% of the time it is some jerk doing something obnoxious being called out that is trying to justify himself using the Karen label. The other 50% seem to be the HOA type of Karen, who are the obnoxious ones.
A byproduct of this seem to be the social media pranksters. They seem to be getting away with it mainly because no one wants an assault charge, but I do enjoy the clips where the prankster gets the shit beat out of them.
Social media is the commonality between these examples. A bit of mild vigilantism might be a common solution.
We have President Karen now, so there’s that.
"I agree with him that Karen seems coded to describe a White woman generally."
Okay, okay... LaKarenetta.
Feel better now?
The Karen meme is a sophisticated psy-op in the sense that modern-day white women are a sophisticated psy-op.
Grok says my origin canon was wrong. But this sure could be a psyop. Why not?
No, the original Karen meme wasn’t the r/FuckYouKaren subreddit—that was a key moment in popularizing the modern “entitled Karen” stereotype, but the concept has earlier roots.
The name “Karen” as a pejorative for an annoying or entitled woman traces back to at least the mid-2000s:
• 2005: Comedian Dane Cook’s stand-up routine described “Karen” as the friend nobody likes in every group—“she’s always a douchebag.”
• 2004: The character Karen Smith in Mean Girls contributed to early memes like “Oh my God, Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.”
• 2016: The “antisocial Karen” or “Nintendo Switch Karen” meme from a Switch trailer, where a woman brings her console to a party and ruins the vibe (leading to “Fuck you, Karen” phrases).
The modern “Karen” (entitled middle-aged white woman who demands to “speak to the manager,” often with the iconic bob haircut) exploded on Reddit in late 2017:
• A user (often cited as u/Fuck_You_Karen or similar accounts) posted bitter rants about his ex-wife named Karen “taking the kids” and house.
• This inspired the creation of r/FuckYouKaren on December 7, 2017, initially to compile those posts and memes mocking the archetype.
• It quickly grew into a hub for broader “Karen” content, blending with “speak to the manager” haircut memes (from ~2014–2018) and racial/entitlement themes from Black Twitter (e.g., predecessors like “BBQ Becky” in 2018).
By 2020, viral videos of real-life incidents (especially during COVID and racial justice protests) cemented “Karen” as a term for privileged, complaining women weaponizing authority, often against people of color.
So, r/FuckYouKaren was hugely influential in spreading the meme we know today, but it wasn’t the absolute origin—more like the launchpad for its viral phase
I have seen Karens in the literature but have never observed one in the wild. My own spouse is at a 97% level of perfection.
This blog thread has become a pathetic joke. Enjoy whacking each other off. - Karen Trent
Vault: "Is it fair to compare Karen to Daniel Penny?"
More like contrast. Penny did what Karen can only demand be done by someone else. Penny protected any Karens on that train car. Penny endured the second-guessing of all the Karens in the criminal justice system. CC, JSM
"Is Althouse objecting to use of the name Karen as a label for this sort miserably malcontented sort of woman?"
This post reeks of her being called a Karen recently. She may not be a Karen (I suspect she is), but she definitely is wearing their uniform and is clearly on their team.
Karen is Gladys Kravitz's granddaughter.
I have to say that's a really good Karen comment. My thanks to that guy.
Karen’s come in all ages, sizes, colors, and ethnicities.
But the majority are liberal, white Nosey Rosies… no doubt about it.
I just now noticed that the TikTok subtitles in the OP transcribed "pedophile" as "PDF file." I'm going to use that! CC, JSM
I heard PDF and thought for a moment that someone was leaving usb drives at the park with inappropriate pdf files on them.
J Scott said...
“I heard ‘PDF’ and thought for a moment that someone was leaving USB drives at the park with inappropriate .pdf files on them.”
Inappropriate PDFs? Would that be PandaDoc marketing materials?
I think that the term does faikly describe some people - of both sexes - with a particular attitude.* However, I also think it has been applied in an overly broad fashion to include people unfairly (sometimes to justify the actions of the person doing the labeling). Such is life.
* There have been numerous discussion on what to call a male Karen (some sites use "Kevin," while many just say "male Karen").
“SHE is the person (and it is 99% females who do this crap) who stick their noses into other people's business”
I’m not so sure about that. In the last ten years I’ve had exactly two interactions that could have turned combative. Both were with white men in their ‘60’s. One wouldn’t take responsibility for his aggressive German Shepherd and the other was in the throes of Covid panic (masked in the virtually empty outdoors).
So much for the stiff-upper-lip White Boome.
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