Diogenes Posting

Diogenes Posting is the practice of building greentext stories and philosopher-panel memes around the Ancient Greek Cynic Diogenes of Sinope, staged as if his real biographical anecdotes were proto-4chan shitposts. The most recycled bit is the "Behold the Man" argument, where Diogenes plucked a chicken and dropped it in Plato's Academy to refute Plato's definition of a human as a "featherless biped"1.

In captioned philosopher panels he is drawn as the "chad" answer opposite a "virgin" Plato, with posters picking a real Diogenes story or dropping him into panels where he answers a modern debate with the bluntest, most obscene reply. The character owes his meme popularity to a mix of genuine ancient bite and the /his/ tradition of naming historical figures as "based" or "the original shitposter"3.

Posters typically pick a real Diogenes story, like the plucked chicken or telling Alexander the Great to stop blocking his sunlight, and stage it as a greentext or a labelled philosopher panel. A common convention is drawing him as the "chad" or the weeaboo opposite a "virgin" Plato and having him answer a modern discourse question with the bluntest, most obscene reply1.