It started as a meme. A throwaway comment on an image board or a forum, probably typed by someone sitting in a dark room with three monitors and a lukewarm energy drink. But over the last decade, the phrase everything is fake and gay has morphed into something much bigger than a simple insult or a crude joke. It’s basically the unofficial slogan for a generation of people who feel like they’re being constantly lied to by every institution they interact with. Honestly, if you spend more than twenty minutes on social media, you’ve probably felt it too. That nagging sensation that the viral video you just watched was staged, the "organic" trend you’re seeing was paid for by a marketing firm, and the person talking to you is just a sophisticated bot.
We live in an era of hyper-reality. That’s a term Jean Baudrillard, a French sociologist, tossed around back in the day to describe a world where the symbols of things become more real than the things themselves. When people say everything is fake and gay, they aren't usually making a literal statement about sexual orientation or the physical reality of atoms. They’re venting. It’s a shorthand for saying that modern life feels performative, manufactured, and fundamentally dishonest.
The Origins of the Modern Skeptic
Words change. In the early 2000s, the internet was a lawless wasteland. The phrase originated in the "old web" culture of sites like 4chan and Something Awful. Back then, it was used to dismiss anything that felt overly sentimental, corporate, or—ironically—trying too hard to be cool. It was the ultimate "low-effort" rebuttal. If a movie trailer looked bad? It was fake and gay. If a news story felt like propaganda? Same thing.
But something shifted. As the internet moved from a niche hobby to the literal foundation of human society, the sentiment behind the phrase grew legs. We stopped being skeptics and started being "doomers" or "black-pilled."
Why? Because the "fake" part became demonstrably true. In 2026, we are drowning in generative AI, deepfakes, and "astroturfing"—where corporations create fake grassroots movements to sell products. When you can’t tell if a video of a politician is real or a high-fidelity render from a "Nano Banana" model, the reaction is to just check out. You assume it’s all fake. It’s a defense mechanism. If you don’t believe in anything, you can’t be fooled.
The Death of Authenticity in Business and Tech
Let’s look at the "gay" part of the phrase. In the context of this meme, it’s often used as a (admittedly crude) synonym for "lame," "forced," or "inauthentic." It’s the feeling you get when a multi-billion dollar corporation changes its Twitter logo to a rainbow for thirty days while simultaneously funding regimes that outlaw those same rights. It’s the performative nature of modern business.
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Everyone is "building a brand" now.
You’ve got LinkedIn influencers posting "hustle culture" stories that are clearly fabricated. You have TikTokers "pranking" their significant others in videos that have three different camera angles and professional lighting. Is it a prank? No. It’s a production. It’s fake. And because it’s pretending to be a real, spontaneous human moment for the sake of ad revenue, it feels "gay" in the slang sense—it’s cringey. It’s try-hard.
The Psychological Toll of Living in a Simulation
It's exhausting. Truly.
When you constantly tell yourself everything is fake and gay, you’re trying to protect your brain from the disappointment of being manipulated. Psychologists call this "cynical hostility." It’s actually linked to higher stress levels and heart disease. But from a social perspective, it creates a massive trust deficit.
- Political Trust: According to Pew Research, trust in government is at historic lows across the West.
- Media Literacy: We’ve gone past being "literate" to being "allergic" to news.
- Social Isolation: If everyone online is a bot or a grifter, why talk to anyone?
Take the concept of "Dead Internet Theory." It’s the idea that the vast majority of the internet is now just bots talking to other bots to drive engagement numbers for advertisers. When you see a post with 50,000 likes but the comments are all "Wow, amazing!" or "I love this product!", the "everything is fake" alarm goes off. You realize you’re not participating in a community; you’re being processed by an algorithm.
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Why We Can't Stop Watching
Here is the weird part: we hate it, but we can't look away. We keep scrolling. We watch the "staged" videos anyway because they provide a quick hit of dopamine. We know the reality TV show is scripted by producers in a trailer, but we argue about the characters as if they’re our neighbors.
This is what the philosopher Slavoj Žižek calls "cynical distance." We know very well that it’s fake, but we act as if it’s real anyway. We participate in the "gayness" of the system because the alternative—unplugging completely—is too lonely for most people to handle.
Spotting the Fabrications
How do you actually navigate a world where the baseline assumption is that you're being lied to? You have to look at the incentives. Always.
If a video is trying to make you feel a sudden, intense emotion (rage, crying, extreme "faith in humanity restored"), it is likely manufactured. Real life is usually messy, boring, and has bad lighting. Authenticity is expensive because it can't be scaled. That’s why small creators often feel more "real" until they get a million followers and suddenly start sounding like a PR department.
- Check the Source: Is this a person or a "media brand"?
- Follow the Money: Who benefits if you believe this specific thing?
- Check the Metadata: Deepfakes still have "tells"—strange artifacts around the eyes or hair that don't quite move right.
- Trust Your Gut: If it feels like a commercial, it’s a commercial.
Practical Steps to Reclaim Reality
You don't have to live in a state of total cynicism. Even if the digital world feels like everything is fake and gay, the physical world remains stubbornly real. Gravity still works. A steak still tastes like a steak. A real conversation with a friend in a coffee shop doesn't have an algorithm behind it.
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Step 1: Go Analog.
Spend at least two hours a day without a screen. Read a physical book. Garden. Fix a sink. These things cannot be "faked." They require physical interaction with the world. You’ll find that the "fake" feeling starts to evaporate when you’re sweating.
Step 2: Curate Your Feed Mercilessly.
Unfollow anyone who uses a "creator voice" or posts "lifestyle porn." If their life looks like a Pinterest board, they are lying to you. Follow people who show the boring parts of their hobbies. Real experts often have terrible lighting and speak with "um" and "uh" because they’re thinking, not reading a script.
Step 3: Support Local Institutions.
It’s much harder for your local high school football game to be "fake" than a professional sports league with a billion-dollar marketing budget. Small-scale human interactions are the antidote to the feeling of globalized inauthenticity.
The world isn't going to get less "fake" on its own. If anything, AI and VR are going to make the simulation even more convincing. The only way to win the game is to stop playing it so much. Acknowledge the "gayness" of the spectacle, laugh at it, and then go do something that actually exists in three dimensions.
Final Insight: Stop seeking "truth" on a screen. The screen is a medium designed for projection, not reality. Truth is found in things that don't need a "like" button to exist. Focus on tangible skills, local community, and physical experiences to insulate yourself from the digital rot.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Audit your subscriptions: Delete one app today that makes you feel cynical or annoyed after using it.
- Meet someone in person: Replace one Zoom or Discord hang with a face-to-face meeting this week.
- Verify before sharing: If you see a "miracle" or "outrage" story, spend 60 seconds searching for a second source before hitting that share button.