Different Rules

2019catchphrasesemi-active

Different Rules is a political catchphrase, written as "(D)ifferent (R)ules" or just "(D)ifferent," that centrist and right-leaning posters use to call out perceived Democratic hypocrisy. It started on Twitter in January 2019 and spread through political corners of Twitter, Reddit, 4chan and Facebook over the next two years.

hypocrisy memescatchphrase memespolitical satire memesculture war memestwitter memes

Overview

Different Rules is a snarky political shorthand where bracketed letters D and R stand in for Democrat and Republican, the same party labels printed next to politicians' names on ballots and cable news lower thirds1. The joke works as a reply: someone shares an example of Democrats doing a thing they attacked Republicans for, and the retort is "(D)ifferent (R)ules," implying the target holds one standard for their side and another for the other4.

The phrase quickly compressed. Users dropped the "(R)ules" half and started firing off just "(D)ifferent" as a one-word dunk under posts about Democratic figures4. Because the meme's earliest and heaviest users wrote from a Republican-leaning or centrist angle, the mirrored "(R)ifferent" version showed up far less often in the same threads1.

How It Spread

Monahan kept posting the phrase through 2019, and a small circle of followers picked it up1. On April 13th, 2019, an anonymous poster on 4chan's /pol/ board used the truncated "(D)ifferent" in a thread about right-wing commentators Avi Yemini and Sydney Watson being detained by the FBI, one of the earliest jumps off Twitter4. Monahan's November 20th, 2019 tweet aimed at the Trump impeachment discussion pulled more than 940 likes over the following two years4.

The gag broadened in 2020 when musician @ZubyMusic used it on April 14th to hit Democrats over the Tara Reade sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden after their treatment of Brett Kavanaugh, pulling over 3,600 likes and 570 retweets3. His self-reply of "'It's (D)iFfErent!' OK dude..." pulled another 400 likes on the same day3.

By 2021 the phrase moved deeper into Reddit and Facebook. On January 21st, 2021, the Facebook page LibertyMemesMelt Steel Beams posted a brainlet Wojak macro using the phrase, which pulled over 1,100 reactions and 800 shares in four months4. On February 5th, 2021, Redditor u/Doubleg122 posted a meme titled "So (D)ifFeREnT" to /r/libertarianmeme and pulled over 2,500 upvotes5. On March 13th, 2021, u/jimmybike posted a screenshot of a @ZubyMusic tweet to /r/conspiracy and pulled over 1,500 upvotes in two months6.

How to Use This Meme

To use Different Rules, users typically reply to a post about a Democratic politician doing something they've previously attacked Republicans for, then drop "(D)ifferent (R)ules" or the shortened "(D)ifferent" with the parentheses kept intact1. A common convention is to capitalize only the bracketed letters and lowercase the rest, sometimes with mocking alt-caps like "(D)iFfErent" for extra sarcasm3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Different Rules

2019catchphrasesemi-active

Different Rules is a political catchphrase, written as "(D)ifferent (R)ules" or just "(D)ifferent," that centrist and right-leaning posters use to call out perceived Democratic hypocrisy. It started on Twitter in January 2019 and spread through political corners of Twitter, Reddit, 4chan and Facebook over the next two years.

hypocrisy memes catchphrase memes political satire memes culture war memes twitter memes

Overview

Different Rules is a snarky political shorthand where bracketed letters D and R stand in for Democrat and Republican, the same party labels printed next to politicians' names on ballots and cable news lower thirds1. The joke works as a reply: someone shares an example of Democrats doing a thing they attacked Republicans for, and the retort is "(D)ifferent (R)ules," implying the target holds one standard for their side and another for the other4.

The phrase quickly compressed. Users dropped the "(R)ules" half and started firing off just "(D)ifferent" as a one-word dunk under posts about Democratic figures4. Because the meme's earliest and heaviest users wrote from a Republican-leaning or centrist angle, the mirrored "(R)ifferent" version showed up far less often in the same threads1.

How It Spread

Monahan kept posting the phrase through 2019, and a small circle of followers picked it up1. On April 13th, 2019, an anonymous poster on 4chan's /pol/ board used the truncated "(D)ifferent" in a thread about right-wing commentators Avi Yemini and Sydney Watson being detained by the FBI, one of the earliest jumps off Twitter4. Monahan's November 20th, 2019 tweet aimed at the Trump impeachment discussion pulled more than 940 likes over the following two years4.

The gag broadened in 2020 when musician @ZubyMusic used it on April 14th to hit Democrats over the Tara Reade sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden after their treatment of Brett Kavanaugh, pulling over 3,600 likes and 570 retweets3. His self-reply of "'It's (D)iFfErent!' OK dude..." pulled another 400 likes on the same day3.

By 2021 the phrase moved deeper into Reddit and Facebook. On January 21st, 2021, the Facebook page LibertyMemesMelt Steel Beams posted a brainlet Wojak macro using the phrase, which pulled over 1,100 reactions and 800 shares in four months4. On February 5th, 2021, Redditor u/Doubleg122 posted a meme titled "So (D)ifFeREnT" to /r/libertarianmeme and pulled over 2,500 upvotes5. On March 13th, 2021, u/jimmybike posted a screenshot of a @ZubyMusic tweet to /r/conspiracy and pulled over 1,500 upvotes in two months6.

How to Use This Meme

To use Different Rules, users typically reply to a post about a Democratic politician doing something they've previously attacked Republicans for, then drop "(D)ifferent (R)ules" or the shortened "(D)ifferent" with the parentheses kept intact1. A common convention is to capitalize only the bracketed letters and lowercase the rest, sometimes with mocking alt-caps like "(D)iFfErent" for extra sarcasm3.

Frequently Asked Questions