Internet discourse is wonderful

ok since people are getting confused and just saying "4chan stuff" I'll actually explain the meaning because I think it's a pretty good message.

I'll explain using a transfem experience since that's what I'm knowledge on, but the post could be referring to transmasc or something else.

background: Orange is a trans woman. She was assigned male (another color) at birth and has transitioned to orange.

explanation:

orange has been on "color gel"[1] for 3 years, but "grayscale-mode"[2] in public.

1.The color gel is a show in for estrogen/testosterone gel which is a hormone that makes you appear more feminine/masculine.
2.Trans women, particularly those who are early on in transition, will sometimes "boymode" in public if they don't feel safe enough to be themselves. This is saying orange will pretend to be grey to not out themselves.

green is confused as they see orange as nothing other than orange.

orange feels that her color is too close to whatever she was before and says some 4chan type jargon

in trans women there are a lot of negative genetic elements that will make it harder to pass which you can't really change. Wide shoulders, being tall, deep voice, etc. Orange is dumping her trauma about this, saying everyone can tell and has accepted her fate as not passing.

Green says that they think whatever site orange is on is bad for orange.

this is because on 4chan or some other negative sites like some reddit subs people are BRUTALLY honest which can be a good thing but can also be horrible for self esteem. Another point is that people who are trans themselves notice the signs that someone is trans and can clock them easier than an average person. This brutal honestly made orange feel like she doesn't pass, but that's just because the people on the website have WAY more knowledge than average people, like green.
Average people see trans women as just normal women with perhaps a deep voice.

TLDR:
orange was assigned another color at birth and feels like other people think they're that color after exploring websites. Green is saying orange looks like orange and that the websites are unhealthy.

edit: also it's 4am and I just had a panic attack. I cannot think through words well rn, sorry if this is confusing. please don't be mean to me

I can answer questions if needed once I can think better

thank you for writing this up. ❤ I'm also trans and spent time in that particular community because I have very intense dysphoria/bdd and found other spaces to be toxically positive. it wasn't a healthy place, and I picked up more brainworms, but I felt like I could vent and not feel so alone.
it's really easy for people without crippling dysphoria to sit back and judge you for going to /tttt/. it's unhealthy, I know it's unhealthy, but sometimes unhealthy outlets are the only way I can make the hurt get better for a while. I can't just be all uwu skirt go spinny when my body feels like sewage.
I skimmed this, but only because my brain is huge and I already know everything you're saying, and also I'm busy trying to locate a methane leak in my kitchen. Even so, I think you explained this fine. Don't worry about it. Rest easy and get yourself calm. :)
- thank you gas poisoned diva 🥰
- Nice to see Lemmy can be a good place sometimes.
Not devaluing this perspective, but I think this could also be applied to a lot of different experiences. Anyone who has tried to change themselves in one way or another can relate to this. Obviously transitioning is one, but it's a very human reaction to feel that way.
It can be as minor as "I want to be an artist but I don't want to share because people will critique" or as intense as transitioning.
People may not have gone through the exact scenario, but its a very human experience to say "I want to but I'm not "good enough" yet, so I'm going to hide it"
- oh yeah for sure, it's an allegory that can be associated in a lot of ways. I just chose being trans because I'm trans and could explain it better. Honestly its a pretty amazing meme
  this discussion reminds me a lot of the movie "The Substance" since TONS of people could relate to its allegory. I'll give a short version that explains the struggle of it: an actor got fired for being too old, so she took a black market substance that splits her in to her current self, and a perfect version of herself. She swaps bodies every week, and the movie is challenging topics of beauty standards and getting older, but a LOT of different people related to it for wildly different reasons.
Thank you for your service
That wasn't poorly communicated at all no worries.
I just quit a 10 year cannabis addiction because of the panic attacks....well hopefully it was the weed lol. Good luck with your own challenges :)
I didn't even think this image had any deeper meaning. I saw it entirely as a shitpost on internet discourse. But with the comments here I definitely see it. That is a possible context for the image.
Appreciate the summary. You made it much easier to understand.

cis here.

Until I read the comments I thought it was about people generically going down rabbit holes and coming out weird.

Funniest thing is, it's how I saw it too. But it's fun to see that people have other views on what I found to be a shitpost with no real underlying message.
- It's the "Pills that make you green" comic, and it's an intentionally thinly veiled metaphor on trans people
- It's vague enough that people can insert their own meaning into it. Could be Trans issues, could be gymbro stuff, could be manosphere shit.

Is this about trans people or what?

It looks to me like it's making fun of the really bad brain worms that permeate the trans 4chan community. There's a very specific type of brain wormed in-group jargon being made fun of here. The orange stick figure is saying they'll never be orange but we can clearly see they're just... orange. The brain worms are so bad that they believe even while being orange, they aren't actually. The green stick figure, not being involved with the community or perspective of it, is a representation of the few people trying to break the brain worms within the community. The author knows exactly where the terms being parodied come from and wrote it for that audience
It's the kind of thing that's utterly incomprehensible to anyone who isn't familiar with 4tran or tttt
- Just knowing about 4chan and the kind of people that use the place, that seems like one of the most harmful places on the internet for trans people. It's honestly shocking that there's so much of a community there.
Nah, it's poking fun at incels and their 4chan jargon.
- Oh, what does 'grayscalemoding' mean then?
Looks like it to me based what I've seen of people poking fun at the toxic trans 4chan stuff.

Damn, this actually made perfect sense to me.

for anyone wondering: hsl(38, 79%, 51%) for orange and hsl(136, 64%, 42%) for green, that's oklch(0.7471 0.151 74.06) for orange and oklch(0.664 0.181 147.42) for green. interestingly the normal digital color model shows orange as more saturated, while a perceptual color space shows them as a little bit less

(not trying to be the sort of person the comic is making fun of, I just like color lol)

Can confirm, green perceived as more saturated.

Is this 'I identify as an attack helicopter' stuff?

I don't think so. I read it as pro-trans stuff and slight critic of online slang culture.
it's a parody on 4chan's /lgbt/ board, which is a place no trans person should ever visit for their own good. It is the sort of mixture of “scientific” sexism, transphobia and deep self-hatred that nobody should be exposed to.
edit꧇ removed brainrot