In video games, an NPC is a “Non Player Character,” basically an automaton that just goes through the motions. It has neither agency nor sentience; it just runs off of basic programming. So it should come as no surprise that a lot of people look at the real world and decide that there are NPCs in the real world… people with no internal lives, people who just go through the motions. This is a dubious notion, of course, but it’s still somewhat of an obvious one.

Here’s where it gets kinda funny: the edgelords over at Reddit have started referring to whole groups of people as being NPCs. And those people are kinda annoyed at being referred to in that fashion, as you would expect. Who are these NPCs? Why… they are the Social Justice Warriors. The same people who will call you a Nazi at the drop of a  hat, or a white supremacist, or a member of the patriarchy or transphobic or racist or misogynist or, their new favorite, a rape apologist, are annoyed that they are being “dehumanized” with a label.

Snerk.

How The ‘NPC’ Meme Tries To Dehumanize ‘SJWs’