Hakan Erdogan, WordPress
Do you ever get the feeling that you're the only active mind in a comment section? Maybe you should just go on /r/solipsism./r/solipsism is a subreddit where the theme makes every's username appear as "Me." Solipsism is the idea that only your mind exists because you can't verify the existence of anything outside of your own mind.But lest you feel an existential crisis coming on with all the comments from "Me," take heart—the subreddit is moderated by two users who aren't "Me": "monkeytits" and "Aransentin." If you want to spoil the joke, you can also use a third-party browser extension called the Reddit Enhancement Suite to turn off the subreddit's style, revealing dozens of separate users with unique usernames. But if you opt to the subreddit with the intended style, get ready to enter an overwhelming vortex of existential introspection.One post starts with a simple but daunting question posed by Me, (actual username Dizzy-Doom): Am I god? The comments that came afterward are an exercise in hilarious self-indulgence."Strange, I must have forgotten when I wrote this, but I remember now," another Me (actual username SirLlamaTheGrad) commented. "I know that I am god because I am everyone and everything and that is the point of solipsism. Being the one who came up with the concept in the first place I am surprised there was time when I did not know that. I really am a strange me."Another Me (Jackalopalen) posted nothing but this:It didn't take long for other Reddit users to find this post, prompting user RTS1991 to post to Reddit's r/bestof: "Solipsism subreddit populated by one user talking to himself."User benjymous quickly pointed out that the moderators edited the subreddit settings so that all the usernames appear as "Me," which is of course the joke.Moderator "monkeytits," who identified himself as Jake, told me via Reddit messenger that he created the subreddit in 2010, but it was stagnant until Aransentin contacted him and offered to customize the style."I guess one of the reasons [solipsism] resonated with me was that if I was the only provable 'mind' out there, then it gave me a sense of responsibility and belonging on this earth," Jake said. "I was the only one who could shape my life in a tangible way. Since then, the subreddit has sort of become a joke or caricature of what it really means but that's ok.Aransentin, who goes by Jens, told me via Reddit messenger that he customized the /r/solipsism style because he thought it would be fun. However, he doesn't actually subscribe to the idea."I can't disprove [solipsism], but the idea seems pretty unlikely," Jens said. "Personally, I would say I'm probably an emergentist."In any event, answering the all-powerful question "Am I god?" is now in the capable hands of Reddit users.
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