There have been a lot of attempts to calm anxiety this week, from cats to other cats to Samwise Gamgee. Users of the image-sharing community Imgur opted to fill the site’s front page with nice, politically neutral images of sea slugs. The phenomenon started with an Imgur user called Homophone, who memorably declared, “I voted, now I’m posting sea slugs until I feel better.” To gaze at the “psychedelic cow” is to feel one’s personal bitterness and disappointment ebb away.
Homophone apparently needed to post dozens of pictures of sea slugs in order to “feel better,” and this example was soon followed by other Imgur users. Know Your Meme reports: “In the following day, over one thousand posts related to sea slugs were posted and upvoted in an effort to get politics off the front page of Imgur.” The gambit worked. For a day or so, at least, Imgur was slug central.
Imgur’s front page seems now to have returned to a state of slug-less equilibrium, including some political images. Sea slugs remain great-looking little animals. With enough hard work and determination, the internet can be convinced to do anything.