The internet is just full of memes. Humans made them, and netizens react by either dumping them, or echoing them throughout their existancy.
And the 'Man of Culture' meme is one of the rare examples of how an idea carries out symbolic meanings that can cross-reference to more phenomenon and themes.
It all began when a screenshot featuring the character Last Samurai from the anime Arakawa Under the Bridge was spread to the internet with the caption:
"Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well."
This was taken from the anime's Season 2 Episode 9, which originally aired back in November 28th, 2010.
It was said when the character meets someone who favors the traditional topknot hairstyle.
Then on November 2015, a 4chan user replied to a thread on the /ck/ (cooking) board discussing chain pizza restaurants with a screenshot of the scene.
At first, the image is often accompanied by mock dialogues used to express good taste in a specific hobby or interest.
It was the definition of a man with knowledge about other countries or cultures.
It stems from the humanistic tradition that describes "culture" as the best production of humanity in topics like art, poetry, literature, classical music and high culture in general.
It was originally a way to describe "culture" that is often associated with those who had the best education and that show a great amount of erudition.
Another way of saying, the image was initially used to describe someone with a "refined taste," and liking things that are very good, and perhaps also having a reputation of being good.
But it was only two years later, in 2017, that people at Weebs were making fun of weebs for being weebs. They created screenshots of the dialogue, in which others can select "thighs" over "ass" and "tits."
This shifted the trend from being a meme for people with "refined taste" to what seemed to be related to adult content.
Most notably, describing men who like watching woman doing something erotic.
The meme was refined to express men's taste via mimicry for humorous purposes.
Since then, the 'Man of Culture' meme has been used to describe the condition of depraved internet humor in a nutshell.
But because the meme is rarely used without irony, the term has also become something to describe things beyond insolence, to also include many things that are darker and more sinister.
The meme has also dominated Reddit‘s r/dankmemes since 2017, the meme has gone deeper into jokes about Nazism, pedophilia, school shootings, and suicidal thoughts.
It has evolved to threaten, to then come out out the other side to straightforwardly glorify these things.
Likewise, the meme can also be used as an anti-meme.
So here, the meme becomes everlasting, simply because the meme itself has evolved to encompass virtually infinite topics.
Practically anything can either be considered good taste or bad taste, and both of them work with this "culture."