# Different Rules 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. ## 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 thirds[1]. 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 other[4]. 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 figures[4]. 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 threads[1]. ## How It Spread Monahan kept posting the phrase through 2019, and a small circle of followers picked it up[1]. 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 Twitter[4]. Monahan's November 20th, 2019 tweet aimed at the Trump impeachment discussion pulled more than 940 likes over the following two years[4]. 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 retweets[3]. His self-reply of "'It's (D)iFfErent!' OK dude..." pulled another 400 likes on the same day[3]. 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 months[4]. On February 5th, 2021, Redditor u/Doubleg122 posted a meme titled "So (D)ifFeREnT" to /r/libertarianmeme and pulled over 2,500 upvotes[5]. On March 13th, 2021, u/jimmybike posted a screenshot of a @ZubyMusic tweet to /r/conspiracy and pulled over 1,500 upvotes in two months[6]. ## How to Use 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 intact[1]. A common convention is to capitalize only the bracketed letters and lowercase the rest, sometimes with mocking alt-caps like "(D)iFfErent" for extra sarcasm[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Different Rules? Different Rules is a political catchphrase, written as "(D)ifferent (R)ules" or just "(D)ifferent," used in replies to call out what the poster sees as Democratic hypocrisy, with the bracketed D and R standing for the party labels on ballots and cable news chyrons[1]. ### Where did Different Rules come from? Twitter user Sean Monahan (@SeanahanDotCom) posted the earliest known "(D)ifferent (R)ules" on January 4th, 2019, in a thread about Lou Dobbs attacking Mitt Romney for a Trump-critical op-ed[1]. ### What does Different Rules mean? The bracketed D and R reference the party abbreviations Democrat and Republican, and the phrase accuses someone of applying different standards depending on which party the accused belongs to[4]. ### How do you use Different Rules? Reply "(D)ifferent (R)ules" or the shortened "(D)ifferent" under a post about a Democrat doing something the same accusers criticized Republicans for, often with alt-caps like "(D)iFfErent" for added sarcasm[3]. ### Is Different Rules still popular? Use of the phrase spread through 2020 and 2021 on Twitter, Facebook and political subreddits like /r/libertarianmeme and /r/conspiracy, though its heaviest activity was tied to the Trump-era and early Biden-era news cycles[6]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/SeanahanDotCom]() 2. [https://twitter.com/johnabev]() 3. [https://twitter.com/ZubyMusic]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/different-rules]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/libertarianmeme/]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/different-rules Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library