Karens Versus Declining Standards

A middle-aged woman standing up to emotional support animals illustrates an American dilemma

It’s 2024, and there are people still complaining about “Karens.” Worst of all, the people yapping about this misunderstood group of women are conservatives. “I Meme Therefore I Am,” a popular content farmer on X, posted a video of a middle-aged woman confronting community college students on a Colorado trail. The students had a service dog with them. The trail prohibits service animals to protect wildlife. The lady tried to explain this to the community college students. The students, demonstrating why they’re at a community college, insisted that federal law gives them the right to take a dog wherever they want to (it does not). They also argued that the woman doesn’t own the trail, thus she has no right to confront them. 

The students filmed the encounter knowing social media would take their side. They were right, as evidenced by I Meme Therefore I Am’s post. “We don’t hate Karens enough,” the account, which claims to be a female Polish immigrant, declared in her post. “Watch as one tries to lecture and stop a person with a service dog from enjoying a walk in Fort Collins.”

A few of her followers challenged her take, saying the Karen was actually in the right. Miss I Meme angrily replied with such gems as this: “The Americans with Disabilities Act and state civil rights laws don’t give two fvcks about your feeling Karen # 2.”

Yhere’s a LOT going on in this situation. The most important takeaway is that the Karen is in the right. The trail does not allow service dogs, and for good reason. They cause problems for the wildlife. The older woman stood up for standards against rude morons who feel everyone else should accommodate their individual whims. Sadly, the morons are winning and standards are in retreat. 

There’s the overwhelming abundance of service dogs in American life, often used by people who don’t need one but exploit an idiotic “medical” excuse to force their fellow citizens to deal with their dogs no matter where they go. I love dogs (except for pit bulls). However, they shouldn’t be everywhere. Blind people need service dogs. A few others with particular medical conditions may need them. But many people get them to cope with “anxiety” or some other phony reason. While seeing-eye dogs are well-trained, a lot of these other “service” dogs are not. But that’s not a problem for the owner. It’s something everyone else around them has to deal with. If the dog takes a poop in the store or jumps up on someone who’s afraid of dogs, we’re all supposed to accept these things without complaint. If you complain about a dog peeing on your shoe or chasing protected wildlife, you are a KAREN outrageously bothering a person with a “serious” (fake) medical condition. 

The odd thing is that all these people with fake conditions force Americans to be more accommodating to dogs while we as a society become less kid-friendly. The entitled weaklings with an emotional support animal matter more than children in our country. 

Dogs are great at home and in parks where they’re allowed. They do not belong in grocery stores, restaurants, offices, airplanes, and protected wildlife areas. We only allow them because people demand the right to bring their dog everywhere, and they can’t handle life without their furbaby being by their side. 

A proper society keeps dogs in appropriate places. But our society is not one. It prioritizes individual wants over community standards. It’s why people can put up gory decorations for Halloween that terrify kids and no one can do anything about it. People feel free to smoke weed in parks and no one stops them. And assholes can take their “service” dogs everywhere, regardless of rules, and you will be shamed if you say something to them. 

The only people who will stand up for basic norms are Karens. Karen became a popular slur to attack middle-aged white women who won’t mind their business. Its meaning was specifically anti-white, as I wrote in an article four years ago.

The Karen meme reinforces liberal dogmas and biases. It allows white liberals to distinguish themselves from the bad whites and pretend that they themselves are never patronizing. Only soccer moms with a Trump 2020 bumper sticker would talk down to a Hispanic waiter. 

Karens can be bad. We can all think of middle-aged schoolmarms demanding we stay masked and maintain social distancing. But those aren’t the women pilloried by social media. The women attacked are those who call the cops on non-whites for suspicious behavior and other affronts to liberal sensibilities. There was an epidemic of white women who had their lives ruined for the mere crime of wanting their community to stay safe. This public shaming sent a loud and clear message: when you see something, say nothing. You don’t want to be the next Karen to lose her job, right? It’s far better to let that black guy burgle your neighbor’s house than to cause a scene. 

For all their faults, Karens at least give a shit. Many of them mean well. They would like to live in a safe place where people follow reasonable rules, miscreants don’t force everyone to accommodate their oddities, good service is expected, and people take care of where they live. But you’re no longer supposed to do that. Karens violate two basic principles in modern American life: “mind your own business” and “let people enjoy things.” So it’s easy to whip up popular ill-will towards them. Even conservatives will join in. 

Miss I Meme’s posts were particularly bad. Right-wingers should care about what surrounds us. We prioritize order over chaos. We don’t like selfish pricks ruining things for others. Reasonable rules, such as not allowing dogs in places where they don’t mix with the wildlife, should be followed. Carving up exceptions for the emotionally fragile sounds awfully pro-safe space.

But many conservatives, particularly of the libertarian variety, don’t care for standards. Their primary motivation is anti-authority. Often this can be good, such as seeing liberal bureaucrats and woke teachers as the enemy. But a lot of times, this attitude just turns into “NO I WILL NOT CLEAN MY ROOM!” for adults. A certain brand of conservative will adopt a kind of hyper-individualism that makes them hate cops, dress codes, and rules in general. These are the types who will strap an AR-15 to their back as they shop at a Publix in a zero-crime area (complete in crocs, cargo shorts, and a stupid t-shirt). The purpose is to flick off the people around you. It’s like a teenager finding the most offensive band shirts to wear in high school. That may be appropriate behavior for teens, but not for adults. 

This same brand of conservative will defend pit bulls, weed, tattoos, gory Halloween decorations, slovenly dress, and other absurdities. They subscribe to “LET PEOPLE ENJOY THINGS” as much as Redditors do.

They subscribe to the conceit that this disagreeableness signifies rugged individualism. But the arguments to defend emotional support dogs are the antithesis of rugged individualism. “I Meme” cited federal civil rights law to tell the pro-standards side “fuck around and find out” —which is quite the argument. If you need a dog like that to hike a trail, you are not a sturdy individual. This is just a way to pretend the hyper-individualism enshrined by liberal legislation as BASED. Federal law curbs local standards and freedom of association. That’s fundamentally leftist. However, some conservatives think it’s awesome if it allows them to impose their stupidity on their fellow citizens. They don’t want to live in nice communities—they just want the right to be disagreeable teens well into middle age.

Karens are not the enemy. The bigger problem is America’s abandonment of basic standards. Sometimes the Karens can go overboard and defend stupid ideas. But too often, they’re the only ones standing up for rules and standards against the ugliness and anarchy of the dregs. 

To be resolutely anti-Karen is to be hostile to the nice white country America used to be. Only a leftist would adopt this position.