Cat people online are really just carrying on two ancient human traditions: forming little communities and being completely amazed by cats

Humans have needed each other since the beginning. It takes a village, no man is an island, all that stuff people put on kitchen signs before they inevitably need someone to help them move a couch. We like finding our people. We like a group chat. We like seeing a stranger say one specific thing and realizing, finally, there are others.

Then there's the cat part. We have been worshipping cats since ancient Egypt. They built elaborate structures for them, which I'm told had spiritual significance, though from a cat's perspective it was probably just a much nicer cardboard box. Thousands of years later, we're still gathering in public to admire them, interpret their behavior like Vatican scholars, and hand over portions of our income with no questions asked.