Shitposting

Shitposting is the practice of posting content online that is deliberately low-effort, absurdist, repetitive, or provocative — often to derail serious conversations, make people laugh, or troll opponents through volume and randomness rather than argumentation. It emerged from imageboards like 4chan in the 2000s and has become a recognizable internet art form and, in some hands, a genuine political communication strategy.

What it means

The term is self-deprecating — calling it "shitposting" acknowledges it's not serious discourse. But shitposting isn't always trivial. At its best, it's a form of political judo: using humor, absurdity, and relentlessness to puncture inflated rhetoric and make serious critics look ridiculous. Donald Trump's Twitter account in 2016 operated on shitposting principles. Successful political memes are often descended from shitposting culture.

At its worst, shitposting is harassment by volume: flooding a thread with nonsense to drown out meaningful conversation, or using absurdist cover to say things that would otherwise be clearly unacceptable.

How it works on Gab

Shitposting is a native language on Gab, as it is across most free-speech social platforms. The community includes both serious political commentary and high-volume humor accounts. The culture is tolerant of irreverence and absurdity, which can coexist uncomfortably with substantive debate. Users can follow and mute as they choose — the algorithmic curation that forces content on people (and that makes shitposting annoying on algorithmic platforms) is much less present on Gab's chronological feed.

Related terms

Shitposting is the technique behind many memes. Copypasta is a related text-based form. Getting ratioed is the shitposter's ultimate failure mode. Based is often used to describe effective shitposting.